March Art Guide - Los Angeles

Recommendations of what to see in the LA art scene this month by our local guide, Sharon Zoldan. Discover even more on a private tour.

I.

Exhibition: Vija Celmins
Artist: Vija Celmins
Venue: Matthew Marks Gallery
Dates: Until March 31st, 2018

Vija Celmins creates luminous monochromatic paintings. However simple their content, her depictions of stars in the night sky or an undulating body of water organically give way to existential interpretations of our universe and painting itself. Her sense of depth pulls us into the void of familiar, surreal landscapes.

II.

Exhibition: Paintings + Propaganda Pots
Artists: Jansson Stegner + Bari Ziperstein
Venue: Nino Mier Gallery
Dates: Until March 3rd, 2018

The new series of oil paintings featuring predominantly female athletes by Jansson Stegner sensually draws attention to the elongated bodies of their subjects. Exuding eroticism, strength, and beauty they exist in a psychologically skewed reality playing on the rich history of portraiture. 

Two Brothers, 2013, Oil on linen, 48 x 60 in (121.9 x 152.4 cm), JAS13.001

Propaganda Pots is an impressive installation of over twenty-five figurative ceramic sculptures based on 1980’s propaganda posters from former Easter Bloc countries. Ziperstein’s conversation of the imagery into modestly-sized objects addresses themes of domesticity, femininity, and gender roles, driving home her use of “craft” materials and functionality. while simultaneously critiquing those very ideals.

Hello Youth!, 2018, Stoneware, linen, underglaze & glaze, 14 x 29 x 22 1/4 in (35.6 x 73.7 x 56.5 cm), BZ18.003

III.

Exhibition: Temazcal
Artist: Martin Soto Climent
Venue: Michael Benevento
Dates: Until March 17th, 2018

Mexican artist Martin Soto Climent’s new body of work are inspired by the ancient Mesoamerican ritual baths of Temazcal. His experimental and unique uses for burnt wood, stone, metal, tights, and even butterflies pull from the rich spiritual traditions of the culture. His elegant and ephemeral interpretations of these ancient practices leave one questioning the very nature of Climent’s materials.

Flechazos, 2018, Charred wood, thorns, wood plinth, acrylic, 23.5 x 28.25 x 9 inches

Take a tour in LA to disover more!

Los Angeles Art Guide - December

I.

Exhibition: f o r e p l a y
Artist: Nevine Mahmoud
Venue: M+B
Dates: Until January 6th, 2018

The playfully erotic works of Nevine Mahmoud are a surprising blend of tension and flirtation, possessing a delicate softness and alluring invitation to touch. Toying with ideas of functionality, the sculptures call to mind surreal objects. She isolates bodily references and fragments these parts for individual consideration. It's Alice in Wonderland a sexy, cheeky, feminine sense of humor.

Nevine Mahmoud, Lick, 2017, Persian onyx, stainless steel and steel hardware, 5 x 10 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (12.7 x 26.7 x 16.5 cm)

II.

Exhibition: Kandors 1999 - 2011
Artist:  Mike Kelley
Venue: Hauser & Wirth
Dates: Until January 21, 2018

The exhibition is a playful, explorative, and hypnotizing presentation of one of Mike Kelley’s most impressive bodies of works. Mike Kelley’s series Kandors is so much more than miniatures of Superman’s fictional birthplace. They are simultaneously architectural models, commentaries on the subjectivity of storytelling, and fantasies of future worlds. While unique in their origins, this series of works is deeply psychologically and ideologically connected to Kelley’s oeuvre as a whole. 

Sharon recommends popping by Manuela, the restaurant in the Hauser & Wirth courtyard, for a glimpse of the stunning Mark Bradford painting on display.

Mike Kelley’s series Kandors

III.

