Los Angeles Art News, Art Blog

ART BLOG

ARTICLES FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2011
Contributing Bloggers: John Harbinger Jr.and David Harbrenig

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Now you see him – now you don’t

39 year old Chinese artist Liu Bolin gives new meaning to the art of body painting. He has spent years painting himself into locations around the world so that he almost “disappears” into the background. While other artists use models as human canvases, this guy paints himself with the help of assistants who are, like himself, expert hyper-realism painters. Liu has to remain immobile for 5-6 hours while directing the fine tuning adjustments of the work on his body until he blends into the background perfectly - as the image below will testify. No photo-shop manipulation here!

Blog Sept 28 2011

Ed Massey artwork adds panache to Chabad facility in Pacific Palisades

The new Chabad facility, at the foot of the Los Liones National Park and a short walk to the Pacific Ocean, has undergone a transformational face-lift to inaugurate the building in time for the Jewish New Year which starts Wed evening Sept 28. Formerly a Getty Trust property, the new center and home for the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center (P.J.E.C.C.) now has an Ed Massey designed mural on the Sunset Boulevard facade that will greet drivers, joggers, walkers, and Chabad visitors of all ages as they drive to and enter the premises.

Artist Ed Massey is no stranger to social impact and public art initiatives having conceived immense civic projects including "Garden in Transit," which transformed the New York City taxi fleet into a giant moving canvas, and last summer's "Summer of Color" project, which turned all 156 Los Angeles County lifeguard towers from Malibu to Palos Verdes into works of art that involved thousands of children and adults in hospitals, schools, and social service programs.

Mural by Ed Massey

Blog Sept 27 2011

A new vision for the 2012 Los Angeles Art Show

The Los Angeles Art Show, which was created by the Fine Art Dealers Association more than 17 years ago, is one the longest running venues for contemporary, modern, and traditional art in the West. The 2011 Show hosted more than 110 prominent galleries, drew more than 50,000 visitors and, over the years, the show has established a loyal following among Southern California collectors.

The forthcoming January 2012 LAAS event will debut two separate shows, The Los Angeles Fine Art Show: Historic and Traditional (HAT) and the LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary (MAC). Both shows will take place January 18 – 22, 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in West Halls A and B, 1201 South Figueroa Street, downtown Los Angeles CA 90015.

This change in format follows in the wake of this week’s (Sept 27) announcement concerning an agreement, yet to be formally approved by the FADA’s membership, in which the Fine Art Dealers Association will acquire all the assets of the Los Angeles Art Show LLC. Those assets include the two shows mentioned above and the production for the International Fine Print Dealers Association show (also in Los Angeles.) If approved, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of September.

The Los Angeles Art Show LLC partnership was set up by a team of investors from Art Miami LLC to produce and operate all of the Los Angeles Art Show’s - merging the tools and assets of these bi-‐coastal shows to the benefit of both.

While the acquisition and merger will hopefully add profitability to the companies involved, I look forward to seeing even better shows produced from their combined energies and resources.

Applications open for The 6^th International Art Prize “Arte Laguna”

If you like to participate in juried competitions, here’s an opportunity to take part in one of the more prestigious international ones. Visit the website cited below, fill in the application form, send in a short biography, and an image of your work (maximum 2). And yes, as always there is an application fee; 50 Euros to enter 1 work, 90 Euros for two. There is a slight discount for under 25 year olds. It is pretty expensive but, I think this competition has shown in previous years that it is a serious event and attracts the right attention.

Applications are invited for 6^th International Art Prize “Arte Laguna” organized by the Italian Cultural Association for Modern Contemporary Art in collaboration with Arte Laguna. A distinguished international jury will award total prizes of +/- 170.000 Euros: besides money prizes - the chance to be in a collective exhibition in Venice; exhibitions in Art Galleries; Art Residences and in the publication of the official Catalogue. There are 5 sections: painting, photographic art, sculpture, video and performance art. Participants can choose the theme of their artworks. Application period closes 11th Nov 2011. Full details: http://www.artelagunaprize.com/

Blog Sept 24 2011

Is it worth renting gallery space for an exhibition of your work?

Is it worth it for an artist to rent gallery space to put up his/her own work? Most artists are adamantly against such an idea. They put forward the argument that the gallery owner should have confidence in the artist’s work and in his own capability as a dealer to sell it. Artists expect gallery owners to have artistic judgment and business acumen and test them delving into their pockets to publicize, promote, pay the rent and the other expenses, needed to put up a show.

