Travis Diehl
Dan Finsel
June 2013
Art therapy may be good therapy; it may or may not be good art. “E-thay Inward-yay Ourney-jay,” Los Angeles artist Dan Finsel’s recent solo show at Richard Telles, was a perverse gray mix of both. Extruding himself through exercises in… READ ON
IN PRINT Summer 2013 [TOC]
Fiona Connor
April 2013
“Bare Use,” a solo show at 1301PE by Los Angeles–based artist Fiona Connor, presented uncanny replicas of thirteen charmingly dull, awkwardly nondescript objects—a drinking fountain, a patio umbrella, a linen hamper, among other … READ ON
IN PRINT April 2013 [TOC]
Henry Taylor
Blum & Poe
March 2013
One writer called them “slaves.” They’re not; the subjects of Henry Taylor’s five big portraits in the first gallery of this exhibition are, simply, anonymous black farmworkers from WPA-era photos—displayed around a banquet table … READ ON
PICKS
Billions y Billions
“1992 Toyota Corolla (BLACK)” at Otras Obras
March 2013 TIJUANA, MEXICO
THE GREYHOUND STOPPED behind a McDonald’s on the US side. Through a grubby door, around the restaurant’s dumpster and grease trap, past several guards and through a parking deck and you’re in Mexico. There, silhouetted in the dusk of … READ ON
DIARY
Stephanie Taylor
March 2013
By boggling the name of gallerist “Sam Freeman,” LA artist Stephanie Taylor arrived at “Swam Sea Span,” the title of her recent show at his space. These three words, in turn, generated not just a punning narrative but also a set of … READ ON
IN PRINT March 2013 [TOC]
“The Black Mirror”
Diane Rosenstein Fine Art
February 2013
The polished black face of a Claude glass renders “views” romantic and emotional—though this tool more accurately reflects the viewer’s projections. In “The Black Mirror,” what you see is what you see. This is an exhibition of … READ ON
PICKS
Alice Könitz
Alice Könitz talks about the Los Angeles Museum of Art
February 2013
On the empty pavement beside her studio in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, artist Alice Könitz runs a small open-air museum—what she calls a kind of “wunderkammer”—constructed from sturdy timbers and sliding panels. Known as the Los Angeles… READ ON
500 WORDS
“For the Martian Chronicles”
L&M Arts | Los Angeles
December 2012
Man will probably never colonize Mars; it’s hard enough to live in Nevada. Yet if this show is any clue, human culture already crowds an imaginary Martian landscape. L&M’s west gallery occupies an old power station adjacent to the former… READ ON
PICKS
Travis Diehl
December 2012
THE FIRST ARTIST was probably a trickster scratching footprints in the dirt—or so wrote British Minimalist Bob Law in his 1964 essay “The Necessity of Magic in Art.” Fast-forward to Los Angeles in 2012, where the “tricksters” of the… READ ON
SLANT
Candice Lin
December 2012
Candice Lin’s latest solo show awkwardly fractured the slick, guided exploration of the typical history exhibit and awkwardly reassembled it across François Ghebaly’s two-tiered space. The sixteen sculptures and videos that comprised … READ ON