Your Social Life

This week will be a happy one, my friends, let me tell you. First of all, Amir Zaki and John Divola both open at LAXart. Two immense smart photographs united in the same space, what's not to like? 6 to 9 PM on Saturday.


Same evening , at Regen Projects is the opening of the Walead Beshty-curated Summer Show, and it's chock-full of artists I really love, Pictures Industry (Goodbye to all that): anybody from Carol Bove, Troy Brauntuch, Tony Conrad, De Rijke & de Rooij, Wade Guyton, Imi Knoebel, Glenn Ligon, Michael Snow, etc.  From 6 to 8 on Saturday.

In Chinatown, China Art Objects and Tom Solomon unite forces for a Summer group show at Cottage Home where FBC!'s favorite emerging artist, Juan Capistran, is included, another good reason to go see it, not even mentioning Analia Saban is alo in it, as well as Alex Israel and Jonathan Pylypchuck. Also 6 to 9 on Saturday.


And, if you think you don't have enough "6 to 9 opening on Saturday, my freaking God why haven't they invented teleportation yet????", there's also Kory Newkirk, except it is 6 to 8 PM, almost guarantying yours truly will be unable to attend, but it is conveniently located smack in the middle of LA, at Country Club on 805 South Genesee. Country Club is a gallery that has, IMHO, an editorial problem, since they show fab artists such as Newkirk, as well as lame-duck crap such as Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine, etc.
Seriously people, if you need to show commercial stuff, so be it, but it's detrimental to your image and to the other, good artists you are showing. A bit more intellectual rigor would be welcome. Unless you have a secret plan to join the Jeffrey Deitch team at MOCA, who knows.

Speaking of which, congratulations to OCMA for taking over the Philip Kaiser-curated Jack Goldstein retrospective from MOCA, a formerly respectable institution that lost its mojo since NYC sent us its own commercial rejects. THE exhibition everybody in Los Angeles has been waiting for a decade, and it's been scrapped for... James Franco? Dennis Hopper bland photographs and mediocre paintings? People, flock see the Arshile Gorky show at MOCA, because it is the very last good exhibition there for a long, long time.


After this rant, let's congratulate also LACMA with the opening next week of the Thomas Eakins, Catherine Opie and Tad Beck trifecta. Super intelligent exhibition. If LACMA folks are reading me, I also wanted to tel you: I love you, but your Twitter feed during "Cell Phone Stories"? Painful. I had to un-follow you a couple of times to clean up my feed. Please, don't do horrible things like this again.

John Cale Song Of The Week - Buffalo Ballet

I was talking recently with a friend (hi, Stephanie!) about how John Cale is the most awesome, terrific, fabulous genius in the entire musical universe, and that's discounting the faraway galaxies we know nothing about. And maybe even there, they wonder why, why he never really met with the planetary success that is his due? Listen to the song above, isn't that freaking beautiful?
After talking to Stephanie, I got curious, thinking I hadn't seen him on stage since the mid-1990s in Paris, and what was he up to these days?

That's where I'm marveling at the power of the interwebs, compared to the times that under-20 youngsters can't have known, when this type of search would have taken digging into the archives of several music magazines and fanzines. Today, in 5 seconds, shazam! I learned that:

1) he was now walking among us, lonesome God in a land of dwarfs, since he apparently lives here in Los Angeles! He left New York to live in the land of surgically-enhanced, vapid Industry types! Which is also the land where Arnold Schoenberg immigrated to during World War II and where the Beach Boys are originated from, so maybe Cale can be happy here, too. That's all the evil we at FBC! are wishing him, to be happy in La La Land.

2) not only that, but he's playing at Royce Hall on September 30! WHOO HOO!!!! Individual tickets available for us, the vulgare pecus who can't afford to become members/buy series, on August 9. You know, everybody in the art world. Seriously, I've told 6 or 7 artists friends since last week and everybody is super excited and wondering how the heck they'll find the money to buy a ticket.*

I only regret it is at Royce Hall, because seats tend to be a bit of a hindrance if you want to move around a bit, and more personally because after being hit in 3 car accidents, seating down in Royce Hall's uncomfortable seats for a while is painful. Quite a bit painful.

