In case you were wondering, yeah, I have plans this weekend.
hyde or die
“A final obstacle has to do with shifting expectations about what architecture (at LACMA) is capable of doing — particularly in a deep recession. Under the leadership of Ann Philbin, for example, UCLA’s Hammer Museum has proved that smart hiring and forward-looking programming can be a cheaper, nimbler means of redirecting an institution than almost any building campaign.”
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I can’t tell you how many times Dana and I have had this conversation in the past few weeks, it’s remarkable. Anticipate an open letter to Michael Govan, it’s in the works.
“In this case, the circle looks something like this: Joannou, a New Museum trustee, is friendly with Lisa Phillips, the museum’s director. Her curator, Massimiliano Gioni, has worked previously with Joannou, and he oversaw the current three-floor Urs Fischer show. Urs Fischer has curated shows for Joannou; Joannou also owns a good deal of Fischer’s work. Fischer’s art dealer is Gavin Brown, who also represents Elizabeth Peyton, Jeremy Deller, and Steven Shearer, all four of whom have had solo shows at the New Museum since it re-opened less than two years ago. I like that the art world isn’t regulated. I have seen Joannou’s collection and it is incredible. Still, when you add in Koons as the curator here the whole thing just breaks down. If only the museum would have either curated the collection itself or gotten someone else to do it … (Right now at the UCLA Hammer Museum, artist Robert Gober has organized a show of visionary painter Charles Burchfield which is fantastic and totally untainted.)”
— Jerry Saltz on the New Museum hoopla…I like the shout out to the Hammer.
Rob Fischer
Man, The Hammer has been knocking it out of the park exhibition wise lately. First the Valentine-Adelson Collection, then the Burchfield, then R. Crumb, Nic Hess is still in the lobby, and now Rob Fischer? Stop, it’s too much! Just kidding, it’s never too much.
Brooklyn-based artist Rob Fischer finds furniture, windows, mirrors, books, flooring, car parts, and other abandoned materials and reconfigures them to create large-scale sculptural environments that are like monuments to a forgotten past. Fischer’s use of these found materials is a commentary on the lifecycle of objects and how those discarded things will inevitably be reclaimed by nature. While his constructions contain an aura of melancholy and we feel the loss and the weight of the lingering presences of those who used these objects, the sculptures simultaneously acknowledge the possibility for transformation and regeneration. via…
honey...
popcorn kernels
hay
illuminated honey...
“Yes my friends, its an exciting day when Lauren Bon is speaking at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, and that day is today. Tonight, 7pm. I was lucky enough to work just a tiny bit on the Bees And Meat exhibition (illustrated above), where I learned for the first time about the epic crisis in the ecosystem involving the disappearance of all our honeybees and the implications of technology upon our very fragile ecosystem. Apparently cell phone waves are part of what has confused the bees! Lauren Bon’s work is far reaching and intense- she is the real-deal. See you there later tonight!!!”-Dana
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it tonight do to a few traveling friends, but if you are in the neighborhood go. Lauren Bon is an amazing, passionate and talented woman whose work is not only aesthetically commanding but socially arresting.
Reblogged from The Tao of Dana.
The Hammer Museum presents seminal comic artist R. Crumb’s adaptation of the first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis. Crumb has spent the last five years on this incredibly ambitious endeavor. The exhibition features 207 individual, black and white drawings incorporating every word from all fifty chapters, as well as a cover, title page, introduction and back cover. Each drawing contains six to eight comic panels illustrating the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and more. Using his signature bawdy style, Crumb’s version of the Book of Genesis puts an entirely new twist on the Bible. via…
The Hammer has some of the most consistantly exciting programming in Los Angeles.
Charles Burchfield is up at the Hammer right now. I went and saw the show on Saturday night, it’s amazing how so many of his paintings feel relevant still. If you are in the neighborhood you have to check it out!
