Your Social Life In The New Year

FBC! is back, albeit still a little bit jet-lagged and about to go hibernating, not that winter is very present here in SoCal, but I'd like to concentrate on my other writing for a while.

I have to update a couple of things relative to my last post. First of all, Ivan Morley's opening & exhibition at Richard Telles are tentatively postponed until February. Then, my friend GW told me that the Jack Goldstein show is totally happening, even if it's not posted on the OCMA exhibition schedule. It may happen in 2012 and not 2011, I don't know, so maybe that's why it's not announced on their website as of yet. If anybody from OCMA reads this and can confirm, it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Now, onto the things to see this week in Los Angeles. Many of you already know that Mike Kelley had an opening at Gagosian on Tuesday, where he was mixing his Extra-curricular Activities project with the Kandors one. His work is veering more and more toward the beautiful and using vernacular culture and Pop culture visual cues more as props to build a visual vocabulary than as a critical tool. The gallery was packed with tons of people, so it was hard to see some of the artworks, but I was totally psyched to see he's used in one of his pieces the Sigmund Freud action figure I had given him at the opening of Day Is Done in 2005. Anyway, personal anecdote aside, I recommend you go see the show.

Yesterday was the gala opening of Photo LA, one of the several art fairs to grace our fair city in January. Your truly missed it (cf. jet-lag) but encourages you to go see it this weekend, there are always some nice anonymous and not-so-anonymous bargains to be had in the bins, if you like historical photography.

Tonight in Chinatown there's a group show opening at Cottage Home with all the info here on their FB page.
Tomorrow, FBC! pal Nancy Popp has an opening for a very short exhibition featuring her video work at Kristi Engle Gallery, part of a multi-part exhibition called TBA.
On the opposite side of town, Tad Beck is also having an opening at Samuel Freeman Gallery, from 5 to 8 PM.
Still tomorrow, if you're smack dab in the middle of LA, don't miss the show at Actual Size, Pals, a 'Teleplay' and look up their website too because it announces Collective Show LA which, as the name indicates, will feature artists collectives based in Los Angeles.

A show that already opened a while back and that FBC! enjoyed a lot, Pumping by Joel Tauber, is not only worth your while but if you happen to be in Culver City tomorrow around 6 PM, there's a party at Susan Vielmetter gallery.

Lastly, if you're wanting for things to do on Sunday, Simon Leung will do a talk about his Poe installation at Las Cienegas Projects, at 3 PM.




all photographs in this post: Mike Kelley exhibition at Gagosian, credit FBC!

Your Social Life Is Post Political: Bis Repetita Placent

I'm a bit disenfranchised from the current art discourse right now, as I'm busy writing, and freaked out about the job situation, and basking in the Obama election glow as well as bummed by Prop 8.
Consequently I tend to be a little bit absent-minded, and I forget things when I put up the regular YSL announcements. Such as the Nancy Popp-curated political video show at Sea and Space on Sunday, in conjunction with the Audacity of Desperation show. All the info is below. Nancy is a very good friend of mine, and I know she's bummed I cannot make it, so please give her a big hug for me, OK?

(And while I'm at it, I'd like to signal a rally in opposition of Prop. 8 tomorrow Saturday evening at the Sunset Junction in Silverlake (intersection of Sunset and Santa Monica, from 6 PM to 9 PM).)

Sunday November 9, 6-8pm

Violations and Obfuscations

A screening of video works curated by Nancy Popp that address the numerous political disasters, violations and obfuscations of the past eight years. Videos by Paul Chan, Hillary Mushkin, Nabawia El-Soudani, John Davis, Nancy Popp, Serena Wellen, Jessica Lawless, Von Edwards, Martha Rosler and Mark Boswell.

Sunday November 16, 2-5pm

"So now what?" or "HOLY F*%K! NOW WHAT?"

Whether it is Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin, immediately after the elections we're still in debt, looking for work, without universal health care, and occupying Iraq. Adam Overton and Nancy Popp facilitate conversation and activities that will lead to concrete actions to make change in our own communities.

Your Social Life Takes You In Paris And In The OC

Hello, my dear beloved readership,

Your social life is going to be fairly complicated this weekend, what with the California Biennial opening, and a bunch of other things here and there.
Before I get onto that, a personal message for my friends: my family keeps on being on the verge of decimation these days, so I'm not particularly social, in addition to being reclusive on account of the novel-writing. So apologies for not going anywhere, also please be kind and don't call me, I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation. At the best of times I loathe the phone, but at present a truly, truly don't want to even look at it.
But I appreciate if you forward me links to silly websites, YouTube songs and whatever, as long as it is funny.

For my readers who I do not know personally (you have no idea what you're missing), please disregard the paragraph above, and enjoy seeing how I'm going to organize your social life with the few tips below.

