Fabrik Magazine - Issue 22

113 EAST UNION STREET

PA S A D E N A C A L I F O R N I A 9 1 1 0 3 6 2 6 . 5 7 7 . 9 6 9 6

L A’s C R E AT I V E A R T S T H I N K TA N K FOR ARTISTS, COLLECTORS, GALLERIES & CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS ,/Ê*," / -Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê " / " Ê / , / " Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê - Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê -/ / " Ê , Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê , / Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê / , - * " ,/

C U R AT O R I A L . C O M

Available for commission projects: watercolor, oil, acrylic; mixed media, painting, sculpture and installations.

My Other World

www.karrierossfineart.com 310-915-0920 Š2013 Karrie Ross All rights reserved.

CONTRIBUTORS MASTHEAD Publisher Chris Davies Associate Editor Peter Frank Managing Editor Aparna Bakhle-Ellis Creative Director Chris Davies Art Direction & Design Chris Davies & Paul Soady Contributing Writers Peter Frank Meher McArthur Daniel Rolnik Phil Tarley Dale Youngman 5790projects Account Executive Dale Youngman

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING Editorial editorial@fabrikmedia.com Advertising ads@fabrikmedia.com Contact 269 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 1234 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 info@fabrikmedia.com • http://www.fabrik.la

INFORMATION Fabrik is published by Fabrik Media Group, Inc., 269 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 1234, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Contents cannot be reproduced in part or in full without the written permission of the copyright holder. The opinions expressed are those of the artists and writers themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Fabrik or Fabrik Media Group. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved.

PRINTED IN LOS ANGELES

ON THE COVER Untitled 22 © Gregory Siff Courtesy the artist.

PETER FRANK is art critic for the Huffington Post and Associate Editor for Fabrik magazine. He is former critic for Angeleno magazine and the L.A. Weekly, served as Editor for THE magazine Los Angeles and Visions Art Quarterly, and contributes articles to publications around the world. Frank was born in 1950 in New York, where he was art critic for The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News, and moved to Los Angeles in 1988. Frank, who recently served as Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum, has organized numerous theme and survey shows for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and other venues. McPherson & Co. -Documentext published his Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography in 1983. A cycle of poems, The Travelogues, was issued by Sun & Moon Press in 1982. Abbeville Press released New, Used & Improved, an overview of the New York art scene co-written with Michael McKenzie, in 1987.

MEHER McARTHUR Originally from the UK, Meher McArthur is a freelance art historian, author and educator, specializing in Asian art. Her current exhibition about contemporary origami entitled Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami is touring the US until the end of 2016 (and was featured in a previous issue of Fabrik). She worked for many years as Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, has collaborated with several Southern California museums and advised for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has published several books on Asian art and culture, including Reading Buddhist Art: An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols (Thames & Hudson, 2002), The Arts of Asia: Materials, Techniques, Styles (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and Confucius: A Throneless King (Pegasus Books, 2011) and two children’s books. She has also written for publications including The V&A Magazine and The Royal Academy Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.

DANIEL ROLNIK is the world’s most adorable art critic. His website Hi, I’m Daniel TV is the most recommended art blog to follow online because it is chock full of videos, tutorials by professional artists, and adventurous road trip stories. When he isn't writing, he is the co-owner of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PRINTS, a publishing house that sells screen prints by contemporary artists.

PHIL TARLEY is a Fellow of The American Film Institute and an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association. As an art and pop culture critic: he regularly posts stories on The WOW Report; he writes about art and photography for Fabrik Magazine; and he is a juror on the Lark International Art Competition. Tarley is currently working on a book of narrative non-fiction travel stories and on a variety of photographic art projects. He has recently been appointed to a City of West Hollywood task force on Public Art Installation. Phil Tarley now curates for Artist’s Corner, Hollywood’s newest fine art photography gallery.

DALE YOUNGMAN is an art entrepreneur working to facilitate the flow of art in Los Angeles. Her fascination with the local art scene prompted her to open a gallery in the center of Downtown LA’s Gallery Row years ago while it was still a controversial area. Today she produces independent curatorial projects, charity exhibits, and special art events, consults and shops for collectors and commercial properties, and writes about art and artists for multiple publications.

5790projects is a curatorial entity that produces quarterly pop-up exhibitions in Los Angeles, and was founded by Catlin Moore and Matthew Gardocki in 2011. Moore is the Director of Mark Moore Gallery (Culver City, CA), where Gardocki is also Assistant Director. Gardocki studied at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, and is one of the founding members of Igloo Tornado arts collective. Moore is completing her MA at California State University, Long Beach, and is a contributor to several art publications, including Daily Serving, Beautiful/Decay, and ArtLog.

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CONTENTS 8

Artist Profile: The Last King of Melrose: Gregory Siff

24 Spotlight: The LA Freewall Project 38 Artist Profile: Traversing The Razor’s Edge: New Photographic Works by Ann Mitchell 52 Artist Profile: J.J. L’Heureux: Journeys Through The Colder World 66 Fresh Faces in Art: Emergent Presence: Eight LA Artists You Should Know 84 Artist Profile: New Works by Junghi Kim 90 Coming Out, Going In: Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery: Coming Out: James Turrell and Daniel Knorr Going In: François Morellet 94 Art About Town: Peter Frank’s Museum Views 100 Artist Market IMAGE ABOVE: ASKEW ON TOP OF LALA GALLERY, DOWNTOWN LA

WORDS DANIEL ROLNIK IMAGES COURTESY GREGORY SIFF IMAGE: STUDIO VIEW

The Last King of Melrose:

GREGORY SIFF

PROFILE

»

THE INTERSECTION OF Melrose & Fairfax had its own street art scene composed of artists that are now moving on to bigger and better things. It was the epicenter of a movement where artists wanted to be stars like Andy Warhol and Basquiat rather than invisible commentators like Banksy and JR. And there was no star that shined brighter along Melrose Avenue than Gregory Siff.

Gregory moved to Los Angeles from New York with hopes to become a movie star. But upon his arrival, he started doing art on the streets and his career path radically shifted. He began painting nonstop.

“I’m an artist who happens to get a kick out of going to the street and leaving something beautiful there. I never said I’m a street artist or a fine artist. I’m an artist. If I don’t have the money for canvases, then I’m going to paint on a jar of vitamins and that will be my art.”

