CONTEMPORARY ART & DESIGN
ISSUE 21
113 EAST UNION STREET
PA S A D E N A C A L I F O R N I A 9 1 1 0 3 6 2 6 . 5 7 7 . 9 6 9 6
L A’s C R E AT I V E A R T S T H I N K TA N K FOR ARTISTS, COLLECTORS, GALLERIES & CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS ,/Ê*," / -Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê " / " Ê / , / " Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê - Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê -/ / " Ê , Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê , / Ê Ê Ê U Ê Ê Ê / , - * " ,/
C U R AT O R I A L . C O M
Keynote Speaker Michael Graves 2,000+ Products 400+ Exhibitors 200+ Speakers on 3 Stages 3 Days of Continuing Education Seminars 3 Full-Scale Prefab Homes 2 Days of Green Car Test Drives
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JOIN US FOR A THREEDAY CELEBRATION OF MODERN DESIGN Los Angeles Convention Center
June 21–23, 2013
Show Floor Encompassing more than 200,000 square feet, the Dwell on Design show floor offers the latest in modern design, furnnishings, products, and technology. Highlights include large-scale art installations, Dwell Outdoor, Kitchen + Bath, Design Materials, Modern Family Zone, onsite design consultations, and book signings at the Dwell Bookstore.
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Ever wonder how a Dwell story is created? Find out how at Dwell on Design, where Dwell editors will bring you behind the scenes of producing the magazine, from Dwell photo shoot secrets to a live demonstration on how a Dwell layout is produced. We are also proud to present onsite portfolio reviews with a Dwell editor throughout the weekend.
Three days, three stages: Architects, designers, authors, and innovators will join Dwell editors on the Design Innovation, Sustainability, and Demonstration stages for inspiring presentations, Q & As, keynotes, and the annual Restaurant Design Awards. Join the interactive discussions as we broaden the parameters of design appreciation and exploration.
Home Tours Bringing you the best modern architecture and design Los Angeles has to offer, Dwell’s annual Home Tours will kick off Dwell Design Week on Friday, June 14 with a Meet the Architects night, followed by tours Saturday, June 15 (West Side, including Dwell Home Venice), Saturday, June 22 (Downtown and East Side), and Sunday, June 23 (Canyons and Valley).
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Chinstrap Penguins, Deception Island, Antarctica, 2005. ©Amazonas Images
BERGAMOT STATION, GALLERY A1 2525 MICHIGAN AVENUE, SANTA MONICA, CA 90404 INFO@PETERFETTERMAN.COM • T: 310-453-6463
PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY www.peterfetterman.com
Sahara, Algeria, 2009. ©Amazonas Images
Peter Fetterman Gallery presents the 25th Anniversary Exhibition
Sebastião Salgado, GENESIS The first US exhibition of the acclaimed photographer’s epic new project. On view June 29 - October 19, 2013 For one of the largest inventories of fine art photography visit www.peterfetterman.com
CONTRIBUTORS APARNA BAKHLE-ELLIS is a writer enthralled by the consonance and dissonance of ‘being’ in Los Angeles. L'écriture féminine, outsider art, and altered states of consciousness rank high among her myriad interests. She is also Fabrik’s Managing Editor.
MASTHEAD Publisher Chris Davies Associate Editor Peter Frank Managing Editor Aparna Bakhle-Ellis Creative Director Chris Davies Art Direction & Design Chris Davies & Paul Soady Contributing Writers Aparna Bakhle-Ellis Peter Frank Lanee Lee Meher McArthur Phil Tarley 5790projects Account Executive Dale Youngman
EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING Editorial editorial@fabrik.la Advertising ads@fabrik.la Contact 269 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 1234 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Tel 310 360 8333 • http://www.fabrik.la
INFORMATION Fabrik is published Quarterly by Fabrik Media Group, Inc., 269 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 1234, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Contents cannot be reproduced in part or in full without the written permission of the copyright holder. The opinions expressed are those of the artists and writers themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Fabrik or Fabrik Media Group. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. PRINTED IN LOS ANGELES
CONTEMPORARY ART & DESIGN
PETER FRANK is art critic for the Huffington Post and Associate Editor for Fabrik magazine. He is former critic for Angeleno magazine and the L.A. Weekly, served as Editor for THE magazine Los Angeles and Visions Art Quarterly, and contributes articles to publications around the world. Frank was born in 1950 in New York, where he was art critic for The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News, and moved to Los Angeles in 1988. Frank, who recently served as Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum, has organized numerous theme and survey shows for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and other venues. McPherson & Co. ‑Documentext published his Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography in 1983. A cycle of poems, The Travelogues, was issued by Sun & Moon Press in 1982. Abbeville Press released New, Used & Improved, an overview of the New York art scene co-written with Michael McKenzie, in 1987. LANEE LEE is a Los Angeles-based writer who uses her craft to pursue her passions: travel, culture, cuisine, and discovering artisans from around the globe. You can follow her latest quest at www.laneelee.com and @wanderlushdiary. MEHER McARTHUR Originally from the UK, Meher McArthur is a freelance art historian, author and educator, specializing in Asian art. Her current exhibition about contemporary origami entitled Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami is touring the US until the end of 2016 (and was featured in last month’s issue of Fabrik). She worked for many years as Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, has collaborated with several Southern California museums and advised for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has published several books on Asian art and culture, including Reading Buddhist Art: An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols (Thames & Hudson, 2002), The Arts of Asia: Materials, Techniques, Styles (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and Confucius: A Throneless King (Pegasus Books, 2011) and two children’s books. She has also written for publications including The V&A Magazine and The Royal Academy Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. PHIL TARLEY is a Fellow of The American Film Institute and an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association. As an art and pop culture critic: he regularly posts stories on The WOW Report; he writes about art and photography for Fabrik Magazine; and he is a juror on the Lark International Art Competition. Tarley is currently working on a book of narrative non-fiction travel stories and on a variety of photographic art projects. He has recently been appointed to a City of West Hollywood task force on Public Art Installation. Phil Tarley now curates for Artist’s Corner, Hollywood’s newest fine art photography gallery.
ISSUE 21
ON THE COVER Binary Chair © Benjamin Rollins Caldwell Photo courtesy the artist and Industry Gallery.
5790projects is a curatorial entity that produces quarterly pop-up exhibitions in Los Angeles, and was founded by Catlin Moore and Matthew Gardocki in 2011. Moore is the Director of Mark Moore Gallery (Culver City, CA), where Gardocki is also Assistant Director. Gardocki studied at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, and is one of the founding members of Igloo Tornado arts collective. Moore is completing her MA at California State University, Long Beach, and is a contributor to several art publications, including Daily Serving, Beautiful/Decay, and ArtLog.
