Team FALA

Fireworks have the ability to conjure up about as many disparate meanings and memories as the number of spokes in their shooting spiral light displays. In China, they’re thought to scare away evil spirits. In America, they’re billed as patriotic—provoking heckles of “ooh’s” and “aah’s” and “hell yeah’s” from admiring crowds. In zombie movies, they’re often used as weapons of distraction. In the Middle East, they’re not much different than the sights and sounds of air bombs. And in romantic relationships, they’re either explosive celebrations of symbolic ecstasy, or nostalgic reminders of dying light.

Whatever meaning you may attach to them, fireworks do possess a universal power. And on this July 4^th, FineArtsLA.com is giving you and a lucky date the chance to witness the magic close-up at the best Independence Day pyrotechnics show this city has to offer. Live at the Hollywood Bowl, with special guest Vince Gill (does is get more patriotic?), and the U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden West (apparently it does), the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents the famous July 4^th Fireworks Spectacular. Simply write in your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below, and you will automatically be put in the running to win two free tickets to this year’s show (and as always, your name will be added to the lottery of the next three FineArtsLA.com ticket giveaways).

Sure, you could catch the lights from a distance off the side of the 101. But why not immerse yourself in the Bowl this year, and join the true fireworks show, which of course has nothing to do with gunpowder, but rather the thousands of individual sparks that fly up from our own collective subconscious.

The more and more I examine the arts in the context of a historical structure, the more I realize what a bummer of a time this is for civic art. I can’t think of another era that feels as devoid of art on a public and communal scale. Historically, art was one of the most important means by which royalty, nobility, governing bodies, and organized religion established legitimacy and power. Who would the Medicis have been without their immeasurable contribution to the arts? It was nothing short of unthinkable for British war heroes, influential families, academics, and political figures to not commission the exquisitely carved tombs that have elevated Westminster Abbey to one of the world’s most coveted sculpture collections. Would the Place de l’Etoile be such a booming tourist destination if the Arc De Triomphe had not been erected in 1806? What would the Palazzo della Signoria be without its most famous inhabitant, Michelangelo’s David?

Somehow, sometime, for some reason, something has drastically changed the relationship between human civilization and the arts. I’m not quite sure why it happened, or when it happened, or how to pinpoint exactly when governing powers decided that the arts aren’t as important anymore, but it has, most certainly, happened. I’m not sure where things went wrong, and I don’t know why I truly feel that we are in our very own Dark Ages, but I do indeed sense that we’re in a serious funk. Nowadays, school art programs are being cut at gut-wrenching rates, public funding for the arts is negligible compared to what is spent producing Monday Night Football, and general community interest in any art, let alone public art, is something to laugh at rather than be proud of.

Not to my surprise, it turns out that my fellow art lovers at FineArtsLA have also been asking themselves these questions and felt it was high time to talk about them in Hollywood’s very own Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). In concert with the first-ever Hollywood Fringe Festival, this awesome and active website hosted “Panel of the Muses”-a lively panel discussion with some of LA’s most prominent and emerging arts activists: Daniel Ingroff and Paul Pescador, Directors of Workspace Gallery; Freddi Cerasoli, Owner of the former Cerasoli Gallery; Arely Villegas, creator of the arts blog Art A L.A. MODE; and Lee Rachel Foley, Director of Actual Size Los Angeles, all beautifully moderated by our very own Editor-in-Chief, Joshua Morrison.

It’s no coincidence that the first question Josh asked of the panel provided one of the most important answers as to why the arts isn’t more accessible to Angelenos: Why does it feel like Los Angeles is so segregated in terms of its arts community? Freddi reminded us that troubled transportation (and the lack of public transport) impedes our city’s ability to share and engage its citizens in the constant up-surge of private galleries and arts spaces. According to Freddi, cities like Chicago and New York seem to have a much easier time getting people involved and interested in the art scene. When she said that traffic and the sprawling nature of our city is a major problem, she was terrifyingly right.  When it comes to the arts in LA, this is no joke.

Paul Pescador and Daniel Ingroff, whose site-specific installations are the main focus of their gallery Workspace, agreed that the viewer’s experience in LA is disconnected. Their space is feverishly trying to bridge the gap between the viewer and the artwork, and recently, the pair produced a show in which two identical exhibitions were taking place in two separate galleries. Their mission is carried out in even the smallest of details where the show, cards, invitations, and website design are all painstakingly cohesive.