He discovered stacks of free stickers you can take from post offices and wrote positive affirmations on them that he placed on the streets. The most famous of which was “You Will Lose and Lose, Don’t Stop One Day You Will Win.” It became a viral hit after being posted on blogs across the country.

“In New York, where I’m from, a lot of people write their tags on stickers and spray them on walls. But it took me a long time to figure out how to read what they were trying to say because the tags were designed in a sort of hieroglyphics format. So, I started doing my own versions of sticker tags that cut straight to the gut, which anyone could read instantly. I thought that maybe I could tell the world how I felt and maybe they would feel the same way too.”

The stickers evolved into illegal murals done in the dead of night, which is where he began to see the work of other artists he admired on the street-specifically pieces by 2wenty and This Means Mar. “2wenty popped up at a show and handed me a bunch of stickers before suddenly disappearing. Then we started talking through Facebook and discovered that we were both interested in art for the same reasons. He’s a private person, so it took a lot of time to build up mutual respect before we met and started painting together.”

He met This Means Mar [who sometimes just goes by Spencer “Mar” Guilburt] in a similar way and eventually they all came together to form a collective known as The Creative Cartel. 2wenty was the logistics guy, Mar knew how to balance colors, and Gregory was the connector that brought them together.

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JOE ORNELAS PHOTO BOOTH SELF PORTRAIT

THERE & BACK, SIREN STUDIOS. PHOTO BY MICHAEL RABABY.

STRICTLY KINGS AND BETTER, DOWNTOWN MIAMI, RISK & GREGORY SIFF.

I AM, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 48 X 48 INCHES

A STORY ON SUNSET, 36 X 36 INCHES

100 FACES, 24 X 20 INCHES, MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS, SIREN STUDIOS, THERE & BACK. PHOTO BY MICHAEL RABABY.

PROFILE

Their frequency and talent caught the eyes of a husband and wife.

However, this was no ordinary husband and wife. This was JB and Wil of The Site Unscene, a new company that was looking to represent local artists and in the process of doing so created a scene similar to Andy Warhol’s factory of creativity, minus the drugs and sex.

“There was a wall at the first show they [The Site Unscene] put on that everybody could tag, so I painted a skull on it. But just as I was leaving JB came up to me because she recognized my style from the pieces I had done on the streets. A few days later, she and Wil came to my studio to pick out 9 works for a group exhibit they were curating. I went out of town and when I came back they had sold every piece. They cared about my art as much as I did, so I worked with them as much as I could afterwards.”

At the time, Gregory was using spray paint in his apartment, which is toxic and not ideal. So, JB and Wil offered their garage to him and soon afterwards his first big pop-up exhibit, which they organized in a downtown warehouse. He had only really done a handful of shows before, including painting the lobby of The Standard hotel on Sunset Blvd.

The pop-up show organized by The Site Unscene was named “G” and it took place on 11/11/11. It was a show that was only up for one night and people still talk about it today. At the entrance, which was on a side street, Gregory painted a black Cadillac that was parked outside and inside there must have been over 500 original pieces, some of which were elaborate paintings on canvas and others that were simple things like coke bottles painted in his signature color scheme of blue, red, and yellow that he was using at the time.

After the show’s success, Gregory did an even bigger pop-up exhibit at Siren Studios, in association with The Art Reserve named “There and Back,” where he painted 100 canvases in a period of 2 days on top of having painted hundreds of bricks, paintings, stickers, and pins. The sold-out show resulted in a night of wild fun and a smashed clock that Gregory later cast in resin for his personal collection of artifacts, which also includes anything published about Basquiat, hand drawn postcards by his friend and mentor Louis XXX, and Andy Warhol edition Campbell’s soup cans. As a result of all this momentum, an exhibition titled “Matter of Time” was held at Gallery Brown in Los Angeles, where his work still hangs alongside his heroes.

From time to time, Gregory Siff will still paint a mural outside or put up a sticker on the street, but his “street art” days are certainly behind him. For more information on Gregory Siff, visit http://gregorysiff.com. n 20

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IT'S ALL LOVE, TWELVE BAR, SPRAY-PAINT AND INK ON PAPER, 10.5 X 8 INCHES.

Kim Rugg Patterns of Landscape Project Room: Ryan Wallace

october 19 – November 16

North American, 2013 /ink on paper / 21 x 26 inches

MARK MOORE GALLERY 5790 Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 p: 310 453 3031 | f: 310 453 3831 info@markmooregallery.com www.markmooregallery.com

3(7(5 )(77(50$1 *$//(5<

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ASKEW ON TOP OF LALA GALLERY

The LA Freewall Project: FREE AT LAST.

WORDS DALE YOUNGMAN IMAGES COURTESY OF DANIEL LAHODA

SPOTLIGHT

ANYONE WHO HAS visited the Los Angeles Arts District in the past few years has witnessed a rebirth of the formerly dingy, warehouse – populated neighborhood. This previous industrial area turned hip-artistenclave suddenly boasts some of the most exciting art in this art-filled city, with much of it illegally posted and painted on the walls of commercial and residential spaces. This urban beautification is due largely to the efforts of one man – the controversial Daniel Lahoda.

Lahoda, who has been called both a criminal with gang ties, and the area’s largest supporter and arts advocate, moved here 5 years ago and immediately recognized there was no venue for public artistic expression. He started to organize and formalize the creation of street art murals, with a process of pairing the right artist with the right location, taking into account aesthetics, architecture, and adjacencies. He showed building owners portfolios of various street artists, engaging the owners with the art selection process. Thus began the LA Freewalls Project. »

RIGHT: SHEPARD FAIREY AND DANIEL LAHODA

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JR EYES ON THE ANGELCITY BREWERY- TRACTION AND ROSE

SPOTLIGHT

Los Angeles, once called the “Mural Capital of the World,” instituted a moratorium on new murals in 2002. Since that time, only a handful of permits were issued that allowed artists to legally paint outdoor murals. Slowly, Lahoda began brokering deals with fairly widespread community support. He found the spaces, signed up artists, even climbed the walls and participated in the dangerous process. The murals made the grey block architecture more enticing to tenants, and less enticing to taggers, who usually won’t deface work they respect. As the murals proliferated, the police paid less attention, while building owners – and Lahoda – took up the cause of getting the ban lifted.

