Inartful

Doug Harvey’s Temper! At Andrewshire.

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:33:03 -0700

Doug Harvey’s Temper! At Andrewshire.

Jow — just Jow — has her second solo show right now...

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:03:00 -0700

Jow — just Jow — has her second solo show right now at Marine Contemporary in Venice. TOURIST closes this Saturday, May 18, and you really should try to catch it in person if you can — partly for the small, fine details on the hilarious and intelligent hotel-stationery drawings; partly for the hyper-bright effect of entering the main room full of glossy, peppery pigment fields; and partly for the sexy sparkle of each of those paintings up close as their changeable surfaces are activated by your motion across them. Besides the (abstract) large-scale acrylic on panel paintings, and a series of my favorite (text-based) drawings ever, she’s also made two (text-and-light) neon sculptures which are pretty hilarious.

The color theme is certainly striking — yet the exuberant and crisply hi-definition red, white, and blue reads as neither boosterism nor as irony. Instead, she remixes her self-limited chromatic and marking vocabulary in a manner akin to operating the levels on a mixing board to achieve a range of emotional and stylistic variations meant to evoke New York, Paris, London or San Francisco, and Vancouver. And of course, the same colors are in the flags of France, Japan and Canada as well as the US. The way she deploys them is intended to “describe not so much a literal place traveled to or from, as the cultural nostalgia associated with a particular city. Jow’s approach to this is transitional.” That sounds right. Her use of Morse code as a visual signifier is about both universality and inaccessibility — hinting lightly at the cross-sectional, plurapotentiality of interpreting and reconfiguring information. It’s almost like infographics, and almost like abstract painting. Essential, but ambiguous — and worth seeing up close and personal, especially in the presence of the full series.

#rooftopsofsanfrancisco (at Shooting Gallery)

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:27:56 -0700

#rooftopsofsanfrancisco (at Shooting Gallery)

The lovely far end of the garden and of the day… (at...

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:54:20 -0700

The lovely far end of the garden and of the day… (at Descanso Gardens)

Any day that starts with this is probably gonna be a good day.

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:52:41 -0700

Any day that starts with this is probably gonna be a good day.

Sexy sexy library. (at UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:18:24 -0700

Sexy sexy library. (at UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library)

Nothing sadder than an unmade bed. @madinc #carwindowart

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:15:30 -0700

Nothing sadder than an unmade bed. @madinc #carwindowart

Good morning, Snow Creek!

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:55:25 -0700

Good morning, Snow Creek!

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:53:33 -0700

Good morning, Snow Creek!

Moonrise at Snow Creek

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:43:19 -0700

Moonrise at Snow Creek

That’s Bill Dailey. He’s rad. #microvacay (at...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:17:05 -0700

That’s Bill Dailey. He’s rad. #microvacay (at Hacienda Hot Springs Inn)

This is totally where I am right now. #microvacay (at Hacienda...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:37:51 -0700

This is totally where I am right now. #microvacay (at Hacienda Hot Springs Inn)

What’s yours? (at Long Beach Antique Flea Market)

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:05:12 -0700

What’s yours? (at Long Beach Antique Flea Market)

Naturally occurring Photo Shop collage. #dtla #lookoutthewindow

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:59:38 -0700

Naturally occurring Photo Shop collage. #dtla #lookoutthewindow

I just really love #dtla sometimes.

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:48:51 -0700

I just really love #dtla sometimes.

The real star of the show @garybaseman is the one and only...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:17:47 -0700

The real star of the show @garybaseman is the one and only Blackie the Cat.

#artflavoredbeans (at Nye & Brown)

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:31:41 -0700

#artflavoredbeans (at Nye & Brown)

HERE’S MY CREATIVE CURRENT INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST MARK...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:02:21 -0700

HERE’S MY CREATIVE CURRENT INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD. ENJOY, AND WHILE YOU’RE THERE AT YOUTUBE, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL, THANK YOU.

Known to the L.A. art world from his tenures heading the Watts Towers and later Department of Cultural Affairs programs, way before that, Mark Steven Greenfield earned an MFA from Cal State LA, where he focused on painting and drawing. He’s been making and showing art steadily all this time, but for a number of very good reasons — having to do both with the usual time-suck of a demanding day-job as well as a specific desire not to be seen to be competing with the very same artists whose activities he oversaw at that job — not that many people really knew about that. But in the past three years since (mostly) leaving the public sector he’s really made up for lost time, with a growing pile of shows, grants, residencies, and curatorial projects on his cv. Greenfield has a penchant for working in series and a gift for puns — but through all his projects, one major theme is asserted consistently, and that is the urgency of paying attention to the history and persistence of harmful African-American stereotypes in our culture. An exhibition of his most recent series, Animalicious, is currently on view at Offramp Gallery, and on the occasion, Greenfield speaks to Shana Nys Dambrot about those works (based on the checkered past of 20th-century cartoon and commercial images) as well as powerful and smartly subversive previous series like Incognegro, Blackatcha, Mammygrams, and the acclaimed Doo-Dahz works, which are based on historical portraits of blackface actors and created by a free-associative drawing technique in which the political content remains undeniable — transforming icons of mocking oppression into art objects with power and beauty and slightly twisted sense of humor.

With Austin Young and Trevor Wayne at LA Mart. #nicebanana...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:21:33 -0700

With Austin Young and Trevor Wayne at LA Mart. #nicebanana @austinyoungforever

Moon over Koreatown. #silverandgold

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:30:00 -0700

Moon over Koreatown. #silverandgold