Tyler Matthew Oyer and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle in ‘Exploring The Nowannago: Kentifrican Modes of Resistance’ (via Facebook)
LOS ANGELES — This week, Lari Pittman’s massive illustrated books go on view at The Huntington, a seminal Hollywood book from the ’70s is republished, drawings from outsider artist Charles Steffen come to Los Angeles for the first time, and more.
Rose B. Simpson: Ground
When: Opens Tuesday, August 30
Where: Pomona College Museum of Art (330 N. College Avenue, Claremont, California)
The word “ground” has many different meanings. It is both the surface upon which we stand, and the act of wearing something down. It also provides the bottom layer of a painting, which other layers sit on and obscure. Rose B. Simpson explores the word’s various associations vis-à-vis the history of Native Americans in her solo exhibition Ground. Simpson combines her large clay sculptures with items from the Pomona College Museum of Art’s collection of Native American Art, breaking down the boundaries between utilitarian tools and purely aesthetic art objects.
Rose B. Simpson: Ground (via pomona.edu)
Slow Days, Fast Company
When: Thursday, September 1, 7–9pm
Where: Book Soup (8818 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, California)
Eve Babitz was only 20 years old when she was photographed playing chess in the nude opposite Marcel Duchamp at the opening of his 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. This marked the beginning of her decades-long role as iconic muse, artist, and writer, whose fictive memoirs provide an insider’s glimpse at the cultural life of Los Angeles. On the occasion of the re-print of her 1977 collection of stories, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A., Book Soup will be hosting a discussion and book signing with novelist Matthew Specktor who penned the book’s introduction. (Babitz is notoriously reclusive.) Also in attendance will be art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, artist Zoe Crosher, and screenwriter Howard A. Rodman.
Charles Moll’s art for the paperback edition of ‘Slow Days, Fast Company’ (via Facebook)
Charles Steffen
When: Opens Saturday, September 3, 7–10pm
Where: The Good Luck Gallery (945 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles)
After studying art at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the late 1940s, Charles Steffen suffered a mental breakdown, followed by a 15-year stay at the Elgin State hospital. Between the time of his release and his death in 1995, he focused primarily on art-making, producing a huge trove of drawings. His work was widely ignored during his lifetime, but has received renewed interest recently. The upcoming exhibition at the Good Luck Gallery will be the first opportunity to see his fantastical and highly personal works in Los Angeles.
Work by Charles Steffen (via Facebook)
Lari Pittman: Mood Books
Lari Pittman, from “12 Verified Occurrences During a Full Moon” (2015), acrylic and lacquer spray over gessoed, heavy-weight paper board, 27 × 25 × 4.5 inches (© Lari Pittman, courtesy of the artist and Regen projects, Los Angeles., via huntington.org)
When: Opens Saturday, September 3
Where: The Huntington (1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California)
Los Angeles-based artist Lari Pittman’s paintings are jubilant, chaotic, and aggressively inclusive, combining references, symbols, and design motifs from numerous sources, periods, and cultures. His artist books are no different, expressing a similar over-the-top exuberance.
Mood Books at The Huntington showcases six of the artist’s massive illustrated books, each unfolding to a span of over four feet. Page openings will change throughout the exhibition’s run, and an interactive screen will allow visitors to scroll through the books virtually.
Exploring The Nowannago: Kentifrican Modes of Resistance Performance
When: Saturday, September 3, 7:30pm
Where: Grand Central Art Center (125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, California)
Through a multifaceted practice that involves performance, education, drawings, sculpture, and more, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle confronts history, race, myth, and marginalization. An important part of her practice is the Kentifrica Project, which “allows the opportunity for collaborators to shape and express their own consciousness in lieu of interpretations that have already been shaped and defined for them.” In conjunction with her current exhibition, Exploring The Nowannago: Kentifrican Modes of Resistance, she will be engaging in a tug–of–war with Tyler Matthew Oyer, in which the two artists are linked by the Nowannago, a double-headed noose that is part of Kentifrica’s turbulent history.
Elana Mann, “Double Bow” from the IBD (Improvised Balloon Device) Series (2007–11), pigment print on paper, 13 x 19 in. (via torranceartmuseum.com)
The Gildless Age
When: Opens Saturday, September 3, 6–9pm
Where: Torrance Art Museum (3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, California)
The Gildless Age is a group show that aims to connect our current economic, racial, and environmental crises with the period of prosperity at the turn of the 19th century known as the Gilded Age. How have historical developments in labor, industry, and politics contributed to contemporary issues, specifically as they manifest in Southern California? Participating artists include Andrea Bowers, Ramiro Gomez, Justin John Greene, Elana Mann, Julie Shafer, Marc Trujillo, Dee Williams, and Bijan Yashar, among others.