Frequent visits to City Hall for city planning commission meetings, speaking up at City Council, and working with the community BID, Lahoda rallied support and gained respect. Before long, his hybrid business grew into a new kind of indoor/outdoor art dealership.

His first Arts District mural was done in 2009 by a local illustrator who wheat-pasted his way into fame. “Peace Goddess,” by Shepard Fairey still dominates a building at Third & Traction. Since then, Lahoda has brokered nearly 140 spaces between landlords and artists. He opened the LALA Gallery in April 2012 to give those same artists a place to sell their work, and returns some of that income back to the streets, funding more murals. He has had some significant success, but it’s been a long, hard battle.

For Lahoda, it is more than selling limited edition posters however, it also about giving back to the community, and helping artists along the way. Skid Row artist and activist Crushow is part of the team of artists that Lahoda has organized for the Skid Row Beautification Project. Crushow has recently become a partner in a Melrose store that customizes sneakers and skateboards with work by local street artists. He was also part of the small team of artistic volunteers that assisted acclaimed LA artist Lydia Emily on her “Peace is Yours” mural at San Pedro & 5th in Skidrow. Lahoda has also organized an upcoming collaboration with Shepard Fairey and RISK to paint a mural at 6th and Central, working with the Skid Row Housing Trust.

When MOCA’s “Art in the Streets” exhibit broke attendance records, Lahoda was dancing in his art-filled streets. It brought attention to the relatively new genre of street art, increased credibility for his artist/wall management business, boosting visibility of his artists, and more sales to his gallery.

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SPOTLIGHT

International artists are drawn to LA for many reasons - the weather, the mural history, and the opportunities that Lahoda creates for them. He has attracted and financed a long list of impressive artists for high-profile projects, including JR (Paris), who created “Wrinkled Eyes” on Angel City Brewery, Roa (Belgium), whose animals creep along Jesse Street, How and Nosm (Dusseldorf), for “Heartship” at Merrick & Traction, and Dabs Myla (a couple from Melbourne, Australia.) East Coast stars Swoon, Ron English, and Seen (an oldschool writer from NYC, who popularized train-grafiti), Kofie, Retna, and Cryptik, who just published a book of his work, are all well-known names in the art world, and visible throughout downtown LA through Lahoda’s efforts.

The biggest project he organized was the complete revamp of the Art Share building at 4th Place & Hewitt. After patching the concrete and removing the metal bars from the windows, they painted the entire 10,000 sq. ft. building black. Insa, a London- based artist, then used 800 cans of spray paint to convert the building with his famous rainbow-hued “Heal” pattern.

This month, the new Mural Ordinance lifting the ban was passed by the LA City Council. It is still a tangle of red tape, with policy questions and a few amendments before anything really changes however. Lahoda says the passing of the new ordinance will simultaneously make his life more difficult by having to comply with legislation, obtain permits, etc. but also make it easier, as it will protect the murals under very specific rules. This is good news for Lahoda, the artists, and ultimately everyone in Los Angeles. Maybe someday soon we can reclaim our title, enjoy an outdoor gallery throughout the city, and bask in the attention of the art-loving world at large.

Daniel Lahoda selected the images on the following pages for Fabrik readers to survey his projects. »

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DABS MYLA AND HOW NOSM COLLABORATIVE MURAL. 3RD AND TRACTION ("CREAM OF THE CROP").

RISK- "BEAUTIFULLY DESTROYED" IN PROCESS ON THE SIDE OF THE OLD CRAZY GIDEON'S BUILDING – 830 TRACTION ST.

SWOON INSTALLATION ON THE SIDE OF ARTSHARE LA ON HEWITT. TEMPORARY INSTALLATION. REPLACED WITH PERMANENT INSA MURAL.

RON ENGLISH’S "BIG YANG AND THE YANG BANGERS". TEMPORARY INSTALLATION ON CRAZY GIDEON'S, 2010-2011. REPLACED WITH PERMANENT RISK MURAL.

Traversing The Razor’s Edge: New Photographic Works by Ann Mitchell — WORDS MEHER McARTHUR IMAGES COURTESY ANN MITCHELL

AND FINALLY, I DREAMED © ANN MITCHELL

PROFILE

W E H A V E A L L experienced the feeling of unease

as our best laid plans for a day or a job or a relationship have started veering in an unexpected direction, transforming our reality into something unrecognizable. Change, lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only certainty, can spark fear, panic and confusion but also joy, wonder and insight.

In a new series of constructed photographs recently shown at the PYO Gallery (www.pyogalleryla.com), Los Angeles-based photographer Ann Mitchell explores the complex emotions that accompany change. Inspired by her own experiences, meditations, memories and dreams, the surreal yet serene images in her series entitled Meditative Spaces Found While Traversing The Razorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Edge invite us to consider what is solid, safe and real and question our relationship to this reality (www.ann-mitchell.com).

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PARADISE CAPTURED © ANN MITCHELL

THE HALLWAY OF DREAMS AND SELF © ANN MITCHELL

PROFILE

Nature, water and the blurring of lines between the inside and outside world are themes that figure prominently. In Eternity, a long-haired woman grows out of the roots of an old Ficus tree. She stands in the lonely room of an abandoned home with her back to us and her gaze is fixed on a stained wall. The dreamlike melding of woman and tree evokes the landscapes of surrealist photographer Jerry Uelsmann, whose powerful, black-and-white works feature similar trees fused with houses, human bodies or hands. Though familiar with Uelsmann’s work, Mitchell drew inspiration more from Surrealist painters. In her photographs, she explains, she “wanted her images to remain connected to the real world without crossing over into fantasy.” Surrealist painters such as René Magritte “used images of the real in an unreal way.” In At First I Only Saw the Trees, in the very far distance at the end of a path through a lush pine forest are two brightly lit windows, which pay homage to paintings by the witty Belgian.

The same brightly lit windows appear again in Swimming with the Infinite, in which a child swims towards a reflection in the sea of a ghostly house that floats above the grass; the windows are lit only in the reflection.

Like both Uelsman and Magritte, Mitchell is playing with reality and illusion, but her approach is less bold or whimsical and more contemplative. Her soft sepia tones, balanced compositions and lyrical depictions of nature form rich and subtly layered visions that require time to examine. In The Path Was Slowly Filling, a man steps through an arched doorway in a brick structure that stands in the water at the edge of a beach. We wonder where he is going and if he will be safe inside the structure as the tide comes in. Though the man-made structure seems sturdy, can it withstand the sea? Conversely, in Paradise Captured, a grove of trees on a mossy ground and some tiny birds have been transplanted onto the window sill of a castle or other grand building. Can this exquisite natural scene survive trapped indoors? We are at once concerned and captivated by the baffling beauty of these scenes.

