Your Social Life - It's An Ivan Morley And Culver City Week

Full disclosure, Ivan Morley is an old pal of FBC!, I have written about his work a while ago, but even if it weren't the case, he would still be in my top 3 LA painters (the others being Mark Bradford and Will Fowler. Fowler has 3 exquisite paintings that are currently hanging on a wall at Kordansky, in the office. Don't miss them).

All of his to say that among the myriad of openings this Saturday in Los Angeles, yours truly will only attend the Ivan Morley one at Richard Telles. I'd have gone to the Jon Pylypchuk at China Art Objects too, but the hours are too conflicting, alas.
I'd suggest for all of you who can schedule your tour better than me to start with Morley because it's 5 to 7 PM, and then go to Culver City where, in addition to the Pylypchuk opening, there's also an opening at François Ghebaly (Christopher Chiappa, Gareth Long, Sarah E. Wood) and another one upstairs, how convenient, at the charming Emma Gray's EGHQ, with a title that would make you smile no matter what, "I'm So Happy - an ecstatic experience by Kirsten Stoltmann for people". Cherry & Martin also have an opening, Robert Heineken.

In Santa Monica, the valiant 18th Street Art Center has two openings, while on the total opposite side of town, Charlie James presents a group show If These Walls Could Talk - A Conversation. If you are in Chinatown, it is the last weekend for the group show at Cottage Home.

In non art-related matters, I've heard rumors that Sparks was going to play in LA in June, and I can't wait. I have to remind you that The Residents play at the El Rey on April 9. What else could make me happy? Well, if John Cale could cease to tour Europe and honor the city where he lives with a concert, it would be awesome, and could we please have The Fall come visit soon as well?

Have a great art weekend, people, and don't miss Ivan Morley!

Image: Ivan Morley painting from the Richard Telles Gallery website

Your Social Life

 And now back to our usual programming (can't wait to post the next John Cale Song Of The Week).

Your social life will be richly enhanced tonight if you swing by the Pacific Design Center, the new home of anotheryearinla, and get to see the show where FBC!'s über-fave, Stephen Kaltenbach is in.


Saturday, if you happen to be in Riverside, don't miss the reading by A.W. Hill at Riverside Arts Project at the Riverside Plaza (Central Avenue Riverside, CA

3545 Central Ave. between Chico’s and El Torito in conjunction with the Terminus Nodus exhibition by Multipoint), from 4 to 6 PM.

Still on Saturday, Scott Benzel whom you know without knowing him (he's behind the soundtrack of the Mike Kelley/Michael Smith "A Voyage of Growth and Discovery") is playing at Kings Road Park Pavilion.  Yes, he's the handsome man in the photo above. FBC! is alas too broke to attend, but you can buy tickets here. And, incidentally, have a look at what SASSAS does for sound art and experimental music in LA. I never get to talk about the Cindy Bernard-founded non profit and it's a shame. Support it, people!

Still in Los Angeles, but in Chinatown, the always delightful Charlie James has an opening at his gallery, Nery Gabriel Lemus.

 

In the already opened category, I warmly recommend spending a whole day at LACMA where, between John Baldessari, Cathy Opie, Tad Beck (within the Thomas Eakins exhibition) and Fallen Fruit (great wallpaper) plus the permanent collection, there are loads of great things to see.  

If you feel more comfortable in a smaller setting, don't miss the fantastic Amir Zaki show at LAXart (I'm not so wild about the Divola show at the same place) and the group show at Cottage Home as well as the one at Tom Solomon. Pics to follow soon. If you are not as broke-ass as FBC!, I think you should invest in the artist book Zaki has produced. It's gorgeous, and for an artist book really cheap.

Steve Lambert At Charlie James

We continued out lucky streak with the Steve Lambert exhibition at Charlie James Gallery. Mash up American vernacular visuals with corporate and commercial language, shake a little bit after sprinkling a bit of post-Warholian take on recent crass art market triumphalism (pre-recession) and you get a great show, funny and attractive but that has something to say. Did I mention the pieces were dirt cheap? Steve Lambert has received his MFA at UC Davis where Stephen Kaltenbach teaches. As I'm sure you would have guessed.
The show was reviewed by Christopher Knight in the LAT.

