Reviews

I was supposed to write about the OC Music Awards that I attended last Saturday for my next blog, but instead I have chosen to write about a Swedish Satanic metal band called Ghost. I might say that I have chosen to write about the lesser of two evils, but Ghost revels in being pretty comically evil. Never fear, I will write about a few bands worth mentioning from the OC Music Awards, but I need some time to process. While at the awards ceremony, I...

07 March, 2012 /

Los Angeles, CA  At the 100th Annual CAA Conference in downtown Los Angeles, I got a chance to sit and listen to a panel of women that could impress even the most haughty of elite art folks with their hard work, dedication, and professional experience. Among these women, Carrie Yury knocked my socks off with her helpful advice and personal experience in the art world. Carrie Yury, a professor at CSUF, an occasional writer for Artillery Magazine, and a creative photographer, and art world professional--Yury is...

06 March, 2012 /

[caption id="attachment_3407" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Pacific Building Interior, Studio 213 (photos by Sherwood Souzankari)"]   Sometimes I can be a European-elitist, chiming into many political debates about health care, homelessness, college tuition costs, or funding for the arts with sentences that start with "Well, in Europe…" Truth is there are plenty of things that the United States can learn from Europe. My excuse for saying so is that I am actually European. I am first generation Irish to be raised in the US, and I spent much of...

01 March, 2012 /

Located in the glass jungle of Century City the Annenberg Space for Photography hosts one outstanding exhibit at a time based on a distinct theme.  The current installation, Digital Darkroom consists of 17 photographers from the US, UK and France who create surreal and impossible scenes using digital and/or darkroom manipulation. The Annenberg is modern yet welcoming; the main gallery is circular with the display walls surrounding a central screening room showing an entertaining behind-the-scenes film. The Annenberg exhibits are always accompanied by a film narrated...

22 February, 2012 /

[caption id="attachment_3167" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Steve Carson from Echo Echo"][/caption] by Joy Shannon On Thursday February 9th, I was invited to attend a "Backstage" concert filming at DPS Productions in Irvine. I found myself in a dark industrial complex near John Wayne Airport and wondered where the concert could be amongst the rows of identical office buildings closed for the night. Yet, just around a corner I discovered a crowded and lively studio that looked like it was airlifted from a Los Angeles film lot. I have previously...

14 February, 2012 /

On First Saturday, the exhibit Gothic opened at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, featuring 56 artists from around the world working in a variety of different mediums, all within the genre of “Goth.” During opening night, the warehouse turned art co-op was transformed into a New Wave nightclub with artists and attendees dressed in their most morbid and theatrical attire. It was a dark and dapper atmosphere which began in full force when exhibition curator Amy V. Grimm arrived by coffin...

12 February, 2012 /

For the last several months the Los Angeles art world’s attention has been captured by the blockbuster Pacific Standard Time exhibitions happening throughout southern California. In the midst of this dominant viewing of the past art of Los Angeles there has been a few brave souls staging exhibitions that sit outside of this particular lens. One of these shows is the quiet survey of current Los Angeles painting that recently opened at the Torrance Art Museum titled To Live and Paint in LA curated by...

07 February, 2012 /

Fullerton, CA    Sculptor, S.A. Hawkins had his MFA thesis exhibition open this past saturday at Cal State Fullerton and rocked it! Alongside the large and impressive Faculty exhibit, S.A. took both of the other galleries (The East Gallery and the West Gallery) on the CSUF campus and dominated the night. His abstract and hypnotic glass and metal artworks are surprising and comforting, compelling narratives involving abstract life forms made of glass, metal, rust, found objects, and brightly colored silicone creating interesting non-verbal conversations within...

30 January, 2012 /

Stockholm isn’t a typical stop on the European traveler’s circuit; it is an expensive city even by European standards, and fairly out of the way being so far north. If you do make it to Sweden’s laid back and beautiful capital you will be well rewarded with a visit to the  Moderna Museet. Getting there itself is charming: the Museum is located in the center of Skeppsholmen one the several small islands that are part of  Stockholm. It’s a lovely walk along the bridge connecting the...