The effect of such images of physical and emotional displacement should perhaps be unsettling and disturbing, as are the works of many surrealists, but Mitchell’s elegant compositions, gentle tones and subtle use of light draw viewers deep into her illusions. Her Razor’s Edge photographs show us what it is to be unstable, confused, and scared while at the same time reassuring us that this is what makes us human. Images from the Razor’s Edge series continue on the following pages. »

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AT FIRST I ONLY SAW THE TREES © ANN MITCHELL

SWIMMING THE INFINITE © ANN MITCHELL

ETERNITY © ANN MITCHELL

LA ART SHOW 2014 HISTORIC | MODERN | CONTEMPORARY

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CO-LOCATED WITH THE

LOS ANGELES

Jewelry & Antique Show

the 23rd international los angeles photographic art exposition LA MART | 1933 Broadway, LA, CA 90007 january 16-19, 2014

photola.com PHOTO © JAY MARK JOHNSON, COSTANTINO SOTT’ACQUA 2

ANNALS OF EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE—

J.J. L’Heureux: Journeys Through The Colder World — WORDS PHIL TARLEY IMAGES COURTESY J.J. L’HEUREUX

PROFILE

I N T H E F I R S T year of the 21st century, artist J.J. L’Heureux went to Antarctica to paint icebergs. It was a primal, defining experience that changed her life forever. L’Heureux returned from the Southern Ocean a confirmed naturalist, on a mission to expand our cultural consciousness of the animals that inhabit the colder climes and their environment.

L’Heureux has marked each year since with an annual pilgrimage to Antarctica and has racked up two important books of photographs documenting the profusion of Antarctic wildlife. An acknowledged authority on 17 varieties of penguins, she has shot over 10,000 digital images of the penguin populations in situ in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands of the Southern Ocean.

Catching up with J.J. is a feat in itself. The artist-naturalist mounts ongoing voyages to the Northern climes to supplement her image bank. As expedition artist with the London Zoo, in search of Spoonbills, L’Heureux remains one of the very few western photographers allowed by the Russian government to explore the wild vastness of the Siberian Kamchatka Peninsula, an off-limits area of high military sensitivity. One of those expeditions continued north, past the Bering Sea, into the Russian Polar regions of Wrangle Island. She has launched Antarctic expeditions from Argentina, New Zealand, and the war-torn Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas.

The irrepressible artist-naturalist-adventurer recently rang me up, just back from Hong Kong, where she was supervising the printing of the Chinese edition of ‘Faces of the Southern Ocean,’ her latest book.

Published by Asia 1, the book shares the same prestigious imprint as photographic works from the Getty and other major museums and institutions.

“They did not know how to paginate the book. They had broken my images down by species, by geographic location and by phylum. They just did not get it. I told them that I wanted a random order to my photographs. Let readers turn the pages and be surprised --just like in life, when you walk down a street and see what you discover.

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PROFILE

Random is the central defining experience of all explorations. It’s really exactly how I meet the animals I shoot and I wanted readers to feel the surprise and randomness of discovery in the same way that I came upon it.”

“ I CONSIDER MYSELF AS A PERSON OF CURIOSITY. MY PRECONCEIVED IDEAS ALWAYS FALL AWAY. I LIKE TO HAVE MY EYES OPENED TO NEW POSSIBILITIES.” While turning the pages of her latest book might be a random act of discovery, L’Heureux’s peripatetic journeys are anything but. It takes sure-footed planning to configure an adventurer’s life of highly complex travel to the outer extremes of our existence. The ebullient Ms. L’Heureux is completely caught up in the joys of constant exploration, which seem to infuse and inform our every conversation. She is an indelible character, living a highly singular and visionary life, an authentic pioneer and a Los Angeles original.

The artist selected the images on the following pages for Fabrik readers to survey her work. »

The artist is represented by the G2 Gallery in Venice, California.

Below is a selected list of her solo exhibitions.

2013

Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, Texas.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, Texas.

Discovery Gateway Museum, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2012

Athy Heritage Centre Museum (Shackleton Museum), Athy, County Kildare, Ireland.

Old Capital Museum, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

2011

G2 Gallery, Venice, California.

Detroit Zoo, Ford Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan.

2010

Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana

2008

Fernbank Museum, Atlanta, Georgia.

2007

Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana.

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ICEBERG © J.J. L'HEUREUX

ADELIE PENGUIN © J.J. L'HEUREUX

WANDERING ALBATROSS CHICK © J.J. L'HEUREUX

Southern Ocean and Antarctica

PANCAKE ICE © J.J. L'HEUREUX

ROCKHOPPER PENGUIN © J.J. L'HEUREUX

YELLOW-EYED PENGUIN © J.J. L'HEUREUX

ROYAL PENGUIN © J.J. L'HEUREUX

SNARES PENGUIN © J.J. L'HEUREUX

DRESCHER ICE SHELF © J.J. L'HEUREUX

FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

EMERGENT PRESENCE

BY CATLIN MOORE AND MATTHEW GARDOCKI (5790projects) In honor of Fabrik Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s street art theme for this issue, 5790projects has selected the following eight artists that demonstrate mastery of color in their work.

1. SARAH AWAD Sarah Awad's (b. 1981, CA) harlequin forms and interiors deliver us to a fauvist yesteryearâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;rife with the sensory romanticism of loose curves and capricious brushstrokes. Ranging from the eerie recesses of museum spaces to her more recent nudes, the imagery presented in Awad's paintings taps into an innately human obsession with archive and existential context. Her figures are paused in heedless repose, as if wholly engrossed in the finer details of their physicality and being, while her painted antiquities and vitrines refer to a long lineage of the contemplative self. Awad's work gracefully demands the acknowledgement of a fallible and vulnerable humanity; an oft-overlooked aspect to our own delicately crafted portrayals. http://www.sarahawad.com

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(ABOVE) UNTITLED (SEATED WOMAN III), 2013 OIL ON CANVAS • 72 X 54 INCHES (LEFT) UNTITLED (FALLING WOMAN), 2013 OIL ON CANVAS • 54 X 72 INCHES

FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

2. ADAM FERRISS Finding his own niche between new media arts and conceptualism, Adam Ferriss (b. 1988, VA) creates unique digital coding that manipulates, distorts, and engineers images into psychedelic terrains. At times, his Technicolor abstractions feel organic despite their technological roots – an ambiguous craft born of the RGB Tricolor separation process and pixel sorting algorithms he so carefully employs.

