Your Social Life Is Baaaaaaaack

 Alberto Burri, Composition (Composizione), 1953, Oil, gold paint, and glue on burlap and canvas, 33 7/8 x 39 1/2 in (86 x 100.4 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, courtesy SMMOA

 Hello, hello, beloved, adored, meager but faithful readership, rejoice and warm your hearts for Your Social Life is  finally back.
 Well, I sure hope it didn't totally disappear while yours truly was doing other things and exploring John Cale's back catalog in anticipation of his September 30th concert at Royce Hall. Which you can attend, since seats are still available, your last chance to see him perform Paris 1919 in its entirety, plus a medley of new and classics songs after the intermission.


Meanwhile, what's going on in lovely, June-gloomy-in-September Los Angeles? Tons of things this weekend, as art galleries are in back to school mode and are trying their darnedest not to clash with each others as the second round of openings will happen next week. Thank you, gallery owners, for trying to make it somewhat simpler this year.

We'll start, not in chronological order, but with the show you shouldn't miss whatsoever. Praise the small but enterprising and intellectually challenging Santa Monica Museum of Art, and the opening this Friday of  Combustione, Alberto Burri and America. Talk about making the too-cool-for-school and generally amnesiac (or is it uneducated? ignorant?) Los Angeles art public rediscover a great Italian artist. It's not sleek, it's raw, it's experimental, but it also has history and patina, in short, if you like John Cale's music, you should like Alberto Burri. Run, run, run see the show, take your family, you friends, and spend lots of time looking, thinking, and reconsidering.

Congrats to Lisa Melandri and Elsa Longhauser for their adventurous programing and curating, all of this on a shoestring budget, without big name donors who prefer to lavish money on new buildings than on the art. I think SMMOA and OCMA are currently the most interesting institutions in the greater Los Angeles area, and they deserve your patronage. If you dropped your MoCA  membership because you hate Deitch's programing, consider switching to SMMOA and OCMA.

 Ruben Ochoa, detail of an artwork, no info, from Susanne Vielmetter's website

On Friday, you can also go see the always excellent Ruben Ochoa at Susanne Vielmetter as well as Yunhee Min.There are no links to their respective exhibitions, which makes me think the press releases are not ready yet, in any case don't miss it, it's 6 to 8 PM.
Also on Friday at Jaus, Ronald Lopez of 18th Street fame curates Harmony Reverberate Optimism, from 6.30 PM. And a retro, 1970s style performance by Micol Hebron and others at LACE from 4.30 in the afternoon.



On Saturday, Lari Pittman opens at Regen Projects. Before that, if you have a teenage, pubescent jail-bait member of your immediate circle willing to be part of Charlie White's next project, you can join his casting call form 9 to 5 PM at LAXart. I'm not sure where I stand on that one, really.
Not an opening (the official one will be next week, when the rest of the Culver City galleries really open) but there's something starting at Angles, what, I'm not sure, because  their website stares back at me with me blank pages. While in CC, don't miss the last week of Kelly Barrie show at Maloney Fine Art.


Steve Turner also opens on Saturday with 2 shows, one by Eamon Ore-Giron and the other by Ana Rodriguez.

Brad Eberhard, Whaler, 2010, Oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 48 inches, courtesy Tom Solomon Gallery

In Chinatown, Charlie James also opens on Saturday with Ala Ebtekar, while at Cottage Home gallery, Tom Solomon presents Brad Eberhard while at his eponymous gallery he's opening with Kristen Cunningham.


Also on Saturday afternoon, Joel Tauber presents the world premiere of what we shall dub "Sick amour, the movie" at the downtown film festival, at 2.30 PM, with a Q&A.


Now on Sunday (I told you it was a heavy weekend), the 20 years retrospective of Steve Roden opens at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. And still in Pasadena, very conveniently, Offramp has an opening and book signing with Quinton Bemiller. After this, you can head off to the Mandrake Bar in Culver City, for the X-Tra launch party (6 to 9 PM, but I'm sure you can keep on soaking at the Mandrake after that). Also on Sunday, don't miss the Erika Voigt opening at Overduin & Kite, a gallery that has a great program and a somewhat off the beaten path Hollywood location.

 Erika Voigt, video still, no further info, from Overduin & Kite's website.

And, if you are in NYC this weekend, please swing by FBC! gal pal Stephanie Theodore gallery on Saturday evening to see It's The Uncertainty, a group show with no less than the awesome Barry Le Va.


Have fun, and most importantly, I wish you some great art to see this weekend.