ArtRx LA
This week, a campy throwback film screens at Cinefamily, the first Los Angeles retrospective of work by painter Maria Lassnig closes, a dancer performs a blessing for the new year, and more.
Performing Without Amplification
When: Tuesday, December 27, 7–11pm
Where: Human Resources (410 Cottage Home, Chinatown, Los Angeles)
Experimental electronic artist Elliot Reed cycles through numerous beat-based genres from hi-energy, electro noise pop, to introspective, bedroom, laptop tunes, to minimal darkwave. For the kick-off to his upcoming world tour he invited a selection of performers to each create a work without amplification. There will also be video screenings, video game collaborations, and a continuously running sound piece. $5 admission.
The Love Witch
When: Friday, December 30–Wednesday, January 4
Where: The Cinefamily (611 North Fairfax Avenue, Fairfax District, Los Angeles)
With its saturated color palette, occult eroticism, and loving attention to retro wardrobe and sets, The Love Witch is an homage to classic Eurosleaze cinema of the ’60s. Written, directed, produced, designed, and edited by Anna Biller, the film tells the story of a woman who uses her supernatural powers to attract and ruin susceptible men. Friday’s screening features Biller in person.
Executive Decisions: The Personal Landscape Legacy of American Presidents
When: Closes Saturday, December 31
Where: Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) (9331 Venice Blvd., Culver City, California)
The legacy of an American president can be measured in myriad ways, from policy changes, to judicial appointees, to wartime declarations. The exhibition Executive Decisions at the Center for Land Use Interpretation looks at the physical landscape that each president has left behind. This ranges from personal, but influential locations like the houses where they were born and died, to national monuments, presidential libraries, and historical parks.
assume vivid astro focus: avalanches volcanoes asteroids floods
When: Closes Saturday, December 31
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara (653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, California)
Avalanches volcanoes asteroids floods (avaf) is the latest site-specific, immersive work from New York– and Paris– based duo assume vivid astro focus. Inspired by our collective fear of natural disasters, avaf combines paintings, textiles, video, murals, and imagery from the collective’s archives into a theatrical, maximalist installation.
Maria Lassnig: A Painting Survey, 1950–2007
When: Closes Saturday, December 31
Where: Hauser Wirth & Schimmel (901 East 3rd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)
Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel’s Maria Lassnig retrospective presents almost 60 years of work from the late Austrian painter. Although her influence on later generations of artists is unmistakable, this is surprisingly her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. The tightly focused show traces her career from early abstractions to the body-based and psychological figurative work she is best known for.
Jmy Kidd: Blessing for the New Year
When: Monday, January 2, 8pm
Where: Pieterspace (420 West Avenue 33, Suite 10, Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles)
Dancer and choreographer Jmy Kidd pushes the boundaries of contemporary movement, working with a cross-disciplinary coterie of collaborators. As a much-needed blessing for the new year, she will be staging a solo performance of Magical Diagonal, with music by Tara Jane ONeil. Admission is free with a mandatory, non-monetary donation of healthy snacks, wine, coffee, natural soap, art/dance books, or other needed items.
