CONTEMPORARY ART & DESIGN
ISSUE 23
Queensland Centre for Photography www.qcp.org.au
photo l.a. 16 – 19 January 2014
QCP is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
Michael Cook Kim Demuth Marian Drew Cherine Fahd Anne Ferran Graham Howe Justine Khamara Mark Kimber Catherine Nelson Henri van Noordenburg Deborah Paauwe Polixeni Papapetrou Sonia Payes Ward Roberts Alberto Sรกnchez Peinador Ward Roberts Court #8 (detail) 2012, courtesy of the artist..
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
QCP acknowledges the assistance of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
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C U R AT O R I A L . O R G
LA ART SHOW 2014 HISTORIC | MODERN | CONTEMPORARY
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CONTRIBUTORS APARNA BAKHLE-ELLIS is a writer enthralled by the consonance and dissonance of ‘being’ in Los Angeles. L'écriture féminine, outsider art, and altered states of consciousness rank high among her myriad interests. She is also Fabrik’s Managing Editor.
MASTHEAD Publisher Chris Davies
ARTRA CURATORIAL is a volunteer organization for the implementation of new modes of exhibition, locally, nationally and internationally, that feature artist-led emerging platforms and opportunity based interactions and community building via social practice type events. Founded by Max Presneill and Colton Stenke in 2009 and now joined by Kio Griffith, the group has instigated large scale art events and exchanges, as well as the alternative art fair Co/Lab, throughout Los Angeles and has new projects being presented in China, France and UK in 2014, as well as the continuation of their MAS ATTACK series of events both in LA and other US cities.
Associate Editor Peter Frank Managing Editor Aparna Bakhle-Ellis Creative Director Chris Davies Art Direction & Design Chris Davies and Paul Soady
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.
Contributing Writers Aparna Bakhle-Ellis ARTRA Curatorial Peter Frank Lanee Lee Phil Tarley David Vega Dale Youngman
EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING Editorial editorial@fabrikmedia.com
LANEE LEE is a Los Angeles-based writer who uses her craft to pursue her passions: travel, culture, cuisine, and discovering artisans from around the globe. You can follow her latest quest at www.laneelee.com and @wanderlushdiary.
Advertising Chris Davies: chris@fabrikmedia.com
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.
Contact 269 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 1234 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 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 © 2014. All rights reserved.
DAVID VEGA is an L.A. based writer with so many interests he might need three lifetimes to fully explore them. When not collecting chairs, building bikes, making wine, shucking oysters, climbing Machu Picchu, or learning how to build houses from hay, he can be found on his laptop at a cafe near you. 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.
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ON THE COVER
JEFF McLANE is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. CONTEMPORARY ART & DESIGN
Solaroid 3, 2011 © Jeff McLane PIGMENT INKJET PRINT 18 X 24 INCHES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST & COHEN GALLERY
ISSUE 23
ABOUT THE PICTURE Solaroids are an experimentation and reevaluation of a material displaced in today’s commercial imaging production. The abstract forms and colors absorbed by the film extend the function and boundaries of a material whose original purpose is now obsolete. Solaroids are unique prints produced using large format Fuji instant film, approximately 4x5 in (9x12 cm). The film undergoes long exposures of direct UV light through the use of a 4x5 view camera. The original prints are drum scanned and printed as archival pigment inkjet enlargements.
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CONTENTS 10 Artist Profile: Sol Hill: The Intangible Qualities of Life 28 Spotlight: MOCA’s Distinguished Women in the Arts 40 Profile: Q&A With Sharon Ann Lee, Founder of CultureBrain and Co-Creator of Maker City LA 50 Artist Profile: Mara Colecchia: The Whimsical Soul of Objects 62 Fresh Faces in Art: Emergent Presence: Eight LA Artists You Should Know 82 Art Fairs to Attend in Southern California this Winter and Spring 94 Spotlight: Crafting Community: Art, Artisanship and the Seed of Human Industry 102 Art About Town: Peter Frank’s Museum Views 118 In Memorium: Craig Stephens: 1964-2013
SOL HILL THE INTANGIBLE QUALITIES OF LIFE
— WORDS PHIL TARLEY IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
MYSTERY [THE VIA NEGATIVA], 2009, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
PROFILE
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PHOTOGRAPHER SOL HILL grew up in a gallery setting. His father was a sculptor, his mother a curator; they filled his world with an alchemical language of postmodern signs and symbols. For Hill, the artist’s life has been a process of parsing and pondering the sub-textual inferences of places and spaces he calls the ‘sublime noise of existence.’ Signal From Noise, his first major Los Angeles exhibition, opens at the Leica Gallery showroom in March. “Most photo-artists spend all their time trying to get rid of noise, Sol uses it in an avant, painterly way,” says Leica Gallery curator Annie Seaton. A tall, lanky dark-haired man, hobbled out from the bird cage elevator in my West Hollywood pied-à-terre, and despite a sprained ankle, he juggled two big boxes of photographic prints, with a wry and endearing smile. As we sipped Darjeeling tea and ate chunks of black chocolate, I marveled at the photographs Sol gently placed before me. Each arrived as if from a spirit world, seeming to come at me from another time and place. Nostalgic polychrome prints pushed and pulled from another epoch. Hallucinogenic lipstick smears of a taxi’s red taillight on a woozy '60s New York street came out of his Urban Noise box. Then he showed me the florid prints of flowery dresses from his Token Feminine box, the two bodies of work being shown at the Leica Gallery. Token Feminine are Sol’s impressions of shop window mannequins caught up in a joyous riot of cacophonous colors that imprint as a meta-reality. This artist’s token fems are just that – not real women – but icons of women, tokens, posing in shop windows. With a deliberate, measured technique, Hill anoints his printed canvasses with brush strokes of varnish and plazes applied like a painter. Craig Anderson, who is curating Suspicious Privacy, a future Hill exhibition, thinks “Sol dismantles then dissipates the conventions of digital photography. His work has a different power and presence.” Sol Hill is a digital wizard. For Hill, the sensor in the camera is a wand gathering in energy forces; photonic, magnetic, electronic, radiant, and other ambient emanations are all waved through for capture. His is a magician’s sophisticated use of technology sifted through a humanist’s highly romantic vision and written in the alchemical language of his childhood. Hill defines digital noise as, “an artifact of false exposure produced by energies other than light.” He records all the cosmic rays; the seen and the unseen.
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UNTITLED NY FIGURE, 2010, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
PORTENDS, 2009, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
URBAN FIGURES NUMBER L1066518, 2011, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
TOKEN FEMININE NUMBER L1002434, 2012, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
TOKEN FEMININE NUMBER L1020824, 2013, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
URBAN FIGURE NUMBER L1063916, 2011, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
PROFILE
“Sol wants to be exhibited in both traditional and non-traditional venues,” says Janie Hewson, a creative consultant helping artists focus their exhibition goals. “Hill wants to be collected by individuals who are interested in conceptual, emerging and futurist art.” In an essay about the artist’s work, Peter Frank, Fabrik magazine’s Associate Editor writes, “Sol Hill’s images represent mistakes in seeing–but not mistakes in perceiving. His photographs replicate light and space, shape and movement, not as they merely are, but as they seem to be. As a result, their misregistration reads as a kind of hyper-vision, revealing things about the world that the world doesn’t usually allow revealed.” Hill manipulates the human fallibility of perception to wring out his mysteries. He works in a poetic realm, filtering light, color and a multiple array of cosmic interferences. John Mendelson, New York painter and art critic, states, “Hill treats reality in a transformational way; reality becomes a vehicle for his personal vision. He creates a simulacrum…a phantom, eaten away and dematerialized by light, presenting us with a pixilated presence to pense the world in an existential way.” The sense of disconnection, dislocation, and disorientation artists feel when confronting the universe—a hallmark of Hill’s photography—is poignantly realized in Mystery (The Via Negativa), from a third body of work called Sublime Noise. A lone figure tentatively stands before an abyss, or perhaps a theatrical stage, evoking the trembling and yearning for something we all share: peace, release, or enlightenment. — Signal From Noise, at the Leica Gallery, March 8–April 12, 2014
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URBAN CANYONS, 2010, PHOTOGRAPHIC MIXED MEDIA
BALANCE — FROM THE AQUA TERRA LUMINA SERIES • 20X30 ARCHIVAL ALUMINUM PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT
“Maureen Haldeman's seashore images are filled with luminous, magical, abstracted configurations.”