The gallery takes all the risks, admit most artists, BUT in exchange they get 40% -50%!!!! They forget one very important word; it is in exchange for 40% -50% of potential sales. Given that 90% of all art galleries go bust within the first 5 years, it seems to be a business model that is not working too well –for the gallerists, at least. No sales – no money to pay expenses. Despite these figures, most artists remain entrenched in the same mindset; gallery shows should be for free, even when nothing is sold and the gallery owner is out-of-pocket.

Artists are convinced that, in time, despite all the steep competition, despite the fact that gallery owners lose money, have drawers full of artists’ CDs and portfolios, one will eventual take a risk on their art and assume all the expenses in exchange for potential sales commissions. The gallery must have confidence –and pay!

Artists are prepared to spend $30, several times a year, to take part in online juried competitions; they are prepared to spend a few hundred dollars for an art fair booth, they are willing to pay to set up websites and pay to take part in studio tours, yet, when it comes to sharing expenses for a real bricks-and-mortar gallery show, they protest.

Because of the state of the art market, it is not uncommon nowadays for some smaller galleries to ask the artist to assist with some of the expenses. This can range from just paying for the announcements, to paying for the food and beverages for the exhibition. Yet, few are the artists who are prepared to show any confidence at all in their own sale-ability and assume even minimal financial outlays - even if they have the means. For them it is a question of principle. They are the next Picasso waiting to be discovered. The gallery should pay and be honored to show their work!

If you are among the less high-minded, and are prepared to be pragmatic in order to get an exhibition for your work, you should know that, as a general rule of thumb, the greater the cost to you for the show, the less that gallery will expect as a commission fee. For example, if you are paying all costs associated with the show, such as advertising, promotion, shipping, handling, and opening reception costs etc., the gallery should only take a very small commission on sales-maybe 10-15%. You should negotiate all the terms and have them written into a contract.

Now, let’s take a look at the advantages of renting a gallery space and assuming all the costs. First, remember that if the costs are too much for you to make a solo show, you can always get together a group of artist friends and divide the costs between you. By renting a gallery space you get to expose your work in a professional context, which will encourage your already existing collector base to perceive your work as being in the “professional” arena. You get total independence and responsibility to curate and manage your own show. You are paying for the walls and you get to decide what and how to hang. The exposure and success you get from the show depends entirely on you. Paying money to a gallery to hang your work is a waste unless you are willing to do the work to make the show a successful part of your career development strategy.

[Ask the gallery to email its own list of collectors and followers. Email your list of collectors, critics and other galleries to receive announcements. Advertise in the local gallery guide and send out a press release 3-4 weeks before opening. Make sure you have your promotional flyers, postcards, brochures etc. visible in the gallery and leave a guestbook for visitors to sign.]

To sum it all up: Before expecting somebody else to have confidence in you and lift you up the ladder to success, it might help if you showed the same confidence and hoisted yourself onto the first step.

Bonham’s Urban Art Sale

It will be interesting to see the results of the Urban Art Sale at Bonham’s in London today, Sept 21. If the sale is successful maybe Bonham’s Los Angeles will organize a similar event to promote the works of the many fantastic street artists who live here. The sale in London features 78 lots by 45 artists, including works by the elusive (yet ever present, it seems) Banksy, our own Shepard Fairey, and other well-known taggers such as Swoon, Ben Eine and Blek Le Rat. The total estimates for all the lots have been set at about $750,000. Whether it’s in the streets or on the auction floor, Street Art or Urban Art, as it is sometimes called, is becoming more popular with the general public and high-end art collectors alike.

Good luck to Bonham’s and I hope to see another Urban Art sale in Los Angeles!

Blog 21 Sept 2011

Facebook sometimes censors online art

It seems that Facebook has taken to disabling users’ accounts that post images of “The Origin of the World” painted in 1866 by the renowned French artist Gustave Courbet. Apparently Facebook deems the erotic work of art, which currently hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, to be in contravention of the site’s prohibition of offensive materials. As always, whenever censorship is applied, a reaction is ignited which in this case has caused a flood of Facebook account holders to include the “offensive’ image in their profile pictures. Earlier this year, Facebook attracted some previous criticism when it removed drawings of nudes posted on the profile of the New York Academy of Art. Who decides whether an image is art or pornography? I have no idea anymore what the difference is…. I, personally find it curious that, in general, graphic images of bodies mutilated by violence, war and destruction are not considered as “offensive” to our sensibilities as images of the naked body. But there again, while the world continues with its unbridled obsession of facebooking, I suppose they can do whatever they want… Let’s be honest with ourselves, we the public, don’t own Facebook. If we did, we would have a share in the enormous profits. We just feed it with our words and images.

