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Archives for May 2019

Radiant Poetic Shadows And The Timeless Framings Of Roy DeCarava

May 2, 2019 By Henry Cherry Leave a Comment

Roy DeCarava: The Work of Art, at The Underground Museum, Los Angeles (through June 30)
Reviewed by Henry Cherry

Despite a couple of career retrospectives and a small handful of books, the late photographer Roy DeCarava is one of the most overlooked photographers of his era. His photos are among the few photographic equivalents to sound. Somehow, in spite of this majesty, his obscurity persists. But this spring, across Los Angeles, his work is being well served. DeCarava is represented by 21 photographs in the Broad Museum’s Soul of a Nation show, where the late photographer is one of many voices. While several of his disciples are part of the Annenberg Space for Photography’s Contact High show dedicated to the documentation of hip hop, it is the Underground Museum’s Roy DeCarava: The Work of Art, on view until June 30th 2019, where DeCarava gets the best chance to imprint his genius upon the next generation. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Art, Artist, Image, The Line

In Fabric Is A Decadent Horror About A Dress That Kills

May 2, 2019 By Kristy Puchko Leave a Comment

Reviewed by Kristy Puchko

Glamorous. Daring. Sexy. A new dress can feel like a promise to yourself that you’ll become the woman fit to wear it. But in writer/director Peter Strickland’s twisted horror-comedy In Fabric, a dress becomes something sinister. With a knee length skirt with flowing long sleeves, the “Ambassadorial Function Dress” offers elegance with a streak of sex appeal. But danger lurks in the details. A “dagger neckline” and its “artery red” color warn that this dress is a slasher. Seriously, like Michael Myers, Chucky, or Jason Voorhees, the Ambassadorial Function Dress will stalk, torment, and kill any who dare wear it. And while this garment may be battered and brutalized, it will rise again, renewed and ready for more carnage. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Film, The Line

Gan Bi’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night Floats Along The Back Rivers Of Memory

May 1, 2019 By Alci Rengifo Leave a Comment

Reviewed by Alci Rengifo

It is difficult to describe the experience of watching Long Day’s Journey Into Night without sounding as if you are remembering a dream. The new film by China’s Gan Bi is more about ambiance than plot, more about the hazy feeling of attempting to travel back in time through the eye of mind. It is the very texture of the film that weaves a strange spell. Bi is one of the emerging new voices of Chinese cinema, which is already renowned for visual inventiveness.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Film, The Line

Grace Ives Gives Us A Fairest “Mirror”

May 1, 2019 By CvH Leave a Comment

From the recent 2nd

https://www.riotmaterial.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/01-Mirror.m4a

on Dots Per Inch

Filed Under: Riot Sounds

The Un-Man Falleth

May 1, 2019 By Barrett Martin 2 Comments

by Barrett Martin

“The Un-Man Falleth” is from Martin’s forthcoming book,
The Way of the Zen Cowboy: Fireside Stories From A Globetrotting Rhythmatist
Out May 10 on Sunyata Books

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
—Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln’s quote above is probably more true today than it was when he said it back in the mid-19th century, and this is evidenced in the rampant corruption that has seized Lincoln’s own party today, at every level of government, from the lowest municipal bureaucrat up to the White House. Over the last 50 years, and long before the presidential election of 2016, I’ve watched as the United States devolved into a wave of angry male misogyny, bigotry, and outright racism that has embarrassed our country to a degree that I didn’t think was possible—until it became a reality.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: The Line

1.9

May 1, 2019 By Riot Material Leave a Comment

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase JoeSuitcase Joe. "That Evening Sun," a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row, is at Riot Material Magazine.

He goes by the name “City.” He just served a year and a half in jail and upon his release came right back to the streets and started using heroin again. City has struggled with his addiction for the last 10 years. He told me: “I grew up in a normal suburban home with a good family. I just got into some crazy shit.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: That Evening Sun

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The Line

Mary Corse: A Survey of Light, at LACMA, is reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier magazine for art

Mary Corse: A Survey in Light

at LACMA (through November 11) Reviewed by Lita Barrie Mary Corse is finally having her moment in a breakout role as the luminary of  “light painting.” Although Corse has received critical acclaim since the sixties she has been overshadowed by male SoCal Light and Space artists. Interestingly, it took New York women curators to revise the […]

Lindsey Warren, Venice Twilight. A review of Warren's current exhibition, A Love Letter, is reviewed at Riot Material magazine.