CONTENTS 10 Design Profile: Ball-Nogues Studio 26 Spotlight: The Curated Life: Peter Fetterman 44 Design Spotlight: ‘Fun-ctional’ Art: Industry Gallery 56 Video Art Spotlight: Moving Images at Paul Young Projects 70 Fresh Faces in Art: Emergent Presence: Eight LA Artists You Should Know 88 Artist Profile: Sukran Han: A Glimpse of the Spirit 94 Art About Town: Peter Frank’s Museum Views 102 Artist Market PHOTO (ABOVE): DINKA MAN AT THE CATTLE CAMP OF KEI. SOUTHERN SUDAN. 2006 © SEBASTIÃO SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
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At the Nexus of Art and Architecture A Report From the Outer Limits — WORDS PHIL TARLEY PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PHIL TARLEY IMAGES COURTESY BALL-NOGUES STUDIO
YUCCA CRATER (EXTERIOR). 29 PALMS, CALIFORNIA, 2011
DESIGN PROFILE
Deep inside the cityscape of Los Angeles’ megalomaniacal sprawl, two incendiary subversive revolutionaries plot and plan a delicious mayhem for us all. Benjamin Ball and his partner Gaston Nogues are design demons. They conjure up mad, hallucinogenic, preposterous fantasies that they somehow bring to life as buildings, sculptures, fantastic chandeliers and globular lighting creations. Their works delight the senses and confound the mind in the most wickedly wonderful highly heretical ways. Who let these men out of the insane asylum? The afternoon I spent with them still spins my mind with vertiginous sensations, challenging me to see/think/feel - to interpret space vs. mass in strange, new multimodalities. Nogues immigrated to Los Angeles from Buenos Aires when he was twelve. Culturally and tactily imprinted by his father- an aeronautical engineer who often took Gaston to his airport workshop - the inventive boy, early in life, developed a passion for high technology. Being Argentinean brought a certain elegance of theory and style to his machine world. Ball grew up in the forested environs of Colorado, an impression still evident in the artist’s unabashed use of wood in his constructions. Benjamin’s mother’s involvement in theater may have helped inspire his Hollywood feature film career (he was a production designer on the Matrix series), and perhaps also gave rise to the potent literate thrust of Ben’s intellect, that he uses rapier-like, when talking or writing about his work. Both men share a fascination with flying machines. Benjamin’s great uncle was the inspiration for the novella Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and back in the day raced bi-planes and barnstormed across the midwest. Both men also share a strong grounding in architectural theory. They met while studying at SCI-Arc, Southern California Institute of Architecture. Their alliance cemented when each found employment at Gehry Partners. Gaston worked at Frank Gehry’s firm for ten years, building models and designing products, which included lines for Tiffany Jewelry and Heller rota molded polymer chairs. David LaChapelle once advised me to bring easy-on-the-eyes assistants to flirt with my subjects and keep them entertained. Easy-on-the-mind is my own addition. I like bold, sexy, original thinkers so I phoned up my friend, Countess Andrea Derujinsky, the daughter of a White Russian noble and a fin de siècle Harper’s Bazaar photographer, flipped her a link to the Ball-Nogues website and asked if she wanted to come along. With the countess in tow, we zoomed onto the
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YUCCA CRATER (INTERIOR). 29 PALMS, CALIFORNIA, 2011
DESIGN PROFILE
freeway and made our way deeply into the bowels of the Los Angeles urbanasphere, to an industrial manufacturing part of the city I had been to years ago, when I visited Sterling Ruby in his gigantic space. Ball-Nogues Studio occupies a cavernous one-room factory, reminiscent of –big surprise- an old wooden airplane hanger. The space spills out onto a graffiti-strewn back alley and has a small, open office above the workshop floor. Commodious yes, but the comfort level –it’s all for the machines. The two gracious architects scrambled to find us a couple of chairs. No one sits around here. A cacophony of pounding, drilling and various metallic machiney sounds filled the factory as fifteen or so employees from as many countries intently assembled, constructed, deconstructed, measured and adjusted, who the hell knows what. Loud, yes, but a certain serenity filled the space with a huge contented hum. Both men give casual a decidedly appealing spin. They are thoughtful and quick-smiled, seemingly without ego, perhaps unaware that their place in the world of art and architecture is uniquely distinctive. After complimenting the countess on her jewelry and inquiring about my work, we started to talk about theirs. The following project descriptions are culled from the Ball-Nogues website, my interview notes and what I hope are a few pithy observations. Located in the barren desert near Joshua Tree National Park, 15 miles from the nearest human settlement, Yucca Crater is a synthetic earthwork that doubled as a recreational amenity during High Desert Test Sites - a kind of Burning Man party for arty architectural types, which took place in October of 2011. After the event, Yucca Crater was abandoned to the entropic forces of the landscape. The work resembles a basin that stands 30 feet from rim to low point and is depressed 10 feet into the earth. Rock climbing holds mounted on the interior allow visitors to descend into a deep pool of salt water. Yucca Crater expands on concepts borrowed from land art, incorporating the prospect of abandoned suburban swimming pools and ramshackle homestead dwellings scattered across the Mojave. The rough plywood structure of Yucca Crater was originally the formwork utilized to construct Talus Dome, another of the design team’s works, in which more than 900 boulder-sized polished metal spheres were assembled to appear as a monumental pile of gravel. A mold was utilized, Ball-Nogues typically make their own tools, to model these constructions and later adapt them for the building of other projects. In the factory, a lubricant is layered between the shape
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TALUS DOME. EDMONTON, SASKATCHEWAN, 2011
DESIGN PROFILE
and the form, like butter in the bottom of a cup cake baking dish. Once the mold is fixed or dried, it’s turned upside down and the creation is popped out of its tray. In reality, a talus dome is a natural accumulation of detritus that gravity takes to the base of mountains, piles of gravel, earth or salt mounds and the like. The artists installed their sprawling sculpture just outside of Edmonton, Saskatchewan. The work changes up with the seasons, as the winter snow first covers it up then recedes in the spring to reveal the construction, which was built to last a hundred years. An assemblage of cast paper imprints derived from non-architectural objects, Yevrus 1 (yevrus is survey spelled backward), Negative Impression is a disposable architecture of literal references. With this installation, Benjamin and Gaston have posed this question, “can we adapt everyday objects as tools for fabrication and as generators of both architectural space and decoration?” The project inverts and reworks some of the methods Bruce Nauman employed in making the sculpture, A Cast of the Space Under My Chair (1965-68). Where Nauman makes a solid cast directly from a negative space found in the real world, Ball and Nogues made a negative cast directly from a solid object and then expanded the process to yield an architectural system of panels that can be arranged according to functional demands and aesthetic whimsy. Scans were made of a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle, a 1970s open top speedboat, a tanning bed, a 19-foot tall Los Angeles roadside gas station sculpture dubbed “Muffler Man” and a classic kidney bean swimming pool – all semi-finalists in a contest in which each was evaluated for inclusion in the installation. Faro and Lidar 3D laser beam scanners were used to survey not only the object but also the space around it. Ball and Nogues told me that they now had the technology to scan all animate and inanimate objects as positive space and scan the area around their physicality as negative space, then plot the co-ordinates and feed all the information into a database. Their implication seemed clear. Once they were done, there was no need for any of the actual stuff to, well, really exist, at all. To contemplate negating the need for reality is highly out of my comfort zone. These two men from SCI-Arc are SCANNERS and Homeland Security should be immediately alerted. Concept artists, engineers, scientists, inventors, designers, architects, what do I call these guys? They have generated far too much work to describe in this brief overview. And I have left out their machine and paper inventions.
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YEVRUS 1, NEGATIVE IMPRESSION SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE (SCI-ARC) GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, 2012
YEVRUS: MUFFLER MAN, 3D SCAN. 119-FOOT TALL LOS ANGELES ROADSIDE GAS STATION SCULPTURE.
DOUBLE BACK-TO-BASICS. CREATED FOR THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART (LACMA) OFFSITE GALLERY AT THE CHARLES W. WHITE SCHOOL, LOS ANGELES.
