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Category Archives: Contemporary Art

Showing: “A Strange Affinity to the Beautiful and the Dreadful” @ Hendershot Gallery

AM stopped by Hendershot Gallery recently to check out a group show entitled A Strange Affinity to the Beautiful and the Dreadful. Curated by Maureen Sullivan, this exhibition explores the theme of fantasy and fear, two very strong influences in people’s lives. A great group of artists were involved such as Sue De Beer, Meghan Boody, Jen DeNike, Damien Echols, Alexa Gerrity, Leor Grady, Ichiro Irie, Ragnar Kjartansson, Bjørn Melhus, Kneil Melicano, Donald Moffett, Galia Offri, Trong G. Nguyen, Randy Polumbo, Gilad Ratman, Ugo Rondinone, […]

Preview: Victor Castillo – “Rebels With a Cause” & Mel Kadel – “Arms Out” @ Merry Karnowsky

This Saturday night, February 5th, the Merry Karnowsky Gallery will play host to two artists with divergent styles at their Los Angeles location. Victor Castillo returns after a showing there last February (covered) with a new body of work featuring his mischievous and perhaps evil children, despite their initially innocent appearance, engaging in various questionable and amoral activities. Mel Kadel brings her signature characters frolicking through and with the patterned landscapes that she places them in. More preview images after the jump…

Mike Kelley – “Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #34 Kandor 12 / Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #35″ @ Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills

Mike Kelley returns to show at his hometown with his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in about eight years and his first with Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills.  For Southern California’s patient art lovers, it was well worth the wait.  Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #34 Kandor 12 / Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #35 features 17 works of large-scale sculpture, video, and installation.   It is completely immersive, spectacularly executed, and is everything that great art should be. The show centers on models of Kandor, which […]

Openings: “Orange Sky” @ RH Gallery

We recently attended the opening at RH Gallery in Tribeca of Orange Sky, a group show that brought together a smooth mix of four strong artists – Atsushi Fukui (covered), Naoki Koide, Katrina Vonnegut and Hideaki Kawashima (covered). As fans of Kawashima’s work, we have always been drawn to his rendering of eyes placed in bright ethereal compositions, but the pieces exhibited here were more literal and dark, but wonderful to experience nonetheless. Check it out after the jump.

ALAC ’11: Andrew Schoultz @ Jerome Zodo Contemporary

Of all the booths we saw at Art Los Angeles Contemporary ’11, the one that stood out the most was Jermone Zodo Contemporary’s, which had a solo show by the prolific and outstanding Andrew Schoultz.  The show was anchored by a mixed-media piece, Monument to a Whirlwind (pictured above), that measured an impressive 11 ft. by 20 ft. (it was the largest piece on paper at the entire fair).  We are happy to report that the monumental work was purchased by a museum in the […]

Openings: Kenny Scharf – “Three Dozen!” @ Paul Kasmin Gallery

After our visit to see the surreal paintings of “Naturafutura” (covered), we concluded the double-header night for Kenny Scharf just a street down and caught “Three Dozen”. This show was held in  Paul Kasmin’s project space and consisted of 36 tightly packed canvases of the tasty treat. Each uniquely designed and given the signature Scharf spray treatment, the doughnuts got our belly growlin’. Good thing the gallery supported the theme by supplying viewers with fresh baked Tim Horton’s! Check it out after the jump.

Happy Chinese New Year

Continuing his series of some of the most intricate moleskin drawings we have ever seen, James Jean (interviewed) recently finished up one entitled Year of Rabbit, just in time for Chinese New Years. Guess he still has time to sketch even though he’s hard at work getting ready for his solo at Martha Otero in March. Discuss James Jean here.

Openings: Steve More & Remi/Rough – ‘A’ @ Blackall Studios

Remi/Rough and Steve More opened their dual exhibition A last night to a full house at Blackall Studios. AM went along to see the work for ourselves. The two artists have been friends for years since they wrote graffiti together in the 80’s/90’s. They live and work at polar opposite ends of the UK – Rough in South London and More in Edinburgh, and work both individually and also as collaborators within the Agents of Change collective, whose British contingent came from the four corners […]

Preview: Kelly Vivanco – “Springs To Mind” @ Thinkspace Gallery

This Saturday night, February 5th, in Culver City, Kelly Vivanco brings a new body of of work including some with sculptural elements to the Thinkspace Gallery. Entitled Springs To Mind, the new collection of paintings “explores a secret place where both water and imagination flow freely – where random chance and make-believe intertwine.” More preview images after the jump…

Preview / Setup: David Bray – ‘Disasters of the 20th Century’ @ StolenSpace

AM called into StolenSpace yesterday to see how the installation of David Bray’s solo show Disasters of the 20th Century was coming together. We enjoy the variety of elements Bray uses within his work, often weaving a selection of found materials and ephemera into his drawings, both inside and out the frame. What we saw at the gallery was a slight departure from his previous work that we’ve seen. Disasters narrows the focus of the work into a series of more traditional drawn and rendered […]