Using these “procedural mechanisms,” Ferriss initiates iterative changes in light and pixel structure of his given source material – creating a literally infinite array of compositional possibilities that grapple with human perception during an era of ubiquitous manufacture. Playing with the simultaneous allure and distaste for digitalism in fine art, Ferriss beguiles the viewer with a purposefully ambiguous craft – as his images are as fluid as the manner in which his work is disseminated. http://www.adamferriss.com

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(ABOVE) MATADOR, 2012 16” X 20” • COLOR SEPARATION FROM FILM • ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT (LEFT) CYGNUS, 2012 VARIABLE DIMENSIONS • PIXEL SORTED IMAGE FROM THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE

FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

3. MICHAEL JOHN KELLY In contrast to the prevalent dialogue about technological versus analog modes of creation, Michael John Kelly's (b. 1975, UT) intention is to collapse these practices into a singular function. Teeming with the gestural movement of abstraction's greatest forefathers, Kelly's canvases elicit a kind of flustered uncertainty about their materiality. This enigmatic quality challenges the viewer's understanding of both his process and – ultimately – the distinguishing traits between authenticity and fabrication. Oftentimes merging compositions created on a smart phone with those made from actual paint, Kelly ushers control into an otherwise uncontrolled space – straining the limitations of each process in order to forge beautifully nebulous identities. http://michaeljohnkelly.com

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(ABOVE) BROAD VIEW, 2013 80” X 69” • OIL, ACRYLIC, CEL VINYL, PIGMENT PRINT COLLAGE ON PANEL (LEFT) MASK 12 & 13, 2013 80” X 80” • OIL, ACRYLIC, CEL VINYL, PIGMENT PRINT COLLAGE ON PANEL

FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

4. CHRISTOPHER KUHN Christopher Kuhn (b. 1977, IL) sees little purpose in the eradication of mistakes.

Alternatively, he traces his progress with meticulous purpose and regard, taking special care to highlight each stage of every error, imperfection, and happy accident. In this sense, Kuhn's paintings become a mapping of human methodology â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a topographical study of how we reach conclusions and achieve balance. With references to textiles, commercial icons, and art historical patterns, Kuhn's work celebrates the revisionist's habit, affording each impulse and miscalculation a purpose in his visual trajectory. http://www.christopherkuhn.com

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(ABOVE) THROW RUG, 2013 OIL AND SPRAY PAINT ON CANVAS • 30 X 24 INCHES (LEFT) PENCIL PUSHER, 2013 OIL ON LINEN • 14 X 11 INCHES

FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

5. DANIAL NORD Although light is oftentimes placed into the disparate categories of "apocalyptic" or "genesis," installation and multimedia artist Danial Nord (b. 1960, Providence) manages to bridge the two. In "No Exit" (2013), open doors installed overhead create a disorienting feeling of claustrophobia – pulsing jewel-toned light and cinematic sound add to the dramatic tension of potential entrapment. Conversely, "State of the Art" (2011) features an overgrown Mickey Mouse comprised of discarded televisions – also complete with flickering light and ambient sound – yet a feeling of nostalgia rendered animate outweighs the eerie qualities of Nord's immobile rodent-bot. His crafted environments appear simultaneously intriguing and menacing, a sensory Russian roulette with equally theatrical results. http://danialnord.com

(ABOVE) DANIAL NORD NO EXIT L-69 COMPUTER-CONTROLLED LEDS, VIDEO FOOTAGE, SOUND SYSTEM, STEEL, POLYCARBONATE, MIXED MATERIALS. 21’ X 15’ X 14’6” (DIMENSIONS VARIABLE) (RIGHT) DANIAL NORD NO EXIT 9259 COMPUTER-CONTROLLED LEDS, VIDEO FOOTAGE, SOUND SYSTEM, STEEL, POLYCARBONATE, MIXED MATERIALS. 21’ X 15’ X 14’6” (DIMENSIONS VARIABLE) NO EXIT, 2013 BY DANIAL NORD; INSTALLATION OF 2013 CALIFORNIA-PACIFIC TRIENNIAL AT THE ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, 2013. PHOTOGRAPH BY GENE OGAMI.

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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

6. KYLE RIEDEL Kyle Riedel (b. 1971, Sacramento, CA) assiduously highlights how social tendencies can dictate value. Glamorous portraits of log stumps feel artificial and comical, as if lampooning their relatively useless (but naturally occurring) qualities. Similarly, Riedel stages "Log Piles" in which firewood is gift-wrapped in gaudy papers as a means of parodying our contemporary relationship with nature. In glorifying its utilitarian qualities, Riedel typifies our concurrent distance from and romanticizing of the "natural" – arbitrarily assigning precious conditions to commonplace objects, spaces, and materials. With a satirical edge, Riedel's work demonstrates the role of fickle semiotics in consumer perception. http://www.kyleriedel.net

(ABOVE) SHE SPEAKS: FROM THE WHITE MOUNTAIN, 2012 72” X 106” • INKJET PRINT ON RAG PAPER (RIGHT) STUMP NO. 15, 2012 32” X 40” • INKJET PRINT

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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

7. JEN STARK Obsessive compulsiveness is best articulated through Jen Stark's (b. 1983, Miami) hypnotic paper sculptures and installations. Teeming with frenetic repetition, her precisely layered, twisting, undulating arrangements replicate ideas of infinite possibilities when following a set of rules. Analogous to fractals, pixilation, and cells, Stark's work manipulates the eye to follow meticulously crafted patterns and paths down a psychedelic rabbit hole. These compositions and forms reference our enshrined understanding of the unknown or abstract, and demonstrate the sheer magnificence of human sentience. http://www.jenstark.com

(ABOVE) THE WHOLE, 2012 3 X 3 X 3.5 FT • INSTALLATION OF HAND-CUT ACID-FREE PAPER, FOAM BOARD, GLUE (RIGHT) COSMIC COMPLEX (PEDESTAL), 2013 36.75" X 22.5" X 22.5" • ACID-FREE HAND-CUT PAPER, FOAM BOARD, GLUE, WOOD, ACRYLIC PAINT