Nevertheless, I'm overjoyed to get to see John Cale in LA, that is after I sell my putative first-born in order to afford the ticket. To celebrate (the concert, not the sale of my hypothetical offspring), I propose to upload once a week the John Cale Song Of The Week, to let us patient a bit until September 30.
And, for my Frenchy brethren back home, rejoice! Cale plays at the Salle Pleyel on September 5.

So to kick off the series, let's start with Buffalo Ballet, from the album Fear. If you like what you hear, please go buy the song on iTunes or an old-fashioned CD, so John Cale gets at least 1 or 2 pennies in his pocket. He probably needs them more than, say, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

* I guess that's a reason why Cale doesn't enjoy an interplanetary fame and success: his natural constituency is also chronically un-moneyed.

¡Que Viva España!

FBC!, despite having been born and brought up in France, is in fact half-Spanish, a welcome and practical identity when, you know, the French football teams confuses South Africa with the stage of a soap opera. So my Spanish half is very happy and proud of Spain's victory today in the World Cup, and a bit teary-eyed too because my proudly Spanish grandma passed away two months ago and didn't get to witness it.
So, in her memory and in honor of the Spanish Football Team and their historic World Cup win, I'm posting a kitsch but beloved Spanish song, Que Viva España, by Manolo Escobar.
Also, drinking Cava, something I can only encourage you to replicate at home, since you won't drive, and Trader Joe's sells a very decent version for $4.99.

Lastly, out of respect for Oberhausen Oktopus Paul, hereby re-christened Querido Pulpo Pablito, FBC! is officially banishing octopus from her diet until the end of the year, at least. And, publicly begging King Juan Carlos of Spain to make Querido Pulpo Pablito a Knight in the Order of Santiago.

Congrats Spain!!!!

Your Social Life

These two upcoming weekends will be all about Juan Capistran, FBC!'s favorite emerging artist who should become big, big, big, his work is so good. Juan is currently flying to Mexico for a show is in, so I'm not sure he will be back on time to attend the opening of Bubble and Squeak on Saturday at Happy Lion in Chinatown, 6 to 8 PM. He's going to be in 2 other group things between July 17 and 19, more about this next week.

Still in Chinatown, but tomorrow, Animal Style: The New Warrior, organized by Drew Heitzler, with such luminaries as Scott Benzel, Justin Beal, Jedediah Caesar, or Emily Halpern and many more, at Pepin Moore (beautiful website, in passing).

A Doug Harvey curated/organized/input event happening at Post tomorrow, Mannlicher Carcano. Linking to the FB page for the event here.

And, on Saturday, yet another opening at Steve Turner, RJ Messineo and Brian Kennon. Another opening too at Las Cienegas Projects, celebrating their first anniversary with Aaron Wrinkle and Guests.

And before I sign off, congrats to Amir Zaki whose work is featured on home decorating blog Apartment Therapy, but most importantly you will be able to see it in person at LAXart next week.


On Sunday, don't forget to cheer Spain in the World Cup Final. And, on Monday, you can attend the screening of the Michael Smith/Mike Kelley A Voyage Of Growth And Discovery at REDCAT, which will allow you to follow their narrative on a single screen.
and, that's all for the weekend. Have fun. Sounds positively exciting.

Your Social Life

Hello, beloved readers, and apologies for posting this installment of YSL kinda late, but AT&T let us down again today and we were unable to connect to the internet for several hours.

So, quickly, if you are downtown tonight and somehow get this, swing by POST for the kickoff of 31 Kamikaze shows in July. 7 to 9 tonight.
Tomorrow Friday, China Art Objects says goodbye to Chinatown to move to Culver City (I think in the former M+C space). FBC! was present at the birth of China Art Objects, when the late Giovanni Intra was among us, and I'm looking forward to see how the gallery fares in Culver City. Wishing you the best of luck! I think it's from 6 to 9 and probably later continued onto the night at the Mountain Bar.
Still on Friday evening, Cal Arts MFA Show happens in Chinatown and not in Valencia, sparing us the trek there, thanks to several galleries, with "Box Scheme". List of participating galleries and artists here.

Saturday you wouldn't believe they are some openings since it is a holiday weekend, but in fact there are a bunch of them. Los Angeles, we don't do things like anybody else. Except this time they look a little bit like Summer Shows, like at Blum & Poe.

