-
An Evening Of Qatari Culture Under The Stars At The "Desert Drive-In"
Picture this: A evening under the stars, sitting on couches and deck chairs in a large open field, with ottomans on which a Middle Eastern feast was set, to watch a series of short films on a giant outdoor screen. Dubbed a "Desert Drive-In" the evening was organized by the Qatar-USA 2021 Year of Culture, an annual international cultural exchange and the Doha Film Institute (DFI), an independent, not-for-profit cultural organization that supports the growth of the local Qatari and… -
Bernard-Henri Lévy: The Will to See, The Ability to Act, The Drive to Inspire
Bernard-Henri Lévy has a new book, The Will to See: Dispatches from a World of Misery and Hope (Yale University Press) and a documentary of the same name, both of which combine autobiography with documentary journalism and humanitarian activism. In many ways, it is a summation of Lévy's efforts over the last 50 years to give voice to the forgotten victims of genocides and to make a difference in the lives of the survivors.The book is composed of two parts:… -
Seven Paintings: Tobi Kahn At The Phillips Collection
In 1985, The Guggenheim Museum in New York mounted an exhibition of contemporary young artists, called "New Horizons in American Art" that included the work of Tobi Kahn. Kahn's featured paintings were abstractions of landscapes, the images anchored in black artist-made frames, the palette dark, the paint applied thickly and worked strenuously, the effect serious and, at times, somber. In many ways, that exhibition established Kahn as an artist worth watching and following.Now, a whole caree... View Original Article -
Three Art Exhibits To See Right Now In New York
On a recent visit to New York, I saw three art exhibitions I highly recommend: Faith Ringgold: American People, on view at the New Museum through June 5, 2022; The Hare with the Amber Eyes at the Jewish Museum, on view through May 15, 2022; and Hilary Pecis: Warmly at the Rachel Uffner Gallery through May 14.Faith Ringgold: American People is a must-see show. Ringgold is a 91-year-old Black artist known popularly for her children's books such as Tar Beach… -
Seeing A Forest for the Trees
"A Forest for the Trees" is a multi-media installation that, like much of artist Glenn Kaino's work, is conceptual, collaborative, has a moral and ethical dimension, and is a political call to action. The exhibition also brings together a novel marriage of sponsors: Presented by The Atlantic magazine and Superblue (a showcase for experiential art), the exhibition is sponsored by Mastercard.Set in a 28,000 square foot warehouse in LA's Boyle Heights neighborhood, "A Forest for the Trees," is ... View… -
The Power Of Peter Fetterman's Photos
The Power of Photography by Peter Fetterman (ACC ART BOOKS $45) is a perfect Father's Day gift â in fact, for me, this will be my gift of choice for birthdays and other present-bearing occasions.Fetterman, the long-time impresario of The Peter Fetterman Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, has suffered the difficulties of a business dependent on the purchase and sale of artworks, along with the changing tastes of collectors as generational, societal, and economic shifts have occurred... View… -
Songwriter Patrick Davis' Paradise
There are no more CD sales (what's a CD?) and streaming revenue is just a trickle of what Songwriters once earned. Superstar performers" hits now list teams of songwriting contributors and although live performances are back in demand, if your name is not marquee-worthy (and sometimes even if it is) the gigs that pay a living wage are few and far between. What's a songwriter to do?To answer that question and others I spoke with Patrick Davis. Heard of him… -
Bob Dylan And Elvis Stay True
In the last few weeks, I"ve had two cultural experiences that I"m still trying to get my head around: Bob Dylan on his "Rough and Ready Ways" Tour and Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." Each, in their singular way, speaks to the struggle for authenticity in one's art.Bob Dylan, who recently turned 81, performed three nights at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I attended the first night's performance: Dylan spent most of the night behind the piano, occasionally venturing beside his piano… -
Shulamit Nazarian Los Angeles: Looking Back, Moving Forward
Shulamit Nazarian Los Angeles Gallery just celebrated its tenth anniversary, which in gallery years is a serious achievement and reason enough to visit with Shulamit Nazarian and her gallery partner Seth Curcio."The most meaningful part of what I do," Shulamit Nazarian told me recently, "is learning from my artists, opening these amazing windows to their narrative, their cultural history or personal history."For its anniversary, the gallery exhibited a group show of many new works made for ... View Original Article -
Ken Burns' "The U.S. And The Holocaust" On PBS
This Sunday, PBS premieres, The U.S., and The Holocaust, Ken Burn's three-part six-hour documentary, produced and directed by Burns, Lynn Novick and and Sarah Botstein.You might wonder what, if anything, there still is to say about the Holocaust, after so many, many films have been made about it, all over the world. Having watched many of those films, and as the host and curator of an annual Holocaust Film Series at the Holocaust Museum LA, I can tell you that… -
Mesmerized By The Music Of Hania Rani
Late one night during the early days of the pandemic, I was listening to music performances on YouTube, one of my main new music discovery engines. I am always checking out NPR's Tiny Desk concerts or listening to random performers that appear if I just let the channel play. It was on such evening of YouTube selections when I watched a young woman, Hania Rani, give a piano performance unlike anything I"d ever seen or heard.As soon as I heard… -
The Fight for Democracy in Bernard-Henri Levy's "Why Ukraine"
"Ukraine can not lose," Bernard-Henri Lévy says at the end of his powerful new film about the war in Ukraine, "But it must be helped to win." And this film, Why Ukraine co-directed with Marc Roussel and co-written with Gilles Herzog, produced by Francois Margolin with Emily Hamilton and Natalia Gryvniak, which is being screened at the United Nations on October 27 and will be released in the US later this year, is in no small part dedicated to that…