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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

8. BRITTON TOLLIVER Oscillating between the structure of a grid and the impulsiveness of gesture, Britton Tolliver's (b. 1976, Kingsport) paintings demonstrate the necessity of both discipline and spontaneity in our daily lives. Making reference to glitches in the signal, detours in the network, or the ubiquitous unplanned accident, Tolliver's work allows for the elements of humanity. His brushstrokes and marks denote a kind of whimsy as they eradicate an otherwise exact matrix, suggesting that imperfection and "flaw" can maintain an imperative balance to the anatomy of being. http://www.brittontolliver.com

(ABOVE) GREEN CUE CARD, 2012 70" (H) X 47" (W) • ACRYLIC ON PANEL (RIGHT) POINTLESS WHISPERS OF A SEA CAPTAIN, 2013 115" (H) X 75" (W) • ACRYLIC ON (2) PANELS

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PROFILE

EXISTENCE IN SUBTRACTION AND ABSTRACTION: NEW WORKS BY JUNGHI KIM â&#x20AC;&#x201D; WORDS MEHER MCARTHUR IMAGES COPYRIGHT AND COURTESY JUNGHI KIM

J U N G H I K I M â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S A B S T R A C T paintings are a visual exploration of the nature of existence and of the self. Using primarily acrylic and watercolor on linen, she applies pigment upon pigment and then strips away layers to form highly textured visions of humanity in the midst of social and emotional interactions. Her ghostly figures streaked with vibrant color are not so much built up but broken down, created through the act of removing.

Kim, a Korean artist whose work is grounded in Asian philosophical inquiry, explores ancient East Asian (mostly Buddhist) concepts of nothingness, the void and the non-existence of the material world of pain and suffering. As she strips away her pigment, she empties her heart of agony and longing, and from this process of subtracting and thus approaching the void, her figures emerge. Her final application of a single tone of pigment to the canvas gives the figures forms, presenting them standing, sitting dancing. They are typically arranged in groups, interacting with each other in ways that seem familiar. In one painting, Who (2013), a larger central figure appears to be encircled by smaller figures, a parent perhaps or a teacher sharing knowledge with open-minded pupils. In Other 3 (2013), a large image made up of six separate paintings, figures dance, leap and bound through space with a vibrancy that celebrates life and humanity. The pale blue background around the figures is what forms them, challenging our assumptions of what is negative space and what is positive. If the artist created the figures by stripping away paint and then painting a background around them, are the figures themselves real?

Or is the background what is real? Ask a Buddhist, and he or she will say that it is all an illusion.

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OTHER 3, 25.2 X 36.3 INCHES (64 X 92.2CM), MIXED MEDIA, 2013

WHO, 28.5 X 35.9 INCHES (72.5 X 91.2CM), MIXED MEDIA, 2013

OTHER 2-1, 25.2 X 36.3 INCHES (64 X 92.2CM), MIXED MEDIA, 2013

Several groups of figures cluster in her large triptych Difference (2013), the strongest image in this recent series of works. In the central panel, multiple figures appear to stand or perhaps dancing together, streaks of black, red, white, blue, pink and purple pigment suggesting the different characters and emotions at play in their relations. The right panel brings us in closer to a group of bright and dark heads and torsos apparently huddling, engaged in intimate conversation. In the left panel, minimal contrast in color makes distinguishing separate figures almost impossible. She has not allowed them to fully emerge from the pigment. Not enough layers have been removed to enable us to see their forms, so they cannot yet exist. Related to the concept of nothingness in these works is Kim’s belief that is we only exist in relation and response to each other. Without others to relate to us, project back to us who we are, and animate us, we are indeed nothing. It is only through these relationships with others, represented in Kim’s work by the color that she uses to outline and form the groups of figures, that they and we can become real.

Junghi Kim’s work was recently shown at the Fremont Gallery in South Pasadena http://fremontgallery.com/UPCOMING.html and can be seen on her website http://junghk.com. n

ENCOUNTER, 15.7 X 12.2 INCHES (40 X 31CM), MIXED MEDIA, 2013

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COMING OUT, GOING IN

KAYNE GRIFFIN CORCORAN 1201 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles WORDS PETER FRANK

COMING OUT: James Turrell: “Sooner Than Later, Roden Crater” (May 25-July 20) Daniel Knorr: “Depression Elevations” and David Lamelas (July 27-September 14) Wherever they have established galleries, Bill Griffin and James Corcoran have hovered near, but not among, their fellow exhibition spaces. The two veterans, now partnered with Maggie Kayne, continue to perch on the periphery; where other galleries of their ilk now congregate in industrial Hollywood, they have opened one nabe down. And where other galleries of its stature blow open with impressive new spaces, Kayne Griffin Corcoran makes architectural history.

Coincident with his exhibition at LACMA (and those at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts), James Turrell provided Kayne Griffin Corcoran with its inaugural show. This was only fitting, as Turrell had designed the gallery’s new space. Indeed, that space was the show’s real centerpiece. The idea of a centerpiece encompassing an exhibition, if you think about it, is rather Turrellian: his light-and-space artworks are designed not simply to influence perception but to envelop it, to provide it entirely new visual context. To this end, this exhibition consisted largely of documentary material pertinent to Turrell’s magnum opus, the Roden Crater project – photographs, diagrams, maps, elevations, even tools and correspondence. Fascinating as all this material was, it would have made a greater impression in a natural history museum or, conversely, in a book. But, while relating little to the gallery space on a visual level, the relative modesty of such stuff allowed that space to function itself as an artwork. One of Turrell’s immersive Meditation Rooms, installed in a back space, allowed a very few visitors at a time to experience his manipulation, through color, of visual comprehension.

Happily, that room is still in situ (visitable by appointment) – as, of course, are the radical details of the gallery itself, including its brilliant, naturally lit conference room and the “window” that funnels light into the center of the office area and transforms it into luminous color.

