ArtRx LA

LOS ANGELES — Some of your friends might be at the Frieze Art Fair in London this week, and you’re stuck in LA (boo hoo or lucky you?). We’ve got a drag-sational triple-header, a panel discussion about computers taking over, a border-crossing haunted art house, and a bunch of great female artists to make up for it.

 Art in the Age of the Singularity

When: Tuesday, October 14, 7pm
Where: LACMA (5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles)

Futurist Ray Kurzweil popularized the idea of the singularity — a moment when artificial intelligence will outstrip human brain power, thereby radically altering (or ending) civilization. We’re a few years off (Kurzweil predicted this happening in 2045), however this panel discussion subtitled “How Technology is Informing Contemporary Art” aims to prepare us, by considering “what might art have to offer technologists in terms of more fully understanding what it means to be human and therefore what it might mean to transcend the human condition?” The event is free, but reservations are no longer available, so arrive early to grab a standby spot.

 More More More! An Evening with Joey Arias, Justin Vivian Bond, and Taylor Mac

When: Tuesday, October 14, 7:30pm
Where: Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles)

New York City is home to a thriving and diverse avant-drag scene, from classic femme cabaret singers to boundary-pushing performance artists. Angelenos shouldn’t miss this chance to see three of NY’s finest when Joey Arias, Justin Vivian Bond, and Taylor Mac perform at the Hammer in conjunction with its current Jim Hodges exhibition. “Grit meets glamour in a cabaret of boisterous rock-n-roll, intimate storytelling and beguiling siren songs.”

 Brain Dead Fun Time Haunted Maze

When: Saturday, October 18, 7:30pm
Where: Superchief Gallery (739 Kohler Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)

This haunted house / art installation features artists and musicians from LA and Mexico with such spooky monikers as Dani Shivers, Hexorcismos, Reyna the Ripper, and Death Became Her among others.

Their website sums up what to expect:

“Trans Border Collective Exorcism of State Sanctioned Oppression. Pure Party Vibes. Shit is Scary. Haunt Back. Meander the Maze. Around $8 Bucks.”

 A Women’s Dinner of Exchanges

When: Saturday, October 18, 6–10pm
Where: Thank You For Coming (3416 Glendale Boulevard, Atwater Village, Los Angeles)

The Women’s Center for Creative Work, “a proposed collective workspace for female and female-identifying creatives in Los Angeles,” organizes a series of Women’s Dinners which provides a venue for sustenance and engagement. This event, hosted by restaurant/artist residency Thank You For Coming, is based around ideas of exchange and economies. Performances by James Kidd Studio, Plant Magik, and F.L.O.W. are also part of the program.

 Kathleen Henderson

When: Opens Saturday, October 18, 5–7pm
Where: Rosamund Felsen Gallery (Bergamot Station B4, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica)

Kathleen Henderson‘s oil-stick drawings crudely and colorfully convey a sense of contemporary alienation. Even when they are full of people, a sense of isolation prevails. Her latest body of work opening this Saturday at Rosamund Felsen “confronts head-on the financial sector and its place in a system of gross inequalities; the excess and waste of massively expensive and tragically useless trophy projects, or ‘white elephants’; and a profiteering pharmaceutical industry that is moving beyond marketing drugs to humans and setting their sights on neurotic and depressed domestic animals as well.”

 Hilary Brace: Drawings / Ann Lofquist: Urban and Pastoral

When: Opens Saturday, October 18, 4–6pm
Where: Craig Krull Gallery (Bergamot Station B3, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica)

Craig Krull opens two exhibitions of work by women who use hyper-realism to very different effect. Hilary Brace’s B&W charcoal on polyester film drawings depict fantastical clouds, mountains, and mists — like scenes from an apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster, or a Baroque heavenscape missing its putti. Ann Lofquist’s paintings capture those uniquely SoCal landscapes where human encroachment butts up against the mountains and the sea. She also has an impressive handle on color, rendering the light of dawn and evening with photographic precision.