— PHIL TARLEY, FABRIK MAGAZINE
Maureen J Haldeman www.maureenhaldemanphotography.com ON VIEW DURING PHOTO LA 2014 — AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
MOCA’s DISTINGUISHED WOMEN IN THE ARTS
— WORDS SIMONE KUSSATZ IMAGES COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART (MOCA)
SPOTLIGHT
THE 8TH ANNUAL Women in the Arts Luncheon, benefiting MOCA's award-winning education programming and particularly its Contemporary Art Start, was held November 6th at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event, celebrating the art world's most progressive women, from educators to artists to everyone in between, honored four Los Angeles-based female artists, including Lita Albuquerque, Helen Pashgian, Nancy Rubins, and Betye Saar. Who better to succeed Maria Shriver as presenter of last year’s MOCA award (honoring Annie Leibovitz) than actress and activist Sharon Stone? Having just returned from Washington D.C. where she went to campaign for
SHARON STONE
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more arts funding in education, she implored, “Why don’t we understand that art is a business that is helping this nation grow?” Stone’s presence at the MOCA event, along with Chairman Ricki Ring and MOCA Projects Council’s president Louise Epstein, helped attract more than 600 guests whose entrance tickets ranged from $275 to $1000. Among the attendees were actresses Lauren King, Kate Walsh, Daphne Zuniga, Olga Kurylenko and Liberty-Ross; honorary co-chairs Maria Hummer-Tuttle, Carolyn Powers, Dallas Price Van-Breda, Catharine Soros and Andrea Van De Kamp; arts supporters Karis Jagger, Lauren Taschen, Rosette Delug, Carla Sands, Sydney Holland, Marti Oppenheimer, Liz Goldwyn, Mandy Einstein and Linda May; and many others.
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MOCA'S DISTINGUISHED WOMEN IN THE ARTS HONOREES (LEFT-TO-RIGHT): BETYE SAAR, NANCY RUBINS, HELEN PASHGIAN AND LITA ALBUQUERQUE.
SPOTLIGHT
BETYE SAAR
The MOCA Award event, established in 1994, concluded with a spectacular fashion show by Just One Eye, a Los Angeles boutique co-founded by Paola Russo. Aspiring to more than a mere catwalk meander, professional dancers in the spirit of Academy Awards performances combined modern dance, acrobatics, and hip-hop-style head spins, highlighting the notion of cooperation between the various arts. But what does MOCA’s Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts mean to the four recipients? For one thing, all of them had made it into MOCA’s collection before receiving the award. Pashgian, who creates pioneering work in cast resin and other industrial materials, was involved in the founding of MOCA. One of Nancy Rubins’ large-scale outdoor pieces made of industrial, manufactured objects can be seen on MOCA’s Grand Avenue Sculpture Plaza at MOCA. Betye Saar, who is a recycler and conjurer, was featured in eight Pacific Standard Time exhibitions, including MOCA’s Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981. In order to get a personal response, I posed the question to environmental artist, painter and sculptor Lita Albuquerque, who first won acclaim in the late 1970s with her ephemeral pigment installations in natural landscapes including Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. Albuquerque, who plays a key role at MOCA, is one of its founding artists and participated in the museum’s first exhibition in 1983. She subsequently received international acclaim for her 32
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SPOTLIGHT
HELEN PASHGIAN
installation The Washington Project and represented the United States at the Sixth International Cairo Biennale. In 2006, she went to Antarctica and a year later to the North Pole along a group of researchers, astronomers and artists to carry out Stellar Axis, a project where she and her team aligned 99 blue spheres to stars in the Antarctic sky. A year ago, she conducted a large-scale art performance called Spine of the Earth at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City, in conjunction with 18th Street Arts Center and the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival. Simone Kussatz (SK): You started as an artist in the late 70s. What was the art world like for women then? Lita Albuquerque (LA): The art world was full of experimentation at the time, Women’s Liberation was in full swing, and going on at CalArts with Judy Chicago, Sheila de Bretteville, Miriam Schapiro and Arlene Raven influencing many young women artists that I knew. But in terms of how I experienced it, I did not feel much discrimination. I was part of a group of artists from Venice, California that included both men and women…
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SK: Hence you wouldn’t agree with Judy Chicago’s statement in which she claims that although things have changed for women for the better, permanent collections in major museums continue to be only 3-5% women and only 2.5% of commercial solo art publications are devoted to women? Web fabrik.la
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SPOTLIGHT
NANCY RUBINS
LA: I want to think that events like MOCA’s Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts will help inspire a new generation of young women thinkers and artists to change those statistics. SK: I would think it must have been particularly difficult though for a woman to convince the people in authority to carry out your project, “Stellar Axis: Antarctica 2006” for which you received a huge grant from the National Science Foundation and had to lead a huge crew that included mostly men. Have you felt that in any way? LA: I personally have never been treated differently for being a woman artist, and never think of myself in terms of gender. A lot of women have and continue to push conceptual boundaries, some resulting in a massive scale that has typically been reserved by the guys. To pull off a huge project, it doesn't matter if you are a woman or a man. Fighting the environment and getting the spheres fabricated and installed was the real battle. SK: So you’ve never felt any form of discrimination in the arts world due to being a woman? LA: From the Washington Monument to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles to the National Science Foundation in Antarctica, I have always been treated seriously. My concern and the barriers I faced have always been more about getting the work done as I envisioned it. That’s been the more difficult struggle. 34
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SPOTLIGHT
LITA ALBUQUERQUE
SK: But what do you think about an Art Award that is entirely for women artists, doesn’t it imply that there had been an under-representation or some kind of neglect toward women artists in the past? LA: I’m proud to stand with Helen, Nancy, Betye and all the other women who have shared this honor in the past. It would be a great service to young people if more institutions did the same. SK: Thank you, Ms. Albuquerque. Lita Albuquerque is currently juggling multiple projects. She is creating a piece for the Bolivian Salt Flats and is involved in public work for the Manhattan Beach Public Library, both to be completed in 2016. In May 2014, she will be included in a group exhibition entitled “Time, Space and Matter” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Among her upcoming solo exhibitions is one in March 2014 at UCLA’s Art|Sci Center + Lab, and another in October 2014 at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. In January 2015, one will also be able to view some of her work at University of Southern California’s Fisher Art Museum. The book Lita Albuquerque, available Fall 2014, showcases images of her work and includes five essays.