INSTA-LLATOR 1 WITH THE VARIABLE INFORMATION ATOMIZING MODULE, 2009.
GLOB LAMP (OFF)
GLOB LAMP (ON)
RIP CURL CANYON. RICE GALLERY, HOUSTON, 2006.
CONTEMPLATING THE VOID: INTERVENTION IN THE GUGGENHEIM. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK — WITH COLLABORATION FROM JESSICA FLEISCHMANN, 2010.
BENJAMIN BALL AND GASTON NOGUES IN THEIR OFFICE.
DESIGN PROFILE
Insta-llator 1, a computer controlled fabricating machine, was used to construct an install at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. (Insta-llator 2, 3 and 4 are in the works and will be used in the making of a multi-million dollar floating, sculptural array at the new International Terminal at LAX.). Liquid goo is their innovative approach to manufacturing paper and radical architectural building systems, a luminous example of which, the Glob Lights, can be seen at the Edward Cella Art+Architecture Gallery. Benjamin and Gaston, at ease in so many physical and intellectual pursuits, were shy boys to my camera. Our interview over, I suggested their office for pictures. We walked up the long, narrow wooden staircase that hugged their factory’s wall. I posed them in front of a big green chalkboard, which was scribbled with colorful lists and I threw a blue remnant from one of their installations into the shot. I tried to make them comfortable. To warm them up, the countess cracked smart, funny jokes from the side, but she was stealing my eye-lines. I tried to shut her up and ended up yelling at her and dragging her face right up to my lens, which B and G thought hysterical and so they relaxed and I was able to get my shots. More about Ball-Nogues can be found at www.ball-nogues.com.
Ball-Nogues Exhibition History 2006
Rice Gallery, Houston
2006
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
2008
Beijing Biennale, Beijing, China
2007
PS1/MoMA, New York
2008
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2009
CAPC Contemporary Art Museum, Bordeaux, France
2009
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
2009
Hong Kong/Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Shenzhen, China
2010
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
2010
Guggenheim Museum, New York
2010
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles
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The Curated Life: Peter Fetterman — WORDS PHIL TARLEY PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PHIL TARLEY IMAGES © SEBASTIÃO SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY
After years of collecting, careful planning and private dealing, Peter Fetterman opened his first brick and mortar gallery on June 6th, 1991, his birthday. To arrange a life-changing event around a specific auspicious date speaks to a thoughtful and elegantly constructed existence. From humble beginnings, the dapper and winsome Englishman rose to become a potent producer of British films. Along the way, the gallerist fell in love with epic, world class photography. »
SPOTLIGHT
Fetterman is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his eponymous Bergamot
Station photography gallery with the U.S. debut of Sebastião Salgado’s monumental new show, Genesis. Salgado’s massive black and white oeuvre is a far-reaching body of work that seeks to capture the populace of our society in the myriad places of our endurance. I call this genre, Historical Humanism. This artist is no mere documentarian. Salgado’s use of light and shape is mesmerizing. His selection of subjects intelligent and rare. Genesis marks Salgado’s most ambitious project to-date involving years of research and travel to thirty-two of the most isolated regions of the planet. Inspired by the reforestation of his family farm, the Brazilian photographer set out to rediscover the Earth’s natural sanctuaries, untamed wildlife and traditional cultures that remain undisturbed by the influence of modern society. Salgado’s images most often delight, sometimes surprise and occasionally their sublime beauty can move one to tears. Sebastião Selgado at The Peter Fetterman Gallery, Bergamot Station, June 29–October 19, 2013. Opening night reception Saturday, June 29, 4-7pm. Taschen has published two Genesis books, a 517 page trade edition and a two volume signed and numbered limited edition. Both are available from the gallery. The exhibition features an intimate selection of large-scale black and white prints curated by Peter Fetterman, who has been one of Salgado’s main dealers and supporters for the past two decades. He chose the following images for Fabrik readers to preview.
DINKA MAN AT THE CATTLE CAMP OF KEI. SOUTHERN SUDAN. 2006 © SEBASTIÃO SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
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DINKA GROUP AT PAGARU CATTLE CAMP, SOUTHERN SUDAN, AFRICA. 2006 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
GROUP PORTRAIT OF ALL THE KAMAYURA SHAMANS, HIGHT XINGU, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL. 2005 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
THE EASTERN PART OF THE BROOKS RANGE, ALASKA, USA. 2009 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
ICEBERG BETWEEN THE PAULET ISLAND AND SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS, ANTARCTICA. 2005 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
MARINE IGUANA, Rﾃ。IDA ISLAND, THE GALAPAGOS. 2004 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
MARINE IGUANA (TAIL), Rﾃ。IDA ISLAND, THE GALAPAGOS. 2004 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
SAHARA, ALGERIA. 2009 ﾂｩ SEBASTIﾃグ SALGADO / AMAZONAS IMAGES. COURTESY OF PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY.
EYE CANDY. ELENA MANFERDINI.
‘Fun-ctional’ Art: Industry Gallery — WORDS LANEE LEE IMAGES COURTESY INDUSTRY GALLERY
DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
Art that serves a purpose beyond adorning your walls? Gallerist Craig Applebaum of Industry Gallery in Washington, DC and Los Angeles passionately believes in this new wave of modern design + art. “The great thing about design at this moment in time, is that there is no hegemony in the discipline right now – there is a great amount of freedom for designers to develop their own vision,” says Applebaum. A clear plastic chair filled with hundreds of Southern Comfort mini-bottles. A tube chaise lounge your kids will beg to crawl in. Poolside furniture that’s both indestructible and new-sports-car sleek. Pew-like benches made out of honeycomb paper, completely adjustable and ever evolving. These are just a few pieces on display at Industry Gallery’s Eight International Designers | One Show exhibit until June 28th, 2013 at the Pacific Design Center. “The designers that follow highlight the diversity of contemporary design today, across typologies and use of materials. Some have architectural backgrounds, some purely design backgrounds, but each is contributing to the discourse in their own unique way,” explains Applebaum. MATHIAS BENGTSSON
Hailing from Copenhagen, designer Mathias Bengtsson made his debut in 1998 when his series of Slice chairs, featuring flat, laser-cut layers of material (wood, aluminum, plastic) stacked on top of each other resembling a topographical map, were exhibited at Galleria Post Design in Milan. “I’m trying to create an artificial universe where we can grow things as nature would,” Bengtsson told Architectural Digest. With his state-of-the-art techniques and craftsmanship applied to the 20th century principles of biomorphism (art that mimics patterns in nature), it’s no surprise he snagged the prestigious Finn Juhl Prize in 2012, an award given to a designer furthering the furniture field. The Spun series, as depicted in the photo on the next page, are made of woven strips of carbon fiber, and possibly the lightest, functional chairs on the planet. BENJAMIN ROLLINS CALDWELL
Caldwell, a master up-cycler, spends countless hours sifting through what others have deemed worthless. Inspiration for Caldwell comes from unorthodox places - thrift stores, abandoned warehouses and salvage yards. “Sometimes the objects I discover simply inspire an overall design idea and other times the objects actu-
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CLEAR PLASTIC CHAIR FILLED WITH HUNDREDS OF SOUTHERN COMFORT MINI-BOTTLES. BENJAMIN ROLLINS CALDWELL.
