Women Around Town, June 2023

Women Around Town, June 2023

 My column this month includes the exhibitions that I feel are “don’t misses” for June. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN THE GALLERIES

An exhibition of ceramic sculptures produced between 1990 and 2013 by Betty Woodman is now on view at David Kordansky Gallery.  “Woodman (1930–2018) was a pioneering artist whose groundbreaking approach to ceramics encompassed a wide range of global influences. Her symphonic understanding of the formal and cultural histories of the vessel gave her the space to experiment with techniques and compositional strategies borrowed from painting, sculpture, architecture, and other genres.” Thru June 16, 2023.

Jeffrey Deitch Gallery is featuring a survey of work by Faith Ringgold. This survey exhibition in Los Angeles. Realized in close collaboration with ACA Galleries, the overview features artwork from the 1960s to the present demonstrating her career-spanning commitment to social justice and equity through a variety of media including oil paintings, tankas, soft sculptures, story quilts and prints. The artworks  in the exhibition weave together autobiographic details, fictional accounts and historic events into ambitious narratives that speak to universal truths of the human condition. Thru June 24, 2023.

Also at Jeffrey Deitch is Judith F. Baca: The Great Wall of Los Angeles.  This exhibit brings the viewer behind the scenes of this iconic work of art through the maquettes, sketches and coloration studies that demonstrate the mural’s development process. The exhibition unveils the plans for the extension of The Great Wall by an additional half mile to represent seminal events from the 1960s to 2010s made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation received in 2020. It is hard to believe that this is the first major exhibition of the “Wall” at a commercial gallery. This image is of the first 20 feet of Judy Baca’s 1960s Great Wall of Los Angeles mural extension. A Murder of Crows: “The Ending of Jim Crow”. Thru August 12, 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.A. Louver Gallery rarely disappoints, so I am anxious to see their upcoming exhibit, The Flower Show. Ever since the ancient Egyptians symbolized the sun and creation with a lotus, flowers have held a place in art. The Flower Show includes over 50 artists who work from different perspectives and cultural origins, and who have embraced the floral motif for different ends. Works date from the early 19th century to now, with a focus on contemporary. A range of media is represented including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, film and digital technology. Among the many artists are: Marcellina Akpotojor, Mary Beyt, Édouard Boubat (1932-1999), Rebecca Campbell, Eileen Cowin, Petah Coyne, Amir H. Fallah, Yvette Gellis, Rachel Lachowicz, Heather Gwen Martin, Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), Astrid Preston, Alison Saar,  Faith Wilding and many more. A fully illustrated online catalogue accompanies The Flower Show with text by Elizabeth East, L.A. Louver Director and co-curator of the exhibition.  June 7- September 1, 2023.  Opening Reception,Wednesday, 7 June 2023; 6 – 8 p.m.

This upcoming exhibit at ICA looks especially intriguing: Carmen Argote: I won’t abandon you, I see you, we are safe. The work of Los Angeles-based artist Carmen Argote (b. 1981, Guadalajara, Mexico) is distinguished by her commitment to process and her characteristic use of organic and biological materials—from bananas and palm fronds to chicken excrement and human urine. Often collected on her daily walks, these materials are reconstituted into artworks through the ritual actions of braiding, rubbing, and consuming, which speak in significant ways to the artist’s relationship to body and place. Argote’s most recent series, titled Mother, brings these site-specific investigations inward. The exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, and works in process, this exhibition maps Argote’s journey toward a deeper understanding of her interior self and the binaries that it holds—adult and child, man and woman, resident and exile, individual and collective.

June 10-September 10

 

 

 

 

Craig Krull Gallery’s current exhibition is Robin Mitchell: Spellbound.  In this series of powerful paintings “An exploratory path of evolving imagery continues to unfurl and expand throughout those distinct but interconnected bodies of work.” Thru July 1, 2023.

 

 

 

IN THE MUSEUMS

Ecstatic: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection upcoming at the newly re-designed Hammer Museum galleries is an exhibition that focuses on works culled from their holdings. It is focused mostly on sculpture and works on paper. The exhibit will feature works by Cecily Brown, Fiona Connor, Liz Craft, Simone Leigh, Senga Nengui and others. “Ecstatic builds upon the precedent of past Hammer collection exhibitions that have argued for the central role that drawing and sculpture occupy within Los Angeles and the broader field of contemporary art.” Jun 10 – Aug 27, 2023.

I highly recommend the current exhibit at LACMA, Women Defining Women in Contemporary Art of the Middle East and Beyond. I was delighted by the works in this exhibition.  About  75 works by women artists who were born or live in what can broadly be termed Islamic societies fill the galleries.  Frequently perceived as voiceless and invisible, they are neither. Each through her unique vision is fashioning not only her own definition of self but also helping to redefine and empower women everywhere and to challenge still-persistent stereotypes. Their art depicts a breadth of inventively and often ideologically conceived women’s imagery, bearing witness to rapidly shifting political developments and often accelerated social transformations taking place in lands extending from Africa to Western and Central Asia, as well as in diasporic communities. Their powerful narratives are embedded in their art, expressing both personal and universal concerns. Across generations and working in different media, the artists share a common sense of identity not exclusively “Middle Eastern” but certainly female, which is evident in their work. Among the artists are Lalla Essadyi, Mona Hatoum, Hayv Kahraman, and Shirin Neshat.  

Thru Sept. 24, 2023.

Do not miss Sages, the wonderful exhibit at The Lancaster Museum of Art and History co-curated by Robert Benitez and Betty Ann Brown. The artists who are  “honored elders”  have both taught and exhibited their work during their long careers. Among the 19 artists whose work grace the galleries are: Judy Baca, Suvan Geer, Gila Hirsch, Connie Jenkins, Joanne Julian, Sant Khalsa, Suzanne Lacy, Gerri McMillin, Rachel  Rosenthal, Catherine Ruane, June Wayne, Ruth Weisberg, et al.  Accompanying this exhibition is In Memoriam honoring 10 esteemed artists who are no longer with us, Craig Antrim, Bob Bassler,  Hans, Carole Caroompas, Bee Colman,  Dave Elder,  Roland Reiss, Rachel Rosenthal, June Wayne, and  Charles White. Thru  August 20, 2023.

Finally, not to be missed, there is a fascinating exhibit at the UCLA Fowler Museum, Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance. The Work of Radiance is a retrospective of her groundbreaking 30-year-long career. Constant is an artist renowned for her monumental, hand-beaded textiles and this is the first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to the work of a Haitian female contemporary artist. Constant’s painstakingly beaded tapestries build on the drapo Vodou tradition and depict Haitians, Catholic saints, and Vodou spirits in both vast and intimate scenes of Haitian history and everyday life. Thru July 16, 2023.