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KAREN BYSTEDT, ANDY WARHOL RED, WHITE AND BLUE COLLABORATION WITH GREGORY SIFF 30 X 30 INCHES • ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT, WITH ACRYLIC PAINT
Mail: P.O. Box 1679 Venice Beach, CA 90294 Warehouse: 5221 W. Jefferson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016 Direct Line: (805) 300-1308 Toll Free: (866) 239-5530
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN • ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT – 18” X 8”, FRAMED: 28” X 18”
INSCRIPTION • ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT – 30” X 30”, FRAMED: 40” X 40”
FELIC E WI LL AT www.felicewillatphotography.com ON VIEW DURING PHOTO LA 2014 — AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
MAKER CITY LA, LOBBY ART. PHOTO: JOSH FASSBIND
DREAM: CREATE: MAKE. Q&A WITH SHARON ANN LEE, FOUNDER OF CULTUREBRAIN AND CO-CREATOR OF MAKER CITY LA
— PHOTOS JOSH FASSBIND
PROFILE
IT’S 2014, THE future’s ripe for picking and a wide variety of creations being dreamed up meet their Makers in an intimate and tremendous urban oasis occupying the 11th floor of the LA MART Building in the city’s historic core within Downtown LA. Sharon Ann Lee, Founder of CultureBrain, is Co-Creator of Maker City LA, the complete creative habitat that serves artists and makers by providing multi disciplinary tools, affordable spaces, a community of varied creators, ongoing education, and an inclusive, experimental environment where you feel free to create anything. Fabrik wanted you to know… What inspired Maker City LA? SAL: The idea of this project started with
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a question: “What do modern artists and creators need to consistently make their work and become successful in today’s complex and changing world? The answers came from conversations with a variety of different creators but their answers were very similar: 1. Affordable, flexible space 2. Access to professional tools, equipment and training 3. A supportive community with potential collaborators SHARON ANN LEE 4. Classes on practical knowledge like business, legal, marketing, fundraising, etc. 5. Cultural programming for inspiration 6. Social events for fun We realized that outside of educational institutions, creators are on their own to hunt down all of these needs. Often, they can’t find resources and many times they are too costly. For most artists, the moment they graduate from university, they are completely cut off from the labs and tools that allowed them to do their work. They are left to make it on their own, often saddled with oppressive student loans and no training on how to be a working artist in the world who can earn a living.
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PROFILE
MAKER CITY LA, TEAROOM. PHOTO: JOSH FASSBIND
MAKER CITY LA, PODCAST STUDIO. PHOTO: JOSH FASSBIND
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PROFILE
What condition do you think this creates for our community and culture? SAL: It creates Brain Drain. When talented young people graduate from their
schools and stop creating work—that moment is a great loss to our cultural landscape. Thousands of talented people, trained by LA’s top institutions, stop doing their work en masse simply because there is no bridge to support their transition. This is happening across the country, but LA is the cultural capitol of the world with the largest community of creative talent. We should be thought leaders in trying to solve this issue for us and then share our learnings with other cities around the world. So what is Maker City LA’s mission? SAL: To be of service to the artists and makers of LA so they can continue creating
work that inspires our city and the world. To create a whole system that connects the dots in the creative process— from idea to prototying, fabricating, marketing, sales and exhibition. To create a diverse community that represents the cultural complexity of Los Angeles. To break up the post industrial era silos where creatives are organized by vertical industries. In our space, a film maker will work alongside a chef, a fashion designer, a furniture maker, a scent artist, and a ping-pong master (no joke, there is one there now). It’s very much an experiment in progress. It’s a conceptual project that will constantly be in a state of inquiry, creation and recreation as we explore what it means to sustain a space and community dedicated to creative experimentation. You compared Maker City LA to a reef, can you explain what you mean by that? SAL: The coral reef was the guiding metaphor for this whole project. The reef is
a dynamic natural system that continually generates an abundance of beauty. It’s a hospitable environment for big fish and little fish. It’s diverse, it’s responsive, it’s in sync with the environment and it nurtures all the biodiversity living in and around it. We wanted our project to mimic this natural system. Language and metaphor are so important in informing the energy of a project. We didn’t want to use the language of startups or institutions. Simple poetic metaphors help all of us understand complex ideas quickly. They also communicate feeling and intention.
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PROFILE
CULTUREBRAIN ACADEMY. PHOTO: JOSH FASSBIND
You have another project you’re launching called CultureBrain Academy, what is that? SAL: I currently run a think tank and creative studio called CultureBrain. The
Academy is the classroom and event space component that I’ve been wanting to add. The Academy is a mashup of a classroom, a salon space, and a cabaret. It’s my fantasy culture club where poetry readings, experimental performances, culture salons and creative classes are happening every month. I call it “Cognitive Cabaret.” It’s a little Virginia Woolf plus a little Liza Minelli. What kind of classes and events will the CultureBrain Academy have? SAL: A wide range of creative classes and seminars including trend analysis,
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product development, paper arts, design, content creation, media arts, and some philosophy. Classes will have an emphasis on practical application and be taught by leading practitioners and experts in their fields.
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PROFILE
CULTUREBRAIN ACADEMY. PHOTO: JOSH FASSBIND
The events will be cultural salons, lectures, art shows and private events like book launch parties and experimental performances. Will you be teaching any classes? SAL: Yes, I’ll be doing lectures on cultural trends and teaching classes on trend
analysis. There are only a handful of people who do what I do, and all of us are self-taught. So, there’s no school or program outside of an academic Anthropology track. So last year I started teaching trend analysis classes as an experiment and was surprised and delighted at the response and interest. What’s driving you to create projects like Maker City LA and CultureBrain? SAL: I’ve always been a big believer in supporting emerging creative talent and
experimenting with new models that foster more inclusive participation. In 2003 I co-published a youth arts magazine called Look-Look that was the first one of it kind to use crowd-sourced content from amateur young photographers and artists. It was before social media was mainstream, before Facebook and Instagram. But through that project, I saw that people wanted to obsessively 46
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PROFILE
document their own lives way before they had iPhones. It was a sneak peak at what was to come. Now I look back on it and see that it was foreshadowing the coming Instagram lifestyle. Our collective creativity is the engine that makes our culture. So, I think I’ll always be creating projects that support creative culture and accentuates human connection. The anthropologist Wade Davis calls our cultural output the “ethnosphere.” Just like the biosphere describes the biological web of life, the ethnosphere describes the cultural web of life. It is “the sum total of all the thoughts, dreams, ideals, myths, intuitions, and inspirations brought into being by the imagination since the dawn of consciousness. The ethnosphere is humanity’s great legacy.”
SHARON ANN LEE’S BIOGRAPHY Sharon Ann Lee is a leading
work has been featured in college
Cultural Trends Analyst, Strategist
textbooks and media outlets like
and Maker. She has been at the
PBS’s Frontline, Time Magazine,
forefront of youth culture and trend
The New York Times and The Los
analysis for 15 years.
Angeles Times. She has appeared as a cultural expert on CBS Evening
Sharon is the Founder of
News, MTV, The Discovery Channel,
CultureBrain, a think tank, creative
PBS and CNN.
studio and academy focused on trends, culture and creativity.