WOVEN STRIPS OF CARBON FIBER USED IN THE SPUN SERIES OF CHAIRS. MATHIAS BENGTSSON.
DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
ally become the raw material for the piece,” explains the native South Carolinian artist. Transforming zippers into a sexy couch, out-of-date computer hardware into tables or blue jean labels into a chair (see this issue’s cover), it’s all in an unconventional day’s work for the self-proclaimed ‘re-inventor.’ CHI-SHEN CHIU
Constructing furniture out of paper? Sounds impossible, but Taiwan-based designer Chi-Shen Chiu’s FlexibleLove series defies common sense. Utilizing the accordion-like properties of honeycomb paper, the couches and chairs take on a dynamic, ever-changing essence.
FLEXIBLELOVE FURNITURE SERIES. CHI-SHEN CHIU.
Like origami, FlexibleLove furniture can be reshaped and folded according to its owner’s whims. Chiu’s furniture is not only customizable, but also invites co-creation. Each person who sits on the chair makes a lasting impression – literally. FlexibleLove is eco-conscious - made mostly of post-consumer recycled paper, post-industrial wood waste and environmentally derived glues. ELENA MANFERDINI
In a city like Los Angeles, eye-candy abounds. Elena Manferdini, founder of design studio Atelier Manferdini and professor at Southern California Institute of Architecture, plays on the concept by wielding images of candy into glossy, popart furniture. Furthering the superficiality theme, the installation combines video
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DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
animations and mirrored inlays so viewers can see their own image. “Architectural material finishes have the communicative potential to enter into the imaginary realm of our 'eye-candy' culture, exploiting our most superficial of obsessions including desire, age, gender, media, consumption and delight,” explains Manferdini. JENS PRAET
If Nixon had called Belgian designer Jens Praet to make furniture out of the secret documents, maybe he would have spared himself the Watergate scandal. Simply put, Praet’s Shredded Collection makes good use out of used paper in the form of benches and consoles. The idea, in the beginning, was more of a problem-solving quest to up-cycle the endless paper waste created by corporate offices. “What started as a research project,” says Praet, “turned out to be a continuously growing furniture collection that ended up transforming seemingly useless documents and leftover magazines into useful objects.” Praet’s design studio is in Panzano (a small town near Florence), Italy where the search for inspired design is rooted in everyday, simple materials.
BENCH FROM THE SHREDDED COLLECTION. JENS PRAET.
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DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
ANTONIO PIO SARACINO
Named as one of the world’s 25 most interesting trendsetters by ARTnews Magazine, one of the top ten Italian architects under 36-years old by the New Italian Blood and four-time winner of the Future Furniture design competition by Interior Design Magazine, are just a few of the shining accolades awarded to the young, Italian-born designer. Antonio Pio Saracino’s playful foam couches (in photo above) are some of his latest creations. They are a completely different direction from his previous work, like the Deer Chairs that resemble a contemporary take on a buck’s rack.
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DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
BOřEK ŠÍPEK
Czech architect and designer Bořek Šípek is truly a renaissance man. Yes, he was the architect at the Museum of Modern Art in Den Bosch, Netherlands, the Prague Castle (including the drinking glasses, chandeliers, and lamps) and the Opera House in Kyoto, Japan, but the art of glass making, based on his extensive body of work, seems to fascinate him most. Šípek carries on the age-old tradition of Czech glass techniques combined with his cosmopolitan flair. He is the co-founder of Ajeto, a renowned glass gallery and recently opened Studio Anežka (Agnes Studio), his own glassworks in Nový Bor, Czech Republic. OYLER WU COLLABORATIVE
ARMCHAIR. OYLER WU COLLABORATIVE.
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This husband and wife creative team have not slowed since Fabrik profiled their innovative artmeets-architecture last year. The couple’s installation, Screenplay, which debuted at the Dwell on Design 2012 show in Los Angeles was on display at the Industry Gallery earlier this year. Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, while simultaneously designing architectural projects in Taiwan, have transitioned into home furnishings too. Patio furniture, specifically. If James Bond was in the market to trick out his backyard – he’d surely pick up a few of the outdoor chaises and ottomans made of polypropylene rope and power-coated steel. Indestructible and forever polished-cool, just like he is. Most recently, Stormcloud, Oyler Wu Collaborative’s newest installation, made a splash with the uber modern tented structure aglow at SCI-Arc’s 40th anniversary bash.
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SHANA MABARI Light Based Triptych Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, California November 2013 West Hollywood’s long history of celebrating artists continues with the upcoming installation ILLUMINATED by Los Angeles artist Shana Mabari. ILLUMINATED is a light based triptych of polyhedrons consisting of DIAMOND, CUBE, and RECTANGLE sculptures. The massive geometric shapes will be installed on the median of the 8400 block of Santa Monica Blvd, resulting in a dynamic presence capturing the attention of both the hurried and leisurely viewer. Throughout the day, radiant colors change from bold, opaque hues of yellow, blue, green, and red to a transparent and romantic glow as an illumination effect takes place after the sun goes down. More information at www.shanamabari.com ILLUMINATED is scheduled to be installed November 2013.
SHANA MABARI, ILLUMINATED — CUBE, NOVEMBER 2013 8’ x 8’ x 8’ • STEEL, PLEXIGLASS, INTERNAL LIGHTING MEDIAN OF THE 8400 BLOCK OF SANTA MONICA BLVD, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA
I L L U M I N AT E D
SHANA MABARI, ILLUMINATED — DIAMOND, NOVEMBER 2013 12’ x 11’ x 11’ • STEEL, PLEXIGLASS, INTERNAL LIGHTING MEDIAN OF THE 8400 BLOCK OF SANTA MONICA BLVD, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA
SHANA MABARI, ILLUMINATED — RECTANGLE, NOVEMBER 2013 12’ x 4’ x 4’ • STEEL, PLEXIGLASS, INTERNAL LIGHTING MEDIAN OF THE 8400 BLOCK OF SANTA MONICA BLVD, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA
MECHANICAL BRIDE. KURT RALSKE, THE ENRAGED ALGORITHM, 2010.
You Ought To Be In Pictures: Moving Images at Paul Young Projects — WORDS CRAIG STEPHENS IMAGES COURTESY PAUL YOUNG PROJECTS
SPOTLIGHT
In operation since 2009 inside the esteemed Pacific Design Center, Paul Young Projects is one of LA’s formative video art galleries. Rather than align his space to genres such as “digital art,” or “new media,” Director Paul Young explains that the populism of such terminology sees him sway more towards the moniker, “moving image.” Says Young, “designed to be less of a new media gallery than a true project space, the gallery is dedicated to the idea that moving image artworks are concrete art-forms, much like painting, sculpture and fine art photography.” “It operates as a project space for both, experimental film artists and contemporary artists who are interested in exploring the full capabilities of the medium.”
AMERICAN FALLS, 3-CHANNELS
Still, there is a stigma to showing moving image art for artists, Young says. “Showing at a gallery devoted to new media can see an artist become typecast. Many artists simply use video as a medium, and they don’t want to be bound to a certain genre.” With a background in experimental film and journalism, Young’s devotion to nurturing and exhibiting international “moving image” art is obvious. In turn, he faces major challenges in marketing high concept art that isn’t easily commodified. Yet, he says, the medium does attract a select collector base. “It’s a radically different ballgame than a conventional gallery. It takes an elevated collector
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SPOTLIGHT
with a comprehensive collection. There really are only about four serious collectors of video-based art in Los Angeles.” Paul Young Projects presents 6-10 shows per year and each show runs for approximately two months (three months during the summer). Young says “the goal is to present monographic or group exhibitions (both historic and contemporary) where as many as 15-30 works can be shown simultaneously.” In keeping with his commitment to running a “project” space, Young says he is more concerned with creating a venue to premier new and innovative work rather than purely attain sales. “It’s very important to bring work to LA that won’t otherwise be seen,” he says.
