The Future Please

Jenny Holzer

L&M Gallery, Venice, CA

September 2012

Whether you are well versed in the work of Jenny Holzer or never heard of her before, the L&M exhibition The Future Please is a “Cliff’s Notes” to the artist’s work. As it has been at least two decades since Holzer had a major exhibition in Los Angeles, it is a welcomed show. Featuring works from the last thirty years coupled with new paintings from Holzer, one is able to fully experience her use of text and language as a medium. Holzer is a master at examining social reality through sculpture and text. For this exhibition, L&M grouped four of the artist’s iconic LED light sculptures in their West Gallery.  With dim lighting and no windows the works are blinding. This retrospective highlights the artists diversity as well as her consistency in using text to respond to political, social and emotional truths, no matter how difficult the subject matter. These sculptures act as story boards, sometimes whizzing by pivotal and powerful phrases so fast, that the viewer doesn’t have time to process the significance of the statement. However, the phrases linger on your mind hours after leaving the gallery. 

The new works in this show, a collection of oil paintings the artist has dubbed The Reaction Paintings, are based on declassified United States documents. The works mirror the documents as they were released with large swaths of text redacted for presumed security and privacy reasons. The artist has decided to use bright and light colors superimposed over the missing text. In Secret 6 the bright, powerful color choices reflect those of an exposed chromatic photograph while in 6 the colors are softer and lighter. In both works and throughout, the artist continues to use text or the absence of it as the medium of her work. Alongside the paintings and with the LED installation are four of the American black granite benches from the Under the Rock series all dating from 1986.

Outside of the gallery spaces are Holzer’s latest projections as well as a collection of her earlier granite benches and wall plaques from the 1980’s. Whereas the text on the black granite benches is clear to understand, the benches in the garden are white granite and perhaps purposefully difficult to read due to the materiality. They require the viewer to pay close attention to decipher every word. Another major medium for Holzer is light projection. Her text-based projection series use architecture as the canvas and have been seen on some of the most iconic buildings throughout the world over the last 15 years. At L&M the artists presents a paired down version in two new editions. The works are gobo light projections, a new technology for the artists, but she has decided to project text from her 1970’s series Truism, further highlighting Holzer’s consistency and diversity.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Although I’ve been in LA for over two months now I have not made it to half of the galleries and museums I want to see. However, I have a list of over 30 Culver City galleries on the line-up this week and have the downtown art walk (link) on my to-do list. Also on my list is the Hammer and the always-press-worthy MOCA.

One institution I have been to on several occasions is LACMA – mostly due to its geographical attractiveness (walking distance from my apartment). Clearly, I’ve already posted videos of Chris Burden’s “Metropolis II” – a complex, large and seriously fun sculptural piece. The work was made with a small army of gallery assistants and only “runs” at select times just a few days a week. I was also really excited to see Bruce Nauman’s video work “For Beginners” which debuted a few years ago at New York's Sperone Westwater (link) I am sure most people do not stay in the gallery long to watch the different combinations, but I find the movement and vocals calming and almost memorizing. 

The Broad has some other fabulous exhibitions including Sharon Lockhart’s video works which are also calming mostly due to the choreography of dance movements timed to repetitive music that seems almost eerily at times. Walking through the different galleries the works not only pull you in but also push you away. With life-size scale and the same music throughout made the video pieces feel more like a live performance.

I also very much appreciated the small but powerful photographs in the “Figure and Form in Contemporary Photography” exhibition. Many old friends were in this group exhibition including Catherine Opie and David LaChapelle alongside  a new favorite – Slater Bradley (link).

Of course, no trip to LACMA is complete now without a trip under the Levitated Mass. It was actually a really beautiful rock and although you may just walk by it if you were in the desert, in the middle of LA this work is brilliantly exhibited and it is a transporting experience. I’m excited to get back at an off-hour to hopefully spend some time alone with the Mass – I imagine it’s even more powerful without the crowds.

images from lacma.org and slaterbradley.com

Chris Burden: Metropolis II @ LACMA

http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/metropolis-ii

Marfa, Texas

I don’t even know where to begin with Marfa. When I started heading to Miami for Art Basel in 2006 Elmgreen & Dragset had just constructed the “Prada Marfa” and photographs of the installation have been at almost every fair since then. It became a town that was totally hyped yet still mysterious. In the desert of west Texas, three hours from El Paso and seven from Austin, its remote location only added to the allure of the small town of 2,000 people that was home to “world-class” contemporary art. When we decided to drive across the country from New York to Los Angeles, a stop in Marfa was a must. With complete terror of rural America and driving through the middle of nowhere with questionable cell phone reception, we made our way from Austin to Marfa. About an hour outside of Austin, I had a complete meltdown of the wild animals we might encounter, I emailed the only two people I knew who been before.  They both assured me they had the best time without any reptile interference. As the landscaped transitioned from wooded to pure desert and the mountains started to build up my fears quickly transitioned to excitement.