17 October, 2011 /

OCMA recently concluded Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy (April 10-September 4, 2011) which gives us great reason to revisit the inventor of the mobile, pioneer of modern sculpture and master of grace and balance. When you first encounter one of Calder’s iconic mobiles, a large floating sculpture of steel rods and sheet metal, vivid oblongs, circles and paddles painted in primary colors, intricately balanced and gently rotating, several fundamental principles are thrown into sharp relief: Color. Shape. Balance. Abstraction. The mobiles are so ingeniously...

18 September, 2011 /

We all know the typical Laguna Beach landscape paintings: sun-dappled arc of the main beach, pseudo-impressionist rendering of palm trees, hill top houses etc etc etc. For those of us who want to feel Laguna instead of just look at it, Jan Heaton’s watercolors are for you. Heaton is an Austin based visual artist who specializes in watercolor and a collection of her work can be seen at the Joanne Artman Gallery on PCH. Heaton offers a refreshing take on a landscape that has been painted many...

09 September, 2011 /

Now in its seventh year, GLAMFA and the attached Open Studios, has been a yearly event organized by CSULB graduate students to showcase new work by both CSULB students as well as a chosen few from other local graduate MFA programs including California Institute of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University and UCI. If the 2011 GLAMFA exhibition is supposed to act as an indicator of what our local bright young things are up to, the kids are not alright. This year’s event featured nearly 30 artists...

04 September, 2011 /

Magu, in his natural state - a smile. Pomona, CA.   At the collector’s preview of the new exhibition at the dA Center for the Arts, Cruisin Magulandia, the all-around feeling of the event was that of reverence. The entire night was filled with shared stories, friendly faces, passionate music, home-made snacks, and dozens of people looking to open up and revel in the loving memories of artist, Gilbert Luján. Better known as Magu to most, he was a friend to so many people it was overwhelming...

18 August, 2011 /

Pomona, CA Orange County artists, Preston Daniels and S.A. Hawkins made it out from behind the "orange curtain" last night for the new exhibition at the dA Center for The Arts entitled, A Sense of Place, a Sense of Space: Architecture and Landscape Inspired Art. These Cal State Fullerton artists are some of the most well known up-and-coming artists within our beloved orange bubble.   [caption id="attachment_2304" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="A Sense of Place, A Sense of Space"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2309" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Artists Daniels and Hawkins at dA Center...

12 June, 2011 /

  [caption id="attachment_2055" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Title wall"][/caption] In the art world's  recent obsession with Street Art, Pasadena Museum of California Art takes a closer look at the local level. This Street Art Exhibition is not MOCA's copy cat partner, though the buzz coming into the museum was all about that -- MOCA did it first, MOCA did it bigger, MOCA had the controversy, MOCA had the press. One thing that MOCA didn't have that PMCA did, was local flavor. In a place like Southern California, with perfect weather, beautiful...

15 May, 2011 /

The premiere event of "Art in the Streets" at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, with contributing writer Evan A. Senn -- of the OC Art Blog and R.A.R.W. ...

17 April, 2011 /

Manuel Pardo could not make it to the opening of Stardust at the CSUF Begovich Gallery so he was beamed in to give a talk at the opening….really.  Like something out of a science fiction film the face and voice of New York-based artist Manuel Pardo greeted guests at the Saturday opening reception of his solo exhibition via Skype.  (Skype is a free way of video chatting over the internet.) Gallery director and technology junkie Mike McGee introduced Pardo to the audience that awaited his...

11 April, 2011 /

Fullerton, CA Last night, on Saturday evening I found myself walking into some sort of Wonderland that seemed as if it were on the other side of the looking glass...

20 March, 2011 /