Machine Project at LACMA, Steve Turner Contemporary, & Chung King Projects

Last weekend, I was planning on going to the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (the fires that were raging in the hills in Chino and Anaheim), I was unable to go. I will go this weekend.

I did see some great art at the gallery openings last Saturday night. Here are the highlights of the night.

My first stop was the Davis Rhodes show entitled White Year at ACME on Wilshire Blvd. I really enjoyed this show. Rhodes work is minimalist in style. Per the press release and the artist statement, Rhodes sought to invoke and reinterpret Barnett Newman. I can see Barnett Newman in his work. Rhodes work is heroic in style and in the way he approaches color and geometry. But an artist that Rhodes does not mention is Robert Mangold. Both Rhodes and Mangold use minimalism and varied shape of canvases as points of reference. Definately a must see. http://www.acmelosangeles.com/ through Dec. 20, 2008.

At Steve Turner Contemporary, a group show where early modernist landscape meets contemporary landscape art with a feminist twist. Entitled The View, a group exhibition of works by four Los Angeles based women artists in concert with paintings and drawings by the California modernist Henrietta Shore (1880-1963) is dialog between early American Modernist landscape artist Shore and contemporary artists such as photographs by Ellen Birrell, paintings by Pearl C. Hsiung, sculpture by Tia Pulitzer and composite paintings by Megan Williams. The show is a delight to see. The works really connect with one another and one can see how the idea of landscape art in the American West has developed from the 1930s almost romantic notion to the contemporary art's view of the landscape. Go. http://www.steveturnercontemporary.com/ through Dec. 20, 2008.

At LACMA, Machine Project, a collective of artist, poets, writers, etc, took over the museum. It was awesome and at time very strange. It was fun. There were artist installations, performance pieces, a murder mystery, and even haircuts with ambient music. Unfortunately it was only for one day. Being there, I felt like I was at the Caberet Voltaire during the First World War. For more info, read this article in the LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-lacma17-2008nov17,0,2476602.story.

My next stop was Maeghan Read's show at Chung King Projects. Maeghan's work shows a great deal depth in her work. She explores Islamic culture and its contrast and conflict with Western culture. One sees images of muslims praying, and gathering at the cafe's. But they are within the context the "other" or outside the culture. In a departure from her previous works, which focused on interior and domestic life, Maeghan's work goes outside to explore the world using collage and mixed-media in her paintings. Her work makes a statement about both the ciltural and geopolitcal situation today. It is really great show. I look forward to seeing more. http://www.chungkingproject.com/ through Dec. 20th, 2008.

My last stop was Jail Gallery.