pascALEjandro, “The Cry of the Soul” (2016), Ink, watercolor and colored pencil on paper, 25 5/8 x 40 1/8 inches (© pascALEjandro, Courtesy of the artists and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo)
Having made such classic films as El Topo (1970), Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of the most visionary auteurs of the past half-century. His surreal, psychedelic visual style is also evident in his artistic collaborations with his wife, Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, known collectively as pascALEjandro. Alchemical Love at Blum & Poe is the first major exhibition of the couple’s work in the US, featuring paintings from the past two years that reflect elements of magical realism and fantasy. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Hammer Museum will be screening Jodorowsky’s latest film, Endless Poetry (2016), with costumes designed by Montandon-Jodorowsky, on January 16.
When: Opens Sunday, January 14, 3–5pm
Where: Blum & Poe (2727 South La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, California)
More info at Blum & Poe
Julianna Snapper in Oscar Santillán’s “Correspondances (After Charles Baudelaire)” (photo by Dicko Chan)
Over the past three months, Southern California has enjoyed a plethora of exhibitions focused on Latin American and Latino Art thanks to the Getty’s PST: LA/LA initiative. Several of those shows are winding down, but it’s far from over, with Live Art LA/LA, a 10-day performance festival kicking off on January 11. The program features over 200 performers and artists at more than 25 venues, including Mexico City-based “performance art Diva” Astrid Hadad‘s irreverent and extravagant camp, Carmen Argote’s motorcycle performance, Ecuadorian artist Oscar Santillán’s Baudelaire-inspired musical score, and much, much more.
When: January 11–21
Where: venues throughout greater Los Angeles
More info at REDCAT
Harald Szeemann in Cuba for the Salón de Mayo (May salon), 1967 (photo by Balthasar Burkhard, courtesy The Getty)
Long before star curators like Hans-Ulrich Obrist or Klaus Biesenbach became (art world) household names, there was Harald Szeemann. The Swiss curator organized over 200 exhibitions throughout his career, many of them groundbreaking and trend-setting, like 1969’s When Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern, which established the role of the curator as an artistic collaborator. Harald Szeemann: Museum of Obsessions will draw on his massive archives, recently acquired the Getty Research Institute. An accompanying show, Grandfather: A Pioneer Like Us, recreates his 1974 exhibition focused on his grandfather, a prominent hairdresser, and will open at the ICA LA on February 4.
When: Opens Tuesday, February 6
Where: The Getty Center (1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles)
More info at the Getty
Jasper Johns, “Flag” (1967), encaustic and collage on canvas (three panels), 33 1/2 x 56 1/4 in, (Art © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)
Jasper Johns is arguably the most important living American artist. His enigmatic works continue to challenge and beguile audiences more than half a century after he created his first “target” painting. Emerging at the tail end of Abstract Expressionism’s reign, Johns, alongside fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg, would chart a brave new course that paved the way for multiple artistic lines, from Pop and Assemblage, to Conceptual and Appropriation strategies. Something Resembling Truth is a career-spanning retrospective that brings together more than 120 works, from his “Flag” paintings of the 1960s, encaustic works, and casts of the human body, to cryptic canvases that mined art history for source material, to the more minimal, but no less complex Catenary series.
When: Opens Saturday, February 10 ($25, tickets go on sale January 1 at noon PST)
Where: The Broad (221 South Grand Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)
More info at the Broad