Your Social Life In Anniversary Mode

No, not FBC! anniversary, but China Art Objects, the Chinatown gallery with which everything started (well, not exactly, let's call it the second or third LA art boom, OK?).
China Art Objects opened 10 years ago and will celebrate this Saturday with a show/bash at Cottage as well as in its original location, followed by an after party at the Mountain Bar. When you go see the show or if you end up at the Mountain Bar, please don't forget to have a thought, or better yet a drink in honor of the late Giovanni Intra, one of the co-founder of China Art Objects. The opening will last from 6 to 9 PM, with many, many artists, so many it's impossible to list them all.
Many are personal pals of FBC! so I'll pay a rare appearance at an opening, but on the early side as I'm recovering from yet another car accident!

[To the moron who plowed into my car at a red light and sent me flying into a SUV: Drop. Dead. Now. And next time you drive, that is if you don't drop dead now, do it with a valid driver's license and put your bloody cell phone away. My future lawyer is going to have a field day with you, b••ch!].

I'm fine, if a bit sore, and taking meds that make me very sleepy, hence the early appearance at the opening. Meanwhile Mam'zelle VaVaVoom is at the car doctor, waiting for her diagnosis, hopefully she's fixable. I have a nice replacement rental but nowhere as cool as Mam'zelle VaVaVoom.

Unfortunately, because of this I have to make a choice in my opening attendance, so I will miss Walead Beshty at LAXart, but you guys should be able to go, before or after China Art Objects.
There are lots of other openings on Saturday, such as the group show "The Ballad That Becomes An Anthem" at Acme, with among others, FBC! absolute fav' Mary Heilmann and also Rebecca Morris.
To make your life even more complicated, there's an interesting group show opening at the Armory in Pasadena, Under The Knife (I guess "under the box cutter" was not so appealing, and "running with scissors" was already taken) about artists cutting up paper and doing collages. It's from 7 to 9 PM so I guess if you start at ACME, go to LAXart, then China Art Objects/Cottage you may conceivably be able to reach the Armory at the tail end of the opening.
But wait! There's also an opening at Charlie James in Chinatown. And one at Marc Foxx, who also shows some work by the recently deceased Hanne Darboven.
All in all a pretty busy weekend for opening-goers in LA. Have fun, but above all drive responsively and shove that cell phone in your trunk, OK?

Stephen Kaltenbach at Anotheryearinla

Stephen Kaltenbach was the other artist whose opening I went to on Saturday. Kaltenbach is a conceptual artist with a deep sense of humor, and FBC! has been a fan of his work since relatively late, actually, thanks to my former boss Lynn Zelevansky. Without her I wouldn't have discovered anotheryearinla and Kaltenbach's work. If by happenstance one of my reader was moneyed, I suggest you buy a nice time-capsule (absolutely randomly: "Content", OK?) and donate it to LACMA.
Kaltenbach is better-known for a series of ads in Artforum in the late 1960s, which I'd love to give you more info about but everything I have here is in hard copy, somewhere in my archives. My archives are a pile of folders, papers and books that currently look like the tower of Pisa, as I need bookshelves. It won't kill you to do a bit of research yourself anyway, so have fun doing it, it's a great artwork. Also should be a pre-requisite for all grad students entering art schools (along with Paul McCarthy's video "Painter").
For his last show he mounted a mini-retrospective of his Time Capsules that looked awesome, and witty, and if you really, really, like me you can donate that "Content" one to me and give another artwork to LACMA. I won't tell.

It was a fun opening as usual at David and Cathy Stone, and FBC! was delighted to meet artists Mark A. Rodriguez and Nadege Monchera there, as well as new art dealer Charlie James (he's opening where Telic used to be in Chinatown), Stephen Kaltenbach himself and the always delightful Peter Frank! Peter is the associate editor for new art magazine 'The" where yours truly may write in the future (NB: no website is listed on the masthead, so I'll let you Google "the", OK?). Both Peter and Stephen gave me tips for my novel, seeing they were in NYC at the right period, and following our fruitful conversation Kaltenbach himself agreed to a cameo appearance in the story. Needless to say, I'm thrilled.
Have fun going to see his show, and don't neglect to ask and see the "canceled" copy of the misprinted catalog (and buy yourself the right one when it's out, Lucy Lippard among others had written an essay). It's like those unique stamps worth tons of money by virtue of never having been put in circulation. Maybe it will end up inside a future time capsule...

Pictures: "Content", "open before my retrospective at Pompidou Center", "Only owner may open", Stephen Kaltenbach in front of "Moment", David Stone and Peter Frank. Artworks titles are approximative, I don't have the checklist with me.