Sharon is also the Co-Creator of
In addition to her own creative
Maker City LA and works out of the
projects, Sharon consults the
coworking studio Jellyfish Cartel.
world’s leading brands on strategy, content and designing creative
CONTACT
Twitter: @CultureBrain
environments.
www.culture-brain.com Recognized internationally for her
www.makercityla.com
trend and brand expertise, her
www.jellyfishcartel.com
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ANNIE TERRAZZO • THE ART OF BURNING RUBBER • 18 X 24 INCHES • MIXED MEDIA 2013
ON VIEW DURING THE LOS ANGELES ART SHOW AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
ANNIE TERRAZZO • I'M GOING DIGITAL • 24 X 30 INCHES • MIXED MEDIA 2013
Annie Terrazzo N E W S PA P E R / T RA S H P O RT RA I T A RT I S T
www.detritus-art.com annieterrazzo@gmail.com
MARA COLECCHIA THE WHIMSICAL SOUL OF OBJECTS
— WORDS PHIL TARLEY IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST MARACOLEARTSTUDIO.COM
PROFILE
M
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ARA COLECCHIA, ablaze in diaphanous draping of gossamer color, looks like her ceramics. She seems burnished, glowing in pink, yellow and pastel greens; her favorite silk shawl draped around her, like a rainbow. Colecchia comes from Urbino, a town in northern Italy whose kilns are on constant fire, famous for the ancient traditions of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain that spill out from their infernos. Mara has a testa ceramica, gleeful tonalities of iridescent glazes sparkle in her head and cooking color into clay is a constant Colecchia preoccupation. Web fabrik.la
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PROFILE
Mara’s chimerical sculptures of giant noses, wearable wigs and fanciful party hats are infused with a cherubic, sprite-like sense of the delightful. Perhaps their humor comes from the artist’s three books of children’s stories and the animated films she has written, perhaps they come from her thoughtful, joyous, Italian soul. Colecchia’s conceptions are inspired by the costumes of Commedia dell'Arte. The ceramicist treats her statuary like characters in a drama. To tell their story, she groups them on a table top or lines them up in-a-row on a wall, framing them with an imaginary narrative of actors who might have worn them. Each of her pieces has a different personality. Like chords in a lyric signature, the notes are unique and distinct, but mixed together they resonate the same playful theme. The sculptures’ easy sensual shapes conceal the artist’s formalist approach and her sophisticated use of materials. She manipulates the chemical glazing with a dexterity that illuminates the surfaces with lustrous scintillations, often infusing their patinas with precious metals. Colecchia works at revealing the inner life of the clay with various textures and is fascinated by the transformation of its elemental structures by fire, in the kiln. “Design is my main focus, because I think of myself as a designer, not as a craft person. I am making new pieces all the time and I am constantly experimenting with different techniques. I am often surprised by what comes out of the kiln. They become my treasures, my maracoles…that’s how I named my studio.” Maracole Art is exhibited at the Santa Monica Art Studios.
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B E C K S TA R R // B E C K S TA R R P H OTO G R A P H Y // W W W. B E C K S TA R R . C O M // 323.449.9976 S E E B E C K S TA R R P H OTO G R A P H Y I N R O U N D H O L E , S Q U A R E P E G AT P H OTO L A
EMERGENT PRESENCE BY ARTRA CURATORIAL
— ARTRA CURATORIAL IS COMPRISED OF MAX PRESNEILL (MP), KIO GRIFFITH (KG) & COLTON STENKE (CS)
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
SHIVA ALIABADI Shiva Aliabadi creates sculptures that resonate with vague memories of something you can recall having experienced but can't easily put your finger on the how, or the when. Objects and materials in flux hang on walls or find space on the floor—speaking directly to the transitory nature of materials and the impact others have had upon them. As when left with slight traces of alteration of the original material or with dramatic impactful influence upon the materials these interactions between artist and objects don't reside in a liminal space of becoming but within a pregnant moment of potential. (CS). http://shiva-aliabadi.com
(ABOVE) TRACES (RIGHT) TRACES II
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
JUSTIN BOWER Justin Bower paints slippage. The stabilized view of subjectivity and identity become notions in flux which remain fluid and uncertain—the result perhaps of the digital nature of our contemporary online existence. The bravura handling of the paint reinforces the gesture of the hand while simultaneously rejecting any easy integration of the subject. His ‘portraits’ exist in the same liminal spaces that The Matrix marked between dreaming and reality. Questions of technology and identity are fundamental in these paintings—posing the question of how do human beings negotiate the world without static points of reference and in a constantly altered and mutated environs, both mentally and virtually. (MP). http://justinbower.com
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(ABOVE) UNTITLED, 9 X 7.5, 2013 (LEFT) UNTITLED 2, 7 X 6, 2013
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
JUAN CAPISTRAN Juan Capistran combines sources from both the street and music sub-cultures of Los Angeles and beyond with methodologies from art history—conceptualism and appropriation in particular—to create enthralling art works that capture socio-political themes while also exploring the nature of knowledge through the awareness of idioms and motifs. These multi-disciplinary projects deal with ideologies of class and power. Aspects of memory and identity situate the relationships between his materials and their political and revolutionary intentions to build a response to both the personal and the social, of the subjective to the objective, of the self in society. (MP). http://www.softestbulletevershot.com
(ABOVE) WHEN DARKNESS HAS SWALLOWED THE REALITY… THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT… (RIGHT) YESTERDAY HAS ALREADY VANISHED AMONG THE SHADOWS OF THE PAST… TOMORROW HAS YET EMERGED FROM THE FUTURE. (SHAME)
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
MARK DUTCHER Mark Dutcher’s rough and ready approach to art making keeps him straddled in the passage of contradicting ideas, cyclical events and unforeseen transformations. Finger markings and paint wounds are played out in amplified degrees of the moment’s vulnerability and acceptance of the echoing past. In the burial of layered scribbles, letterforms and broken lyrics, Dutcher’s works commemorate the reverence to long lost thoughts awaiting rebirth through the painted canvas portals also referred to as “time machines.” The dual experience of creator and viewer is deeply connected by devotion of the artist. To quote from Hesse, “…when artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do.” (KG). http://markdutcher.com
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(ABOVE) UNTITLED 2 (LEFT) UNTITLED 1
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
BRIAN GETNICK Brian Getnick uses sculptural costumes, puppets and objects as characters within which his performances take form. For the purposes of exploring societal forces that impact the formation of the self, the anatomies of these characters tend to be deconstructed during a given performance. Though theatrical in nature, (recalling Beckett, Brecht and others), the visual complexity of the costumes conveys the history of their making and performed life. Getnick's work maintains a dialectic between the fantasy of wanting an otherwise inanimate object to be alive and convey a personality, and the desire to know how the object and thereby the personality, is constructed. (MP). http://www.briangetnick.com
(ABOVE) "MEMORIES" LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS" 2012, PHOTO JORGE EZPINOZA
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(TOP) "THE PEST HORSE" WITH BRYATT BRYANT, STATION INDEPENDENT PROJECTS 2013, PHOTO CAMERON BLAYLOCK (ABOVE) "THE PEST HORSE" WITH BRYATT BRYANT, MONTE VISTA PROJECTS, 2013, PHOTO BY RUBEN DIAZ
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
NAOTAKA HIRO Naotaka Hiro uses his body as a vehicle to explore and document the unseen self. By employing mediated human and synthetic devices such as self-casted sculptures, found anatomy and invented soundtracks, Hiro films activities where his interpretations and manipulations of various body parts become abstract, visceral documentaries. These performances interrogate the concept of physical knowledge, the world of one’s own body parts, which we are–in most circumstances– unable to see and thus unable to confirm. As the artist’s reconstructed body becomes the subject of scrutiny in which disjuncture and notions of immortality are suggested, the transfigurations reach for unfounded nonhuman spaces. (KG). http://www.naotakahiro.com