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COMING OUT, GOING IN

DANIEL KNORR, DEPRESSION ELEVATION, 2013 • CAST POLYURETHANE • 16 1/2 X 65 INCHES PHOTO: ROBERT WEDEMEYER

JAMES TURRELL, INSIDE MY HEAD, 2013 L.E.D. LIGHT AND AUDIO • 16'8" DIA X 15' HIGH PHOTO: ROBERT WEDEMEYER

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COMING OUT, GOING IN

Kayne Griffin Corcoran followed up their debut with a more “normal” pair of exhibitions, one of recent works by the Berlin-based Romanian artist Daniel Knorr and one of classic conceptualist David Lamelas, presenting reconstructions of several pieces from the 1960s (and one from the ‘90s).

Lamelas’ work hews close to Turrell’s in its impact on perception (not altogether surprisingly, as Lamelas has worked and taught in LA for a long time), but makes that impact more directly through architectural deformation and situation. In fact, his photographic and installational works provoke awareness less of space itself than of the viewer’s situation within it, through manipulation of perceived structure or an almost choreographed arranging of one’s position vis-à-vis other objects. For his part, Knorr fabricates wall-hung shapes, deeply saturated with color, out of cast polyurethane resin. The contours by and large tend to the indistinct, suggesting the natural irregularity of islands. It turns out, however, that in his own way Knorr, too, is involved with documentation – and what he preserves in these colorful, if rather under-emphatic, plastic blobs is not the shape of islands but the shape of water, that is, the shape of puddles (and potholes) he located around Los Angeles. Knorr’s show was a portrait of its host city from a certain vantage; while his translucent objects soaked in and radiated the sunlight Turrell’s space allowed them, they embodied the ground, not the sky.

GOING IN: François Morellet: “No End Neon” (September 19-November 5) You could say that the first show at Kayne Griffin Corcoran fully to interact with the space is the current one, a selection of recent work by François Morellet, the Paris-based geometric abstractionist who has maintained a severe, quasi-mathematical elegance in his work for upwards of sixty years. Most of the pieces displayed here include neon, which might seem to argue directly with Turrell’s exploitation of natural light. But the condition of light of one type within light of another provides its own unique resonance. In particular, the main room, an expansive basin facing the front courtyard, houses a work (the palindromically named NoendneoN) containing upwards of 30 light-blue tubes scattered regularly on walls and floor. The material and the method may recall myriad neon-art rooms, from Dan Flavin on down, but the manner is Morellet’s own, as finely wrought as a blueprint and deployed with a rhythmic verve that bridges architecture, writing, and

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COMING OUT, GOING IN

human movement – spatial notation that embraces space itself. In the smaller room, Lamentable also draws in space magically and, in this case, almost improbably, hanging as it does in a limp but graceful line from the ceiling and pooling on the floor. The slight arch he has given each of the white tubes in this piece allows Lamentable its elegant description of gravitational pull. Even more curious are Morellet’s wall-hung works combining neon with white geometric panels, the neon forming contours that at once echo and contradict the panels’ own shapes. Meanwhile, NoendneoN is accompanied in its space by two Tamponnades, which describe complex linear arrangements – drawings, really – made with black tape directly on the white wall. As with most of his work, these recent pieces of Morellet’s find a deliciousness in austerity, not least through an ability to make line dance in space without turning it into sculpture – indeed, without really turning it into three dimensions at all. n

FRANCOIS MORELLET, 2+4 ANGLES DROITS NO. 3, 2012 • WHITE NEON TUBES, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS ON WOOD • 150 X 147 CM, CANVAS 100 X 100 CM • 59.06 X 57.87 INCHES, CANVAS 39.37 X 39.37 INCHES. EDITION OF 3 • PHOTO: ROBERT WEDEMEYER.

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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK

Peter Frank’s

MUSEUM VIEWS ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 2013 California-Pacific Triennial THROUGH NOVEMBER 17 How omni should a Biennial be? The surfeit of surveys around the world, ranging from La Biennale de Venezia, the 118-year-old big daddy of the genre, to the periodic rounds-up of local talent perpetrated from Montana to Malaysia by equally local institutions, broadens beyond comprehension the possibilities of what a biennial, or triennial, or quintennial, or millennial should be. If there is no one way to do such a show, is there a way to do it “right”?

Context and content define “right.” Is the show appropriate to its audience? And does it contain work worthy of the attention? In this regard, the Orange County Museum’s 2013 California-Pacific Triennial is indeed right, almost to the point of right on. The Triennial (né California Biennial) blazes the kind of trail our neck of the woods needs blazed, a trail that leads out of parochialism, awakening us to the possibilities of art everywhere, and yet still accepts that substantive art is also made close to home. This first Triennial may have its limitations, but by limiting itself it actually minimizes its flaws. Its focus is not simply geographic, on the Pacific Rim, but stylistic – and the fact that its stylistic biases unapologetically reflect those of its curator makes it that much better a show.

No surprise that Dan Cameron should bring such focus and such confidence – not to mention such indefatigability – to his job here. Cameron has been 94

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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK

LIN TIANMIAO, ALL THE SAME, 2011 • COLORED SILK THREADS, SYNTHETIC SKELETONS, METAL CONSTRUCTIONS. 180 PIECES, APPROX. LENGTH: 590 IN. (1500 CM). COURTESY LIN TIANMIAO AND GALERIE LELONG, NEW YORK.

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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK

LIN TIANMIAO, ALL THE SAME, 2011 • COLORED SILK THREADS, SYNTHETIC SKELETONS, METAL CONSTRUCTIONS. 180 PIECES, APPROX. LENGTH: 590 IN. (1500 CM). COURTESY LIN TIANMIAO AND GALERIE LELONG, NEW YORK. INSTALLATION PHOTO BY CHRIS BLISS PHOTOGRAPHY.

Chief Curator at OCMA for less than two years, but he has decades of curatorial experience under his belt and, at least as importantly, a resultingly broad perspective on global contemporary art. This isn’t his first international survey, not by a long shot; he’s done the Istanbul Biennial, for instance, and invented Prospect, the citywide festival of new art from everywhere that helped reignite New Orleans’ post-Katrina cultural scene.

Limited here to artists working along the Pacific Ocean, Cameron’s purview was limited, but not by much: he could have roved from Chile to Kamchatka, but of course didn’t because he couldn’t. (Still, he found 32 artists in 15 different countries.) Would the show have been more “inclusive” had he worked with co-curators from around the pond and around the corner? Perhaps, but it would not have been as incisive. Curatorial committees make for a certain amount of democracy, but democracy, by and large, does not make for very interesting exhibitions. This Triennial is Cameron’s show, end of story; blame it on him, he can take it.

