LOS ANGELES — Things are not what they seem in Culver City’s Carmichael Gallery. At first glance, the inscrutable smiles in Beijing-based artist Yue Minjun’s self-portraits express mirth or merriment.
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Abe is an arts and music writer based in Los Angeles, where he can be found among the city's many mirages. He has written for Evil Monito Magazine and the Orange County Weekly.
All articles by Abe Ahn
Abe Ahn
SAN FRANCISCO — A flurry of art fairs took place in San Francisco this past weekend, including ArtPadSF, which is the smaller yet debonair competitor to the much larger artMRKT San Francisco and SF Fine Art Fair.
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LOS ANGELES — Perched atop the Prism Gallery is a giant, yellow face with slender eyelashes, narrow eyes and prominent nose. It competes for attention against the many billboards and vehicles along this stretch of Sunset Blvd. The squinty eyes and yellow complexion are outlandishly drawn, but the portraiture here, and many others in the gallery, are never callous or misleading. The Los Angeles gallery’s solo exhibition Miss You features paintings, embroidery and installation art by twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, or Os Gêmeos, whose fantastical imagery blends street-level portraiture and magical realism.
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LOS ANGELES — It’s Tuesday, Day 11, and the honeymoon period for Occupy LA seems to have ended. There is much spirited debate about what actions to take and disagreements over how the General Assembly should facilitate discussions. Occupiers who have been around since the beginning are restless from the movement’s week-long dithering while news of conflicts with police in Boston, Seattle and elsewhere have made emotions run high among protesters. Still, the occupation is now 269 tents strong and the amount of creative dissent increases everyday.
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LOS ANGELES — I returned to Occupy LA on Thursday night and discovered double the amount of people since I visited on Tuesday. Tents spanned across the entire span of the north and west lawns, many spilling out onto the sidewalk. In addition to media and first aid, occupiers had set up a lending library and press table for others to check out books and magazines. Occupy LA braces for big things as it expands its numbers and operations.
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LOS ANGELES — Four days into #OccupyLA, a small community is growing near the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, where protesters have set up camp. The site contains first aid and media tents as well as stages for performers and speakers. In the afternoon, some protesters screenprinted clothing while others worked on paintings for a public gallery. The scene in Los Angeles is a flurry of activity with artists working together to build a more visible movement.
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LOS ANGELES — The stretch of Imperial Street which leads to Lot 613 is prefaced by a series of murals by street artist ROA. Feathered and furry creatures drawn in spray paint serve as handy guideposts to the warehouse venue, where, over the past weekend, the Fountain Art Fair hosted works by emerging artists. The art fair arrived in Los Angeles in time for the opening weekend of the much publicizedPacific Standard Time, a series of collaborative exhibitions celebrating the region’s artistic output from 1945 to 1980. While the latter attempts to write (or rewrite) art history, the Fountain Art Fair showcased works that demonstrate the political and cultural anxieties of today’s active artists.
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