THE PIT (DANCER WITH GOLDEN LIPS) 2013 HD DIGITAL VIDEO STILL
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ASS FALL (THE OPEN CREEK) 2007 PHOTO COLLAGE, C-PRINT 26" X 37"
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
CHRISTY ROBERTS Christy Roberts’ blend of ethics based sculpture, interventions and agit-performance disrupts assumptions of how traditional engagements between art and it’s viewers should be perceived. In shattering these notions she orchestrates a serious dialogue with well delivered reminders of how politics, social and power dynamics can be bridged in seemingly casual and sometimes humorous ways which take into account actual human dynamics with the potential of failure. The tension she explores between us, our environment, from the physical to the psychological, are probed with a playfulness that can slap you. (CS). http://christyrobertsart.com
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(ABOVE) UNTITLED 2 (LEFT) UNTITLED 1
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
ANALIA SABAN Analia Saban seeks material truth between objects and images testing the tactile limits of its sheer substantiality by concurrent examination and experimentation. Clinical operations are meticulously carried out through use of laser cutting, dematerialization, reconstructing methodologies in association with spatial representation. The revelation of each work is processed through the contemplated attention of time, material and form constituting incidental parametrics, a miseen-abyme from which an accumulation of vantage points emerge influencing the viewer to rethink physical properties—the presence being invisible and living on as formless possibilities. (KG). http://analiasabanstudio.com
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(ABOVE) EROSION (KITCHEN CORNER, POSITIVE-NEGATIVE) (LEFT) CIRCUIT BOARD #6
INSTALLATION OF EXHIBITION AT FORT WORTH MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY
NOVEMBER 15, 2013 - FEBRUARY 9, 2014
MARCH 1 - MAY 18, 2014
Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, Fort Worth, Texas
Goddard Center, Ardmore, Oklahoma JULY 14 - DECEMBER 31, 2014
JANUARY 3 - JANUARY 30, 2014
International Wildlife Museum, Tucson, Arizona
El Dorado Nature Center, Long Beach, California SEPTEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 30, 2014 MARCH 1 - MAY 18, 2014
Lafayette Science Museum, Lafayette, Louisiana
The Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago, Illinois
J.J. L’Heureux A Photographic Expedition: Antarctica jjLHeureux.com penguinspirit.com
THE LOS ANGELES ART SHOW, JANUARY 15–19, 2014 AT THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER
ART FAIR GAME IN L.A. BY LANEE LEE
ART FAIRS
H
AS THE COUNTRY’S creative pulse moved west – replacing New York City’s longstanding reputation as the nucleus of trailblazing art? It appears so. Not only is Los Angeles home to several New York art empires like Regen Projects in Hollywood, Matthew Marks in West Hollywood and Gagosian in Beverly Hills, but also two former New Yorkers are at the helm of L.A.’s most prestigious museums such as LACMA’s Michael Goyan (formerly of Dia Foundation) and the Hammer Museum’s Annie Philbin (formerly of Drawing Center). The wave of art fairs cropping up (and their mass popularity) are also an indication that L.A. is no longer merely deemed as a cinematic core of creativity but a center for artistic innovation as well. Here’s what you’ll need to know about the most important 2014 art fairs to attend in Southern California this winter and spring:
LOS ANGELES ART SHOW JANUARY 15–19, 2014
The 19th annual Los Angeles Art Show returns to the Convention Center downtown. The ‘fair-within-a-fair’ features four sections: Vintage Poster Section, Modern & Contemporary Section, Historic & Traditional Contemporary Section and the LA IFPDA (International Fine Print Dealers Association) Print Fair. Highlights this year include exhibits showcasing LA-based French artists from FLARE (France Los Angeles Residency Exchange), Chicano art curated by Cheech Marin and Chinese contemporary art in collaboration with the National Base For International Cultural Trade in Shanghai. Actor Tim Robbins and Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, will host the opening night party. General Admission: $20. http://www.laartshow.com
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ART FAIRS
SAM FRANCIS, UNTITLED • ACRYLIC ON PAPER. 14 X 17 IN. 1978. JACK RUTBERG FINE ARTS. COURTESY THE LOS ANGELES ART SHOW
PHOTO LA JANUARY 16–19, 2014
In its 23rd year, photo la is the America’s longest running photographic art fair west of New York City. Works exhibited this year range from the 19th century, up through contemporary photobased art including talks and panel discussions on the world of fine-art and commercial photography from the likes of Nicholas Fahey (Fahey & Klein Gallery), photographer Douglas Kirkland and Britt Salvesen (Annenberg Photography and LACMA photo curator) and more. Also unique to this year’s three-day event is the new downtown location at the L.A. Mart and the photographic walking tours in both Venice and downtown L.A. Free shuttles
photo la
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ART FAIRS
will run between photo la and the Los Angeles Art Show. General Admission: $20. http://www.photola.com
SANTA MONICA CIVIC AUDITORIUM, PHOTO L.A. 2013
ART LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY JANUARY 30–FEBRUARY 2, 2014
Sixty-one galleries, many of them from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, will be participating in the 2014 Art Los Angeles Contemporary. This year’s fair will also feature 15 first-time participants including prestigious additions like San Francisco’s Et al. Projects, Paris’s Galerie Balice Hertling and New York’s Foxy Production. At the entrance, visitors will be greeted by artist Jon Pylypchuk’s new, large-scale installation, “It's not you, it’s me, I will always love you dear.” The six to nine feet tall sculptures fashioned after cartoonish cigarette butts are just one of the memorable pieces to witness at the fifth edition of Art Los Angeles Contemporary at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. General Admission: $20. http://www.artlosangelesfair.com
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ART FAIRS
LA ART BOOK FAIR 2014 JANUARY 31–FEBRUARY 2, 2014
For the second year, MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary outpost will host the surprisingly large LA Art Book Fair. Organized by New York’s Printed Matter bookstore as a companion to its New York Art Book Fair, the fair will honor southern California’s long involvement with artists’ books and periodicals
by featuring books, catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines offered by over 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers. Their displays will be augmented by curated screenings, panel discussions, and performances presented by MOCAtv, KCHUNG Radio, and The Classroom. There will be a special Queer Zines Exhibition, another zine subsection called (Xe)rox & Paper + Scissors, the popular Friendly Fire section, and a show of Alexis Diblasio’s photographs called “Fabulosity.” Free Admission. http://www.laartbookfair.net
PALM SPRINGS MODERNISM SHOW & SALE FEBRUARY 13–16, 2014
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Running concurrently in the same location as the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, the Modernism Show focuses on design, modern art and architecture. The show is one aspect of Modernism Week (Feb. 13–23), held annually in Palm Springs. Being that it’s home to one of the largest concentrations of mid-cen-
ART FAIRS
tury modern architecture in the country, Modernism Week also includes architecture tours throughout the Coachella Valley and a host of other events, such as lectures and films. General Admission: $20. http://dolphinfairs.com/palmsprings
PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR FEBRUARY 13–16, 2014
The 3rd annual Palm Springs Fine Art Fair returns to Palm Springs Convention Center featuring over 60 exhibiting galleries. Highlights include Steve Maloney’s animal-meets-machine “Ride-em-Copter” sculpture unveiled at the opening night party, the “Dry Heat: Three Artists in the California Desert” exhibition and panel featuring artists Kim Stringfellow, Phillip K. Smith III, and Cristopher Cichocki along with a Q&A with acclaimed artist Jennifer Bartlett (her large-scale works are in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney). Greg Gorman will be honored as 2014 photographer of the year on the 14th and the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Bartlett on Saturday. General Admission: $25. http://palmspringsfineartfair.com
PETER KEMPSON, CHAIR MAN. 2012, MIXED MEDIA. COURTESY TAG GALLERY AND THE PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR.
