Xina Xurner (via xinaxurner.com)
Just because it’s Thanksgiving this week, that doesn’t mean art takes a holiday. There’s a new take on an old story, a presidential art talk, Membership Appreciation Days, a music show to help you dance off that holiday feast, and more. Enjoy!
The Marsyas Hour
The Marsyas Hour (via redcat.org)
When: Tuesday, November 25, 7:30pm
Where: REDCAT (631 West 2nd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Classic Greek mythology gets a contemporary makeover when Benjamin Seror presents the second installment of The Marsyas Hour, “an impromptu script for a TV pilot that recounts everyday life on Mount Olympus through the eyes of the young satyr Marsyas,” according to the venue’s site. Tuesday’s show continues the saga of “Jérome, an awkward bartender with an obsession for eyes,” who last episode visited the Met, came up with a theory about ancient Greek eyes and met a mysterious homeless man who invited him to a midnight rendezvous at the house on a hill.
Artist Talk with Marisa J. Futernick
Marissa J. Futernick, Setting off into Boston Harbor on the Victura with Jack (via marisafuternick.com)
When: Tuesday, November 25, 8pm
Where: ibid (675 S Santa Fe Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Marisa J. Futernick is on a cross-country trip to visit all 13 presidential libraries, which she will document in 13 artist’s books that mix fact and fiction. Her journey will conclude with stops at the Reagan and Nixon libraries, both located just outside of LA, after which she will recount stories from the road and read from her other publications. The talk will be followed by a barbecue.
Holiday M.A.D.ness (Member Appreciation Days)
(via ocma.net)
When: Friday, November 28–Sunday, November 30
Where: 20 Museums all over Southern California
Although we doubt it will inspire scenes of materialistic hysteria normally witnessed at WalMart and Best Buy, a number of SoCal museums are getting in on the Black Friday action.
From Friday through Sunday, 20 museums from LA to San Diego will be offering free admission to members of any of the participating institutions, as well as 20% off in the gift shops.
The list includes the Craft and Folk Art Museum, MOCA, OCMA, MOLAA, San Diego Museum of Art, and many more. See details and the entire list here, and try not to trample your fellow museum-goers.
Xina Xurner + Subchannels + Power Altar + More
When: Saturday, November 29, 9pm
Where: Handbag Factory (1336 S Grand Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Xina Xurner is the techno/performance project of artist Young Joon Kwak and musical mastermind Marvin Astorga, who produce “cunty noise-diva-house anthems that ooze sex, death, and decay” as they say on their site. (“It’s like Tina Turner if the T’s fell over,” they told me.) They’ll be performing with a range of acts from ethereal synth-pop chanteuse Power Altar to one-woman band Fatty Cakes and her dancing girl gang the Puff Pastries. The evening will also include a rooftop art show and if that’s not enough, there’s free wine before 10.
Small Business Caturday
(Via giantrobot.com)
When: Saturday, November 29, 7-9:30pm
Where: Giant Robot 2 (2062 Sawtelle Blvd, Sawtelle, Los Angeles)
This Saturday is a great time to support small and local business of all kinds, but especially if they are having a cat-themed event.
Asian Pop Culture gallery and shop Giant Robot 2 will be hosting Small Business Caturday, an evening of readings by comic book artists and writers MariNaomi, Zoe Ruiz, Yumi Sakugawa, and Jen Wang, followed by author signings and original artwork for sale.
Some of their stories will be cat-related as will the refreshments.
Small Museum for the American Metaphor
Ettore Sottsass, Hotel California (via redcat.org)
When: Closes Sunday, November 30
Where: REDCAT (631 West 2nd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)
American artists have a long history of being influenced by and responding to European precedents, however this show examines the ways in which European designers and artists perceive and represent the boundless American West. “The visual argument here is that there is a certain architectonic ‘idea’ that dwells on the celebration of Endlessness as mythicized in the American West. The metaphor is the base for an architecture that blurs the distinction between building and object, collapsing the different scales. It is an architecture that celebrates the fiction of the ‘wide open’ and seeks to re-evaluate/reinterpret the world as a gigantic interior,” explains the press release.
The exhibition, which closes on Sunday, is curated by Belgian architect Kersten Geers, and includes works by John Baldessari, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Valérie Mannaerts, Bas Princen, Ettore Sottsass, and others.
