Who was Horace Tapscott?
Horace Tapscott (1934–99) was an important but underappreciated jazz musician and community activist blacklisted in the 1960s because of his political affiliations. A poetic new film HORACE TAPSCOTT: MUSICAL GRIOT is a meditation on Black music, art, and activism and the history of Los Angeles. According to the film, during the Watts Rebellion of 1965 ...
Hip-hop hors d’ouevres, courtesy of Dance Camera West festival 1
We’re just about two weeks to blast-off for one of our favorite events of the annual calendar, the popular, fun and stimulating Dance Camera West film festival, an event that touches many in the dance community. The festival this year celebrates a biggie, its 15th anniversary, and a new association with the Center for the ...
Review: Lucinda Childs’ “Available Light” @ Disney Hall 6
It was the silver-mesh curtain draped across Disney Hall’s “McFries” pipe organ that gave the performance its first “wow” moment. Almost as though architect/set designer Frank Gehry tossed a throw-rug over a messy sofa to ‘red up for the guests. But Gehry’s living room is none other than L.A.’s stellar fantastic transformational concert hall named ...
Museo Jumex’s Eugenio Lopez powerfully rendered by Juan Bastos 4
Dec
17
2013
When friend of arts·meme Juan Bastos, who is not just a talented and in-demand portrait artist but also a super nice person, shared with us his distinguished oil painting of his client Eugenio Lopez, completed last year, we were struck by the skillful rendering of a powerful-looking young man. What we did not realize was ...
MOCA’s Jeffrey Deitch reflects on Boston violence
Apr
25
2013
We enjoyed briefly chatting with MOCA‘s Jeffrey Deitch at a press preview of the colorful Urs Fischer installation in the museum’s main building on Bunker Hill. The exhibit extends at a second MOCA facility, the Temporary Contemporary in Little Tokyo. The colorful scene is from the whimsical yet melancholic installation at MOCA by Swiss born ...
Quiz: Who got the best gig @ MOCA gala, dancer or bartender? 3
Rehearsals 15 hours none Performance four hours four hours Competition 800 applicants me & my buddy Training MFA in performance from UCLA California bartender license Interactivity Stare like a zombie while guests gnaw on foie gras Chit-chat & flirt all night Drinks Bottle of water after four hours Free drinks all night long ...
The courage of Sara Wookey 4
The subject is the so-called performance art featuring nude dancers on display as dinner-party decorations at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s fundraising gala in mid-November. Some poked heads thru tables as patrons dined; others lay inert with skeletons draped on their bodies. All women decorating tabletops, mind you. No men. It’s a tired idea that ...
WeeGee shoots “Newark with palm trees” — Los Angeles
Nov
26
2011
arts·meme visual arts correspondent, Liz Goldner, contributes this review. “Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative), brings out of near oblivion 200 photographic artworks and a few films, from the late 1940s through the 60s, by and of tabloid photographer, “Weegee” (real name, ...
Jeffrey Deitch, gallerist, performance artist
Oct
29
2011
Assuming the “presidential” posture, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Director Jeffrey Deitch, 57, displays a little known skill; his uncanny ability to anthropomorphize paintings, recreating them in real time and space. Aiming high and giving new meaning to the expression “gallerist,” Director Deitch’s subtle stab at performance art took place at the last Basel ...
A potpourri of PST
Oct
26
2011
arts·meme visual arts correspondent, Liz Goldner, contributes this overview of Pacific Standard Time events around the southern California region: Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at MOCA‘s Geffen Contemporary, Little Tokyo, features works that are dark in theme and execution with a strong undercurrent of self-absorption. Underneath this veneer, the show’s honesty, integrity ...