PARIS PHOTO LOS ANGELES APRIL 25–27, 2014
As an extension of the prestigious Paris Photo held annually at the Grand Palais in Paris mid-November, Paris Photo Los Angeles returns for its second year. Last year, it was the art fair ‘to see and be seen’ at and will mostly likely follow suit once again. Paris Photo Los Angeles 2014 will feature exhibitions, book signings, 88
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and Sound and Vision, a series of conversations and screenings curated by Douglas Fogle. Paris Photo Los Angeles, located at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, takes place on 3 different sound stages and on location in the “New York City” back lot where galleries inhabit various cafes, apartments and storefronts. General Admission: $20. http://www.parisphoto.com/losangeles
PARIS PHOTO LOS ANGELES AT PARAMOUNT PICTURES STUDIOS, 2013. PHOTO BY RANDALL MICHELSON/RMPIX.COM
PHOTO INDEPENDENT APRIL 25–27, 2014
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In its debut year, Photo Independent is a first-of-its-kind show for independent artists. Produced by this magazine, Photo Independent aims to connect photographic artists with a larger audience of collectors and art professionals. Other features of the groundbreaking fair include panel discussions, lectures, roundtables and docent tours. No gallery representation? Not a problem, as this is a direct artist-to collector event. Photo Independent’s mission is to enable photographic artists with the opportunity to be discovered by global audiences. The annual showcase provides a forum for direct exchange of ideas and contacts between photographers, collec-
ART FAIRS
BOURGOYEN: EARLY AUTUMN © CATHERINE NELSON. 2013 AX3 PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR WINNER. AX3 GROUP EXHIBITION AT PHOTO INDEPENDENT, 2014.
tors and art professionals. Scheduled to run concurrently with, and next door to, Paris Photo Los Angeles, Photo Independent provides potential exhibitors with the unique opportunity to present their work to global decision makers—curators, galleries, collectors, editors and publishers—who seek to acquire, publish and commission the best photographic talent today. Photo Independent, to be held at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, is currently accepting submissions from fine art photographers worldwide. General Admission: $15. http://www.photoindependent.com 90
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KERRY MILLER, THE BOY'S OWN ANNUAL, 1886 18.25 X 15.5 X 1.5 • MIXED MEDIA, HAND-CUT ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE BOOK FRAMED: 23.25 X 20.5 X 4 • SIGNED & DATED, VERSO, KERRY MILLER, 2013
Mail: P.O. Box 1679 Venice Beach, CA 90294 Warehouse: 5221 W. Jefferson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016 Direct Line: (805) 300-1308 Toll Free: (866) 239-5530
MELISSA ANN LAMBERT • DOPPELGANGER
“Melissa Ann Lambert employs digital media and photographic elements in a painterly fashion, creating half-submerged half-worlds populated by elusive, febrile presences and potent, concentrated spectacles of pure — or nearly pure — light. Nothing is as it — nor, as the Zen koan reminds us, is it otherwise.” — PETER FRANK, WRITER, CURATOR
MELISSA ANN LAMBERT • MOMENTUM
MELISSA ANN LAMBERT www.melissaannlambert.com ON VIEW DURING PHOTO LA 2014 — AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
CRAFTING COMMUNITY ART, ARTISANSHIP AND THE SEED OF HUMAN INDUSTRY
— WORDS DAVID VEGA IMAGES COURTESY TANYA AGUINIGA, SEBASTIAN BOHER & DAVID VEGA
SPOTLIGHT
“MODERN TECHNOLOGY HAS BROUGHT ABOUT A GREAT MANY PROFOUND TRANSFORMATIONS, BUT ALL…WITH THE SAME IMPORT: THE EXPIRATION OF THE OTHER. MADE BY HAND, THE CRAFT OBJECT BEARS THE FINGERPRINTS...OF THE PERSON WHO FASHIONED IT. THESE FINGERPRINTS ARE NOT THE EQUIVALENT OF THE ARTIST'S SIGNATURE, FOR THEY ARE NOT A NAME. NOR ARE THEY A MARK OR A BRAND. THEY ARE A SIGN: THE ALMOST INVISIBLE SCAR COMMEMORATING OUR ORIGINAL BROTHERHOOD OR SISTERHOOD.” — O C TAV I O PA Z
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“When we started, I think it was just ten of us. We all had our...our other jobs. I decided to just have my own thing with my friends in my living room, so I called everyone that was doing something I liked. That first one, we used old doors for tables, and it wasn’t at all organized. I don’t even know if I sold anything--I think I spent more money on wine and cheese than I made! And look what happened—we continue to add more artists every year, our community has grown so much.” Stylist and shoe designer Beatrice Valenzuela is at the Echo Park Craft Fair, talking about when things were just warming up for her and her friends. In the few years since she started organizing small craft sales in her home, she and textile designer Rachel Craven have turned the fair into a bustling showcase of talent from the local design world. Though not much time has gone by, several small but significant developments have marked these past five years as a period of intense growth. Her friends have started shoe, handbag, and jewelry lines. Some have moved from paintbrush to potter’s wheel, exploring hidden talents they have since developed into cottage industries. Many have appeared with their best friends in major magazines. Still others have opened shops, where their wares are displayed alongside fellow artisans from across the nation. These various stories are a testament to the fact that those with a sense of beauty and a respect for natural materials have begun to revolutionize the consumer world on a grassroots level. The wider American marketplace seems to be taking notice.
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SPOTLIGHT
In Valenzuela’s own boutique, the shelves and tables that surround us are all sparsely populated with goods that she finds functional and visually appealing. There are various hand built vessels by Materia Lumina ceramicist Eefje Theeuws; a stack of woven, embroidered textiles; carefully painted plates from Mexico; a Serge Mouille-esque brass lamp and some patinated bronze hooks, both fashioned by Valenzuela’s husband, Ramsey Conder; and her own designs, leather moccasins hand made in her native Mexico, lining the wall in a kaleidoscopic variety of hues. Everything has a distinctly curated, textured feel, and for good rea- THE ECHO PARK CRAFT FAIR. PHOTO: DAVID VEGA son; Valenzuela has spent several years familiarizing herself with artisans from both Los Angeles and abroad, always keeping an eye out for what she would consider using in her own home. Each piece bears the mark of quality and is lovely not for any precision of form, but because it is approachable, tactile, and does not hide its organic qualities. For this reason, design aficionados have been immediately attracted to her store. This strong attraction towards the handmade is nothing new, of course; what has been revived is a palpable urge to reconnect object with artisan. It was most noticeably seen in in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the 1930s, and later, in the 1970s, when Americans embraced “how-to” books on quilting, leatherwork, macramé, and a variety of other crafts. More recently, there has been a huge resurgence of American made goods coming from small producers who have decided to learn the handmade techniques of previous generations. Today, cottage industries producing pottery, textiles, and furniture have begun emerging where big box stores have typically held sway over buying habits. Recently, craft fairs such as Unique L.A., the Renegade Craft Fair, Parachute, and the Echo Park Craft Fair have sprung up across the country, urging consumers to look more carefully at a material, a place of origin, and the artistic merit of an item 96
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SPOTLIGHT
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itself. Where once the spirit of craft was found at Waldorf fundraisers or in small towns in Appalachia, it can now be found in fashion, home furnishings, and in food. A call for local, sustainable, and consciously made items that will stand the test of time has been the most important catalyst, sparking an interest in products made with the human hand and that we can trust. “Product” seems an awkward term here, as it has come to mean (at least in post-industrial times) something produced en masse. Many of the pieces now making their way onto the shelves of craft stores sit somewhere between objet d’art and beautiful tool, things made for everyday use and visual pleasSHOES BY BEATRICE VALENZUELA. ure. One such object is the handloomed weaving hanging above our heads, a piece that Valenzuela made herself over the course of two years while raising her daughter Astrid. It isn’t for sale, though it would easily fetch much more than one made by automated means; the story would justify the value of such hard work. One gains respect for the process when it involves a certain level of distinctiveness, a patient dedication, and even a bit of wabi-sabi, that very trait that raises its imperfection to greater heights. “Everyone’s returning to weaving these days,” comments Valenzuela. “It’s slow, but rewarding. I took my time with it. Since I was at the last part of my pregnancy and then I had a child, you know. Some take much less and others can take years, but it’s incredible when people come together to weave.” The parallel between human development, patience, and community is obvious. Designer, artist, and social activit Tanya Aguiñiga, comes to mind. Aguiñiga has employed her knowledge of art and craft in Tijuana, where she spent much of her childhood years. She uses the two as a vehicle for community empowerment and social activism. As a successful furniture designer and fine artist, she has worked in a wide array of media, participating in fiber and furniture installations
