Women Around Town, August 2022

Women Around Town, August  2022

Well…a long hot summer with Covid still looming..artists prevail. Enjoy!

IN THE GALLERIES

As usual, group shows abound. For example, a very “hot” topic is addressed in the current exhibition at Lois Lambert Gallery, Reflections on our Warming Planet. This exhibition includes works by 24 artists who join with scientists and community activists. Their paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, as well as short films and documentary interviews address the subject from their unique perspectives. Among the artists whose works are represented here are Kim Abeles, Sharon Allicotti,  Evelyn Bronwyn Werzowa,  Fatemeh Burnes, Merrilyn Duzy, Megan Frances, Nigella Hillgarth, Joanne Julian, Sant Khalsa, Margaret Lazzari, J.J. L’Heureux, Linda Vallejo and many more. Thru September 3, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping with the environmental theme is Plants Now, also a group exhibition on view now at Suzanne Veilmetter Projects. The works here celebrate plants and explore their far-reaching potential to mitigate a wide range of human-made problems. The exhibition takes place across two galleries, including the gallery’s greenhouse space to include works, wares, and information presented by community activists, compost makers, flower arrangers, bee experts, and food growers. Throughout the exhibition, several programs will take place with local specialists across the fields of mycology, urban gardening, native plants, and pollination. For example, there are works in a variety of media by Sadie Benning, Ellen Berkenblit,  Andrea Bowers, Alika Cooper, Amy Cutler, Kim Dingle,  Genevieve Gaignard,  Joan Linder, Jessica Stoller,  Esther Pearl Watson, and many more.  Thru August 26, 2022.

Another group show, Future Patchwork, is the current exhibit at Walter Maciel Gallery curated by Annie Seaton. The show includes works by Ray Beldner, Lavialle Campbell, Carolyn Castaño, Bryan Ida, Cynthia Ona Innis, Brendan Lott, Robb  Putnam, Vojislav Radovanoviċ, Lezley Saar, Sonja Schenk, Annie Seaton, Lisa Solomon and Jil Weinstock. “Like a quilt, a mix of contemporary artists whose individual artworks mirror the  relationships and patterns within each equally unique and highly crafted piece.  Collectively, the work of the 13 artists looks forward to the future—post Covid—with positivity, joy and whimsy while retaining connections between their unique histories. Considering what we have all mutually experienced as a country during the unprecedented pandemic, the works chosen for the exhibition were all produced during the last couple of years in a time of isolation, self-reflection and confrontation of the ongoing injustice of systemic racism and political upheaval that led to the Insurrection on January 6, 2021. The materials each artist uses form a patchwork of hand-made objects that are sewn, woven, collaged and/or quilted together.” Thru August 17, 2022.

Yet another noteworthy group exhibition  (although I do wish more women artists were found here) is at L.A. Louver Gallery, aptly titled Sculpture., The exhibit featuring 14 prominent sculptures  in a wide range of scale and medium. Works by Tony Cragg, Ed­gard de Souza, Richard Deacon, Mark di Suvero, Toshikatsu Endo, Shirazeh Houshairy, Sui Jianguo, Ed Kienholz, John McCracken, David Nash, Olaf Nicolai, Ken Price, Alison Saar and Peter Shelton grace the first floor of the gallery. Thru September 2, 2022.

Matter Studio Gallery presents Moving Through Matter, a solo exhibition by Susan Feldman. Feldman is an artist whose mixed-media works invite us to contemplate our spaces, those in the present and those embedded  in memories. The artist has provided us with her thought process  as she created this body of artwork.  “I began making most of this work in 2020 when it seemed like the pandemic was letting up a bit. There was a feeling of beginning anew for me. Being confined to my house, my studio, under lock and key so to speak, even the wearing of a mask, felt way too confining to me. I felt the need to open up, stretch out, see and be seen. But with those feelings also came apprehension, fear, tentativeness – a real Push and Pull. I asked myself Can I really open the internal door of my soul now? Is it safe? Is it worth the risks?…” Artist Talk: August 7, 2022, 2-4 pm; Closing Reception: August 21, 4-6 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mika Rottenberg  is a fascinating Argentenian-born artist whose newest work is the subject of a solo exhibition at Hauser and Wirth. Rottenberg is devoted to a rigorous practice that combines film, architectural installation, and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary hyper-capitalist world. Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives. By weaving fact and fiction together, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence. The exhibition also includes a selection of drawings that demonstrate her unique visual language. Thru October 22, 2022.

 

Opening this month at Sprueth/Magers is a solo exhibition of work by the late Kaari Upson, titled never, never ever, never in my life, never in all my born days, never in all my life, never. The exhibition debuts a remarkable series of sculptures and works on canvas created between 2020 and 2021, in which Upson’s stirring characters, symbols and marks materialize through an array of painterly gestures; as well as examples from other recent series and installations that will receive their US premiere. Together, the works demonstrate the artist’s unwavering urge to interpret the psyches and psychoses of our complex contemporary lives. (SM) Thru October 8,  2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN THE MUSEUMS

Don’t miss the current exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum  featuring the work of Andrea Bowers. She combines artistic practice with activism and advocacy, speaking to deeply entrenched inequities as well as the generations of activists working to create a more just world. Bowers has built an international reputation as a chronicler of contemporary history, documenting activism as it unfolds and collecting research on the front lines of protest. Her practice contends with issues such as immigration rights, workers’ rights, climate justice, and women’s rights, illustrating the shared pursuit of justice that connects them. the first museum retrospective surveying more than two decades of the artist’s production, traces the entire scope and evolution of her work. Bringing together approximately 60 works as well as a trove of ephemera, the exhibition reflects Bowers’s embrace and experimentation with a wide range of mediums, including drawing, performance, installation, sculpture, video, and neon sculptures. Here is a link to a conversation with  the  artist and Hammer curator, Connie Butler: https://channel.hammer.ucla.edu/video/1752/andrea-bowers-connie-butler-in-conversation

Thru September 4, 2022.

Coinciding with the 25^th anniversary of the Getty Center, they are currently exhibiting 2 outstanding works by British artist, Tacita Dean.  Both of these works engage with the sites and collections of the Getty Center and Getty Villa Museum. Her 16mm film Pan Amicus imagines the landscapes around the Getty Center and the Getty Villa as part of Arcadia, the mythical home of Pan, Greek god of nature. Her portfolio of 50 objects, Monet Hates Me, traces Dean’s chance encounters in the vast art historical archives at the Getty Research Institute.  Thru August 28, 2002.