Argot and Ochre

RECAP – Life’s A Pitch – Los Angeles Music Video Festival

Daniel Rolnik — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:07:58 +0000

On the second day of the Los Angeles Music Video Festival, three directors were invited to pitch their ideas to a band in front of a live audience. They each had three minutes to talk and all of them had uniquely different concepts for the song. The first pitch by Mat Stone [not the South Park creator] involved animated cat .gifs and fedoras, which was followed by a directorial team who wanted to produce a short involving old people in a retirement home. However, the last contestant really blew everyone out of the water by presenting his hilarious storyboards that involved a girl getting into a stranger’s car and then eventually finding herself in a spaceship. The band, Seventeen Evergreen, chose the winner at the end of the night and without surprise it went to the last presenter.

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LOS ANGELES MUSIC VIDEO FESTIVAL – http://lamvf.com/

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RECAP – SEE LINE GALLERY – April/May

Daniel Rolnik — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:01:44 +0000

At the end of the 90′s there was a really weird film named JAWBREAKER about a couple of girls who kidnap one of their friends and gag her with a giant hard candy of the same name. Unfortunately, the girl dies and then then a technicolor adventure to try and cover it up ensues. Anyways, I was instantly reminded of the film when the artist at SEE LINE GALLERY’s April/May exhibit included a jawbreaker gag hanging off of one of her sculptures. And since the whole show has to do with innocence, sex, and play I figured it must’ve been a reference to the cult classic. The rest of the show includes photocopies of hands, mirrors facing the ceiling, and even sand on the floor.

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SEE LINE GALLERY – http://seelinegallery.com/

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RECAP – If You Can’t Fake It, Then Make It – JAUS

Daniel Rolnik — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:36 +0000

JAUS is a beautiful artist-run gallery located on a residential street in West LA. And for their last exhibit, co-owner Chris Tallon curated a group of 6 like-minded artists whose actions were based more on impulse then rationality. The work was on display for two months and all sat nicely with each other in the space. Also, while some of the artists were in the midst of their MFA’s, others had long since graduated. So, it was all about the work itself rather than the artists’ pedigrees.

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JAUS - http://www.jausart.com

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Go to there: (Invisible) Relic

Danielle Grant — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:03:13 +0000

Chris Burden “Shoot”, 1971. Courtesy Chris Burden.

Invisible Relic

Park Life Gallery

May 12 – June 10, 2012
Opening Reception Saturday, May 12. 7-10 pm

Do we get to eat the fish?

If you’re interested in spectacle–and who is not, it’s a proven fact via TMZ that everyone in America is–then maybe you’re interested in watching, smelling and hearing fish fry this Saturday night at Park Life Gallery in San Francisco. Sense perceptions (vision, scent, sound) triggered by cooking fish might just be what this show’s curator Andrew McClintock would describe as a trilogy of invisible relics. Or maybe the invisible relic is the unique memory of the frying fish experience that this trilogy of senses provokes in your memory synapses. Anyway you slice it, welcome to conceptual.

McClintock is staging a confluence of old guard/new guard Bay Area conceptual artists (Paul Kos, Tom Marioni, Chris Burden, Maurico Ancalmo, Josh Short, Guy Overfelt) separated by generations but united in concern regarding ideas surrounding the nature of experience, performance, and temporality. While I’m not usually one to defer to a press release, this passage is impressive in speaking about conceptual art clearly and meaningfully:

For centuries relics have been associated with religious activity. Only recently, at the advent of Happenings, the Japanese Gutai movement and Fluxus, have artists begun participating in performance art pieces that create no product but leave behind traces of the action, such as posters, programs, photography and video.

But do relics have to have physical properties? Can the sound of frying fish become the performative relic. Can it be a sense memory? And are these fleeting invisible memories more true to the nature of the action than mediated responses?. Gunshots, urination, burning cars, white noise, food frying, radio static, can now be manipulated by the artist for creative purposes.

Which is more important – the action, or spectator’s memory of said action? What happens when invisible relics are collected and “exhibited” in a gallery setting? “(Invisible) Relics,” addresses these concerns in a cross-generational reappraisal of the primacy of the art object.