SPOTLIGHT
(ABOVE) HANDMADE BOWL BY MATERIA LUMINA, ARTIST EEFJE THEEUWS. PHOTO: DAVID VEGA
(BELOW) ART MEETS CRAFT IN WORK BY TANYA AGUIﾃ選GA. PHOTO: TANYA AGUINIGA
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SPOTLIGHT
from Mexico City to Milan. As an entrepreneur, she sells her hand dyed textiles and accessories to support her projects. The busy Renaissance woman also shares her process by teaching workshops. She was recently featured in a special episode of the PBS series Craft in America dedicated to exploring its intersections with culture, and technology.* This cross-pollination of ideas has spread across a wide variety of disciplines. Los Angeles shoe designer Charlotte Stone, for example, started hosting her own weaving and tie-dyeing parties, calling her friends together to revisit the folk arts of a the previous generation. More recently, she invited a PORCELAIN PIPE BY ARTIST SEBASTIAN BOHER. friend from the shoe industry to show PHOTO: SEBASTIAN BOHER her and her friends how to color leather. Stone also collaborates with her husband and painter, Steve Nasker. While Nasker builds lounge chair frames in his studio, his wife uses macramé to create colorful patterns for the backs and seats, her contribution inspired by a love of fiber arts. Their growing business, Pacific Wonderland Inc., provides a venue for their art, shoe design, and furniture projects. Whereas the modern factory system has eradicated the connection between maker, man, and material object, the resurgence of craft has created new venues for human activity and collaboration. These venues—be they fairs, galleries, or a friend’s living room—have had a nurturing effect on local communities, activating hands and minds in social settings. Writer and diplomat Octavio Paz illuminates on this phenomenon when contemplating the spirit of art in the simple handmade bowl: “In its perpetual movement back and forth between beauty and utility, pleasure and service, the work of [its] craftsmanship teaches us lessons in sociability.” — *To watch the award-winning PBS series “Craft in America,” please visit http://www.craftinamerica.org/tvseries/story_436.php Web fabrik.la
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GAY SUMMER RICK • WEST CHANNEL TOWER • OIL ON CANVAS • 30 X 30 INCHES
ON VIEW DURING THE 2014 LOS ANGELES ART SHOW AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
Gay Summer Rick
www.gaysummerrick.com
REPRESENTED BY
GAY SUMMER RICK • QUIET HIGHWAY • OIL ON CANVAS • 40 X 30 INCHES
INSTALLATION PHOTOGRAPH, CALDER AND ABSTRACTION: FROM AVANT-GARDE TO ICONIC NOVEMBER 24, 2013–JULY 27, 2014, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, © CALDER FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY. PHOTO © FREDRIK NILSEN
MUSEUM VIEWS ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART See The Light – Photography, Perception, Cognition: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection THROUGH MARCH 23 Six years ago, LACMA acquired the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection of photographs, a remarkably encyclopedic compilation of 3600+ prints by almost 700 artists. The collection favors the West Coast but spans the globe. To judge from “See The Light,” the Vernons collected with a keen eye and an evolved sense of the history of their chosen medium, willing to acquire exemplary work by obscure artists alongside typical (although not necessarily iconic) work by well-known photographers. But “See The Light” is not simply a celebration of a collection; it is the rich, engaging substantiation of a dynamic curatorial thesis, one that places photography in the middle of recent human history and posits the art form as a result (or, if you would, symptom) as much of scientific as artistic advancement. The spine of the show is not any particular selection of photographs, but a timeline, wending its way throughout, measuring moments in the science and technology of seeing. Ways of measuring human vision intersperse with innovations in capturing imagery (1851: Helmholtz’s invention of the ophthalmoscope for viewing the human eye; 1888: the first Kodak “box” camera, etc.). Such a natural-history aspect to “See The Light” enlivens rather than deadens the artwork on the other walls. Similarly, the art-historical thesis also coursing through the show casts further light on the already-vivid images. Implicitly considering photography the quintessential art of the modern era, Curator Britt Salvesen divides its history into four periods: “Descriptive naturalism,” “Subjective naturalism,”
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM, MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM, 1925 • GELATIN SILVER PRINT. IMAGE: 9 1/8 X 11 1/2 IN. (23.18 X 29.21 CM). THE MARJORIE AND LEONARD VERNON COLLLECTION, GIFT OF THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION, ACQUIRED FROM CAROL VERNON AND ROBERT TURBIN © 1925, 2013 IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM TRUST. PHOTO © 2013 MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/LACMA
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
“Experimental Modernism,” and “Romantic Modernism.” She provides handy descriptions of these rubrics, but chooses and arranges the examples with a didactic grace driven by some of the same taste and sheer love of photography that motivated the Vernons. Salvesen consistently finds images that rhyme across countries, decades, techniques, and ideologies, for instance pairing the skeletal images of trees or the looming spaces of churches by photographers whose lives and allegiances were otherwise markedly disparate. Each of Salvesen’s four strains occupies its own time frame, but – like any good cultural phenomenon – none too tidily, and she goes to great lengths to identify examples of all four tendencies in the time periods of all three others. Don’t be surprised (much less jarred) by finding a William Henry Fox Talbot portrait, otherwise the early-cameratic model of Victorian propriety, displayed with photographs a century newer. Actually, you’ll be surprised by the fact that you’re not being jarred; there is a great sense of continuity, technical and optical, among the selection of works here. There are few color photos, for instance, and the
CHARLES HARBUTT, TRIPTYCH, (1978, PRINTED 1978) • GELATIN SILVER PRINT. IMAGE: 8 X 12 IN. MAT: 16 X 16 IN. THE MARJORIE AND LEONARD VERNON COLLLECTION, GIFT OF THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION, ACQUIRED FROM CAROL VERNON AND ROBERT TURBIN © COPYRIGHT © BY CHARLES HARBUTT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COURTESY PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY. PHOTO © 2013 MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/LACMA
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Vernons had a particular eye for structure and contrast. This bias Salvesen easily adopts as her own, and it helps her at once underscore and mitigate the scientific history driving the exhibition. It means leaving out a lot of (especially recent) photographic work, work that apparently didn’t gain the Vernons’ fancy; they were a lot more responsive to jazz-age Czech experimentalism, say, than to postmodern Cibachrome fantasy. But they loved the moments of overlap – Barbara Kasten’s luridly colored neo-constructivism, for instance, at one with the spirit of Jaroslav Rössler – and Salvesen exploits such inter-generational relationships so that the show ultimately rests as much on the continuity of photographic practice as on the particularity of photographic Zeitgeists or of photographic talents. That’s what is so gratifying about “See The Light.” It rests its points on both the illustrative and the autonomous strengths of the photographs, on their ability to stand on their own while standing next to one another, all amidst ambitious and delightfully diverting historiography. Such a multiple accomplishment, the curatorial equivalent of a triple axel, is as thrilling as the show’s contents – but, appropriately, not more so. There’s a bonus waiting in the back, a multiscreen film, playing continuously, by David Hockney. Actually, there are seven films in all, each one following the last, spread across the same 18 flat screens occupying a dark room behind “See The Light.” Over the past decade, Hockney has moved the focus of his operations from Los Angeles (where he is still nominally based) to the countryside of his native Yorkshire. The seven films are nothing more than relatively slow pans across small portions of northern-English woodland, trees swaying in the wind, flowers huddling along roadsides, that kind of thing. Hockney, who realized the films with a nine-camera array mounted on a car in spring 2011, went to great lengths to make the imagery discontinuous, each monitor slightly out of sync with its neighbors. Clearly, the cameras were not precisely concatenated, and the effect is deliciously un-smooth, much like the artist’s famous photo-collaged spreads of Pearblossom Highway several decades earlier. It all arises from Hockney’s fascination with human, and non-human, perception, and how the latter serves, and at the same time sabotages, the former. Helmholtz would have been delighted.
