Sunday, January 20, 2008

Third LA Biennial

Fish and I went to the Third LA Biennial at Bergamot Station last week. At the end of this entry is the LA Weekly cover story that promoted the event. I've edited out the rundown of artists. If you want to read that list summary, click on the link, but I don't know how long they'll keep it live, so do it soon.

Track 16 Gallery hosted the event, but the entire complex opens up, and it's really cool to just gallery hop, watching all the drunks as well as checking out bands and, of course, artists on display.

The thing of it is that the Weekly is just too good of a pr machine; the place was packed.



As for the artists, I hated the lot except for the few below found at galleries outside of Track 16:

Unkown - it was hanging near a staircase, but I forgot which gallery...


The following two are also unknown - same gallery, but in a back room





The night of the biennial, Joey Remmers at the Copro Nason Gallery made an impact:











He reminds me of a combo of Delvaux and Magritte with a splash of cartooning thrown in. While I can admit that there are technically superior painters, I like Remmers' sense of space. For instance, in the last pic he is simultaneously in extreme close up and long shot. But he does texture well too, like the flies...

Then there was the funny Ed Colver, also courtesy of Copro Nason. I swear, I took my daughter to Bergamot yesterday and we busted up at this:


Colver also indulged a bit...


But the best collection hands down belongs to Grey McGear Modern.

Camille Vojnar


David Febland




Jeff Weekley


Leslie Balleweg


David Febland again


In each of the artists there's a streak of Hopper running through them.

While I had fun at the Biennial, it was simply too crowded in Track 16. What's cool about Bergamot is all of the nooks and crannies. For instance, Copro Nason is at one end where a band was playing outside. It's really nice to go on a weekend afternoon, as Renee and I did yesterday. There's even a tiny people park in the parking lot.



=============================================


The artists in the third L.A. Weekly Annual Biennial
By DOUG HARVEY
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - 3:45 pm
Some paintings give me diamonds, some paintings, heart attacks
Some paintings I give all my bread to, I don’t ever want it back
Some paintings give me jewelry, others buy me clothes
Some paintings give me children I never asked them for.

—Jagger/Richards/Harvey


Painting is dead. Painting isn’t dead. Painting is dead! No, it isn’t! Yes, it is! Isn’t! Is! Shut up shut up shut up shut up!!! Okay, now that we have that out of the way... Painting isn’t the denial-plagued zombie elephant in the room — art theory is. It’s one of the lines Leonard Cohen left out: Everybody knows a work of art that doesn’t speak for itself is a failure as a work of art. Fortunately, in spite of the best efforts we critics have mustered to impose Artforum’s Rules of Order on the rabble, art — and particularly the medium non grata of painting — just won’t shut up.

Painters in the contemporary art world, particularly those from L.A., have to maintain a chameleonesque indeterminacy about their artistic intentions — be all things to all people — or face ghettoization. Is this an abstract painting? Or a painting of a painting of an abstract painting, wink wink? It’s the emperor’s new clothes all over. The ultimate irony is that the emperor is actually decked out in an Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — the plausible deniability cultivated by painters for the social sphere creates a temporary autonomous zone in the studio wherein a thousand flowers have blossomed. No one can pin them down, so they can get away with anything. The psycho art-market bubble hasn’t hurt production either.

An exhibition featuring the work of these artists runs Jan. 12–Feb. 16 at Track 16 Gallery in Bergamot Station. Opening reception is Sat., Jan. 12, 7–11 p.m., with refreshments and performances by the Spirit Girls, Wounded Lion, John Kilduff of Let’s Paint TV, and more.

So the question that generated “Some Paintings,” the third L.A. Weekly Annual Biennial exhibition, isn’t whether or not painting is a dysfunctional plastic category, or what makes painting relevant in today’s global-a-go-go art world, or even “How can curating a painting show make me seem clever?” It is, simply, “What would it look like to have a broad-spectrum sampling of contemporary L.A. painting in one space?” We just got tired of waiting for some high-profile museum to put it together. How difficult could that be?

Pretty difficult, as it turns out. The hardest part has been the narrowing down. With an initial list of more than 300, and a dream of whittling the list down to a 60-something précis (which ended up closer to “90 under 90”), the shuffling and reshuffling of possible permutations — looking for correspondences and polarities, designating redundancies, and trying to orchestrate a multiplicity of often-dissonant artistic voices into some vague coherence — was just the prelude to the grim task of making the necessary cuts.

I don’t even know how many painters are in this show anymore, but it amused me that at the point I began to write these capsule profiles, there were 78 — the same number as there are cards in a tarot deck, a pictorial system that condenses all the possibilities of life into one set of archetypes. Past, present, future — all will be revealed! Perhaps there’s room for interpretation after all. Just cross my palm with silver.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Both Sides Now

I remember the first time I saw Chrissie Hynde as the waitress in the Brass in Pocket video - I was, like, Who the hell is this broad? I mean, she's not exactly a beauty, but she's super compelling to watch. And she's damn sexy as hey-ell.