We rented the most adorable apartment on Dean Street across from Ballroom. It was a one bedroom with the perfect fenced-in patio. It was the best location and we could walk almost anywhere downtown. We got in around 6pm and we’re sad to see that Pizza Foundation was closed for renovations. Although, since then I found out the building was closed as Oklahoma City-based City Arts Center (http://cityartscenter.org/) is investing money into the property with new exhibition and educational space. We ended up at a restaurant that will remain nameless and definitely not recommended. Expect to pay for mediocre food unless you go to Cochineal (http://cochinealmarfa.com/), where we had one of the top three dinners on our cross-country trip (only surpassed by Uchi in Austin http://www.uchiaustin.com/ and tied with JCT Kitchen http://www.jctkitchen.com/ in Atlanta). We only had one full day in town and it was packed with tours of both the Chinati and Judd Foundations. I wish we stayed an extra day as there was a lot we missed (seems to be the story of my life – never scheduling enough time). But this only leaves the perfect reason to go back and book a flight to El Paso (and no offense, but probably the only reason to go to El Paso).

We started the day at 11am at Chinati (http://www.chinati.org/) for an abridged tour of the collection – a two-hour tour. I wasn’t sure what to expect but was totally blown away by the works in the collection. Although, I never love a guided-tour as I always move faster than the average person, I dealt with it. Since it was the abridged tour, we didn’t walk by Donald Judd’s exterior sculpture “15 untitled works in concrete” but spent at least 30 minutes walking through the two artillery sheds that housed “100 untitled works in mill aluminum”.  The works were beautiful, true minimal works and although the repetition of the shapes at times was mundane, the clean, shinny sculptures against the harsh desert landscape was inspiring. The more time we spent on-property, the more those 15 concrete sculptures were enticing me in the distance, probably because I knew we didn’t have the time to walk down and around them as I only planned for one hour between tours. From Judd’s aluminum works we wondered into old barracks to see one Dan Flavin piece spread over six spaces. The works (all light installations, Flavin’s most well-known medium) were genius in their response to the space as well their play with natural light. We walked from one space to another watching the shades and shadows of blue, pink, orange and yellow play with one another. From there the small tour group caravanned into town where an old mohair factory had been stripped down and converted to a large gallery for John Chamberlain’s large works.  Sadly, the docent informed us of Chamberlain’s process in making the works. This includes him and a slew of gallery assistants banging the shit out of used car parts, boats and other discarded objects. It took all meaning out of the works. Even if at the end all works can “stand on their own”, they all seemed less special.

I can understand how you might not understand Judd’s work; the precision and extreme minimalism that turns into true beauty for some can easily be a box for most. And do to Judd’s medium, I am aware a lot of his work is outsourced, but it is that unrelenting attention to detail and simplicity not to mention the use of textures and materials that inspire me. And my new perceived lack of this in Chamberlain’s work is disappointing. I’ll have to do more research on the artist and the process; perhaps I am misinformed.

After our Chinati tour, we grabbed amazing, authentic burritos from Marfa Burrito and rushed over to the Judd Foundation (http://www.juddfoundation.org/marfa.htm), a completely separate entity from Chinati. The first tour was of Judd’s architecture works; as he become more wealthy, Judd invested in several great buildings in downtown Marfa. On this tour, we saw a residence, a storage shed, an old grocery store and an amazing bank dating from the 1930s. Judd took most of these structures and stripped them down to their bare essentials. The grocery store was nothing more than concrete floors, a ceiling with bare trusts and cinderblock walls. The space was filled with high tables that were scattered with several of the artist’s tools, books, works in progress, etc. While, no works were made in the grocery store, it was a space the artists used as a research labratory, a think-tank of sorts. It was a wonderful space, albeit a bit dark due to just one wall of windows.

