The appearance of J. Matthew Thomas on our Earth is a rare and fortuitous event, akin to a special comet or eclipse that occurs once every 500 hundred years or so. He is the DaVinci of our day-and-age, a true Visionary bringing together community, education, environment and art with international events such as the PASEO, programs such as Studio TAOS and Pecha Kucha nights. His tenure at the Harwood Museum in Taos has seen him at the curatorial Vanguard in featuring previously unknown or undervalued works by Women, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and other underrepresented artists. [Read more…]
Twenty Que with Larry Bell
Even a cursory investigation into nearly any seminal cultural moment, institution, or movement in the latter half of the 20th century, reveals the presence of artist Larry Bell. Bell’s presence in the Arts is akin to the glass boxes that he is most known for, that, at once, reflect, reveal, and transform their environment. The works are mirrors, windows, lenses, yet are also self-contained and complete in and of themselves. From Disney animation, to Abstract Expressionism, to the West Coast Light and Space movement, to the famed Ferus Gallery, to Dennis Hopper’s legendary Taos scene, to the Venice Beach scene (he even has a bar named after him: “Larry’s”), to the iconic cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Bell was there, and none of it — and, in turn, the Arts today — would be the same without his presence. [Read more…]
Getting Lost On The High Ground Of Greater Than L.A.
at Desert Center, Los Angeles (through 21 July 2018)
Reviewed by Shana Nys Dambrot
There’s something about Los Angeles that makes people constantly wrestle with what it means and never tire of describing how life is lived here. No other place, not even Paris or New York, has sponsored such a compendium of self-reflexive art and literature, almost all somehow both obsessive and ambivalent at the same time. L.A. is the kind of place where people who’ve never been here have more passion and frequently more insight about its nature than natives, which is to say, Hollywood especially, is such an aspirational, archetypal place, that there’s almost more cultural currency in projection and fantasy than in a direct yet diffuse experience of it. [Read more…]
The Divine Unity Of Man, Machine, And The Moon
Billy Al Bengston’s It is the Moon Doggie
at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (through October 28, 2017)
Reviewed by Emily Nimptsch
Known for his eccentric personality, flock of famous artists he calls friends, and wildly experimental geometric paintings, Billy Al Bengston is currently the subject of a much-anticipated retrospective featuring 30 years of his beloved moon paintings at Hollywood’s trendy Various Small Fires Gallery.
Captivated by the seas of stars and luminous moonscapes he witnessed while on a motorcycle trip down the breathtaking Baja Peninsula, Bengston began capturing this incandescent starlight on canvas. He debuted his first moon painting collection at Santa Monica’s James Corcoran Gallery in 1987. The artist has since added to that original series over the years, but never before have they all been displayed together, making this exhibition an incredibly rare opportunity for fans of the artist. [Read more…]
Charles Garabedian and His Contemporaries
at LA LOUVER, Los Angeles
Reviewed by Nancy Kay Turner
Charles Garabedian and His Contemporaries brings together a veritable Who’s Who of Southern California art stars, including Ed Moses, John Altoon, William Brice, John Mc Cracken, Tony Berlant, Robert Heinecken, John Chamberlain, Robert Irwin, Richard Diebenkorn, John McLaughlin, Vija Celmins, Don Suggs, Larry Bell, Sam Francis and Tom Wudl. It’s the dizzying equivalent of an art world “Greatest Hits” album, with the “A” side all Charles Garabedian (who died in 2016). A dozen of his paintings on paper and canvas, all looking as fresh as the day they were painted, range from 1966-2012. Garabedian’s work, though often playful, is beguiling and challenging with its dense literary and mythological allusions. [Read more…]