Looking at Los Angeles

An examination of contemporary art created and exhibited in the film and television metropolis

Looking at Los Angeles

All Objects Are Slippery: Excavations in Santa Barbara County

Looking at Los Angeles

All Objects Are Slippery: Excavations in Santa Barbara County

Morgan Green considers the misleading permanence of objects through an artist project that excavated the remains of the 1923 film “The Ten Commandments.”

Looking at Los Angeles

Kathleen Ryan: Weightless Again at Ghebaly Gallery

Looking at Los Angeles

Kathleen Ryan: Weightless Again at Ghebaly Gallery

Lindsay Preston Zappas reviews Kathleen Ryan’s recent sculpture exhibition at Ghebaly Gallery, “Weightless Again” —a reclamation of feminine modernism.

Looking at Los Angeles

Devin Farrand, Ariel Herwitz and the Phenomenon of Gravitation

Looking at Los Angeles

Devin Farrand, Ariel Herwitz and the Phenomenon of Gravitation

Erin Sweeny explores the lives and work of LA-based artists Devin Farrand and Ariel Herwitz, a couple investigating vastly different materials in their independent art practices.

Looking at Los Angeles

Anthony Hernandez’s Brilliantly Ordinary L.A.

Looking at Los Angeles

Anthony Hernandez’s Brilliantly Ordinary L.A.

Rachel Heidenry explores the work of Los Angeles photographer Anthony Hernandez, who in the 1970s began capturing the city in motion.

Looking at Los Angeles

Freeway Flyers: The Olympic Murals

Looking at Los Angeles

Freeway Flyers: The Olympic Murals

In such a liminal arena as the freeway, what role can murals play?

Looking at Los Angeles

The Architect, the Artist, and the House That’s Become a Star

Looking at Los Angeles

The Architect, the Artist, and the House That’s Become a Star

Catherine Wagley visits the famous Sheats-Goldstein House and considers the pop culture present of this fifty-year-old residence by architect John Lautner.

Looking at Los Angeles

Escaping the Corporate Frame

Looking at Los Angeles

Escaping the Corporate Frame

More than 40 years ago James Turrell and Robert Irwin teamed up on a “hair-raising” art and technology initiative. Columnist Catherine Wagely looks back.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Seeing Pink

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Seeing Pink

Columnist Catherine Wagely makes the leap from the Human Rights Campaign’s pink-on-red equal sign to an exhibition of works by Brad Spence.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Barbara T. Smith: Cheek To Glass, Electric Impressions of the Material Body

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Barbara T. Smith: Cheek To Glass, Electric Impressions of the Material Body

Danielle McCullough recounts the life of politically-engaged performer and “body artist” Barbara T. Smith.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Being Difficult

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Being Difficult

Llyn Foulkes “has never had nor seemed to want any conceptual smoothness.” Columnist Catherine Wagley on the maverick artist’s retrospective exhibition at the Hammer Museum.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Slavs and Tatars: “Help the Militia, Beat Yourself Up–Only Solidarity and Patience Will Secure Our Victory”

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Slavs and Tatars: “Help the Militia, Beat Yourself Up–Only Solidarity and Patience Will Secure Our Victory”

Danielle McCullough attends the Los Angeles Art Book Fair and is introduced to the Slavs and Tatars collective.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | What Have Bangs Got to Do with It?

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | What Have Bangs Got to Do with It?

All the talk about Michelle Obama’s new haircut inspires Catherine Wagely to look at bangs in art.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Heather Rasmussen: Cataclysmic Collections

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Heather Rasmussen: Cataclysmic Collections

Columnist Danielle McCullough writes about the work of Los Angeles-based artist Heather Rasmussen and her ongoing interest in catastrophe.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Natural Born, Dead on Arrival

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Natural Born, Dead on Arrival

Two exhibitions in Culver City right now do exactly what Showtime’s “Homeland” should have done.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Tanya Aguiñiga / Transnational Arts Operative

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Tanya Aguiñiga / Transnational Arts Operative

Danielle McCullough profiles Tanya Aguiñiga, an artist/activist whose works take many forms, many of which engage notions of transnational autobiography.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Truth and Illusion, Pigeons and Freeways

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Truth and Illusion, Pigeons and Freeways

Catherine Wagley details an L.A. artist’s Quixotic efforts to hack freeway signs using homing pigeons. But was any of it for real?

