LOS ANGELES — Machine Project’s mission is simply the creation of new structures and spaces for presenting creativity in its many manifestations.
Alicia Eler
Alicia Eler is a cultural critic and arts reporter. She is the author of the book The Selfie Generation (Skyhorse Publishing), which has been reviewed in the New York Times, WIRED Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. A native of Chicago by way of L.A., Alicia's writing has also been published in Glamour, the Guardian, CNN, Hyperallergic, Art21 Magazine, LA Weekly, and Aperture. She is currently the visual art critic/arts reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Posted inArt
There’s No Need to Buy a Camera
LOS ANGELES — What are people really saying when they express a desire for a new camera? The question is raised by Brendan Fowler’s solo exhibition New Camera at LAXART, where photographs are distorted and transferred to canvas, with old-fashioned camera time stamps stitched on using an industrial embroidery machine.
Posted inArt
Practicing the Art of the Selfie
LOS ANGELES — How many selfies is too many? From teenagers with cadavers and selfie-snappin’ toddlers to couples taking “couplies” (just one type of group selfie), the selfie’s possibilities seem as inexhaustible as a history of portraiture. Is it narcissistic to want better devices for shooting selfies, or is it just human nature to want to look your best?
Posted inOpinion
Waxing and Waning with the Stars in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES — President Barack Obama stands fully formed in wax towards the exit of the entertaining, kitschy tourist trap that is the Hollywood Wax Museum. Celebrity gazing is a thoroughly American tradition.
Posted inArt
Peeking into the LA Art Book Fair’s Queer Zine Show
LOS ANGELES — The LA Art Book Fair is for those who cannot afford to buy art. That includes everyone from recent MFAs to working artists, writers and curators, and collectors who like objects that take up space on the coffee table — not the wall.
Posted inArt
Selfies Reflected in Your Eyes
LOS ANGELES — Your selfies are a visual wonderland. This week’s images touch on boredom, mother-daughter relationships, photo booth self-portraits as predecessors of the selfie, webcam-induced mirror reflections, and plain old internet “weirdness” that borders on creepy.
Posted inArt
Daydreaming of a Star You’ve Never Seen
LOS ANGELES — When it comes to celebrities, it doesn’t make too much of a difference what’s real and what’s speculation, because everything is part of the same glorified fantasy space. At least, that’s what Lenae Day’s clever solo exhibition Prescott Pictures, at Mark Moore Gallery, would have you believe.
Posted inArt
In on the Art Joke: Scott Reeder at 356 Mission
LOS ANGELES — In Scott Reeder’s latest show, he’s made sure to drop in an almost unnoticeable banana that, upon recognition of the fruit, appears as just another prop in an alternate parody universe.
Posted inArt
Geopolitics Through the Lens of the Beatles
CHICAGO — Iraqi-American conceptual artist Michael Rakowitz works in a liminal space between fantasy and reality, much like an artist who makes fan art. This is a compliment and a reality, for it’s impossible to think about the artist without thinking about fandom.
Posted inArt
A Journal for Art That’s Purely Digital
LOS ANGELES — Artists who work in the digital realm are increasingly gaining recognition with exhibitions, auctions, and biennials. A new artist/writer-led online magazine called NOOART: The Journal of Objectless Art seeks to further the discussion about this type of work.
Posted inArt
Revisiting a Time When You Could Look but Not Touch
CHICAGO — It was 1950, and the men were hot, greased up, and posing as if they were the original “David.” Then they were photographed and choreographed by Chuck Renslow, who founded Kris Studios for male physique photography, at a time when gay male sexuality operated underground. Nearly 65 years later, the images and actions of that world still inspire.
Posted inArt
Selfie Companionship
LOS ANGELES — Whether you like your selfies singular and meditative or coupled and cozy, there’s always an opportunity to see yourselfie anew.