Ever wonder what happened to Ed Templeton? That professional skateboarder turned internationally renowned artist, photographer, D.I.Y. innovator, entrepreneur, ‘Beautiful Loser,’ and book publisher? Well if you haven’t, then Ed Templeton has.
His eclectic career as both a skater and an artist has always seemed to be about his own relationship to time and motion. In his famous photography book, Teenage Smokers, for instance, each medium to close-up image of a young person with a cigarette has the feeling of personal impermanence, like a flash-memory of a kid you might have seen at the mall once when you were nine.
Templeton, especially in his most recent work, seems to be obsessed with these fragile, ephemeral moments, and what they might mean. His 2008 book, Deformer, which took him 11 years to complete, examines his youth growing up in the ultra-conservative suburban “incubator” of Orange County, using childhood letters, notes, photographs, sketches, and paintings to tell his story with as much physical accuracy as possible—even if it’s all long gone.
His latest photography show, The Seconds Pass, at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Culver City once again has Templeton on the move. These thirty-some separate collages of pictures, mostly all taken from the vantage point of a moving vehicle, attempt to capture exactly where he’s been these last few years, so as not to miss a passing second.
Ed Templeton’s The Seconds Pass can be viewed at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Culver City until April 3. Roberts and Tilton is located at 5801 Washinton Blvd. For more information, please call (323) 549-0223, or visit www.robertsandtilton.com.
It seems only natural to combine our two first loves – art and food. Yet that combination is rarely accomplished in a tasteful manner — that is, until recently.
The artist group Fallen Fruit has pioneered a considerable effort that is changing the way we view Los Angeles’s urban landscape, one tree at a time. Fallen Fruit, founded by Matias Viegener, David Burns, and Austin Young, mapped areas of Silver Lake that have public access to fruit trees — i.e. free, locally grown, organic food. This project continues to connect those with too much and those with too little of that good stuff.
Fallen Fruit’s next big project is at LACMA and is aptly titled EATLACMA. Both today and tomorrow, Fallen Fruit will be giving away free fruit trees to kick off their year-long investigation into food, art, culture, and politics. And keep your ear to the ground as their program unfold seasonally, including the exhibition Fallen Fruit Presents the Fruit of LACMA and day-long event in November.
An apple a day never tasted so good – or so free for that matter.
For more information about Fallen Fruit, click here. For more information about EATLACMA, click here.
We all dream in our own style – some of us have dreams of grandiose places, some have anxiety dreams about some upcoming event, and the lucky ones have kinky dreams. It often takes more than just looking at someone to work out what their dreams might look like. But, and I’m really generalizing here, I have a feeling that the two artists currently on view at LeBasse Projects in Culver City have got the wonderfully indie dreams of film favorites like, say, Ellen Page or Michael Cera down.
On one hand, Scott Belcastro’s exhibit, called “Chasing the Last Glimpse of Light,” is full of paintings (somewhat big, acrylic paintings) that show a sort of Where The Wild Things Are existence with fuzzy mountains, a red menacing sky, and a lone reindeer beneath the stars. He has a simplistic painting style with colors that are more muted than vibrant – the paintings are ultimately a delicate view of the wild and twisted world we live in.
Then, there’s Linda Kim and her exhibit, “A Light Within.” The two painters easily complement each other – her style has a similarly minimalist, yet dreamlike quality with animals making their way through the mist or sleeping beneath an intensely blue sky. The immediate difference between those two is actually their use of color. Where Kim employs color blocking techniques and a more diverse and concentrated use of hues, Belcastro seems to want you to wander through his world with a more fragile touch. Kim also presents her work on little wood “houses” – which really make you wish you could crawl inside and lay down. You’d probably have some pretty crazy dreams in there.
Scott Belcastro and Linda Kim’s works will be on display at LeBasse Projects through January 2010. For more information, please call (310) 558-0200 orclick here.
Tell me who loves you. Mom, Dad, Fine Arts LA…that’s three. Throw in your significant other and a best friend…that’s five.
Oh! Don’t forget…MOCA loves you, too. You didn’t know? You tend to ignore gossip, but it’s true. The Museum of Contemporary Art has decided to proceed into the rites of courtship and to show you that it is interested in making your friendship into something more. MOCA will open its doors (and heart) from Sunday, November 15 to Friday, November 20 so that you can explore Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years during its opening week at the Grand Avenue and Geffen Contemporary locations and to find out MOCA’s true intentions without costing you one red cent.
I can’t say how 20-somethings in the rest of the country are fairing at the moment, but in LA it seems like “unemployment” is the buzzword of the year among most of my peers. What boggles and frustrates me is to look around and see many highly intelligent, capable, and industrious people who are either working as telemarketers, pizza delivery drivers, and volunteers–or, not at all. Lately it feels like it’s getting worse. How many unpaid internships does one have to work until something finally gives?
