ArtRx LA
LOS ANGELES — This week, the fourth LA Art Book Fair opens at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cinefamily screens a love-themed sound poem, an artist installs a library on a lake, and more.
LOS ANGELES — This week, the fourth LA Art Book Fair opens at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cinefamily screens a love-themed sound poem, an artist installs a library on a lake, and more.
LA Art Book Fair
When: Thursday, February 11–Sunday, February 14
Where: The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) (152 North Central Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Bibliophiles rejoice: the fourth edition of Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair is here! (Note: Hyperallergic is a media sponsor.) With over 250 international publishers, independent presses, and antiquarian booksellers, there’s something for everyone. In addition to the wide variety of booths filling MOCA Geffen, events include book signings, talks, performances, and off-site programming. Tickets to Thursday’s opening night preview are $10, admission is free Friday–Sunday.
The Floating Library on Echo Park Lake
When: Thursday, February 11–Sunday, February 14, 11am–4pm
Where: Echo Park Lake (Echo Park, Los Angeles)
Common knowledge holds that water and books don’t mix, but fortunately Minneapolis-based artist Sarah Peters never got the memo. In conjunction with Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair, Machine Project has brought Peters’s Floating Library to the Echo Park Lake. From Thursday through Sunday, visitors are invited to rent a paddle boat from the boathouse and cruise to the center of the lake, where they can peruse an assortment of artist books on a raft designed by Molly Reichert and constructed by mad fabricator Bob Dornberger.
Dirty Looks Releases First Publication
When: Friday, February 12, 7pm
Where: The Standard, DowntownLA (550 S. Flower St, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Photographer Jean-Paul Goude may have made headlines recently for breaking the internet, but the iconic images he created with his muse and one-time paramour Grace Jones over 30 years ago are what he is best known for. He translated these album shots into the then-new medium of home video with his 1982 concert film with Grace Jones, A One Man Show. Dirty Looks, a platform for queer experimental film, will be screening the seldom-seen movie this Friday at the Standard Hotel. In conjunction with the LA Art Book Fair, the organization will also be releasing its first publication, Dirty Looks Vol. 1, featuring contributions from Jack Halberstam, Brontez Purnell, Amelia Bande, Greg Araki, Dennis Cooper, Clara López Menéndez, and others.
Online and Offline Worlds in Everyday Objects
When: Opens Saturday, February 13, 7–9pm (Ray-Von); 10pm–2am (Jake)
Where: Steve Turner (6830 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles)
Yung Jake and Michael Ray-Von both earned their BFA’s from CalArts in 2012, but since graduating, they’ve pursued very different paths. “Established on the Internet in 2011,” Jake both embraces and parodies online culture, and his practice ranges from well-produced hip-hop videos to emoji celebrity portraits. The opening for his upcoming solo show, Hydration, begins at 10pm — after most other openings have ended — and features DJs Softest Hard, Sonny Digital, and Lil Yachty. Michael Ray-Von founded Otras Obras project space in Tijuana before moving to Mexico City, where he is a member of poetry collective Oa4s. His project room exhibition Will a communion bridge a distance? features simple and contemplative sculptures constructed from everyday objects like dirt, tissue boxes, and communion wafers stained with ink.
Love Sounds
When: Saturday, February 13, 3pm
Where: The Cinefamily (611 North Fairfax Avenue, Fairfax District, Los Angeles)
With the upcoming LA theatrical premiere of Love Sounds, artist Masha Tupitsyn offers lovers of love an early Valentine’s Day present. She has created something akin to Christian Marclay’s 24-hour film The Clock, which charted a course through cinematic history by focusing on time-telling devices in hundreds of films. Tupitsyn takes us on a tour of filmic love, but instead of showing it to us visually, she has pieced together audio clips to create a romantic narrative. Saturday’s screening will feature a four-hour version of this 24-hour sound poem.
Ikebana In and Around an Empty Swimming Pool
When: Sunday, February 14, 5–9pm
Where: TARP (257 Laurel Drive, Altadena, California)
Apartment galleries have been popping up around LA for a while now, but it is the backyard art space that most fully realizes the potential of LA’s idyllic climate. Throw in a pool and you’ve got a prime SoCal project space. In this tradition, Altadena’s TARP offers up its spacious, overgrown yard for artists to produce site-specific installations around. This weekend they’ll unveil the work of Tory J. Lowitz who has been working with the Japanese floral art form of Ikebana to create a large-scale flower arrangement.
