Some
Artists at the Brewery
Another day in L.A.
If you are an inexplicable
tourist in Los Angeles, or if you suffer the far worse misfortune of living
here—but it’s like this everywhere—go to the Brewery in April
or October when the artists’ studios are open.
Back in the days when Los
Angeles was a city, before the U.S. of A. became The Last Superpower as well as
The Greatest Nation On Earth, Pabst made beer at the Brewery.
Now more than a hundred artists make their home there, of all varieties and
degrees of accomplishment.
Soojung Park takes rectangular
prisms of delicately-tinged Plexiglas and inscribes some horizontal lines of
ink on them. The result is distantly akin to some of Agnes Martin’s paintings
exhibited here recently.
Mihai Nicodim is a great exculpator
of the artistic viewpoint, as he frees it in large paintings and prints from
the vindictive quality of the Postmodern ęsthete, a vacuous
customer.
Peter B. Gee’s new generation of collages has a real acuity, and
his paintings have reached the elevation of New Love.
Nathan Rohlander’s
leading motif is shoes painted large, but his analytical approach defines a few
other things: boats for instance, and their milieu.
Nicholas Radell sets up
scrims and lights around neon armatures, to give you witty sculptures (Unexpected
Growth, Pain Curve, Persistence).
Linda Graveline seats you in
a small theater to watch a composed video of cross-country travel.
Among the cartoon crowd,
Andy Suriano paints kitschy harlequins doing amusing things like cleaning fish.
Ali Blankley at the I-5
Gallery offers you the punchline of a retro joke, which on closer inspection
shows a brilliant set-up and delivery.
Roland Reiss, a copious and
renowned painter, is currently regaling himself with a satirical, comical suite
of green paintings built in swipes and swashes around the theme of the Gehry
architectural model as linchpin of a New Los Angeles.
Dawn Arrowsmith’s
homages to Giotto (and Albers) present circular exactitudes in layers modulated
at the edges, targets of contemplation.
At the Masters of Latin
American Art Gallery are some stupefying etchings by Matta, paintings by
Wilfredo Lam and Rufino Tamayo, and an elevation and floor plan for an unbuilt
project (Casablanca) by Richard Neutra.
And all of these items are available
for purchase.