A Love Letter to LA Offers a Haunting Magic

at Launch Gallery, Los Angeles (through November 16) Reviewed by Genie Davis Magic is the word that first comes to mind when describing the two-artist exhibition currently at Launch Gallery. A Love Letter is an exhibition of landscapes — quintessentially Los Angeles landscapes — that serve as landmarks for both the city’s, and the artists’, zeitgeist.

Wangari Mathenge "The Cacophony of Silence." Methenge's latest exhibition at Roberts Projects, Aura of Quiet, is reviewed at Riot Material magazine.

Wangari Methenge’s Aura of Quiet

at Roberts Projects (through November 16) Reviewed by Eve Wood How do artists convey silence within two-dimensional space? I would argue that it is difficult to create an authentic connection between the subject and the viewer, and it is even more difficult to create a space of quietude and self-reflection even as the artist is […]

Nels Cline & Yuka Honda are Cup. Their new record, Spinning Creatures, is reviewed at Riot Material Magazine.

CUP’s Hydra-Headed Spinning Creature

on Northern Spy Reviewed by John Payne Wherein the husband and wife team up to rinse and shine the aural punchbowl, no squabbling. Nels Cline & Yuka Honda are Cup, co-cookers of rich, musically nutritious stuff packed with savory, skewed nuance that reflects their artistic differences and affinities. Guitar visionary Cline’s scope, skills and, yes, taste, […]

The Lesson. Enrique Martinez Celaya’s current exhibition at Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, is reviewed at RIot Material magazine.

Enrique Martínez Celaya’s The Tears of Things

at Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles ( through November 2) Reviewed by Lita Barrie Enrique Martínez Celaya’s haunting exhibition at Kohn Gallery is conceived as visual poetry predicated upon Virgil’s phrase “the tears of things,” from Aeneid ( Book 1, line 462), about an encounter with a mural of the battle of Troy which made the […]

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, reviewed at Riot Material magazine.

Atmosphere So Thick You’ll Choke: Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse

Reviewed by Kristy Puchko In 2016, production designer turned writer/director Robert Eggers awed critics with his directorial debut, The Witch, a daring horror film set in the 1630s. Now, for his ferociously anticipated follow-up, he and his brother/co-writer Max Eggers have journeyed 200-some years to a rocky and remote island off the New England coast […]

Pink Peep (detail). Laura Krifka's latest exhibition at Luis De Jesus is reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier art magazine.

Laura Krifka’s Wickedly Deviant The Game of Patience

at Luis De Jesus (through October 26) Reviewed by Lita Barrie Laura Krifka enjoys doing things she is not supposed to do. Having absorbed the tenets of neoclassical painting, she bypasses high-minded seriousness by adding a candy-coated veneer of hyper-artificiality adopted from 1950s MGM musicals to the domestic decor of private scenes she then undercuts […]

How to Hate the City: A Storyboard Of Canvases

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at The Neue Galerie, NYC (through January 13) Reviewed by John Haber No movement in early modern art was as cosmopolitan as German Expressionism — and the group that called itself Die Brücke. Who else took to the streets when Picasso was just finding his way from circus performers to still life? […]

Swans' Leaving Meaning, Various Personnel. Leaving Meaning is reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier magazine for art and sound.