The most remarkable thing among these luminaries was their shared experience with the City of Los Angeles and public funding for their separate but similar missions. The panelists also shared their experiences in making the decision whether or not to operate as “for profit” or “non-profit” businesses, many agreeing that despite the history of great non-profit art spaces, they’d rather keep their artistic freedom as a “for profit” business than have to deal with the incredible bureaucratic difficulties in obtaining not-for-profit status. If only the LA community could rally behind the arts, it would make their lives and purposes a hell of a lot easier. Unfortunately, there is a constant struggle between gallerists and city governments, so many galleries have to put more attention on making a profit than sharing the type of art that they’d prefer. For example, asked Freddi: where is all of the performance art? Arely pointed out that there is quite a bit of it here in LA, but even people in the arts don’t know about it! Much of what is going on in Chinatown is a mystery to those in Venice, and what’s happening in Culver City is unknown to those in Eagle Rock. Art in this city is anything but viral.

It’s not all bad. Exposing art throughout the city is something that will in fact create community. The arts are becoming more recognized throughout various popular outlets, even if it takes the form of Bravo TV’s newest show, “Work of Art.” But most importantly, as evidenced by this panel, there is a whole new generation of arts pioneers that will stop at nothing to bring the arts to the forefront of our cultural and civic identity. There is a long way to go and much to be done, but the room last Thursday night at LACE was teeming with hope, fervor, and a renewed passion that left everyone feeling inspired.

-By Brittany Krasner

For more information on the Hollywood Fringe Festival, please visit http://www.hollywoodfringe.org.

For more information on LACE, please visit http://www.welcometolace.org/.

Generally, creative innovation in any field is thought to have a kind of narrative. When young, the pull toward radical exploration and experiment is bright, vigorous, and hardly noticed by the establishment; that is until a little bit later when these once controversial methods start to become accepted by the mainstream, tauted as revolutionary, and before you know it, the avant-garde becomes the old guard—wisdom and tradition taking precedence over innovation.

But what if this narrative is in itself a kind of trap? What if the possibility for newness, for regeneration never peters out, even in death?

For the late master, avant-garde choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, this was essential. From his early 1950’s collaborations with such ground-breaking artists as Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage, up until his death at age 90, Cunningham was constantly striving for the future. As late as last year, he could be found hosting a weekly webcast series called “Mondays with Merce,” where he invited the world to see the inner-workings of his 57-year-old, world-renowned company, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC).

And after his death in July of 2009, his innovation lives on. He, himself, arranged for a post-humous outline for his company called the “Legacy Plan”—a way for his work to continue to grow for future generations. As a part of it, the MCDC has embarked on its final, two-year-long international tour, where they will premiere brand new pieces by Cunningham for the very last time.

This is where FineArtsLA comes in. We have managed to score two tickets to see the Saturday, June 5^th performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where they will be premiering to the world the reconstructed Roaratorio, featuring music by John Cage. And yes, we’re giving them away to you, our loyal followers. This is literally beyond a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: all you have to do is enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below, and you will be eligible to receive two free tickets to see the 7:30 PM world-premiere performance of Merce Cunningham’s Roaratorio, as performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on Saturday, June 5^th. Not only that, but you will be automatically entered into the running for our next three ticket giveaways.

Cunningham liked to leave his work up to chance, but if you just want guaranteed tickets, you can buy them here.

Yoko Ono’s bio on her Twitter accounts reads: “I love dancing. I think it’s better to dance than to march through life.”

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, though not directly affiliated with Ono, abides by the same theory, and since their inception in 1977 as a small, jazz-influenced repertory outfit with a penchant for entertaining the elderly at Chicago-based neighborhood centers, the now world-renowned, genre-blending company has never forgotten its roots. At a performance in New York in 2001, dancers ended the show by randomly bringing up audience members on stage. And to this day, any one of the seventeen dancers in the main ensemble can be found teaching kids in local school districts the healing art of movement.

That is when not on tour to places like the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from April 9^th – 11^th; a short run to be sure, but Hubbard, in its ever-humble and inviting fashion, has been gracious enough to provide Fine Arts LA with two tickets to see the dazzling, opening-night performance. We thought about hiding this fact, but that wouldn’t be very Hubbard of us, now would it?

So, beginning at 7:30 PM on April 9th, be the lucky winner of two free tickets to see the eclectic mix of some of the world’s most talked-about, modern-dance choreographers—including Jirí Kylián, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe and Daniel Ezralow—instill their visions into the bodies of the most audience-connected dancers you’re apt to see anywhere. Simply enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below, and not only will you be eligible to receive tickets to see Hubbard Street Dance Chicago on April 9th, but the next three shows in which we give away tickets as well. Who knows? You might be sitting next to Yoko Ono.

8 days. 6 art fairs. 8 museums. 6 panels. 1 studio visit.