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic THROUGH JULY 27 Art lovers of a certain age may have as their earliest memory the endlessly fascinating dangle of simply fashioned objects above their cribs, hung from the ceiling, rotating in available breezes, and unpredictable in their direction or balance. By the 1950s, the “mobile” had become a decorative, not to mention pediatric, trope, a charming device as ubiquitous as the organically sprawling sofa or the cleverly decorated shot glass. Its inventor, Alexander Calder, had become one of the world’s best known, and by extension beloved, artists, his wit, handiness, and love of color endearing him (and the surrealism-lite he seemed to embody) to a public that fancied itself sophisticated but was in fact as charmable as its toddlers. Calder played to the stands, to be sure, but his art derived not only from his own sprightly imagination, but from his deep appreciation of his compeers’ innovations and insights. He was a third-generation sculptor, but also a secondgeneration surrealist and a second-generation abstractionist, friends with Mondrian no less than Miro and willing to do things with steel wire and polychrome that no one else had ever done in order to marry the sensibilities of the various very different artists he admired equally. Calder’s deft elegance and his clever defiance of gravity masked the ideological force and importance of his timely hybrid style, even before the ubiquity of his mobiles and stabiles rendered his work an overexposed cliché. “Calder and Abstraction” rekindles the sculptor’s art-historical resonance and re-examines the profundity of his achievement, stepping back from the clown act (without losing its ludic heart) to regard Calder as one of the great form-givers of modern times. Curator Stephanie Barron’s selection, mounted in Frank Gehry’s generously and appropriately voluptuous installation, allows Calder to experiment extravagantly throughout his career without ever losing sight of both his dedication to modernist ideals and his insouciant ability to play with shapes, both for their metaphorical evocations and their inherent power. He has fun from the first – and from the first as well, he is grounded and serious about the way forms come (and, soon, hang) together. Although the show proceeds dutifully from Calder’s salad days to his sunset years, it focuses continually on his drawing-like 108
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INSTALLATION PHOTOGRAPH, CALDER AND ABSTRACTION: FROM AVANT-GARDE TO ICONIC NOVEMBER 24, 2013–JULY 27, 2014, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, © CALDER FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY. PHOTO © FREDRIK NILSEN
sense of line and contour, his often ingenious ability to fabricate what are at once toys and tools, and his trapeze-artist defiance of gravity. Several spindly structures of various sizes that scurry around the floor and climb the walls, balance on tables and jump off into space strongly indicate that Calder doted on bugs and sought to emulate their sense of space and their freedom of movement. Even when he seemed to be doting on pachyderms, however, Calder was never content simply to rest on the ground. However ponderous he got – in the public-commission stabiles with their massive flanks, for instance – he was always giving his creatures legs or haunches or something to lift up on or with. Even if he built no real movement into the object, Calder built the spirit of movement into it – not nervous action, but simply the ability and ongoing desire to sally forth, or shuttle back. Watch one of the many characteristic (but never “typical”) mobiles move: it may rock and jitter, back and forth, but never the same way twice. Web fabrik.la
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MAXINE SMITH • THE SAILOR • 30 X 24 INCHES • OIL ON CANVAS, 2012
ON VIEW DURING THE LOS ANGELES ART SHOW AT THE FABRIK MAGAZINE BOOTH
MAXINE SMITH • GALLERY GIRL • 40 X 30 INCHES • OIL ON CANVAS, 2013
Maxine Smith www.maxinesmithart.com
CAMPBELL LAIRD campbelllairdstudio.com 2014 Los Angeles Art Show
BENEATH VENICE PIER, NO.1
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WONDER PRESENTS
From one of Hollywood’s boldest and most daring production companies comes The World According to Wonder, a wildly glamorous book featuring never-before-seen photos and exclusive stories from some of the world’s most controversial, exposed and interesting personalities. Order yours now at Amazon.com, or come pick up a copy at our Round Hole, Square Peg booth at photo la.
ARTISTS CORNER GALLERY & BOOKMAKING AT THE 1ST LGBT PHOTO LA EXHIBITION ROUND HOLE, SQUARE PEG
PHOTO BY AUSTIN YOUNG. TRANIMAL WORKSHOP, BERKELEY ART MUSEUM, 2010
ART WITH A MANIFESTO
Visit Round Hole, Square Peg at Photo L.A., January 16-19, 2014 at The California Mart – for tickets and show info visit www.photola.com
READ THE WOW REPORT worldofwonder.net • Visit us on Facebook ROUND HOLE, SQUARE PEG LGBT PHOTO SHOW www.ArtistsCorner.US
Glen Wexler Photographer
Hilary Sloane Photographer
Artwork available on www.artcapitol.com
hilarysloane@gmail.com hfs.photoshelter.com
Andy Warhol by Karen Bystedt and Chris Saunders
John Waguespack Artist, San Francisco, CA
Artwork available on www.artcapitol.com
info@jwagart.com jwagart.com
IN MEMORIUM
IN MEMORY OF CRAIG STEPHENS, 1964-2013 I T I S W I T H G R E AT SA D N E S S that the editors and staff of Fabrik note the untimely
passing of Craig Stephens, writer, who died from a sudden heart attack on November 22, 2013. A freelance journalist whose passion for writing and the arts made him a popular figure in the local art scene, his talent with the written word, quick wit and loyalty as a friend will be missed by many in LA and beyond. Born in Sydney, Australia on June 28, 1964, Craig moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago, and made his mark as a talented writer through his contributions to many publications, including Fabrik, ArtweekLA, Hemispheres, LA Weekly, LA Times, LA Post, Daily Beast, GQ, Esquire, LA City Beat, Profiles, Dart International, World Sculpture News, and others. Most recently he helped launch 7Hollywood Magazine, with over a dozen articles in their premier issue. Craig loved not only art, but artists, and helped inspire and promote many locals in his career through his public relations efforts and artist management. His personal contacts with publishers, galleries and museums in LA, New York, and Australia created a vast network for the clients he covered, and he was beloved by many for his guidance and support. As a consultant and art critic, he was one of the best and brightest in the city, and his spirited and knowledgeable prose could make you laugh, cry and certainly think. Although his spirit has moved to another realm, it is those words that will live on and create his legacy.
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ART MEETS ARCHITECTURE
PRESENTS
The Salon
RAFFI MUSAKHANYAN
Where people meet, view art, listen to music, socialize and discuss culture in an intimate setting.
MIXED MEDIA PAINTINGS January—March 2014 Loft 905 • Eastern Columbia Building 849 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014
FOR PRIVATE VIEWING, CONTACT LISA AMES 805-217-2186 WWW.ARTMEETSARCHITECTURE.COM
Making its inaugural debut in 2014, and running concurrently with Paris Photo Los Angeles, PHOTO INDEPENDENT is the first and only high-visibility art fair showcasing independent photographers.
April 24-27, 2014 Raleigh Studios, Hollywood photoindependent.com
PHOTO: BOURGOYEN: EARLY AUTUMN © CATHERINE NELSON. 2013 AX3 PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR WINNER — WWW.AX3.CC