“I'm always disheartened when I see people install video in galleries. It's usually done so badly, with little or no thought put into it. It's usually on a white wall, with a curtain at the door, and you can usually see the DVD player, extension chords, and everything else. To me, that's like hanging a painting in the dark, with the hammer and nails still laying on the floor (granted, that can be a good look for certain works). But I work very hard at the presentation of the works, that's crucial to me.” Young adds that he also faces the added advantage of tapping work from anywhere in the world, without the expense and inconvenience of elaborate
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REFIK ANADOL. INTERVENTION 2, 2013.
SPOTLIGHT
shipping costs. Subsequently, the gallery offers a range of international moving image art that utilizes a myriad of creative techniques, from projection mapping geometric forms to 3D sculptures and 2D photographic prints. Current shows include the work of Turkish born artist Refik Anadol. Anadol’s emphasis is on augmented sculptures, projection mapping and live events. He has a central interest in the ephemeral nature of “space,” both as a concept and as a physical entity. Anadol also cites the work of the new media theorist Lev Manovich as a key influence. Manovich espoused the notion that the next logical step after architecture is to realize how the “invisible space” of electronic data flow can also be physical, substantial and even emotional, in the hands of artists. For his first solo show in the U.S., Anodol will be showing several works that engage that discrepancy between interior and exterior, mostly with projection mapping works, a new laser piece and several ‘augmented landscapes.’ For the latter, Refik has created 6 digital prints that hang on a wall much like abstract photographs. Each was designed to mimic a different digital realm, whether it’s a purely imagined, abstract image or very specific art-historical, and/or sociological references. Commenting on his show, Anadol reveals, “The blur and interconnection between the boundaries—between the two realms actual/fictional and physical/virtual—signifies the threshold between the simulacrum space, created by the projection technology, and the physical space where the viewer stands.” “This exhibition discusses the inherent spatial qualities of augmented spaces and their effect on the embodied person. Through the presented framework, the works intends to question the relativity of perception and how it informs the apprehension of our surroundings.” Anadol has recently begun working with both Frank O. Gehry+Partners and the LA Philharmonic’s conductor Gustavo Dudamel on a projection mapping project for Disney Hall (set to take place in 2014). Anadol has devised sensors to track Dudemel’s every move during a performance, which will in turn trigger specific imagery projected onto the outside of the building. The result is a highly advanced form of visual music and a further expression of Anadol’s aesthetic interests. Also showing at PYP is the work of experimental film artist Phil Solomon, with a show titled “Before and After the Falls.” It will feature a range
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KEVIN COOLEY. SKYWARD, 2011
MICHAEL JOACHIM, GREY (LEFT). MIHAI GRECU, COAGULATE (CENTER).
REYNOLD REYNOLDS. SECRET MACHINE, 2009. DUAL CHANNEL.
EDDO STERN’S EMOTICON AND MELF
DAVIDE QUAYOLA
MATTHEW WEINSTEIN’S CRUISING AND SIAM
SPOTLIGHT
DANIEL VON STURMER’S PAINTED VIDEO AND KELLY RICHARDSON’S THE ERUDITION
of work charting the artist’s 40-year career with a special emphasis on his installation work. At the center of the exhibition is the West Coast premier of the 3channel version of “American Falls,” which was originally commissioned by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Solomon’s work has previously been included in two Whitney Biennials and has been the subject of 3 solo shows at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His films have won 10 first prize awards at major international film festivals for experimental film (including six Juror's Awards from the Black Maria Film and Video Festival). Today, his films are included in the permanent collections of the MoMA, The Chicago Art Institute, the Oberhausen Film Collection and a number of important institutions.
— Paul Young Projects Visit Tues-Fri 11am-5pm, or by appointment Sat-Mon Pacific Design Center 8687 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90069 http://www.youngprojectsgallery.com (323) 377-1102
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
EMERGENT PRESENCE BY CATLIN MOORE AND MATTHEW GARDOCKI, CO-DIRECTORS OF 5790projects
1. HEATHER CANTRELL Primarily interested in how the camera has historically shifted the identity of its subjects, Heather Cantrell (b. 1972, KY) has conducted "A Study in Portraiture" since 2009. Initially creating a parallel between 19th-century depictions of "exotic" or "primitive" tribes and modern ideas of projected identity, Cantrell stages exaggerated portraits of localized artists, curators, and creatives. Complete with flamboyant costumes and props, these images reference a contemporary "tribe" of sorts for each city, and lampoon the "otherness" presented in archival photos from early representations of a classified peoples. In her most recent solo exhibition at Carter & Citizen, "Weirding Way," Cantrell turned the lens on herself in order to address the mercurial and fractured notion of selfhood. Mangled and shattered images of the artist are framed by swaths of ostentatious sequin fabric, as if documenting the theatricality and transformative qualities of identity. In an acute gesture of self-awareness, Cantrell pulls the curtain back to reveal the elements of her own growth – a foreign journey rooted in native experience.
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(ABOVE) SANGUINE, 2013 TORN C-PRINT, POLYESTER, ACRYLIC, 94 X 60 X 4 INCHES (LEFT) YOUR UNIVERSAL CYCLE, 2013 SCRATCHED C-PRINT, 62 X 46 INCHES, FRAMED
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
2. DEANNA ERDMANN In a time when borders are becoming increasingly both fluid and defined, Deanna Erdmann (b. 1980, CA) is working to eradicate them completely. Largely dealing with the ambiguity of boundaries, Erdmann seamlessly weds the conflicting notions of presence and absence as related to psychological, political, and physical perimeters. In her manipulated videos and projections, she obfuscates the lines between real and imagined – whether it's a woven depiction of authentic and fabricated Cambodian rainforests, or interlaced guerilla footage from military personnel in Afghanistan, Erdmann's environments grapple with the margins that define our perceptive faculties. Through her subtly distorted mental and tangible territories, we are offered an alternative vantage point to the prevailing reliance on disseminated imagery and rules, and are free to forge our own.
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(ABOVE) QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME, 2012 TRT: 11 MINUTES DESCRIPTION: A photographic archive of a landscape in peril, Quartet For the End of Time is composed of 1,700 photographs taken in the rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia. Considered to be one of the last true wilderness areas in Southeast Asia, this rainforest is the home of many endangered species. In the installation, images continually shift as the viewer moves through a landscape both real and imagined. This landscape evokes varied and sometimes conflicted notions of wilderness – violence, beauty, disorientation, perpetual shift, transcendence and the sublime. (LEFT, TOP) UNTITLED (GREEN), 2011 TRT: 15 MINUTES DESCRIPTION: Untitled (Green) interlaces six different videos posted by US military personnel. Shot during the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, each video contains night vision footage documenting US led bombings abroad. (LEFT, BOTTOM) UNTITLED (WOMEN), 2011 TRT: 5 MINUTES DESCRIPTION: Untitled (Women) interlaces female singers Karen Dalton, Lesley Gore and Marianne Faithful, creating a simultaneously haunting and alluring experience. Through editing they become apparitions of one another, sharing harmonic and discordant sounds and echoing one another’s physical movements. From these discordant fragments, new harmonics emerge.
FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
3. NUTTAPHOL MA Spanning the practices of performance, video, sculpture, and installation, Thai artist Nuttaphol Ma (b. 1972, Bangkok) uses his dichotomous experiences to create a conceptual alliance between his past and current lives. Primarily centered on bodily execution, Ma pushes his physical and mental limitations in order to illustrate his concerns about spirituality, anthropology, mass culture, and dreamscapes. By creating intensive sites and events, Ma becomes a demonstrative vessel for ideas relating to social patterns, attitudes, and trends, especially those pertaining to the immigrant experience. The artist has constructed and performed in personal and interpersonal spaces - be it his original family home or a sweatshop in downtown Los Angeles – that become experiments in karma, liberation, and survival. Loosely tied to the pillars of Relational Aesthetics (in which art is wholly divorced from commerce in order to facilitate communal awareness), Ma's work delves into the rich lexicon of symbolic space, ritual, and ownership.
(RIGHT, TOP) HEROIC MUNDANE, 2012 GENRE: Video (Documentation of Performance) TRT: 5 minutes 1 second LINK: http://vimeo.com/44619128 SITE: Beacon Arts Building // 808 North La Brea Avenue, Inglewood, California DESCRIPTION: Born By The River stems from multidisciplinary artist Nuttaphol Ma’s dream. Ma dreamt that his body rested inside a boat that washed ashore. He stepped out from the boat yet his body remained in the boat. By the river, steps led up a mountain side. Naga figures accompanied both sides of the path. Ma ascended only to realize half way that his body was still in the boat by the riverbank. He retraced back to the river and asked passerby to help him carry the boat with his body up the steps. They all reached the top to what appeared to be a courtyard. Born by the River aligns Ma dream with his reality. On May Day 2011, Ma set sail with a boat over his head from Badwater Basin to the trailhead of Mt. Whitney. Sky becomes sea. Wind become waves. The boat becomes Ma’s shelter, his home. The sun sets over the sky. (RIGHT, BOTTOM) BORN BY THE RIVER, 2011 GENRE: Video (Documentation of Performance) TRT: 26 minutes 37 seconds LINK: http://bit.ly/13vWUW0 SITE: Badwater Basin Death Valley to Whitney Portal, California DESCRIPTION: Within the main gallery space at Beacon Arts, multidisciplinary artist Nuttaphol Ma set up camp from 08-10 May 2012. Ma intervened multiple surfaces mirroring the main gallery door. These surfaces included walls, a column and part of a doorframe. Using the entrance door facing La Brea Boulevard as a unit of measurement, Ma altered these architectural forms to function as a memorial for the unsung actions of the workers. Each task related to the intervention was meticulously recorded onto the wall surface. The site specific work is activated when viewers connect the fragmented parts of the marked surfaces to "re-form" the entrance door. The video captures a dance choreographed to celebrate these mundane tasks. The skipping vinyl of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique scores the soundtrack; broken intermittently by a time clock Ma acquired from his retail "day job".
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
4. ELANA MANN With the advent of immediate information available through social media, we operate under the pretense that our voices are more readily heard. When unified in message and coordinated in implementation, the human voice can be an agent for social change. Over the last two years, Elana Mann (b. 1980, Boston, MA) has shifted her largely performative practice to focus on the receptivity of vocalized dissent. Still loyal to her earlier interests in “alternative economies” and opposition strategies – such as her “Artist Bailout” (2011) luncheon and “Eternal Network News” (2010) broadcast series – Mann evaluates both the prominent and repressed voices associated with sociopolitical evolution, and how they are ultimately heard. Works like “Listening as (a) movement” (2013) and “These Vibrations Will Dissolve Your Debt” (2012) treat the power of speech as a simultaneously soothing and aggravating sensory experience – manipulating the listener's visceral response with subtle shifts in tone and projection. Not unlike the conflicting outlets through which “news” is dispersed, Mann's aural installations elicit a range of instinctual and emotional reactions.
(ABOVE) PRODUCTION STILL FROM FM1-2, 2013 TRT: 5 MINUTES MEDIUM: HD DOUBLE CHANNEL VIDEO (RIGHT) IN A PERFECT WORLD, THE MOON WOULD BE VISIBLE, THE DISH WOULD BE SET FOR MOON BOUNCE, AND SHE WOULD BOUNCE HER VOICE OFF THE MOON, 2013 • ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT ON PAPER • 14" X 22"
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
5. EMILY MAST Investigating the nuances that provide context, Emily Mast's performances produce queries related to the problems of communication, comprehension, and semiotics. Simultaneously exemplifying the similarities and differences between subsidiaries of a given action or concept, Mast orchestrates hybrid experiences that ultimately question how frame of references are constructed. In 2012's "B!rdbrain," the artist produced a stylized performance centered on the complications of communication, bringing together an ASL interpreter, an auctioneer, and a stutterer (among others) to epitomize her message. Similarly, "Never It's Now Or" (2012) dealt with the fine distinctions of memory through a theatrical monologue, avant garde performance art, and a stand-up comedy routine – bringing to focus Mast's interest in the gradation of cognizance and deference. Through her portrayals, we are challenged by how delicate those dividing lines can be.
(ABOVE) EMILY MAST & HANA VAN DER KOLK, SIX TWELVE ONE BY ONE, 2013 PERFORMANCE • 35 MINUTES • PHOTO: MARTIN DICICCO (RIGHT, TOP) EMILY MAST, B!RDBRA!N, 2012 PERFORMANCE • 40 MINUTES • PHOTO: BETSY LIN SEDER (RIGHT, BOTTOM) EMILY MAST, EVERYTHING, NOTHING, SOMETHING, ALWAYS (WALLA!), 2009 PERFORMANCE • 3 HOURS • PHOTO: KARL HAENDEL
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
6. FINISHING SCHOOL Composed of five members, Finishing School (est. 2001) creates interventions, films, twodimensional works, performances, and public actions that confront socially accepted norms, and redirect our focus to marginalized or overlooked narratives and individuals. Drawing influence from 1960s international Fluxus Movement, the collaborative primarily invents non-art realities in that challenge nefarious commercialism or politics. Works like 2003's "Re-Image" – which consisted of a real-time hacking action performed in a New York nightclub - demonstrate the potentially corrupt use of authoritative resources (such as surveillance technology), while 2009-2013's interdisciplinary project, "54," presents a satire of contemporary art world "Illuminati" as collected through rogue video footage and purely fabricated relics. With more than thirty performative happenings to date, Finishing School acts as a covert sociopolitical workshop - deploying provocative seminars on the art of progressive dialogue and exchange.
