Summer Heats Up in Los Angeles
Summer Heats Up in Los Angeles
Summer 2016 in Los Angeles is filled with excellent museum shows, gallery exhibits, and the must see 3rd edition of the Made in LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum. Read on for highlights:
Huguette Caland’s installation at Made in LA Biennial in Hammer Museum
Made in LA Biennial
In June, the Hammer Museum opened its third biennial, Made in LA 2016: a, the, though, only, and on view until August 28. Works include monographic surveys, displays of multiyear projects, and the debut of new bodies of work and commissions from emerging artists.
A highlight of the show is a mini-retrospective of 85 year old Lebanese born artist, Huguette Caland. Caland has collaborated with poets, artists, and designers during her time in Paris and in Los Angeles.Featured works include oil paintings created in Beirut in the 60’s and full scale painted mannequins made in the 2010’s in collaboration with Pierre Cardin.
Daniel Richter’s new figurative work at Regen Projects
Daniel Richter in Regen Projects
At Regen Projects, Daniel Richter presents his third solo show in Los Angeles, Daniel Richter: Wild Thing. Richter follows in the footsteps of iconic post-war German painters Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen, and is best known for works inspired by mass media and popular culture. This exhibition consists of 17 large scale oil paintings that mark a new direction towards figuration. Paintings depict human limbs, torsos, and heads, twisting and turning across their vibrant backgrounds.
Sam Gilliam’s iconic 1970’s draped fabric piece at David Kordansky Gallery
Sam Gilliam in David Kordansky Gallery
At age 82, Sam Gilliam is finally receiving the critical acclaim he deserves. Green April , his show at the David Kordansky Gallery, exhibits his iconic drape and beveled pieces from the 60’s and 70’s. According to the Gallery, the show “focuses on works executed during a crucial period in the artist’s development, one in which he began to make the iconic Beveled-edge and Drape paintings for which he is best known. These works feature a number of striking formal advances, but their radicality also hinges upon the fact that they were made in dialogue with the profound social shifts that were taking place at the time. Most of the works on view have remained in Gilliam’s studio since their creation and have never before been exhibited.”
David Huffman at Robert & Tilton Gallery
David Huffman in Robert & Tilton Gallery
Roberts & Tilton Gallery hosts the first solo show of Oakland based artist David Huffman’s World in Collisions. Huffman is best known for his Tramanaut series depicting African American space travelers. In this most recent work, he examines the politics of race through the iconography of the basketball.
Shio Kusaka’s installation at Blum and Poe
Shio Kusaka in Blum and Poe
Blum and Poe displays 75 new works from talented ceramicist Shio Kusaka. Pieces range from her iconic white porcelain vessels to traditional Japanese stoneware. Ceramics are displayed on a 100 foot runway that runs through all three galleries. The show begins with Kusaka’s summer section that features two large Greek strawberry vessels, a watermelon, two beach balls, and a pair of bikini clad women. The runway continues with a grouping of pots that mimics the grain of plywood. In the adjoining gallery, there’s a feel of eccentricity with a file of porcelain animal figurines, which she’s been making for years with her children. Her daughter influenced the final sequence of the show with her dinosaur book that replicates fight scenes.
Bing Han’s work inspired by New York’s urban landscapes at Night Gallery
Bing Han in Night Gallery
Chinese artist Bing Han’s new works are exhibited in downtown’s Night Gallery. Titled Facades and Waves, this is her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. Bing Han’s painting practice is inspired by the daily experience of walking through cityscapes, construction sites and architecture. The shapes and textures in her paintings are assembled in layers, between transparent and opaque marks, and then finished with defined edges.