Great song, really compact, great riff, chorus... it is weird to think that this was when MTV really was Music Video Television. Almost thirty years ago! It's also weird seeing James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon...

Now, I was never a big Pretenders fan, but a few of their songs are really good rock songs (like "The Wait") and pop music gems, and I say that reverently, because I came up on pop inclusive of R&B. And although I have deep love for my jazz/blues roots, there's an unprecedented element that was ushered in post-war with rock n' roll: the show. From the stepping of James Brown and his subsequent "exhaustion" toward the end of his show and the draping of his cape to his miraculous revival (!), to Tina Turner and the Ikettes shimmy shamming in their mini skirts (and giving all the white boys boners while making white girls look on in horror/jealousy at true talent unleashed, among other things) to the pyrotechnics of Jimi at the Monterey Pop Fest, Rock and pop music entertained in a completely different manner. One of the great things was that it blasphemed the establishment in ways that made kids go crazy.

And the volume was an integral part of it (although not as much of an element with R & B): Cerwin Vega had a great slogan on stickers that I plastered on my amp: "Loud is Beautiful, if it's clean." But perhaps the more apt one was, "If it's too loud, you're too old."

The Devil's music, indeed, but what a show.

These days I rarely see live music, having clubbed and arena'd myself a lifetime in my youth. Which is sad, because although I'm old, I still love a good show, as evidenced by my enthusiasm for the Eagle Rock Music Fest. There's nothing like seeing a live show.

That's where I think the kids of today are missing something special. In the 80's, there were so many great shows around, from big arenas to dives and everything in-between. Many of those places - The Masque and The Starwood come to mind - are legendary in the LA scene but are now gone.

Perhaps the best thing about the punk scene was its chill factor. I was once at an informal jam in a house in North Hollywood where D. Boon was playing; he was so loaded he couldn't keep his guitar on right and resorted to wrapping the strap around his neck because it'd come off the back button (near the guitar neck). My buddy Thrust and I were cracking up. I got to talk to Boon a bit and he wrote his name and number on a matchbook which I still have. Years later I saw fIREHOSE and reminisced to Watt about Boon. I showed him the matchbook and he just held it and got all wistful. I kinda regret showing it to him, but he's moved on, now gigging with The Stooges. Good for him.

Today, in the post-MTV era, kids are bombarded in ways we weren't. As a consequence, they have little to no knowledge of underground/indie bands, let alone the presence of mind or wherewithal to withstand the relentless spam of the mega corps.

So in a stylistically jarring roundabout, we're back to The Pretenders. The first time I heard "Kid" I loved its composition and great arrangement. I didn't really identify with the lyrics because I thought it just a "story song" - I don't think Hynde was a parent at that point. Now of course it reminds me of my daughter. So, here's to you, Renee. I know you're going through some teen stuff right now, but guess what? Odds are good you'll come out of it okay. I have pretty good instincts, and when I think of you that's what I feel. Bottom line, your old man loves you, more than you know.


KID WHAT CHANGED YOUR MOOD
YOU'VE GONE ALL SAD SO I FEEL SAD TOO
I THINK I KNOW SOME THINGS WE NEVER OUTGROW
YOU THINK IT'S WRONG
I CAN TELL YOU DO
HOW CAN I EXPLAIN
WHEN YOU DON'T WANT ME TO

KID MY ONLY KID
YOU LOOK SO SMALL YOU'VE GONE SO QUIET
I KNOW YOU KNOW WHAT I'M ABOUT
I WON'T DENY IT
BUT YOU FORGIVE THOUGH YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND
YOU'VE TURNED YOUR HEAD
YOU'VE DROPPED BY HAND

ALL MY SORROW, ALL MY BLUES
ALL MY SORROW

SHUT THE LIGHT, GO AWAY
FULL OF GRACE, YOU COVER YOUR FACE

KID GRACIOUS KID
YOUR EYES ARE BLUE BUT YOU WON'T CRY
I KNOW ANGRY TEARS ARE TOO DEAR
YOU WON'T LET THEM GO

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sisters in Law

Watched PBS's excellent doc series, "Independent Lens," who showed Sisters in Law, a play on the strong sistas meting out justice for females in Cameroon.

Here's IL's description:

In a small courthouse in Cameroon, two women are working to change a village—and making progress that could change the world. SISTERS IN LAW follows tough-minded state prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba as they help women in their Muslim village find the courage to fight difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from family and their community to remain silent. With fierce compassion, they dispense wisdom, wisecracks and justice in fair measure, handing down stiff sentences to those convicted.

Inspiring and uplifting, Sisters in Law presents a strong and positive view of African women—and captures the emerging spirit of courage, hope and the possibility of change.


Just see it, if you can.