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Cameron knows what he likes: a highly discursive kind of art, irrespective of medium or format, brimming with content – especially social and at least a bit progressive, even transgressive – but requiring a certain amount of explanation as a result. Every artist in the Triennial gets her or his own wall label, explaining what the artworks say and how they say it. Too often such labels, ubiquitous in today’s museums, are neither necessary nor easy to read; here, though, their succinctness and depth of understanding make the labels downright gratifying, and they open up both the meanings and the mechanisms of the works, giving them intellectual, artistic, and even personal context. In most cases, they not only spell out the messages and methods invested in the complex paintings, sculptures, photographs, sound-and-light rooms, movie-projection-structures, and whatever else stands before you; they make you want to see more and know more about nearly every artist in the show.

As such, it’s hard to find favorites among the thirty-plus artists here. They are all represented, engagingly, by critical masses of work, whether two large objects or two dozen small ones, whether by a room of melodramatic effects or a wall of quiet ruminations. If you allow yourself to share Cameron’s catholic taste (and you don’t take him to task for mostly circumventing more traditional disciplines and practices), you can discover many talents worth further watch. Or you can regard the Triennial as an indivisible whole, a multi-artist message of curious but remarkably un-arcane ideas, all bearing down on the idea of humanity being not only the source of art, but its ultimate subject.

That said, you doubtless still want to know who some of the highlights here are. Here’s my list of not-to-misses, without commentary: Brice Bischoff (LA), Tiffany Chung (Vietnam), Hugo Crosthwaite (Mexico), Gabriel de la Mora (Mexico), Farrah Karapetian (LA), Kim Beom (South Korea), Robert Legorreta (LA), Lin Tianmiao (China), Liz Magor (Canada), Danial Nord (LA), Yoshua Okón (Mexico), Raquel Ormella (Australia), Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand), Koki Tanaka (Japan-LA), Whiting Tennis (Seattle), Camille Utterback (San Francisco), Adán Vallecillo (Honduras), and Mark Dean Veca (LA). Oh, I will comment on one artist in the Triennial, Mexico’s Pedro Friedeberg, a generation (or two) older than pretty much everyone else in the show. Friedeberg has been practicing his knowingly nutty notational surrealism, M. C. Escher gone off the deep end, since the 1960s, and is way past due for a serious revival. Leave it to Dan Cameron to rediscover him – and to drop him into the midst of some similarly possessed talents.

For more information, please visit http://ocma.net

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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK

LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART Exhibition: Kitasono Katue: Surrealist Poet THROUGH DECEMBER 1 Japan’s contribution to modernism makes for a fascinating story. After its defeat in World War II, of course, the country thoroughly embraced western modes of artistic thinking, rapidly emerging as a site of profound innovation.

Before the war, however, even in the grip of a military dictatorship legitimized by a deified monarch, there had been great interest in and knowledge of trends and fashions, social and intellectual, among the urban middle class. While no distinct art or design movement resulted from Japan’s exposure to Dada, Surrealism, the Bauhaus, or Art Deco, these and other early 20th century European styles found their adherents. In the case of Kitasono Katue, at least, they found synthesis and translation into Japanese idioms – and came out the other side in the 1950s and ‘60s as a distinctly Japanese kind of late modernism.

The exhibition calls Kitasono Japan’s “leading experimental poet… from the late 1920s until his death.” He was active also as a visual artist and designer, and over his career trajectory, he came to fuse the practices and attitudes of the three disciplines. This is no surprise in hindsight, given both the Japanese calligraphic tradition and the close relations European modernist movements established between art and design, and between the visual and the verbal. But Kitasono’s poems were no mere haiku, his collages no mere studies, his book covers no mere decorations. Even early on, his writing brimmed with a visual éclat, and soon enough he was writing – and drawing and collaging – poetry whose visual appearance was as important as its words and phrases. Working thus, Kitasono participated in the postwar international Concrete Poetry and Visual Poetry movements, corresponding with others around the world who worked visually with typography and verbally with images. Indeed, he was Japan’s leading practitioner and proponent of such radical art-on-a-page, and served as editor of VOU, Japan’s most experimental journal of art and poetry (and art-as-poetry-as-art), which began in 1935 and ended publication only with Kitasono’s death in 1978 (interrupted by a five-year wartime hiatus).

As you might imagine, Kitasono did not work especially large, given his orientation to the format of the page, and realized his most important and engaging work as printed rather than handmade images. His influential “Plastic Poetry” pieces, in fact, were photographs, comprising tabletop arrangements of 98

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KITASONO KATUE, LA DISPARITION D’HONORÉ SUBRAC (オノレ・シュウブラック氏の減形) (1960) GELATIN SILVER PRINT. COLLECTION OF JOHN SOLT. © HASHIMOTO SUMIKO.

tools, utensils, and cutout portions of newspapers and other typographic sources, hybridizing word, image, and object with crafty insouciance. This exhibition, on the top floor of LACMA’s Japanese pavilion, is as intimate and endearing as the work itself, full of gemlike little notions in which the rawness of material is balanced by an elegance of line or phrase. The exhibition is of a piece with the examples of scroll painting and netsuke just beyond it; finally, Kitasono was as much a Japanizer of western modernism as much as he was a modernizer of Japanese art.

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ARTIST MARKET

Stephen Rowe PAINTER From the outback town of Broken Hill, Australia, polymath artist Stephen Rowe lives a three dimensional life as his art. Fifteen years as an international professional classical ballet dancer, two charted country music records in Australia, a tradesman in finish carpentry, a boxer, formerly a Suzuki-sponsored motocross racer, and decades of inventive expressionist painting...

Rowe redefines the concept of creativity. Every element of Rowe’s life influences the next, and is reflected in his artwork. As a native of Australia, Rowe’s work is partly influenced by Aboriginal dot art, leavened by the impression of the working class culture imparted to him in Broken Hill, the hard scrabble mining town that formed his vision. Rowe learned from some of the most renowned international artists in and around Australia, prominent artists such as Pro-Hart, also from Broken Hill.

View work online: www.artcapitol.com • Email: sr@artcapitol.com

ARTIST MARKET Regina Vorgang Handwoven Rugs

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Patricia Araujo Painter

John Waguespack Artist, San Francisco, CA

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