The good people over at the Getty must feel the tension in the air. They’re putting on a series of films this and next weekend that few can appreciate like the embittered and unemployed. The “Four Angry Young Men” Series begins this Saturday with Tony Richardson’s “Look Back in Anger” (1958) and Karel Reisz’s “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (1960), and closes next weekend with Lindsay Anderson’s “This Sporting Life” (1963) and Richardson’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1962). All four are directed by the founders of Britain’s New Wave Cinema and its precursory “no film can be too personal” Free Cinema Movement, whose aims were to spotlight the mostly overlooked lives of the struggling working class, dealing with issues of class consciousness, sex, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment. Ah, disillusionment. The films feature the young actors Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, and Tom Courtenay respectively, with the stunning Rachel Roberts playing in both “This Sporting Life” and “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.”
Best of all, all four screenings are free! Comfort certainly for a broken wallet, and there’s something everyone – even the monied old bluebloods out there – can enjoy.
- By Helen Kearns
For more information about the screenings and to make ticket reservations, visit the Getty’s website.
(Image from “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”)
Tomorrow evening, we are going to play it like it is 1984 all over again as The Wall Project commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall. Starting at 11:00pm, an 80’ x 10’ wall of art will span Wilshire Blvd. between Fairfax and Spaulding — and guess what? It is going to collapse at 12:00am just like the original wall separating East and West Germany. Join the rest of us tomorrow night after your evening stroll tonight up and down La Cienega catching all the Culver City gallery openings (Tomoo Gokita at Honor Fraser, Noah Sheldon at Cherry and Martin, and Sean Duffy at Susan Vielmetter). History repeats itself at one of its more finer points and even better…it won’t cost you one red cent.
Click here to read Fine Art LA’s piece about The Wall Project. Click here for more details about tomorrow evening.
How many appointments have you made in the last week? There’s the hair appointment, waxing, and obviously – therapy. None of that, while necessary, sounds all too fun. We think it’s time to make an appointment that not only brings you somewhere much more interesting, but that is also free.
Welcome to Marine, a private art salon that opened in July of this year. Bringing us back to the days when an art salon was, rather than an anomaly, a chic and inviting way of viewing group shows and discovering new artists, Marine hosts bi-monthly events and it’s only open to be viewed by appointment. Current artists represented in the salon include Drew Beckmeyer, Val Britton, Seth Kaufman, Matt Klos, and many others. Their work can be seen through November 7. The domestic space focuses on bringing attention to emerging, contemporary artists and is curated by Claressinka Anderson who has worked with galleries across the city including Pharmaka, Tarryn Teresa Gallery, and even Barker Hangar.
Remember, this is the kind of salon for which you place the emphasis on the first syllable – it’s not the kind of salon where you’ve got to choose a polish color. We suggest putting their number in your phone with the name Marine – that way you can pretend she’s just a friend of yours with an enormous, amazing, rotating art collection.
Marine is a salon located in Santa Monica, CA. For more information, pleaseclick here.
The Miracle Mile Art Walk, which happens every third Saturday of the month, has a little extra flavor with The Wall Project this Saturday — the Wende Museum continues its plans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall. They are preparing to build up the wall to tear it down all over again. Please leave your sledgehammer(s) at home. The LA-style fall won’t happen until next month.
The art walk starts officially at 4:00pm, which will give you plenty of time to survey the gallery scene on Wilshire, including some gems at 6150. At ACME, Jennifer Steinkamp’s new show Orbit is guaranteed to impress and is definitely worth your while to stop by. Last year, her gorgeous scrolling floral digital animations projected on the wall were a definite highlight, so her new show will surely be a treat.
At 4:30, Thierry Noir, who was the first painter of the original Berlin Wall in 1984, and Justinian Jampol, the Wende Museum’s director, will speak at the Wall Along Wilshire as part of the Wall Project. Also, on Saturday, Noir and his LA counterparts, Kent Twitchell, Marie Astrid Gonzalez, and Farrah Karapetian, will be painting the Wall Along Wilshire, which is set to be the longest stretch of the real Berlin Wall outside of Berlin.
The afterparty is over at Phantom Galleries from 8:30 – 10:00. The exhibition GraceBeautyFortitude, curated by Sophia Louisa as part of Sophia Louisa Project, opens on Saturday with work featuring Rebecca Niederlander, Leigh Salgado, and Coleen Sterritt. The preview images look gorgeous. The three qualities — grace, beauty, and fortitude — are presented through sculptures that seems so delicate and ephemeral, but at the same time very strong and resonate.