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Moving Time: A Fossil-Fueled Journey from Appalachia to Los Angeles through Motion Pictures

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Moving Time: A Fossil-Fueled Journey from Appalachia to Los Angeles through Motion Pictures

New “Looking at Los Angeles” contributor Danielle McCullough surveys the independent film scene in Los Angeles.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | When Rock Star Fantasies Go Too Far

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | When Rock Star Fantasies Go Too Far

Catherine Wagley looks at several LA shows that occupy the slippery space between truth and reality.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Landmarks

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Landmarks

Lily Simonson looks at Jennifer Bolande’s survey exhibition Landmarks, on view at Cal State Los Angeles’ Luckman Gallery.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | I Already Know I Exist: Ken Price at LACMA

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | I Already Know I Exist: Ken Price at LACMA

Catherine Wagley considers the role that personal biography plays–or doesn’t–in LACMA’s newly-opened “Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective.”

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Mash Up: Collage from 1930 to the present at L & M Arts

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Mash Up: Collage from 1930 to the present at L & M Arts

Lily Simonson reviews a group show featuring collage works by Art21 artists John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Mark Bradford, and Paul McCarthy.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Anna Piaggi and the Summer One-Off

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Anna Piaggi and the Summer One-Off

The writer and fashion icon Anna Piaggi, who died this week at 81, serves as a reminder that in art, as life, one-off gestures are often the most memorable ones.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | An Interview with Vishal Jugdeo: Making “Goods Carrier” for Made in L.A.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | An Interview with Vishal Jugdeo: Making “Goods Carrier” for Made in L.A.

Lily Simonson talks to an LA artist whose recent video installation evokes the domestic tension of familial and romantic relationships.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | The MOCA Debacle: What Does ‘Visually Stimulating’ Even Mean?

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | The MOCA Debacle: What Does ‘Visually Stimulating’ Even Mean?

Catherine Wagley on Paul Schimmel’s controversial departure from the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | A Live One: Painting Joan Quinn

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | A Live One: Painting Joan Quinn

Fresh off her solo exhibition in LA, Lily Simonson has the opportunity to paint a portrait of Joan Quinn, the legendary West Coast editor of Interview magazine.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Anything but the Kitchen Sink

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Anything but the Kitchen Sink

Catherine Wagley muses on family, history, and the relation of both in artworks by Patricia Fernandez and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle in the Los Angeles Biennial.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | In Search of Eve Babitz

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | In Search of Eve Babitz

Eve Babitz is more than just the nude woman famously photographed playing chess with Duchamp; she is an influential writer whose books are now much-coveted items.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | And the Money Came Rolling In . . . Or Not

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | And the Money Came Rolling In . . . Or Not

When the display of a luxury car leads Catherine Wagley to mistake a performance festival for a fundraiser, the slippery relations between art and commerce become clear.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Sparks Fly from MOCA for Cai Guo-Qiang’s Sky Ladder

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Sparks Fly from MOCA for Cai Guo-Qiang’s Sky Ladder

Lily Simonson confronts mortality and the expansive scale of the universe on viewing Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Sky Ladder” at MOCA Los Angeles.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | The Painter of Light is Radically Not Me

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | The Painter of Light is Radically Not Me

Catherine Wagley reflects on the passing of Thomas Kinkade, the infamously popular “Painter of Light” who pushed the idea of coziness to mind-numbing extremes.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | LACMA’s Rock Star

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | LACMA’s Rock Star

Lily Simonson looks at Michael Heizer’s 340 ton sculpture “Levitated Mass,” and wonders why relatively few female artists have produced large-scale public works.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | A Wonderland That Wasn’t Meant to Be

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | A Wonderland That Wasn’t Meant to Be

Catherine Wagley reviews the group show “In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States” on view now at LACMA.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | CAA #ProTips from an Adjunct Pro

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | CAA #ProTips from an Adjunct Pro

Lily Simonson offers some valuable advice for newbies navigating the annual CAA conference, held this week in Los Angeles.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Mike Kelley’s Elegance

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Mike Kelley’s Elegance

Mike Kelley gained renown for his sprawling, mixed-media installations, but Catherine Wagley argues that Kelley’s oeuvre should also be remembered for its elegance.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Andrea Fraser’s Men on the Line

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Andrea Fraser’s Men on the Line

Responding to the legacy of the Woman’s Building, Fraser’s new performance revisits 1970s-era gender issues and evaluates feminism’s progress.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Dirty Laundry

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Dirty Laundry

Suzanne Lacy’s performance “Three Weeks in January” reminds us that after all these years, sexual violence is still swept under the rug.