On Friday night, you can go by anotheryearinla and see the Richard Hailey exhibition. As usual it's from 7 to 10 PM, so you can have dinner before and head to the Eastern part of town after traffic slows down a bit.
Now, on to Saturday where you will have to be all over the place. With the time difference, you will have to be simultaneously in Paris for old FBC! pal Matthieu Laurette exhibition at Gaudel de Stampa. It's a fairly new gallery opened by Denis Gaudel, a former director at Yvon Lambert.
Approximatively at the same time, here in Los Angeles the 3rd Archives Bazaar will be held at USC. If I haven't messed up with code you should be able to find the pdf. program here.
Meanwhile, tomorrow Friday and Saturday is the REDCAT symposium, Untitled: Speculations On The Expanded Field Of Writing. FBC! gal pal Stephanie Taylor is speaking on Saturday afternoon. Saturday is also the private opening for the California Biennial organized by Lauri Firstenberg of LAXart fame, but you would be well advised to avoid traffic and go down to Newport Beach on Sunday to the public opening. I see it's up until March, which I'm very happy about as I don't see how I can possibly go down there before early next year. There's a fairly interesting list of artists, mingling California artist veterans with a younger generation. There's also a bevvy of off-site projects, which in theory are always cool as it is indeed called the California Biennial, not the only-if-you-live-not-far-from-Newport-Beach-Biennial, but in practice I doubt most people, your truly included, will be able to schedule road trips up North, in the desert and elsewhere to see everything.
If you think you cannot possibly go down to the OC on Sunday, you can alternatively go to Highland Park to Sea and Space Explorations (yes, this is their complete name) and attend the show called "The Audacity Of Desperation" . Is it political? You betcha'. Note on November 9, Nancy Popp (a very, very old friend of FBC!) is curating a screening of videos. While FBC! is usually reserved about the effectiveness of political art, I can only encourage you to have a pre-election art viewing and participating.

While I'm at it, since I cannot vote, let me endorse Barack Obama as a president, of course, and "No" on Proposition 8. As for the rest, I'm all for forced collectivization of national production means, or whatever are left of them, redistribution of wealth (tax the rich, subsidize health care, no tax breaks for anybody, thank you) and let's send the Trustafarians on farms as day laborers. I'm kind of waiting for the creation of new currencies and fixed exchange rate between those as well, but I don't foresee that before a few years. Oh, and Halliburton should surrender all he profits they made during the last 8 years to improve public educations. C'est la lutte finale, groupons-nous des demain... And before you label me a communist or a socialist or whatever, for the record I'm more of a neo-Keynesian, and I do think Obama is a fairly conservative Democrat while McCain is a purely loathsome old crank, war hero and all. My Grandpa also is a war hero (WWII), it didn't prevent him from becoming an old crank in old age, except he's not loathsome an doesn't pretend to lead the free world.

Your Social Life, Europe Edition

If, unlike me, you are not stuck with family obligations in your native backwater of a hometown, you probably wonder what to do this weekend?
Well, jump in the first plane and head over to nüans in Düsseldorf to see the Documental show about video in Los Angeles. It opens tomorrow with a performance by FBC! gal pal and favorite LA Art Girl Nancy Popp. Unfortunately their website isn't updated and the press release is on a pdf doc I cannot copy. But the address is on the link, it starts at 7PM tomorrow evening. Go say hi to Nancy for me, if Doris Krystof from K21 is there ditto, and drink a couple glasses of sekt for me. Thanks!
If you're in Paris this weekend, say hi to Matthieu Laurette, an old pal of FBC! too, when you head over to Le Plateau for the opening of l'Argent, a group show about what else? Money, and maybe it also references the Zola book and the Bresson or L'Herbier movies. French people hate to speak about money, it is plain rude, so I'd be curious to see the show if I can. FBC! will be at the total opposite of Paris for only a few days next week, so not sure I'll be able to make it. I'll try, as well as the show at Le Palais de Tokyo, and of course, Legende at the Domaine de Chamarande.

Pix: courtesy Nancy Popp. Nancy, if you ever climb Chris Burden's street lights at LACMA, be careful not to damage the paint, OK? Good luck for tomorrow's performance!

FBC Goes To An Opening!

Last Thursday FBC! was graciously invited by her pals from the LACMA Photo Dept. to the opening of Phlip-Lorca di Corcia. Having see one of his retrospectives before, as well as the "Pole Dancers" series in Paris, I was curious to go see the "One Thousand" series of Polaroids. And I'm glad I went, in the company of gal pal and LA Art Girls member Nancy Popp. Not only because Nancy is always lovely, but also because, as a photographer, she could ask all the right questions to the artist himself about the various Polaroid cameras he's been using.
The series in the show, save for the aforementioned "One Thousand" are rather incomplete, and mixed up instead of being installed separately. Which FBC didn't like that much, but as Nancy pointed out, the work is so strong that the effect is not diluted by having the pictures mixed together. There was my favorite shot from the "Heads" series , depicted below - once again, after being told it was OK to take pictures without flash, I was told by a guard within 5 seconds that photographies were not allowed. So most of the pix are from the opening.
But the highlight of the show was definitively the Polaroid series. It's beautifully installed on wall racks, unframed, looking vulnerable and unprotected without any plexi to cover them.
They are gorgeous to look at, and underscore how much diCorcia is gifted at framing, shooting from low angles, and mastering composition. The series spans a couple decades (maybe more, but I don't have the press release or anything to rely on), and presents anything within classical categories such as landscape, portraits, etc.
It's in the Ahmanson building, proving was again that everything that's good to see at LACMA is located on the East side. The opening was set up in the atrium, under the Tony Smith-that-is-a-posthumous-reconstitution, which was really cool. In addition to the artist, FBC! also met with Ken Gonzalez-Day, whose work in the Phantom Sightings show is so exquisitely beautiful it's almost painful. We were both rather tipsy and exchanged grandiose plans to take over next year CAA's conference, complete with booze parties at the Bonaventure and orgies for sex-deprived scholars at the Getty Villa. All in all, it was fun!
Other guests included Darcy Huebler, and I'm taking the opportunity to say hi here as we kept on missing talking to each other during the opening, various LACMA curators, including Rita Gonzalez, and of course Charlotte Cotton, Eve Schillo and Alex Klein.