From there we toured a residence the artists had purchased and completely gutted. There wasn’t much to see in this space and I am not sure why it was included on the tour. The Foundation has installed in this space and the neighboring storage shed early paintings by Judd that everyone on the tour agreed were not the best works we’ve seen. However, it was great to see the early works from an artist to inform how they ended up making concrete bat caves in the middle of the desert. The “15 untitled concrete works” were home to bats for many years until nests were made nearby.

The final and best stop was the bank. On the main street in town, it was a beautiful building from the outside with mild deco features and a prominence over the corner where it sat. Inside, the ground floor was completely torn up- bare concrete walls, floors and ceilings were all that remained. This space was a bit of a mess, but it was great to see a nearly 100-year old building completely stripped down. It was rare to see history in such a one-of-a-kind way. Upstairs on the second floor was an architectural studio – a collection of small rooms that contained the drawings and models from multiple architectural projects Judd was working on at time of his death in 1994. The place was very clean and honestly, really fun to explore but still maintained a sense that it was unfinished.

Later in the day, we wondered over to the Block, the residence Judd purchased that was originally home to one of the generals (or someone very senior in the armed forces). You weren’t able to go into the home where he lived, but we toured two artillery sheds that sat next to his residence. The place was completely walled-in by a nine-foot wall. It transported the space out of the desert and while it was an amazing space to be in, it also made you forget that you were in this amazing rural landscape. Within those sheds were his library and some gallery spaces that he used again for inspiration but not for actually making art. In hindsight I am not sure if Judd make any work in Marfa or just designed architectural and sculptural pieces. The true inspiration came form an amazing breeze that rustled through the trees in this very clean, minimal block with the blazing, setting desert sun.

Overall, it was great and very inspiring. The Chinati spaces were the highlight of the day and I am sad we did not book more time to see more of the town and other exhibits in town. But I am already talking about heading back in October for the annual Open House weekend.

And of course, on our way out of town, en route to Albuquerque, we had to stop at the infamous Prada Marfa. It was further out of town than we had expected. Actually, it was past the next small town of Valentine. And after all the hype, it was god damn fantastic! The best parts that you never hear about are 1. the train tracks that are across the street that only add to the rural feel of the location and 2. the back of the installation has totally be tagged up but not crazy and you never see images of it (to come in a follow-up post). The worst part is the huge camera that is installed on the piece to deter vandals. It seems to be working as the piece has stayed in tact but it still takes something away, or maybe that camera says more about our society than I realized... 

transcontinental art tour

our own manifest destiny

After 10 years in  New York, I will be making the great transcontinental voyage to Los Angeles. It’s a city that has always kept a piece of my heart as I’ve continued to thrive and grow in New York. Starting May 2^nd I will begin the road trip from New York across the south to Los Angeles.

Stops along the way we hope to hit (but no promises) :

Charlotte:

Mint Museum Uptown  http://mintmuseum.org/

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art http://bechtler.org/

Atlanta:

The High Museum of Art http://www.high.org/

Jackson Fine Art http://www.jacksonfineart.com/

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center http://www.thecontemporary.org/

Dallas:

Dallas Museum of Art http://www.dm-art.org/

Nasher Sculpture Center http://www.nashersculpturecenter.org/

Marfa:

Chinati Foundation http://www.chinati.org/

Judd Foundation http://www.juddfoundation.org/marfa.htm

I am still researching other stops along the way with great excitement for Albuquerque and Flagstaff. Any suggestions or tips are gladly welcomed in the cities above plus Nashville, Little Rock, Austin and anywhere in-between. 

The Satellite Fairs - ABMB

Art Basel Miami Beach - Day two.... 

We started the day touring new condo projects (my other love) but hurried to Midtown Miami to hit the satellite fairs, quite possibly the best part of Basel in Miami. It’s so amazingly great that Art Miami and Scope are across the street with NADA in-between! It’s such a treat to have this convenience when you’ve been running blocks and blocks to make it to the other satellite fairs on the beach.