Touted as the most important art week of the year in New York, collectors, curators, and artists descended upon Manhattan for Armory Arts Week and the city did not disappoint. With a plethora of satellites, fairs boasting more galleries and more square footage than ever before, and the ADAA Art Show scheduled to coincide with the Armory, this was a big test for the art market and, at least anecdotally, it seems to have passed with flying colors. The aisles were filled with the who’s who of the art world: the Mugrabis, Margulies, Carolyn Christov Bargiev, Beatrix Ruf, Don and Mera Rubell, Jerry Saltz, etc. The walls at all the fairs, but particularly the Armory, declared that painting is alive and quite well: Yayoi Kusama and John Korner at Victoria Miro, Mel Bochner at Two Palms, Hernan Bas and Angel Otero at Lehmann Maupin, and at White Cube painting reigned supreme with Gary Hume, Gabriel Orozco, Georg Baselitz, and one of the much-hyped Damien Hirst blue paintings. Sculptures with glitz or reflective surfaces—often best sellers in Miami—made appearances at Jack Shainman (Nick Cave and El Anatsui), Hauser & Wirth (Isa Genzken), Lehmann Maupin (Nari Ward), Lisson (Anish Kapoor), Toby Webster Ltd. (Jim Lambie) and 303 (Jeppe Hein).

As you’d expect, each fair had a few stand out pieces that transcended the rest of the visual noise:

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Anyone who’s spent even a small amount of time on the African continent has a good idea of what people mean when they use the phrase “African nostalgia.”  Even if you haven’t traveled there, it’s easy to get a back-to-our-roots sense from the culture, art, music, and design available to us in the US.  Everything from HBO’s “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” to Youssou Ndour’s documentary I Bring What I Love shows this simple side of life, but not in a melancholy way.  Instead, we see this beautiful, rhythmic, traditional lifestyle in which tribal differences are as often respected as they are fought over.  A primary part of what we know, culturally, about the continent is the music of Angelique Kidjo – a singer who hails from Benin and whose voice sooths as it entices.

With formal jazz music training from the CIM in Paris, Kidjo performed last March at USC’s Bovard Auditorium and has worked with some of music’s greatest performers including Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley, and Peter Garbiel on her recent album Djin Djin.  Her music will, we have no doubt, be of the strength and soul that it will fill the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday evening (February 28) during her solo performance.  To make sure that we’re all on the same page with this brand of “African nostalgia,” we’re giving away tickets for Kidjo’s Sunday evening performance!

This is, indeed, an Extra! Extra! giveaway – a reluctant one, since we wanted to keep this tickets for our greedy little selves.  Just keep in mind that by entering into this giveaway, you’re automatically entered into the next three we agree to giveaway.  All we need is your first name, last name, and your email address and voila – you’ll feel like you’re picking through markets in Dakar in no time.

(Click here if the nostalgia is all too much and you’d rather buy your own tickets.)

It was only a little earlier today that the Los Angeles City Council voted down the proposition to eliminate the Transient Occupancy Tax (the TOT), the sole source of governmental funding behind of the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA).  This action, had it been carried through, would have effectively shut down 18 cultural centers—including the Barnsdall Arts Center in Hollywood and the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, host to the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program for middle school youth—as well as five professional theatre facilities, and an array of classes, programs, and cultural events.

Such a worthwhile institution as the DCA might seem like an easy stronghold in such a creatively centered city as Los Angeles, but it was largely due to incredible advocacy organizations like Arts for LA that the proposition was shot down.  They, along with other activist groups and privately-funded museums such as the Hammer, urged their supporters to write letters to their councilmen, and voice their opinions at the City Council public hearing this Wednesday.  Some handed out stickers with the phrase “Arts Fuel LA,” others toted hand-made signs, and one woman addressed the council in a full-on angel costume.

Lo and behold, these efforts proved successful, and as a website strictly devoted toward promoting the arts, artists, and cultural community of Los Angeles, FineArtsLA would like to sincerely thank both the City Council members, and the hard-working advocacy organizations for their aid and congratulate them on their accomplishment today.

Of course the fight for the arts is never through—the council issue still undecided is whether the current cultural grants will be honored—but in celebration of this week’s victory, may I suggest checking out the DCA-funded Municipal Arts Gallery in the Barnsdall Arts Park.  From January 24th through April 18th, they are hosting an enormous series of participatory exhibitions entitled “Actions, Conversations, and Intersections,” all aimed at enhancing the artistic community of Los Angeles.  In residency this week is Smart Gals Productions, whose patented “Reading Preserve and Speakeasy Collection” features public readings from some of LA’s best authors, including John Albert, Noel Alumit, and Aimee Bender (my personal favorite).

The Smart Gals will toast off their weeklong program on Sunday, February 7th at 2:00pm with the collaborative “Winter Picnic Performance,” a fun mix of music, theatre, fresh bread courtesy of the Bicycle Bread Company, and hot coffee from Cafécito Organico.  So come along, fuel the arts that fuel LA, and if you get the chance, thank somebody.