All will probably head over the Mandrake afterward You know how we do it around here.
Mention the Miracle Mile Art Walk for free entrance into LACMA and CAFAM.
The Miracle Mile Art walk is Saturday, October 17 from 4 – 10. For more information about The Wall Project (5900 Wilshire Blvd.) and Saturday’s events, please click here.Jennifer Steinkamp’s exhibition opens Saturday with an opening reception 6 – 8 at ACME (6150 Wilshire Blvd.). Also, Sophia Louisa Project’s GraceBeautyFortitude (5412 Wilshire Blvd.), opens on Saturday and will host the art walk after party.
After a sun salutation, take a deep breath in your yoga class to meditate upon a variation of a classic philosophical question: If a tree falls in a sonic forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
You bet it does. It sounds a little bit like one hand clapping. Find out for yourself, once you know what exactly a sonic forest is.
Public art in its finest and most musical form, Sonic Forest is an art installation consisting of sixteen eight-foot columns equipped with speakers, lights, and photo-electric sensors. The columns resonate sound and radiate light as passersby activate the ‘trees’ by touch or movement. This interactive forest was created by artist, architect, and composer Christopher Janney to produce an individual score of melodic tones, environmental sounds, and spoken/whispered texts with each stroll. Watching it being used is a work within itself. Unless you decide to walk on through, in which case, it is as satisfying as a trip through Choi Jeong-Hwa’s HappyHappy. And imagine, it popped up right in the middle of USC’s campus. It is an oasis of public art waiting to be activated.
Namaste.
The Sonic Forest ends October 15. You can find this treasure at the University Park Campus of USC in Hahn Plaza, which is right by the Tommy Trojan Statue. Click here for more info.
Have you ever wondered what music would look like? We don’t just mean the psychedelic patterns floating around to the beat on your iTunes. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what the sounds of a harp look like, for example? Well, whether or not this was their intention, Ball-Nogues Studio’s latest installation at MOCA has a clear link to the intricacies and floating currents of the harp.
On view (for free, of course) at MOCA at the PDC through November 15, Ball-Nogues Studio’s installation is unfortunately called Feathered Edge, as opposed to something about Carlos Salzedo. Like the harp, Feathered Edge is light, colorful, refreshing, and while ever present, it doesn’t over power the room. It coexists with the space in the most harmonious sense of the word.
The installation is comprised of 3064 lengths of twine that total 21 miles, which have all been cut, dyed, and suspended from scrims in the walls and ceiling of the space. Each string was specifically cut and dyed using hyper-modern technology created by Ball-Nogues Studio for this installation after which process they were strung in an overlapping pattern depending on weight and color. The Studio’s goal was to “yield the effect of ghostly three dimensional objects. Sometimes the objects are visible, at other times they blur to resemble a fluid-like vapor that floats and hovers in the gallery space.”
If, after you see the installation, there is still no link for you between the soft, effervescence of the harp and the sometimes-visible, sometimes-vaporous qualities of Feathered Edge, don’t tell us. We’d prefer to live in the fantasy world where you can see just what the harp sounds like.
Ball-Nogues Studio’s Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio is on view at MOCA at the PDC through November 15. For more information, pleaseclick here.No reservations or tickets are required.
Ever wonder what happened to Ed Templeton? That professional skateboarder turned internationally renowned artist, photographer, D.I.Y. innovator, entrepreneur, ‘Beautiful Loser,’ and book publisher? Well if you haven’t, then Ed Templeton has.
We all dream in our own style – some of us have dreams of grandiose places, some have anxiety dreams about some upcoming event, and the lucky ones have kinky dreams. It often takes more than just looking at someone to work out what their dreams might look like. But, and I’m really generalizing here, I have a feeling that the two artists currently on view at LeBasse Projects in Culver City have got the wonderfully indie dreams of film favorites like, say, Ellen Page or Michael Cera down.
I can’t say how 20-somethings in the rest of the country are fairing at the moment, but in LA it seems like “unemployment” is the buzzword of the year among most of my peers. What boggles and frustrates me is to look around and see many highly intelligent, capable, and industrious people who are either working as telemarketers, pizza delivery drivers, and volunteers–or, not at all. Lately it feels like it’s getting worse. How many unpaid internships does one have to work until something finally gives?
How many appointments have you made in the last week? There’s the hair appointment, waxing, and obviously – therapy. None of that, while necessary, sounds all too fun. We think it’s time to make an appointment that not only brings you somewhere much more interesting, but that is also free.
The 
Have you ever wondered what music would look like? We don’t just mean the psychedelic patterns floating around to the beat on your iTunes. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what the sounds of a harp look like, for example? Well, whether or not this was their intention, 
Click the icon to add FineArtsLa.com to your RSS reader