Hey, you! Yes, YOU! You, the savvy reader of this blog. In case you did not know it, you are an artist! Well, to clarify, if you aren’t, then you can be. Instantly! Yes, INSTANTLY! What if we were to say that you can be an artist within minutes, ifContinue Reading
This is brilliant. In this short promotional video for the Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles, actor-comedians Will Ferrell and Joel McHale take a VIP tour of a conceptual-art exhibition at the museum with its curator. The exhibition is called “Stories of Almost Everyone.” Ferrell and McHale are funnyContinue Reading
When you hear the words “self-portrait” you think painting or image by an artist or photographer of him or her self. In modern parlance, that’s a selfie, if you will. It’s straightforward. A picture … of your self, by your self. Usually, there’s just one of you. It’s pretty narrowly defined.Continue Reading
Question: Have you ever had a dream where you were in your favorite fast-food dining establishment and suddenly it starts flooding? Have you ever entertained the thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if Burger King got flooded?” Is it — or has it ever been — your burning desire to seeContinue Reading
Hey, look! The Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles has some new artwork! The museum, more often referred to by locals simply as “The Hammer” (and, by the way, how fucking cool of a name for a museum is that?) recently acquired some new art. It’s mostly of the contemporaryContinue Reading
Take a look at the photo below. Well, the answer is pretty fucking obvious, right? This colorful selection of curtains pictured below is at the Bed, Bath & Beyond on Pico Blvd. in West LA. “No! I don’t believe you!” you exclaim with a healthy dose of culture-savvy skepticism tingedContinue Reading
The artwork of Los Angeles-based American artist Sam Durant has often addressed social, political and cultural issues in bold ways. His work titled “End White Supremacy” was recently added to the collection of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The lettering style of this direct, unequivocal message was inspired byContinue Reading
In her body of work, Los Angeles artist Liz Craft has created some fascinating and evocative sculptural objects that have death and the human form at the thematic center. In fact, a couple of notable works from her that have been shown in Los Angeles museums the past year haveContinue Reading
This 2007 sculptural object by artist Jimmie Durham is a bold assemblage of red oil drums, canvas, acrylic, PVC and an old wooden boat the artist found in Lisbon, Portugal. The title “L’essence” is the French word for gasoline. The boat seems to be afloat atop the metal oil barrels.Continue Reading
The work of Brooklyn-based artist Simone Leigh explores many themes. Among these are the African diaspora and identity. A small exhibition of this work is currently on view at the exceptionally well-curated Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles. The show includes sculpture and an installation of an African-modeled thatched hutContinue Reading
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has an ongoing program where it invites artists to create on-site wall paintings specific to the museum in its cavernous lobby. In the current exhibition rotation is new work Brooklyn-based artist Kenny Scharf, a fixture of New York’s 1980s and ’90s East Village art scene.
This ping pong table installed in the second-floor terrace of the first-rate Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (and, by design, the museum-visiting couple playing) is a conceptual piece of installation sound art titled “Sound Piece for the Hammer Museum,” one of a series of projects at the museum by MachineContinue Reading