Paul Kos, “Sound of Ice Melting”, 1970, Two twenty five pound blocks of ice, eight boom microphone stands, eight microphones, mixer, amplifier, two large speakers, and cables. courtesy Paul Kos and Gallery Paule Anglim

Tom Marioni “Piss Piece” 1970, from the first show in MOCA, San Francisco, Sound Sculpture As. Courtesy Tom Marioni and Paule Anglim

Guy Overfelt “Tripple Burn Out”, 2001. Courtesy Guy Overfelt and Ever Gold Gallery

Maurico Ancalmo “Dualing Pianos: Agapé Agape in D Minor”, 2011. Mixed media. Variable dimensions. Installation View of Bay Area Now 6 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Courtesy Eli Ridgway Gallery. (Not in Exhibition)

Josh Short “Pit Bull”, 2012. Mixed Media. Courtesy Josh Short and Ever Gold Gallery

SILENT AUCTION – David Castleman Cancer Fund

Daniel Rolnik — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:02:57 +0000

Over 30 artists came together to auction off their work in an effort to help David Castleman pay his medical bills due to a recent bout with Cancer. And they all brought their A-game with them. So, a diverse array of original art lined the walls of the Keystone Fine Art Studios — ranging from metal sculptures to a hand-painted drum head for the band GWAR. There were even a couple of micro-installation pieces you could bid on silently, including an incredible peephole into outer space. Thank you to Mary Mathe for letting us know about this wonderful exhibit and if you’d like to donate to the cause, please click the link below.

David Yow

Bob Gorman

Mary Mathe

Itaru De La Vega

Michael Uhlenkott

Matt Jones

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DAVID CASTLEMAN CANCER FUND - http://www.giveforward.com/helpsupportdavidcastlemancancersurvival

KEYSTONE FINE ART STUDIO - http://keystoneartspace.com

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RECAP – Steven Rubin – DRKRM

Daniel Rolnik — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:03:08 +0000

DRKRM knows what’s up when it comes to incredible photography exhibits. I mean, there seriously hasn’t ever been a bad or uninteresting piece in any one of their shows. And Steven Rubin’s VACTIONLAND is no exception to that statement. The photographer showcased a body of work he took while hitchhiking around Maine in the early 1980s. Where, through his lens, he managed to capture blue collar life in a most elegant way. So, I highly suggest you check out the link below to read Steven’s artistic statement about his journey while taking the photographs. And I think what draws me to his work more than anything is that he’s able to make his subjects look so glamorous, even though you can see that they’ve led extremely rough lives by the lines in their faces and their leathered hands.

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DRKRM – http://drkrm.com/

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RECAP – Pyscho De Mayo – THE SMELL

Daniel Rolnik — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:06:34 +0000

THE SMELL is the best place to see underground and experimental music in Los Angeles. And their show on May 5th, PYSCHO DE MAYO!!!, only further proved that point.

By the time we arrived at the venue, the second to last ensemble was already midway through their set. They were three performers standing onstage wearing gas-masks with a ballistic piece of glass in front of them and a camera pointed towards it. The group created a sound that reminded me of what monsters would tickle and howl if they were real. And I kept wondering what the gas masks were all about, when all of a sudden one of the musicians whipped out a fire extinguisher and sprayed it to the beat of their soundscape surrounding the room.

My mind was already blown by that point and then they blew it up again when they unleashed industrial spools of bubble wrap into the audience. The crowd raced towards the plastic and basked in the glory of popping each one while one of the members onstage literally played his jacket as a musical instrument.

They ended their set by taking what was either a giant radish or potato and smashing it into a little cup that was mic’d. When the music came to a full stop they handed the vegetable to an audience member, who gleefully took a giant bite out of it and then handed it to his friend who did the same. I mean, I don’t think you see shit like that at the Hollywood Bowl. Viva La Smell.

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THE SMELL – http://www.thesmell.org/

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT – Trace Mendoza

Daniel Rolnik — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:05:11 +0000

Trace Mendoza’s multi-piece painting at ART CUBE in Laguna Beach is a stunner. He’s incorporated everything from traditional painting techniques to modern wheat-pasting in his panels, which brings a fresh feeling to the spirit of contemporary art. The work, titled ”Save the Monsters from the Children”, is actually Mendoza’s reinterpretation of a chair that’s made up of scrap furniture parts. And you can check out his meaning behind the painting on his website that he also updates with pages from his sketchbook. It’s because of art like this, that the hour plus drive to Laguna Beach from Los Angeles is well worth the traffic. Especially, now that ART CUBE has their eye on progressive emerging talent like Mendoza.

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TRACE MENDOZA – http://WWW.TRACEMENDOZA.COM/

ART CUBE – http://www.artcubegallery.com/

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Bad taste is the new good taste

Sammy Sundae — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:25:18 +0000

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT – Carlos Donjuan

Daniel Rolnik — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:05:40 +0000

I walked into the Thomas Paul Fine Art gallery on Beverly Blvd the other day, where I discovered the awesome work of Carlos Duanjuan. He’s an artist that without comprise has found a way to blend both fine art and fun into a single entity. And not only can he do it through the use of bright colors and happy expressions, but also through skill. For example, in the painting below of the man and woman, he’s rendered out a brilliantly detailed pug and even in the piece featuring a bear with a sweatband around its head, he’s utilized subtle textures to really make it pop. Also, his blog is pretty epic, since he updates it with pictures like THIS.

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THOMAS PAUL FINE ART: http://www.tpaulfineart.com/

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