Sound Itself As The Only Way Forward In Swans’ Leaving Meaning

out October 25 on Young God Records Reviewed by John Payne Michael Gira founded/guiding-lighted the sort of no-wave / noise / spiritual-purification band Swans in NYC 35 some odd years ago, and, roughly, he’s made a career out of trying musically to express the inexpressible ever since. After a hiatus of a few years, during which […]

The Vast of Night, dir. by Andrew Patterson, is reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier magazine for art and film

In Jaw-Dropping Homage To The Twilight Zone, The Exhilarating The Vast of Night

Reviewed by Kristy Puchko There’s something in the air on a crisp night in 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico. Sure, there’s excitement as basketball season begins with a game so anticipated that nearly the entirety of this rural town has convened upon the high school’s gymnasium. But then there’s something stranger, a crackle on the phone […]

Resilience: Philip Guston In 1971

at Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (through January 5, 2020) Reviewed by Nancy Kay Turner …there’s no success like failure and failure’s no success at all Bob Dylan The painter’s first duty is to be free Philip Guston In 1970, New York City was the undisputed center of the art world and 57th street in […]

Betye Saar’s Call and Response, at LACMA, is reviewed at Riot Material magazine, LA's premier art magazine.

Process And Fierce Redemption In Betye Saar’s Call and Response

at LACMA (through April 5, 2020) Reviewed by Genie Davis Betye Saar’s riveting, 40-object exhibition currently at LACMA offers a fascinating insight into the artist’s process. It’s strong focus on the power of redemptive faith and personal strength in the face of adversity is passionate and compelling – which can be frankly said of all Saar’s […]

Virgil Abloh, from Figures of Speech. Reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier magazine for art and fashion

Audacious Digs In Virgil Abloh’s Figures of Speech

at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Reviewed by Seren Sensei In a short video clip during Figures of Speech, Virgil Abloh’s show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago, he mused on his upbringing and influences. Born the son of Ghanaian immigrants in a small town in Illinois, he discussed the wonders of growing […]

Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg’s This Is It. As part of Apple's [AR]T Walk, reviewed at Riot Material.

Lightly Through The Looking Glass With Apple’s [AR]T Walk

By Mayne Alert the critics: The cutting edge of New York City’s art avantgarde can now be found at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. Amid the blistering doldrums of summer, Apple has offered [AR]T Walk a guided tour of their new augmented reality exhibit. Co-curated with the New Museum, the tour is being offered in five […]

Antonio Banderas and Nora Navas in Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria), directed by Pedro Almodóvar and reviewed at Riot Material magazine.

Wounds Of Desire In Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory

Reviewed by John Payne Were you looking for such a thing, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more humanizing film than Pedro Almodóvar’s latest little miracle. The Spanish director/writer’s Pain and Glory is a story about an artist, who suffers, and remembers, and relives. This tale is only somewhat the story of people in general, […]

Review of Hiroko Oyamada’s The Factory at Riot Material magazine

Hiroko Oyamada’s Mordant Fable, The Factory

Reviewed by John Biscello The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada New Directions, 128pp., $13.95 The year was 1936, when an indefatigable tramp served as a working-class Virgil in guiding audiences through the hellscape of big industry and assembly line madness. The tramp, of course, was Charlie Chaplin in his iconic film, Modern Times, which applied fool’s […]

Peter Doig, Music (2 Trees). Doig's latest exhibition is reviewed at Riot Material magazine.

Corrosion And Other Maladies In Peter Doig’s Latest, Paintings

Paintings, at Michael Werner Gallery, London (16 November) Reviewed by Christopher P Jones With Peter Doig – who has a collection of new paintings on show at the Michael Werner Gallery, London – corrosion is paramount. His paintings seek to overturn themselves from within, alluding to altered states, to dreams and hallucinations. His paint has become […]

Alexandra Masangkay in The Platform (El Hoyo) 2019, reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier magazine for art and film,

A Movable Feast In The Dystopic The Platform

Reviewed by Kristy Puchko Imagine: you awake in a cold, concrete prison cell. There are no windows, no doors, one cellmate, and a big, square hole in the center of the floor. Should you peek down into it, you’d see a cell below the same as yours. And beneath that lie so many more that […]

Robert Gunderman's latest exhibition, This End, is reviewed at Riot Material, LA's premier art and culture magazine.

Transits Through Finalities In Robert Gunderman’s This End

at AF Projects, Los Angeles (through October 12) Reviewed by Eve Wood Robert Gunderman’s current exhibition at AF Projects could be understood as both a meditation on the nature of time and an investigation into the elusiveness of memory. The title of the exhibition, This End, powerfully yet simply encapsulates and personalizes the idea of transition […]

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RIOT MATERIAL
art. word. thought.