Hello Beautiful People! Spent the last few days in Los Angeles--the purpose of the trip was to attend a wedding, but there was art to see in the remaining moments. Wanna hear about it? Well, I assume that's why you're reading this, so here we go!
I must mention the hotel we stayed at because it was so adorably hip--the
Farmer's Daughter. Christian picked it because it was across the street from the Farmer's Market and since he hails from that neck of the woods, breakfast at the creperie was a trip down 'ol memory lane. Who am I to get in the way of a foodie revival? The Farmer's Daughter looks like a revamped 50's motor lodge, but with tools mounted on the walls and faux wood grain galore. In case you don't know me very well, these two items are über high on my list of coolness.
First stop on our quickie art tour was
LACMA . I wanted to see the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum I'd been curious about since seeing it under construction last year when I visited L.A. We first checked out the feature show at LACMA,
Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement. This was really really great, with over 100 pieces by artists of Latin American descent. One of the first pieces we saw was this sculpture called "Vocho" by Margarita Cabrera. It's a VW bug made from fabric produced in the third world, and surrounding it was a garden of potted cacti made from border patrol police uniforms. Powerful statement, but I just loved the way she made this floppy car with all the uncut thread ends dangling loose. It had a silly poetic quality that worked for me.
I truly loved the photographs by Carlee Fernandez, such as this self portrait she took, mimicing the portrait of her mother's ex from years before. Ther was also a stunning series on an adjacent wall of self portraits of her posing with large photographs of famous men such as Hundertwasser, Charles Bukowski, Werner Herzog and Lars von Trier. I have been thinking a lot lately about feminism and this series felt like a fresh look on the subject that's worthy of some consideration.
One room held many pieces by Adrian Esparza whose work linked traditional craft, particularly weaving, to his cultural experience. One of the woven works that felt pertinent to me that day was by Adrian Esparza who weaves together two contrasting images to create one hybrid. The piece I'm talking about was called "The Barrio of Earthly Delights" where Bosch's
Garden of Earthly Delights merged with an image of the
Homies characters. I have been reading a book about Bosch's famous painting recently because it ties in perfectly with my Natural Selection show, so it was interesting to see it in this context. The most graphically compelling of the four or so pieces by Esparza that was included in this exhibition was a weaving of Elvis Presley with a Corona Beer label.
Esparza also had a fantastic geometric string drawing created with the unraveled thread from a serape, the remains of which hung nearby. Another compelling piece of his was a quilt made from red white and blue t-shirts with various patriotic logos. He bought all of these shirts at thrift stores for less than $2 which resulted in an interesting look at our culture's disposable attitudes.
The other work that made us think and talk were these drawings by Julio Cesar Morales that were taken directly from diagrams from border patrol of various attempts by Mexican citizens to illegally enter into the United States. So many emotions are tied up in this issue, but the two of people kneeling inside car seats were most intriguing. I am always thinking about art's connection to the body, and in the study of furniture, this is key. To see a human in the form of a chair like this brought me back to my days of furniture design.
The Broad contemporary wing was a beautifully lit, expansive space, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect
Renzo Piano. It was filled with a lot of the regulars you see in many contemporary museums worldwide, so I won't go into detail about the content. Most memorable for me was the elevator shaft designed by one of my longtime faves Barbara Kruger. The elevator is the core of this five story building and Kruger's images and text line the walls. You can read them whilst waiting for the lift, but not while inside, which was an interesting choice.
After that we piled in the car and drove out to the
Huntington Gardens for the sweaty afternoon. Most of our time was spent in their amazing Desert Garden, which is one of the oldest and largest collections of cacti and other succulents in the world. I took a zillion pictures and got a gazillion ideas for bonsai forms to create in the next 4 months.
You can see them by clicking here, which will take you to an online photo album I created.
I must mention the hotel we stayed at because it was so adorably hip--the Farmer's Daughter. Christian picked it because it was across the street from the Farmer's Market and since he hails from that neck of the woods, breakfast at the creperie was a trip down 'ol memory lane. Who am I to get in the way of a foodie revival? The Farmer's Daughter looks like a revamped 50's motor lodge, but with tools mounted on the walls and faux wood grain galore. In case you don't know me very well, these two items are über high on my list of coolness. 
First stop on our quickie art tour was LACMA . I wanted to see the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum I'd been curious about since seeing it under construction last year when I visited L.A. We first checked out the feature show at LACMA, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement. This was really really great, with over 100 pieces by artists of Latin American descent. One of the first pieces we saw was this sculpture called "Vocho" by Margarita Cabrera. It's a VW bug made from fabric produced in the third world, and surrounding it was a garden of potted cacti made from border patrol police uniforms. Powerful statement, but I just loved the way she made this floppy car with all the uncut thread ends dangling loose. It had a silly poetic quality that worked for me.
I truly loved the photographs by Carlee Fernandez, such as this self portrait she took, mimicing the portrait of her mother's ex from years before. Ther was also a stunning series on an adjacent wall of self portraits of her posing with large photographs of famous men such as Hundertwasser, Charles Bukowski, Werner Herzog and Lars von Trier. I have been thinking a lot lately about feminism and this series felt like a fresh look on the subject that's worthy of some consideration.
One room held many pieces by Adrian Esparza whose work linked traditional craft, particularly weaving, to his cultural experience. One of the woven works that felt pertinent to me that day was by Adrian Esparza who weaves together two contrasting images to create one hybrid. The piece I'm talking about was called "The Barrio of Earthly Delights" where Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights merged with an image of the Homies characters. I have been reading a book about Bosch's famous painting recently because it ties in perfectly with my Natural Selection show, so it was interesting to see it in this context. The most graphically compelling of the four or so pieces by Esparza that was included in this exhibition was a weaving of Elvis Presley with a Corona Beer label. 
Esparza also had a fantastic geometric string drawing created with the unraveled thread from a serape, the remains of which hung nearby. Another compelling piece of his was a quilt made from red white and blue t-shirts with various patriotic logos. He bought all of these shirts at thrift stores for less than $2 which resulted in an interesting look at our culture's disposable attitudes.
The other work that made us think and talk were these drawings by Julio Cesar Morales that were taken directly from diagrams from border patrol of various attempts by Mexican citizens to illegally enter into the United States. So many emotions are tied up in this issue, but the two of people kneeling inside car seats were most intriguing. I am always thinking about art's connection to the body, and in the study of furniture, this is key. To see a human in the form of a chair like this brought me back to my days of furniture design.
The Broad contemporary wing was a beautifully lit, expansive space, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. It was filled with a lot of the regulars you see in many contemporary museums worldwide, so I won't go into detail about the content. Most memorable for me was the elevator shaft designed by one of my longtime faves Barbara Kruger. The elevator is the core of this five story building and Kruger's images and text line the walls. You can read them whilst waiting for the lift, but not while inside, which was an interesting choice. 
After that we piled in the car and drove out to the Huntington Gardens for the sweaty afternoon. Most of our time was spent in their amazing Desert Garden, which is one of the oldest and largest collections of cacti and other succulents in the world. I took a zillion pictures and got a gazillion ideas for bonsai forms to create in the next 4 months. You can see them by clicking here, which will take you to an online photo album I created.
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