54 (FILM), 2010 DESCRIPTION: Created for the 2010 California Biennial, Finishing School produced 54, a participatory film project. The project explores the complex socio-economic, and political landscape of biennials - using the invitation to participate in one biennial as an opportunity to critique the very model through the critical dramatizing of another biennial. The film blends narrative, cinema vèrité, and improvised experimental cinematic styles. Intervention, homage, appropriation, and collaboration are important tactics in the making of the film. Described by FS as "absurdly complex" 54 is a multi-faceted project without traditional boundaries between the process of making the film, the completed film, and the interactive installation where it will be presented as a completed project. 54 is Finishing School's most ambitious project to date, both conceptually, and geographically. IMAGES: (ABOVE) STILL FROM THE FILM (RIGHT, TOP) CREW (RIGHT, BOTTOM) FROM THE SET
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
7. TYLER MATTHEW OYER Tyler Matthew Oyer (b. 1987, PA) loves glitter. Not necessarily for the crafty purposes it is most acquired for, but for its cheap, artificial attempt at lavish glitz. It bears a likeness to the mythology of American culture that Oyer is fixated upon: a promise of the sensational with a delivery of the meretricious. With his glittering, patent leather, gold lamé-clad theatricality, Oyer's performances are a controlled experiment in the disorienting cabaret we know so well; a quest for meaningful values despite the distraction of flamboyant showmanship, prose, and tunes. In his ongoing "Gone for Gold" production, Oyer puts on a dizzying spectacle of rhyming verse and seven songs that tell an allegorical tale of the American condition. Rife with the exhibitionism that chokes modern entertainment, "Gone for Gold" poses critical questions about systems of value in the face of socioeconomic crises, but with all the flash we so easily cave to. Similarly, Oyer's one-man production of "Hello Dolly!" is a frenetic parable for the multiplicity demanded of our natural and cultural states. As the artist frantically shifts between all of the original stage production's character lines and songs, we are struck by his fervent ambition; an optimism that feels eerily familiar and fatigued.
(ABOVE, LEFT) MARQUEE #17, 2013 17" X 14" • ACRYLIC ON PAPER (ABOVE, RIGHT) MARQUEE #2, 2011 17" X 14" • ACRYLIC ON PAPER (RIGHT, TOP) HELLO, DOLLY!, 2011 HIGH DESERT TEST SITES (RIGHT, BOTTOM) GONE FOR GOLD, 2012 LIEBIG12 • BERLIN
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FRESH FACES IN ART: EIGHT LA ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
8. RACHELLE SAWATSKY Pushing the confines of the field aside, Rachelle Sawatsky (b. 1983, Canada) applies a painterly outlook to her interdisciplinary practice. Working in media as diverse as ceramics, projection, writing, and photography, her compositions bear the layered evidence of personal excavation, as compositions from the past and present coalesce into sentimentally responsive composite images. In a sense, her layered transparencies, photographic imagery, and pigments are a marriage between the intuition and analytics of self-awareness. Her interest in the conceptually diaphanous and opaque results in equally divergent materiality, a complex aesthetic that is as alluring as it is haphazard. Through her candid and whimsical approach, Sawatsky taps into a visualization of selfhood that is relatable and sincere.
(ABOVE) IN THE MIRROR, 2013 INK AND BLEACH ON DENIM • 34 X 44 INCHES (RIGHT) UNTITLED, 2013 C-PRINT ON DRAWING PAPER • 38.5 X 29.5 INCHES
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Light Spine • 40” x 28” • Archival Pigment Print • Edition of 3
SashavomDorp.com
PROFILE
SUKRAN HAN: A GLIMPSE OF THE SPIRIT — WORDS MEHER MCARTHUR IMAGES COPYRIGHT AND COURTESY SUKRAN HAN
Korean artist Sukran Han’s new abstract works, shown in two recent group exhibitions – Natural Harmonies at the Fremont Gallery in South Pasadena in May and at the LA Artcore Gallery at the Brewery Annex in June – are a visual exploration of light, time and spirit. Created as part of the artist’s ongoing study of the relationship between humans and the passing of time, they invite us to slow down and step into a cosmic landscape that is at once pulsing with dynamic light and energy yet profoundly still and peaceful. She calls upon geometry to probe space and time, with a gentle nod to Kandinsky. Sharp prisms dance across black grounds, while slender, laser-like blue lines intersect the surface, and concentric circles shimmer against mottled space. In Glance 5, we are pulled into darkness by “shooting rainbows” (as my 7year old son described them) leading us deeper into the heart of the universe and into ourselves. “Light is all encompassing for me,” Han explains in a statement for the Fremont Gallery exhibition. “How it relates and effects shapes intrigues me.” In For Your Eyes 10, her fascination with light and forms is apparent. Similar darting prisms hover around a luminous white calligraphic stroke, which dances playfully on a dark ground in a bold inversion of the spontaneous brushwork of a Zen master. More subtle elements of her work are light and shadow, which she balances carefully to produce a poetic, dreamy quality. Certain compositions evoke a summer afternoon lying under a huge tree watching dappled sunlight playing through the leaves, or a winter morning observing the shadows cast by trees onto a frozen lake. In Glance 2, long slender prisms appear to have pierced through the surface of frozen water, cracking the ice and forming a shadowy form that resembles a nest of writhing dragons. Shimmering orbs illuminate works such as
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GLANCE 2 (ABOVE) GLANCE 5 (LEFT)
FOR YOUR EYES 9 (ABOVE) FOR YOUR EYES 10 (LEFT)
For Your Eyes 9, in which fireflies appear to flit among tufts of autumn grasses bending in the breeze. Here, Han expresses the light and energy of the universe much closer to our level, in the natural world around us. What is not well conveyed in photographs of her work is her application of paint. In some works, she mottles two tones of pigment together to suggest the patina on ancient bronze or the bark of a tree. Or, she builds up a lacquer-like coating to enhance the play of light on the painting surface, or she scratches through the thick paint, further energizing the more prominent painted lines. Some of her works are certainly more powerful than others; in some, the light elements float on the surface without really interacting with the rest of the composition. Yet, Han’s paintings succeed in providing us with a glimpse of the spiritual energy that illuminates our universe, something divine, perhaps, that is out there – and also deep within ourselves – for us to see if we take the time to look. n
MICHAEL R. STOKLOS ASSIGNMENT, INDUSTRIAL, STOCK, PORTRAITS & GALLERY PRINTS TEL: (520) 471-0005 EMAIL: mstoklos @ gmail.com WEB: www.stoklosphotos.com IMAGE: DRIED SUN FLOWERS
ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
Peter Frank’s
MUSEUM VIEWS A+D MUSEUM, MIRACLE MILE Exhibition: Never Built: Los Angeles JULY 28—SEPTEMBER 29 On view from July 28 through September 29, Never Built: Los Angeles is an upcoming exhibition at A+D Museum. Described as a “rare and unprecedented exhibition” by Sam Lubell, who curated the show with Greg Goldin, Never Built: Los Angeles is an instructive and visionary archive for a city in search of itself. For the first time, the “gap between Los Angeles’ genius for design and its public output” will be examined through original drawings, new and old models, large scale installations and videos as well as interactive media intent on portraying more than 30 historic and visionary unrealized as well as mostly unseen renderings and plans replete with the potential to have reshaped Los Angeles. The curators pose questions around what might have been had Olmsted and Bartholomew’s ambitious proposal known as “Plan for the Los Angeles Region” indeed been adopted by the city planners of yore. The proposal sought to transform the entire coastline of Los Angeles into a public park with thousands of additional acres of landscaped parkways and new parks in the L.A. basin. Hand-drawn images of Frank Lloyd Wright’s unrealized “Doheny Ranch” show one-of-a-kind Wright homes embedded upon the slopes of Beverly Hills within a dramatic landscape of terraces and ravines. Also on view, after decades languishing in archives, is John Lautner’s vision for the Griffith Park Nature Center. Plans for extensive rail-based transportation may have alarmed the powerful business interests vested in the 1927 Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the city that could have been clearly never came into fruition. After a couple of days of press covering the Olmsted and Bartholomew proposal imagining Los Angeles as “Eden,” the report effectively disappeared. Although those civic leaders lacked prescience and failed to embody the true vision and humanity needed to grow a city with adequate space reserved for recreation, natural beauty and the authentic community that engenders, the exhibit intends to be instructive and inspiring to the urban planners we have now. 94