Two exhibitions that have already opened but that I think you should go see: Signs of Life at Richard Telles. Smart show, very tight installation, some good works. It's the first exhibition curated by Gladys-Katherina Hernando, and she did a great job. Pics coming up later. The Andrea Bowers show at Vielmetter is pretty good too, but most particularly the video.

Have a great 4th of July weekend folks, but before this, remember today is Canada Day, so if you meet one, kiss a Canadian!

Your Social Life

It's Summer, 4th of July is around the corner, everywhere in the transglobal art world galleries and museums are installing bland group shows before taking off for a long vac, and here in LA, we have more and more stuff happening. Summer in LA means there's always some opening somewhere. Being on a few deadlines that unexpectedly piled up recently, FBC! will likely miss most of the festivities.

It's all about LACMA this week, what with the recently opened John Baldessari retrospective (in conversation Sunday at 2 PM), the Freewaves organized "video on the loose" (maybe to make up for the lack of a real video art collection at the Miracle Mile institution) tomorrow, and on Sunday the big Fallen Fruit "Eat LACMA" exhibition/street entertainment/participatory experience.

Signs of Life opens at Richard Telles this Saturday. At the Torrance Art Museum, Zoom series kick off, several consecutive Saturdays of performances, etc. with one organized by Warren Neidich on July 10. and Doctor Zomb opens tomorrow too at the Glendale College Gallery. I find that one super exciting and I'm bummed I'll miss it.

Aside from this, a few exhibitions are closing (an I know I'll miss them, dammit), such as Alice Neel at LA Louver or Tim Hawkinson at Blum & Poe.



Continuing:at MOCA, Arshile Gorsky, the lone good exhibition for a long, long time at what is now the equivalent of a totally unexciting lesser branch of the entertainment industry. Though, if LACMA really brings in the Tim Burton show next year, I guess the collective world of non-profit museums in Los Angeles should give in and sell out to Disney.
Luckily, "there's always the Hammer", and this Summer the exhibition to see there is Outside The Box celebrating the joint acquisition of printmaker/publisher Jacob Samuel.
And, if you go to the LACMA lovefest this weekend, don't neglect to swing by the 'hood branch of the MAK/Schindler House for Fractional Systems, at the Mackey Apartments/Garages on Cochran & Longwood in the 90019. You can even get coffee and pastries on the way at La Maison du Pain, it's down the street (closed on Sunday, but you can get their goodies in the morning at the new Wellington Square farmer's market on Washington

Have a good weekend, art lovers.

John Baldessari at LACMA

I just came back from the John Baldessari retrospective at LACMA, curated by the lovely Leslie Jones for LACMA (hi, Leslie!) and the no less lovely Jessica Morgan for the Tate in London. I wish I could say something really *intelligent* about the exhibition, but alas I got to see too little of it. It's the type of opening where the entire LA art world and then some more (meaning, moneyed people who have no idea what art is) come to attend en masse.
So, every single room I entered was densely packed with at least 40 people I know within the first few yards. Plus all the ones I know but didn't see, etc, etc.

But I was lucky enough to see that one of my most favorite artwork into the entire universe was there, Everything is purged from this painting but art, no ideas have entered this work, 1966 - 1968. This is the "painting" that made me fall in love with conceptual art when I was a teen and saw it at the L'Art Conceptuel, Une Perspective exhibition in Paris, in 1989. Just for this it is well worth seeing the show.
There are of course plenty, but plenty of fabulous Baldessari works in the show, and at this stage, who cares really what the installation is like (it's great, BTW!), since there's plenty of fun to be had and great works to be seen. Smart, playful, fun. What's not to like?
Don't miss Baldessari waving goodbye to ships, don't miss his interpretation of the 7 cardinal virtues and the 7 deadly sins, don't miss anything, and come back over and over again. If you're too broke to take a Summer trip, why don't you have a staycation at LACMA, and at the Farley building in Eagle Rock (Mike Kelley & Michael Smith)? LA will never have seemed so cool in the Summer.


[I lifted the pic from a Google image search and forgot to look for credits. I apologize to whoever took that pic, will try to correct that later]