The “Offensive” image –The Origin of the World by Courbet

Blog Sept 20 2011

Congratulations to the Winners

There are plenty of online art competitions and one which seems to attract a lot of publicity is the American Art Awards which is open to painters, photographers and sculptors world-wide. The president of this organization, actor Thom Bierdz, who is also an accomplished painter, announced this week the winners in all 56 categories of the competition which is judged by 25 American galleries.

We congratulate all the winners and extend our special congratulations to Artlanow members Seda Baghdasarian, Ron Burkhardt, Ione Citrin, Jenik Cook, Lori Escalera, Karen Hansen, Tanya Mikaela (and any others I might have overlooked) on their awards.

While the “Best of Show” went to a Canadian, American artists claimed the majority of the 300 awards with artists competing from just about every country in the world.

American Art Awards is an annual competition that has increased global recognition by 67% in the past year. If you wish to view the list of winners in all categories visit: http://www.AmericanArtAwards.com

Ten Years On – Art can help to heal

9/11, 2001: –Ten years since that terrible day. Each of us remembers exactly where we were and what we were doing when the news of the attacks hit the screens. New Yorkers, of course, experienced it in a way the rest of us can only imagine. This weekend, and during this month, there will be various events to commemorate that tragic day and honor the dead. The images of those airplanes smashing into the Twin Towers have scarred our minds.

Though we were stricken by the horror, a gradual healing process began soon after. And during the past ten years art and artists have played a part in that healing process.

Visual art is not only an expression of the artist’s own sub-conscious, it also taps into our unconscious brains, reaching parts of ourselves that we try to shield and are often untouched by everyday discourse. It is a universal language; it is an expression of our collective memories, a way to channel and release our emotions. For this reason, Art allows for a special kind of healing. Art can help us mourn, help us be resilient and help us move forward into the future. Art can even represent tragedy in a beautiful way so that beyond the moments of terror we can still believe in life. That believe is what distinguishes us from those who would destroy our way of life.

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N. Dakota Visual Artists Art Burn

Make of this what you will. I found an announcement online today for the “Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists Art Burn” which will be held from 6pm to 8pm September 20 in the west parking lot of the Hjemkomst Center in Fargo, North Dakota. According to the announcement, only non-toxic art will be accepted for the bonfire. It also stipulates that works brought to the event cannot be sold, traded or reworked. The reading of poems or artists statements is also not allowed. The event is free and open to the public. I presume there are no nefarious intentions to this event, yet somehow festivals around the burning of art bring to mind darker times. I know it is already pretty cold up there in the northern states but I’m sure there are other ways to keep warm.

Two days ago Artlanow received an email from somebody stating she is the owner of the trademark ArtLA. She asks us to cease and desist from using the name Artlanow. In a succeeding email she writes that unless we do not cease and desist from using the name Artlanow, she will refer the matter to her attorney. Artlanow.com has been operating online since 2009 and has no intention to cease and desist from using the name.

While we do understand the importance of trademark and copyright protection, it is difficult, we believe, for anyone to confound the two websites. Not only do we have nothing to do with this other site, we fail to see why this person thinks we would wish to claim any association to it or imitate it in any way.

We applaud anyone who does their bit to promote the arts however with a little bit of modesty, please!

Madame, before consulting your attorney, you would do well to consult somebody about your delusions of grandeur.

Quilting away my youth

I still have a couple of fading, much loved T-shirts from my youth stashed at the back of my wardrobe. I never wear them anymore but every time I think to throw them out, just holding them in my hands brings back memories. Even though they’re emblazoned with my favorite rock bands of my younger days, I keep them more to remind me of the friends with whom I spent evenings at wild concerts than to remind me of the bands and their music.

One day, I guess I’ll just throw them out - unless I can think of some other use for them like, for example, San Francisco artist Ben Baumgartner who has come up with an unusual use for his old heavy metal shirts — he sews them into quilts.

He first started preparing quilts using his personal collection of T-shirts but when these ran out he continued with ones donated by friends. Some of his quilts have incorporated up to 120 different T-shirts and fetch as much as $8,000. If you into heavy metal and quilts some of the works are currently on exhibit in a gallery in the Bay Area and in a gallery in Birmingham, England.

Now, all I need are some sewing needles, a lot more old T-shirts and a lot of patience.