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
LAX ORIGINAL PLAN, 1952 • PEREIRA & LUCKMAN (COURTESY LAWA FLIGHT PATH LEARNING CENTER)
Los Angeles is a city trapped by potential, which is emblematic of America itself. Life for most who are here is explicitly more about pursuit then realization and “hope springs eternal,” whether for the elusive yet landmark defense contract, blockbuster film, hit TV show, Oscar, Grammy, or more simply, a better home, car, job, life, etc. Never Built: Los Angeles offers a necessary view into what the curators hope could become, if not further influence, “the future of Los Angeles.” A more consciously conceived city, one that is denser, more interconnected and dynamic, is one that benefits us all. This is what Never Built: Los Angeles articulately proposes we consider. The book Eden By Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region was published in 2000 by University of California Press and written by historians Greg Hise and William Deverell, with a marvelous foreword by esteemed landscape architect Laurie Olin. It further contextualizes the upcoming exhibit at A+D, which has also put out its own book (available July 31st, 2013) entitled Never Built: Los Angeles, authored by curators Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin with a foreword by Thom Mayne. For more information, please visit http://aplusd.org Web fabrik.la
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
HAMMER MUSEUM, WESTWOOD Exhibition: A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living THROUGH SEPTEMBER 8 The poignancy framing the sophisticated nostalgia being exhibited along with “A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living,” May 25-Setember 8 (Hammer Museum) feels genuinely of the past. A profoundly moving humanist ethos informed this seminal mid-century architect and educator because Archibald Quincy Jones (1913-1979) strove to make his practice “inviting, transparent and non-hierarchical,” as contextualized by the Hammer’s wall-text. For the first major museum retrospective of the myriad works of this quintessentially Californian modernist innovator, a Case Study House model (#24, the only tract house model submitted was planned for Chatsworth but never built), hand-painted and meticulously drafted architectural drawings and vintage as well as contemporary architectural photographs by Julius Shulman, Ernest Braun, Jason Schmidt and more are on display. Dedicated to erecting elegantly functional homes for the burgeoning middle classes of a less formal post-WWII America, Jones invited architect Frederick Emmons to join his practice and both went on to design and build entire communities integrated with parks, safe roadways and community centers. The pair worked with building magnate Joseph Eichler to develop and realize the historic Greenmeadow subdivision in Palo Alto, among others. The exhibit also focuses on Jones’ tract houses, high-end residences, restaurants, churches, libraries and schools. From 1937 until his death in 1979, Jones’ uniquely collaborative practice built community through shared green spaces, non-grid site planning and varied models of homes. Jones’ reverence for the outdoors led to him designing ‘from the inside out’ and bequeathed us over 5,000 built projects, many of which are still with us today. Lauded for their expansive interiors as well as articulate and efficient building layouts, these projects embody Jones’ dedication to bringing a high standard of design to the growing middle classes of the time. Integrating sustainability with cost-effective and efficient design was a hallmark of Jones’ work. Constantly innovating his use of materials, he experimented with steel, plywood, and masonry block construction placing particular emphasis on where his buildings were sited in his effort to ensure light, air, ventilation and views were optimal and as natural as possible. 96
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
A. QUINCY JONES • SIDNEY F. AND FRANCES BRODY HOUSE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, 1948-51. PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON SCHMIDT, 2012. COURTESY HAMMER MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES.
Jones also taught at USC’s School of Architecture from 1951-1967 and was its dean from 1975-1978. Despite having inspired many architects through the sensitivity of his ideas and prolific practice across a wide variety of building types, Jones’ contributions to the field have not always been as recognized as some of his contemporaries. Jones, who cultivated and nurtured his collaborations with corporate sponsors, developers, and design colleagues like landscape architects Garrett Eckbo and Thomas Church, sought to improve how livable space was designed ‘not just for economic gain but for societal betterment as well.’ Of course this being Los Angeles, Jones designed residences for the famous and mighty as well. Actor Gary Cooper, art collectors Frances and Sidney Brody and media magnate Walter Annenberg were among a few of his more glamorous clients. Other notable projects include the Sasha Brastoff ceramics factory, USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, expanded headquarters for Web fabrik.la
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A. QUINCY JONES AND FREDERICK E. EMMONS, ARCHITECTS. ST. MICHAEL’S AND ALL ANGELS EPISCOPAL CHURCH, STUDIO CITY, CALIFORNIA, 1960-62. PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON SCHMIDT, 2012. COURTESY HAMMER MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES.
ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
A. QUINCY JONES AND FREDERICK E. EMMONS, ARCHITECTS. MILTON S. TYRE HOUSE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, 1951-54. TRANSVERSE SECTION THROUGH LIVING ROOM, DINING ROOM, AND MAID’S QUARTERS. COURTESY CHARLES E. YOUNG RESEARCH LIBRARY, UCLA LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
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Web fabrik.la
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ART ABOUT TOWN WITH PETER FRANK
Herman Miller, and a Tiny Naylor’s restaurant and bar. Jones’ St. Michael and All Angels Epsicopal Church (Studio City, 1962) and Northridge Congregational Church (Northridge, 1962) are both still in use and known for their soaring interior spaces, which utilized laminated timber construction. Jones’ design for the headquarters for Warner Bros Records (Burbank, 1975) succeeded in bringing the intimacy of materials associated with the domestic scale to a large corporate building. A comprehensive illustrated catalog of the same name accompanies the exhibition, which is part of the citywide Getty-sponsored initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in LA. For more information, please visit http://hammer.ucla.edu Web fabrik.la
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ARTIST MARKET
Stephen Rowe PAINTER From the outback town of Broken Hill, Australia, polymath artist Stephen Rowe lives a three dimensional life as his art. Fifteen years as an international professional classical ballet dancer, two charted country music records in Australia, a tradesman in finish carpentry, a boxer, formerly a Suzuki-sponsored motocross racer, and decades of inventive expressionist painting... Rowe redefines the concept of creativity. Every element of Rowe’s life influences the next, and is reflected in his artwork. As a native of Australia, Rowe’s work is partly influenced by Aboriginal dot art, leavened by the impression of the working class culture imparted to him in Broken Hill, the hard scrabble mining town that formed his vision. Rowe learned from some of the most renowned international artists in and around Australia, prominent artists such as Pro-Hart, also from Broken Hill. View work online: www.artcapitol.com • Email: sr@artcapitol.com
ARTIST MARKET Javiera Estrada Photographer
Hilary Sloane Photographer
je@artcapitol.com www.artcapitol.com
hilarysloane@gmail.com hfs.photoshelter.com
Patricia Araujo Painter pa@artcapitol.com www.artcapitol.com
Regina Vorgang Handwoven Rugs (805) 766-1343 Regina@ReginaDesign.com www.ReginaDesign.com
EDWARD CELLA ART
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