ArtRx LA

Tapestry by Christina Forrer (via gricebench.com)

 Girl Gods

When: Thursday, November 3–Sunday, November 6
Where: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) (631 West 2nd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)

Considering the recent hostile attitude towards women during this presidential election, Pat Graney’s Girl Gods comes at just the right moment. The contemporary dance spectacle, and 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Visual Design, employs “explosive physical language and wry humor [to reveal] the anger simmering under the surface of the collective feminine mind.” Tickets available here.

Sruti Desai and Cheryl Delostrinos in ‘Girl Gods’ (photo by Jenny May Peterson, via redcat.org)

 Derek Jarman’s Blue

When: Friday, November 4, 7:30pm
Where: Getty Center (1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles)

Iconoclastic filmmaker Derek Jarman is known for his exuberant, often baroque films that combined classical sources like Shakespeare and Caravaggio with a punk sensibility. Made the year before his death from AIDS, Blue (1993) is composed of nothing more than a single shot of the titular color alongside poetic voiceovers and an ambient score by Simon Fisher Turner, Brian Eno, Momus, and Erik Satie. The Getty’s outdoor screening is a chance to see this meditative film with sweeping vistas of LA in the background. Screening is free, but advanced tickets are recommended.

Derek Jarman’s “Blue” (1993) at the J. Paul Getty Museum (via Facebook)

Guthrie Lonergan’s Early Videos and Websites

When: Opens Saturday, November 5, 6–8pm
Where: Honor Fraser Gallery (2622 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, California)

Guthrie Lonergan’s contribution to this year’s Made in L.A. was the sleeper hit of the show: M&M characters that popped up on the Hammer’s website to deliver cryptic artists’ statements. 2006, the artist’s first solo show, assembles Lonergan’s earliest videos and websites from a decade ago, reflecting a transitional time in the evolution of the internet. He will also transform the gallery into an e-waste collection site, where visitors can drop off their outdated technology — physical relics of our virtual world.

Guthrie Lonergan, “Babies’ First Steps” (still) (2005), video, 4:07 (via honorfraser.com)

 Playfully Dark Tapestries

When: Opens Saturday, November 5, 6–9pm
Where: Grice Bench (915 Mateo Street, #210, Downtown, Los Angeles)

Dating back to Ani Albers’s modernist weavings a century ago, artists have found textiles an ideal medium for geometric experimentation. Christina Forrer’s tapestries, however, convey more idiosyncratic scenes, portraying weirdos, loners, and monsters with both pathos and humor. She draws on a range of sources from Renaissance decoration, James Ensor’s grotesqueries, and Mike Kelley’s abject vision, to create works that are playfully dark.

Work by Helen Pashgian (via peterblakegallery.com)

 Helen Pashgian

When: Opens Saturday, November 5, 3:30–5:30pm
Where: Peter Blake Gallery (435 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach, California)

Alongside Peter Alexander, DeWain Valentine, and Larry Bell, Helen Pashgian was a seminal figure of the Light and Space Movement. Emerging in the 1960s, these artists used industrial materials such as resins and plastics to capture the unique properties of Southern California’s atmosphere in sculptural form. Unlike her male colleagues, however, wide-spread recognition eluded Pashgian until fairly recently. The opening for her upcoming solo show will be preceded by a conversation at the Laguna Art Museum between her and gallerist Peter Blake.

Jack Smith, “I Was A Male Yvonne De Carlo” (still) (1967–70s) (copyright Jack Smith Archive, courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, via humanresourcesla.com)

 Jack Smith Rushes

When: Sunday, November 6, 7:30–9pm
Where: Human Resources (410 Cottage Home, Chinatown, Los Angeles)

Underground filmmaker Jack Smith influenced generations of aspiring directors and artists with his low-budget, camp aesthetic, among them Andy Warhol and John Waters. In conjunction with Barbara Gladstone Gallery and Dirty Looks, Human Resources will be screening never-before-seen 8mm rushes by Smith from the late ’60s through the late ’70s, alongside his short film “I Was A Male Yvonne DeCarlo” (1967–70s), highlighting an especially significant period in his career.