Curated by Edith Abeyta and Michael Lewis Miller, “Actions, Conversations, and Intersections” runs until April 18th, 2010 at the Los Angeles Municipal Arts Gallery in the Barnsdall Art Park.  For more information, visit www.actionsconversationsintersections.com

We can’t wait for all the new art and experiences 2010 will bring.  And we know you can’t either!  Happy new year and best wishes from all of us at Fine Arts LA!

Love,

Team FALA

Well, dear readers… It’s that time of year again.  We want to take a moment to wish you a very happy holiday season filled with warmth, joy, and love.  Most of all, we want to thank you for being so loyal and supportive to us – we (quite literally) would be lost in cyberspace without you!

So enjoy your Christmas Day and let’s keep our fingers crossed that someone was listening as you dropped hints all year… “Ooh, I would just love to hang that print in the dining room…”

Happy Holidays, everyone!

xoxo FALA

Note: Christmas in LA looks nothing like this photo…

So I’ve been writing for Fine Arts LA for almost a year now, and I realized that this affords me one of the greatest of art-reviewers’ honors: the end-of-the-year top-ten list.  As a devout follower of numerous art, theatre, and film writers, I find that it’s often popular to downplay the top-ten tradition, dismiss it as a sad reality of the quick-fix world we live in.  But even in this downplaying, there’s a hint of relish in the writer’s voice, as if he/she felt obligated to somehow contain their own excitement at the prospect of shedding off those hundreds upon hundreds of shows, films, galleries, albums, installations, and happenings they consumed throughout the year, finally to narrow it down to the even, clean number of ten.

I myself haven’t been to hundreds of shows this year.  But as a weekly contributor to Fine Arts LA, I have been privy to some of the best art this crazy city has to offer, and I wasn’t limited to one medium.  I saw plays, movies, photography exhibits, I even flirted with the perils of a natural disaster, and thus… my top ten:

10. “Sam Cherry: Photographs of Charles Bukowski, the Black Cat, and Skid Row”

Representing one half of the double exhibit entitled “Bukowski and Burroughs” that went up in early April at the Track 16 Gallery, this series of simple photographs succeeded in portraying what none of these phantasmagoric, apocalyptic fantasy movies can pull off: it showed an old, self-destructive man, reflecting back on the good times he’s had, proud yet regretful, strong yet weak.

9. Ken Tanaka’s “Maximum Pleasant”

Ken Tanaka is one artist/performer/youtube-phenomenon I was lucky enough to interview.  His show at the Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery back in May included videos, paintings, drawings, music, and even a fully functional garage sale.  But it neither the media mash-up that impressed me about Ken nor even his possible double identity.  It was his sense of pure pleasure in creation, his contagious childlike sense of comedy that emanates off his pieces, and made for one of the smiley-est art openings I’ve seen in LA.

8. Landscaping the Den of Saints

It’s easy to skip over small, live theatre in Los Angeles, especially when it’s a three-hour meditation on the ideas of success and ambition like Jacob Smith’s recent, original production at the Avery Schreiber Theatre.  But sometimes you miss out on gems, and this play took on the issue of being young and hungry in Los Angeles, and ended up representing the struggle with a sense of playful accuracy.  And actor Sean Fitzgerald deserves some sort of award for his transformative performance.

7. Visioneers

This film, which is now up on Netflix instant-play, began its distribution independently.  And I mean independently.  I saw Visioneers at the Echo Park Film Center, when it was traveling around to any screen that would take it, and I have to say that it stuck with me.  Starring the still-underrated Zack Galifianakis, the movie is about spontaneous combustion in a futuristic, corporate-run society, where giving someone the middle finger is a sign of respect.  Every time I enter an office building, I think of the bearded Galifianakis flicking me off with a smile.

6. Gavin Bunner’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”

Another interviewee, the friendly Mr. Bunner isn’t afraid to dress in a cardboard Moby Dick costume and compete in a public boxing match against a Berenstein Bear.  Sure it seems silly, but it’s emblematic of what this young, promising painter is attempting to capture and celebrate in his work: the absurd convergence of pop and pomp in our Google-ingrained brains.

5. Lie of the Mind

I only saw this play last week, so it might just be a fresh lie of my own mind, but Studio Five Productions’ latest show, which you can still catch until the 19th at the Studio/Stage Theatre, is a brave and forceful retelling of Sam Shepard’s original, 1985 story.  The actors are physical and fierce, the music is haunting, the makeup is extraordinary, and the set is like something Jason Schwartzman’s character would dream up in Rushmore.

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