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Basquiat Everywhere
Jean Michel Basquiat died in 1988, only 27 years old. At the time of his death, Basquiat’s talent and importance were acknowledged but no one could have predicted how much his work would matter today, almost 40 years later. Or that his work would be available everywhere: in museums, galleries, independent art attractions, on stickers, T-shirts, tote bags, even on your TV. At this week’s New York Contemporary art auctions, works by Basquiat broke new records. At Phillips’ auction, an… -
Ed Ruscha: What You See Is What You Get LACMA retrospective celebrates long career of Ed Ruscha
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, 1964, Sid R. Bass, Private collection, © ED RUSCHA, PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Ed Ruscha’s career retrospective at LACMA, ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN (first mounted at New York’s Museum of Modern Art) makes a strong case for the power of Ruscha’s hard-edged, minimalist, yet graphically strong works, as well as his many obsessive photo series, all of which have come to represent Los Angeles. Ruscha, who is 86, was present… -
Herb Alpert Award In The Arts Celebrates 30th Anniversary: The Greatest Arts Award You've Never Heard Of
“In a confusing world like ours, we count on the artist to deliver the truth…” —Herb Alpert. 2024 Winners of the Herb Alpert Award in the ArtsCOURTESY OF THE HERB ALPERT FOUNDATION On May 2, the Herb Alpert Foundation in partnership with CalArts announced the 30th annual winners of the 2024 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (HAAIA), a $75,000 unrestricted prize given this year to ten mid-career artists, two in each of five categories: Jonathan Gonzalez and Mariana Valencia in Dance;… -
Allison Katz Goes Hollywood in Westward Ho!
The works in the exhibition are different in style, subject matter, even the way the paint is applied, showing a wide level of craft, ability and talent that is impressive. Yet each work, even when painted in a completely different style, remains recognizably the work of Allison Katz. Katz grew up in Montreal, attended Concordia College there before getting her MFA at Columbia in New York. She now lives in London. Last summer while doing a residency at Hauser &… -
The Gift Of Simone Veil: Elsa Zylberstein’s Oscar-Worthy Performance
Simone Veil was a major figure in France, one of that country’s most popular politicians ever, whose steely will, remarkable determination, and unyielding sense of justice led Veil, who as a teenager was deported to Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, whose father and brother were murdered by the Nazis and whose mother died in the camps, to fight as an attorney, a magistrate, and a legislator, for the rights of Algerians, for prison reform, for women’s rights – she passed France’s… -
Feasting in Batumi: Caucasian home of super supras
Tom Teicholz heads to Georgia’s second city, where he finds familiarity and wonderful hospitality—topped by the extravagant supra feastT From Lucire.com/ The global fashion magazine December 31, 2023 https://lucire.com/2023/1230vo0.shtml Feasting in Batumi: Caucasian home of super supras Volante Tom Teicholz heads to Georgia’s second city, where he finds familiarity and wonderful hospitality—topped by the extravagant supra feast PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR Above, from top: Downtown Batumi. Batumi’s changing skyline. Historical façades preserved in the city. The White House, a large synagogue in this multicultural city. We’ve… -
Best Of Visual Art 2023
In 2023, I saw a lot of great Art in brilliantly curated art exhibitions at both galleries and in museums. As is my custom, let me begin by highlighting artists, artworks, and works about art that I didn’t get a chance to write about last year but which stayed with me. Sophie Chahinian COURTESY OF SOPHIE CHAHINIAN AND THE ARTIST PROFILE ARCHIVE First, a shout out to Sophie Chahinian, who I got to know this year, at The Artist Profile Archive, which… -
Dining With The Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting, LACMA exhibition showcases Islamic Art and hospitality
“For many, if not most of us, our earliest encounter with another culture is not its art, literature, or history but its cuisine,” said Linda Komaroff, Curator and Department Head, Art of the Middle East, at the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA). Having recently experienced the traditional hospitality of Georgians in the Caucusus, I was intrigued to see LACMA’s new exhibition of Islamic Art viewed through the prism of its culinary and hospitality traditions. Installation view of Dining with the… -
Bodytraffic Wants To Be Los Angeles’ Dance Company
“LA deserves to have a remarkable dance company that's representative of this community,” Tina Finkelman Berkett, co-founder and artistic director of Los Angeles-based dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC, told me. BODYTRAFFIC is a 17-year-old dance company based in Los Angeles that will be performing at the Audrey Irmas Pavillon performance space at Wilshire Boulevard Temple (3643 Wilshire Blvd) on February 29 with a program, “In Pursuit of Love” that features three pieces, Love. Lost. Fly by Micaela Taylor, Recurrence by Ethan Colangelo and Blue Until June by Trey McIntyre, set… -
Scott Stover Has A Strategic Plan For NextGen Culture
If all you knew of the Art world was art fairs such as Art Basel or the upcoming Frieze LA, or the crowds at the Met in New York, or the Broad in LA for a blockbuster show, you would imagine the art world is awash in support, and that there are hordes of young collectors eager to fill the boards of art institutions. Scott StoverPHOTO BY CRAIG SHULTZ COURTESY OF SCOTT STOVER However, Scott Stover, a former international investment… -
Beauty Is In The Eye Of Photographer Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry, a Magnum photographer best known for his striking images from the world’s remote places and conflict zones, most notably his portrait of an Afghan girl with piercing green eyes, has gathered decades of work in both a new book, Devotion from Prestel, and in an exhibition, Endless Traveler, at Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, CA (on view until April 27th). McCurry, was born in 1950, in Philadelphia PA. It was just a few years after graduating the College of Arts and Architecture… -
LA Friezes Over
LA Friezes Over Frieze Los Angeles, the contemporary art fair, was launched in 2019. This year’s fifth edition, held in Santa Monica, featured more than 100 exhibitors, from the international gallery multiplexes (Gagosian, Pace, Hauser & Wirth, Zwirner) to local single galleries from New York, LA, Paris, Milan, and other art-collecting friendly destinations. Terry Allen performing at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Wednesday, February 28, ... [+]PHOTO BY TOM TEICHOLZ Frieze itself was a four-day event, from…