• Dallas Contemporary Looks Backward Forward With Shepard Fairey

    Although Shepard Fairey is a Los Angeles-based artist, and I am a Los Angeles-based journalist, last month I traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend the Dallas Contemporary (DC) annual gala and to see backward forward, Fairey's exhibition of his new work, on view at DC through July 23, 2022 – all of which was very much worth the trip.Dallas Contemporary is housed in a renovated 37,000 square foot industrial building in the Dallas Design District.DC is a non-collecting art institution,…

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  • Shepard Fairey: Portrait Of The Artist

    shepard fairey: backward forward at Dallas Contemporary in Dallas, Texas, through July 23, 2023, is an expansive solo show of Shepard Fairey's most recent work that speaks to his evolution as an artist. When I was in Dallas for the opening of the exhibit, I had the chance to sit down with Fairey to hear about his journey and current practice.Fairey's work sits at an interesting intersection of American Art, graphic design, advertising, social justice activism, and entrepreneurship.Throughou... View Original…

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  • The Timeless Shimmer Of Beatrice Wood

    Sometimes a gallery show can remind you not just of an artist but of a rare personage.This is the case with Beatrice Wood: Drawings, Prints, Ceramics, which opened on September 21 at L.A. Louver in Venice, CA., and runs through October 29, 2022. I am sorry I didn"t get to this exhibition sooner, but it's worth seeing before it closes.Wood, who was called "the Mama of Dada", was born in 1893 and lived to 1998, when she was 105. She…

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  • Shantell Martin: Where The Line Takes You

    "I always thought being an artist," Shantell Martin told me recently in her Los Angeles studio, "allowed you to do anything you want. It's a freedom to create whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want."That is certainly true for Martin whose life and career has never followed a straight line. Martin has found expression in a multiplicity of mediums, materials, venues, and in artistic collaborations and outlets all over the globe.Martin's work is improvised, a spontaneous black... View…

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  • Cy Twombly At The Getty: Where The Past Is Present

    When we look at abstract art, we tend to see in it a spontaneous investigation of a self-made universe untethered from the past. We decipher the works by the emotion they produce, the feelings they conjure, the intelligence we imagine informing the patterns, lines, movement, motion, color, and negative space and how they all interact on the canvas. The sum total leads us to see a work as art and not merely decoration or, for that matter, child's play.Cy Twombly:…

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  • 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

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  • Take Me To Church

    As a general rule, great or interesting art and exhibitions are not found in summer resorts, the art buying and appreciating public being transient, the season short, and the major galleries in urban art centers (New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Hong Kong) being proprietary about their artists and their collectors. However, that may be changing as what were once one season destinations are becoming year-round bases for work-from-home.A case in point is Sag Harbor's new artist-focused ce... View Original…

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  • Seeing Red: Matisse's The Red Studio At The Museum Of Modern Art

    On a recent trip to New York and its summer environs, I was struck by what was in some ways a small exhibition centered on just one painting, quite well known, that is more than 110 years old and that has been part of a museum collection for more than 75 years: Matisse, The Red Studio which is on view through September 10, 2022. The Red Studio is an iconic Matisse work: The large (6’ X 7’) painting is suffused…

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  • 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 – 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…

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  • 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…

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  • San Diego's Photo Gem

    Although San Diego is less than three hours south of where I live, I visit there less than I would have imagined, mostly for lack of reasons to do so.However, a recent invitation to visit the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park in San Diego introduced me to a gem I had not appreciated before.First, a few words about the Museum. The Museum grew out of a local group of photography enthusiasts who, beginning in 1972, operated the…

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  • 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…

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