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California Institute of the Arts is top of the creativity pile

The California Institute of the Arts, located about 30 miles north of L.A., has been named the “best school in the USA for arts-minded students” according to a recently published national ranking in Newsweek. Sounds great, however, it needs some clarification. The ranking was based on data compiled from various sources such as questionnaires, curriculum, and achievements in the art fields. After crunching the results, CalArts has been declared “the campus that offers the most exceptional artistic atmosphere.” It’s pretty vague, but who cares? It’s a title surely merited even though it must be almost impossible to measure the best in the arts. Come to think of it, how does one measure artistic atmosphere in the arts? How do we measure creativity? I certainly have no idea, but being always ready to support the arts in SoCal, I heartily agree with Newsweek.

A Statue of Marilyn- “One of the Worst Public Art Pieces in the World”

Los Angeles residents all know the statue of Marilyn Monroe, battling joyfully to smooth down her skirt outside the wax museum on Highland and Hollywood. Like it or not, it is an iconic image of the star. It certainly attracts attention but I doubt many would consider it a great work of art –or a particularly bad one.

Not so, for another similar, but much larger, statue of the sultry superstar near the Tribune Tower in Chicago. It has been named one of the “worst pieces of public art in the world” by VirtualTourist.com. The site published last week it’s list of the top 10 pieces of bad public art in the world and the Marilyn fighting to keep her skirt in the windy city topped the list.

“Forever Marilyn” is a 26-foot-tall sculpture created by artist Seward Johnson and will be on display until spring, 2012. Described as bad taste, crude and inappropriate by some, the giant statue allows viewers a “titillating” glimpse directly up into the hidden delights. Crude or not, it has become a must-do for many tourists who clamor to have their photos taken beneath it.

Check out the whole list of bad public art on VirtualTourist.com website.

Blog Sept 2 2011

When Cash is Art, is it worth more or less?

What is a better investment, cash or art? If you can’t make you mind up, why not invest in cash AS art. Yesterday (August 31) in Melbourne, Australia a confident buyer took that step: betting that cash is worth more as art than money in the bank.

An artwork called Currency which is, in fact, a bundle of cash nominally worth $20,000 was sold for $17,500 at auction When the 22 per cent buyer's premium is added, the total price of the ‘artwork’ comes to $21,350.

Denis Beaubois, an Australian artist working in Sydney conceived the idea for the work and received a $20,000 grant to prepare it from the Australia Council. With the money, he bought - money; two lots of 100 uncirculated $100 legal tender, banknotes and pronounced them a work of art.

After appraisal, the auction house of Deutscher and Hackett put the ‘artwork’ up for sale with an estimate of $15,000 -$25,000. (Go figure that out?) The catalog describes the work as a conceptual piece that "explores the tension between the economic value of a material against the cultural value of it as an art object". In other words, are banknotes worth more as cash or art?

The buyer, who paid $21,350, obviously hopes the dough will rise.

A representative of the auction house appraising the art

Bolg September 1 2011

Post Modernist Posturing

New perceptions about humanistic values and attitudes to our role in save guarding societies and the planet have led us from Modernism to Post Modernism.

For some, Post Modernism means a rejection of the tenets of modernism i.e. a rejection of the supremacy of reason, of purpose, of truth as a guiding principle in the advancement of societies, of the belief that, collectively, we can create a better, almost perfect society. This “anti-modernism” has also become known as deconstructive post-modernism. I prefer to call it “destructive post-modernism.” It is nihilistic, (i.e. it views all values as baseless; nothing is knowable or can be communicated, and that life itself is meaningless.)

For others, the alternative to rejection has been revision; revising the premises and traditional concepts of Modernism without questioning our fundamental assumptions. “Constructive post-modernism” views modern humanist ideals as viable intellectual constructions which deserve to be respected and built upon. Constructive post-modernism views mankind as standing on the threshold of a new age of positivism and advancement.

Now what about post-modern art and post modern artists? Well, it seems to me that too many post-modern artists are of the deconstructive, destructive bent out-doing the nihilism of the Modern Dadaists a century ago. Too many contemporary artists express in their art the lack of the self-purpose humans need to thrive. They are involved in a process of thinking about themselves and society in a destructive manner. They concern themselves with de-masking society’s problems and pretensions, and devote no energy to trying to rectify them. Art should not only to expose what is wrong with society but should also edify those elements worth preserving. Art must not only decry -it must glorify and praise. Otherwise it becomes purely destructive. Art must be sensitive to what is both good and bad in cultural, ethnic, and in the human condition and experiences. Each generation of artists must cling to the belief that their art can influence human destiny. Art cannot hope to change the world only through the derision of old values and ideals but by proposing new ones in their place.