Weekend at Chinatown/Ali Smith

16 Jan Weekend at Chinatown/Ali Smith

Finally the sun has returned to So. Cal. so the wife and I decided to venture out to Chinatown on Saturday night to catch Naida Osline’s show at Acuna-Hansen. I found out they were having a 2nd opening in conjunction with many of the other galleries that were opening their first shows of 2005 including Jack Hanley’s new LA space.

Naida’s show looked great, reminding me more of paintings than photographs. This new series is her strongest yet so I had to pick up a piece for myself. More about that on a later post.

Other stops included:

Eric Niebuhr @ Mary Goldman– I was at this Claremont grad’s last show here a year or two ago and enjoyed his work and this show didn’t disappoint. He’s getting stronger.

Mark Titchener @ Peres-Projects– Personally I think Peres-Projects is consistently one of the better spaces in Chinatown and Titchener’s work was visually strong, but with the light boxes and his riff on political movements I found myself thinking Sam Durant has already been here.

Bill Owens @ Jack Hanley-Looks like Marsea at New Image Art is now going to have some competition attracting the best and brightest from San Francisco as Hanley has finally opened his new LA Space. The Bill Owens show was a bit dull but with his stable and access I’m sure it’ll get interesting over here.

Meg Cranston @ Happy Lion- I always enjoy an opportunity to walk on art. Especially while watching and ice cream cone melt.

Also hit a couple of new spaces that I hadn’t been to before, Sister and Mandarin, which got me thinking how many more galleries can really exist in these close quarters. They must be pushing 25 spaces by now. Time will tell.

Sunday I made it over to Whittier College’s Greanleaf Gallery to catch Ali Smith’s show. The crowd was strong for a Sunday afternoon opening and the work was solid. I look forward to her show at The Office in February and hope to see you there.