CONTINUING AND RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS
October, 2005
 Katsushige Nakahashi, "Untitled," installation view with the artist of the remains of burnt Zero #03-06, from his 2000 performance in Australia. |
Katsushige Nakahashi’s father worked on kamikaze planes during the war, but never told his artist son, as Japan buried its history of defeat and fascism. This work is part of a series that involved building tiny toy models of war planes, taking micro-detailed photos of sections of these, then soliciting the community to build life size war planes from the tiny collaged paper photos. One idea here is that through creative labor, artist and collective own their history and address the futility of war. On view is a poignant, large wing from a collaged plane, plus a display of selected individual photos (Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica).
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The amoeboid little critters that mass in selective portions against the white grounds of David Allan Peters’ paintings are the product of numerous layers of paint that have been carved back into. The images equally tickle the eye and imagination, and also call attention to the calm but painstaking working process of the artist (Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica).
David Allan Peters, "Untitled II C #08," |
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 Pamela Mower-Conner: (l.) “Wooden Saints”, acrylic on 12" diameter globe, 2004. (r.) “Baroque Globe”, acrylic on 12" diameter globe, 2005. |
Pamela Mower-Conner paints 12-inch spheres with lush, lurid images blending, in a dizzying parade to be viewed in the round like a turning globe, scenes of sky, water, circus faire, floating classical statuary, sea life and more. The skill of the representation, the challenge to the expected canvas surface, and the collision of irreconcilable realities make for interesting viewing (Gallery 825 Annex, Santa Monica).
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An overview of furniture, architectural related design, working and archival photos by French designer Jean Prouve places him in the long tradition of the Bauhaus, linking the spread of excellent design with utopian collectives of makers and users. But this work is clearly eclectic, and so clearly whimsical, techno-savvy and more concerned with multi-valence than social activism, that we can only pin it to a post modern vibe. Whatever its point of origin, this is colorful, often deliciously wacky, always pristinely tooled stuff (look for the wonderful lounge chair) (MOCA at Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood).
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 Installation view of Jean Prouvé, "Three Nomadic Structures," showing Kangaroo chair (1951), wall light (1951-52), facade panel with portholes (1949), and ventilated wall panel (1951-52) mounted on exhibition displayscape membrane designed by architect Evan Douglis. |
 Togo Hisakatsu, "Incense Burner in the Form of an Elephant," 1868-c. 1900, satsuma ware: stoneware with oveglaze enamels and gold, 21 1/4 x 20 1/4 x 7 1/2". Photo courtesy: Tokyo National Museum |
Before international exhibitions exclusively devoted to art enticed viewers to amass frequent flyer mileage, world’s fairs wooed audiences, showcasing fine arts, crafts and design innovations along with technological advances from participating countries. Japan introduced work crafted by its artisans to the world at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867, at the dawning of the Meji period, when Western innovations influenced reform. A surprising variety of works in Japan Goes to the World’s Fairs: Japanese Art at the Great Expositions in Europe and the United States, 1867 - 1904 make up this unique exhibition.
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| They range from exquisite ceramics and lacquers to metalwork, textiles and screens that were originally displayed at gatherings, including the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (1876), the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis (1904). It impressively documents the blending of fine art and traditional crafts, as well as the exchange of stylistic influences between Eastern and Western cultures (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, West Hollywood). |
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Lucas Reiner had been painting trees for a number of years. Isolated against the sky these lone figures take on human characteristics. The subject of his new works is fireworks, the pyrotechnics that pleasingly light up the night sky. Reiner has been making paintings of these controlled explosions for years, but this is the first time he has exhibited them. The sky, rather than a deep black is a mottled surface of textures and colors. The paintings appear to be in flux in much the same way that fireworks in a night sky are there one moment and gone the next (Carl Berg Gallery, West Hollywood).
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 Lucas Reiner, "Redentore #2," 2005, oil on canvas, 66 x 75". |
 Rocky Schenck, "Sheep," 2005, toned silver gelatin print, 16 x 22". |
Rocky Schenck’s black and white photographic images hover between real and the imagined worlds. They are presented out of focus so that each has a drawing-like quality, as though they are hand made charcoal drawings rather than printed photographic images. The works, all large scale, present ambiguous moments and empty vistas full of haunting shadows. While the images are never frightening, they flirt with altered states of being and mind. The strange and the wonderful coexist in these magical images (Paul Kopeikin Gallery, West Hollywood).
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In “Re-Make/Re-Model” the new paintings of Matty Byloos use vernacular architecture of the Los Angeles region as their point of departure. Beginning with a photograph, Byloos exaggerates the flattened space the photographic image provides, then enhances the figure/ground relationship by playing with different colors, textures and consistencies of paint. The resulting works juxtapose flat areas of color with modeled areas that are realistically rendered. The results are engaging and beautiful (SolwayJones, West Hollywood).
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 Casey Reas, "T/I," 2005, new media installation - software/computers/ projectors, dimensions variable. |
Casey Reas makes art from software. He is a master at manipulating the codes of the computer to create abstract patterns that continuously move and change. The moving lines are mesmerizing forms that appear to grow organically and change on their own. What happens automatically in mathematics and in technological pursuits is given a visual form by Reas. The work is system-based, yet is more visual than mechanical. Here Reas projects a series of images from the ceiling to just above the floor. As you walk among these pods of movement, you can’t help but think about the relationship between nature and the machine (Bank, Downtown).
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The silhouette puppet theater of Kara Walker is equally rooted in historical stereotype and messy reality. Indeed, it is precisely this uncomfortable juxtaposition that keeps your attention. By turns delightful and downright nervy, “Song of the South” may be Walker’s response to the Joel Chandler Harris original and the Dis-ney adaptation, but, not surprisingly, it knocks down the cheery picture of the post-Civil War south in the venue built by the Disney family (Gallery at REDCAT, Downtown).
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 Kara Walker, "They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted" (Says One Gal to Another), 2001. |