Exhibition: Latin American Artists in the Marciano Collection
Artist: Various Artist
Venue: Marciano Foundation
Dates: Until January 20th, 2018

In conjunction with LA's citywide Pacific Standard Time presentation, the Marciano’s are showcasing a selection of contemporary Latin American artists they have acquired. A variety of Analia Saban's works question materiality time and again. A snarky Jose Dávila Untitled stack of found cardboard boxes à-la Donald Judd present an overt nod to Arte Povera and Minimalism. Another highlight is Dávila's impressive sculpture Esfuerzo común (Common Effort), a precariously balanced work that functions on dichotomy: industrial vs. natural, feminine vs. masculine, etc.

Jose Dávila. Untitled, 2015. Found cardboard boxes

Take a tour with Sharon in LA to discover more!

Los Angeles Art Guide - October

I.

Exhibition: No Title
Artists: Bernd and Hilla Becher
Venue: Sprueth Magers
Dates: Until October 21st, 2017

Bernd and Hilla Becher present “a language of heavy industry” in a typographic and poetic fashion where form and function are at play within each individual photograph and structure. A near perfect example of abstraction in repetition, the architecture becomes sculptural and the formalism comes alive. They create beauty from structures typically not considered beyond their function, nor even considered architectural entities in their own rights, yet the photo studies somehow create visually and conceptually beautiful urban landscapes.

Bernd and Hilla Becher @ Sprüth Magers

II.

Exhibition: wave form walks the earth
Artist: Elaine Cameron-Weir
Venue: Hannah Hoffman Gallery
Dates: Until November 4th, 2017

 
Elaine Cameron-Weir’s wave form walks the earth, possesses a dystopian, futuristic and simultaneously medieval narrative. Made of chain mail, her hanging piece, Dressing For Altitude (2017, Pewter, stainless steel, leather, sandbag) references the body or the body that could have once worn such a costume. When looking, one becomes almost obsessively aware of weight - the weight of the metals, weight of the sandbag that holds it mid-air, the weight of all of this on top of a human body. Visceral, formal, these sadomasochistic leather bindings and metallic mechanisms are aestheticized and eroticized.  

Elaine Cameron Weir @ Hannah Hoffman

III.

Exhibition: No Title [Group Show]
Artists: Thomas Demand, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Brice Marden, Ken Price, Martin Puryear, Charles Ray, Paul Sietsema, Anne Truitt, Terry Winters
Venue: Matthew Marks Gallery LA
Dates: Until October 21st, 2017

Matthew Marks’s group show presents an array of sculptural and wall works that all somehow play with lifelike forms and color. One of the highlights of the exhibition is Katharina Fritsche’s Still Life 7 (2017), in which a yellow statue of Saint Aloysius stands modestly next to a black-painted apple, strawberry and seashell. Each of these items in black represent the feminine and also the temptations of the chaste Saint. It is the velvety pigment that is the most mesmerizing of visuals – inviting to the touch. The second highlight is Ken Price’s Fung (2009). Whether considering his shapes, materials, or process, our consideration of Price’s sensual sculptures take on an otherworldly allusion, while directly referencing our own organs and the corporal forms we recognize in ourselves. It’s the brilliant variety of color that enraptures and ensnares.

@ Matthew Marks

IV.

Exhibition: No Title [Group Show]
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Regen Projects
Dates: Until October 28th, 2017

The group show at Regen Projects presents a sprawling, cultural dialogue between two great artists and makers. Abraham Cruzvillegas and Gabriel Kuri have curated a very necessary, very insightful artistic history of the Latin American cultures that define our city and impact culture worldwide. Ariel Schlesinger’s Bubble Machine, an engaging kinetic sculpture, utilizes humor to call one’s attention to violence, something that rings true especially in our current political climate. Cuban Samba, by Simabuku, elegantly brings together found materials. A simple arrangement of a tin can that emanates the sounds of raindrops on metal, he recalls the memory of a beautiful chance encounter and creates a poetic sculptural installation out of something that typically points towards damage and destruction.

@ Regen Projects

Take a tour with Sharón in LA to discover more!