We started off with Art Miami where there was a huge line to get in, but thanks to the MoMA Junior Associates, I was able to skip the line and walk right in. This might have been the best collection of new artists for me as a lot of the work in the booths was artists I had not seen before. First up was Cyrille Andrea’s pure white sculptural piece. What appealed to me was the scale of the piece, larger than life sculptures of a man and four large birds or ducks. I am not sure what the piece was aiming for, but it’s placement in the booth and its scale was impressive. Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures were not only here but also were highlighted in a booth at Pulse. The work at Art Miami was tilted “Litter”. It was a sculpture of three little human animals. The beings had the characteristics of human babies but with some distortions and hair covering their back took on a more animalistic feel. Carmic as it may be, the hair was made from human hair however its use in this work transformed otherwise looking human babies to an animal being.

I am not sure what grabbed me in Bryan El Castillo’s oil and mixed media painting, but the woman with her eyes white out and her fed-up expression with a cigarette seemed brilliant. An angel or maybe devil coming down to judge us all. Also angelic were the photographs by Tim White-Sobeski who had two photographs of shirtless boys in what appears to be a suburban backyard. Its unclear exactly what’s going on in the home, but this boy is clearly standing in defiance yet his youth still holds him in that yard. Other highlights included a recent work by Julian Schnabel from 2007 – a self-portrait no less – as well as an early photo of Keith Haring body painting Grace Jones. Clay Ketter’s deceptive photograph of a golf-side suburban community titled “Spider Woods” only took shape a day later when I saw the photograph below.

Edelman Arts was giving you something of a theme with several artists finding inspiration from Saint Sebastian who turns out is commonly depicted tied to a post and shot with arrows. I loved the shape, shadows and light in Cynthia Karaella’s photograph San Sebastian from the Humanity Series. However, it was Christopher Winter’s acrylic painting “Alpha Centauri St. Sebastian” that pulled us into the booth and kept us wanting more.

We moved from Art Miami over to Scope to check their line-up, another fair that never seems to disappoint. The hands-down highlight was “Battle Stations” by Jorge Santos. It’s titles like this that remind me how much I love when an artists gives you more info, more insight with the title than just “Untitled #456”. Of course I love this acrylic and oil painting as all the skinny, white, hair-less boys basically look ready to get fucked. Sorry, there is just no other way to say what this work portraits and I loved it. The boat and scenery reminded me of a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. The piece was $38,000 and while amazingly crafted and conceived, it was well beyond our price ceiling.

Finally, our last stop was Pulse where we did see great works, but didn’t’ really stop to get much more info on the works. I loved Outer Deruytter’s photographs including the implied hustler in front of what appears to be an adult store on Eighth Avenue, maybe circa 1987. The highlight however was Tad Beck’s dual-video and diptych that took our heart and still has us stuffing pennies into our piggy bank.  The work, allegedly about being in boarding school, took two male models and completely emasculated them. By writing graphic things on their bodies to throwing what looking like cooking flour on them, all while they were in underwear and tied up. It all took on a very simple and understated (or in hindsight maybe overstated) analysis of how our sexual proclivities are formed and quite possibly while some things just turn us on. There was nothing overtly sexual about the piece, a lot of it was left up to the viewer where you took the piece. And further more, there was nothing homosexual about the piece, except every piece was homosexual. It’s a very comparable work to Brian Finke’s Frat Boys series where you hear the artist’s ideas about male identification and surprisingly it goes somewhere very homophobic. A lot more to digest on this topic.

We did make it to the late party at Fountain Saturday night. The fair was better than ever. It was in the same space but the circulation was totally different and it took me more than a few minutes to get my bearings. Of course, that could be do to the four cocktails, two glasses of wine and two beers I had before we got to Fountain – this is Miami after all. Aaron Reichert had not only a great portrait of Abe Lincoln but also a fun, pop photograph/collage piece that we assume was titled Rainbow Hustler. Not only was his model spot-on, but the items attached to the canvas were relevant and hysterical.  Jef Campion’s scuplutral and interactive piece was playful and inventive. The piece was titled “Original Cunt Sin” , these words were plastered in neon lights over a small table and two square barrels. The viewer was asked to “Confess their sins” on a piece of paper and to “take an apple”. One of the barrels was filled with paper scraps filled with sins while the other barrel was half-full with green apples. We ended the night with a performance piece outside of Fountain in the yard. The work was political, offensive and culturally relevant – touching on subjects of military, police and You Tube.

(blurred for appropriateness)

Overall, our Miami story is defined by never having enough time. We decided to take it easy this time and actually spend Sunday pool-side, but if we make it back for 2012 – it needs to be much tighter and more focused.