Recommended: In Wonderland at LACMA

This past weekend, I finally got a chance to see "In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States," which is on view at the LACMA only until May 6!  Ever since I read the description for this art exhibit I had been wanting to check it out.  In part it read:  "While their male counterparts usually cast women as objects for their delectation, female Surrealists delved into their own subconscious and dreams, creating extraordinary visual images. Their art was primarily about identity: portraits, double portraits, self-referential images, and masquerades that demonstrate their trials and pleasures."

The show has been very widely promoted on streets all over Los Angeles with large ad-banners featuring a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird. (A detail of which is seen here on this blog). As I knew this was going to be group show featuring many artists, I was a bit worried that this show would only have one of Kahlo's pieces in the collection, but I was very happily surprised that they had seven of her paintings--including one of her most famous (and larger pieces), Los Dos Fridas, which is a real treat to see up close.

With over 170 paintings, sculptures, photographs in this exhibit, it was a great opportunity for me to discover new artists that I had never heard of before.  One of the artists that stood out the most to me was Remedios Varo, a Spanish-born artist, who worked in Paris before fleeing to Mexico during the Nazi Occupation.  She had a couple of beautiful paintings in the exhibit, including one titled, Papilla estelar (Celestial Pablum), which was very dreamy, but also evoked some sadness.

By the time some of you read this, it may already be too late to see this exhibit.  However, there is a companion book, and although it is pricey ($60) it is worth purchasing and is available in English, Spanish and French.

Recommended: MEX/LA at the MOLAA

You only have a few days left to catch a great exhibit in Long Beach called, MEX/LA: Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930-1985 which "intends to tell a history of L.A. or of Mexico that often has not been seen as neither and yet it is important and both." It is showing at the Museum of Latin American Art, but ends February 5th, 2012.

The exhibit, which spans over four decades, is made of many different medias and has pieces from great Mexican artists like David Alfaro Siquieros and modern Chicano artists like Chaz Bojórquez.

The show can be broke down into three type sections: First, there are the Mexican artists like Siquieros and José Clemente Orozco who are represented in the show mostly because they painted murals when they visited Los Angeles. Although there are also a few artists represented in this show who were born in Mexico, but later moved to Los Angeles, or spent a good part of their lives living in Los Angeles--and therefore being influenced by the city.

Then there are many pieces by artists who have no blood-relation to Mexico but were being influenced by Mexico, either because they lived there for a while or studied Mexican art and culture. Although this section, spends a lot of time devoted to architecture, to me the most interesting things were the pieces relating to popular culture. For instance, the exhibit includes a short from the Disney film The Three Caballeros, which was created after studio artists visited Mexico to soak up the culture. (And video featuring the Spanglish-speaking Speedy Gonzalez)!

Lastly, there are the Chicano artists like Barbara Carrasco and Bojórquez, who has more than one piece in the show. Of course, once again to help represent the Chicano/a culture there is also a beautiful lowrider from Jesse Valadez Sr. right at the entrance, which is actually very much a highlight.

Other highlights include work by Yolanda López: photographs; drawings from her Virgen de Guadalupe series; and a very hilarious installation titled, "Things I Never Told My Son About Being A Mexican." The other highlight, for me, were all the great photographs of people--mostly of Chicanos/as in East L.A. There were many from ASCO member Harry Gamboa Jr. and some great ones from Graciela Iturbide, who in the 80s, took up residence with a family from the East L.A. barrio of White Fence and shot lots of photographs of Cholas on their daily routines.

L.A. Rebellion: A New Black Cinema

Just found out about this film retrospective starting at UCLA tomorrow (Oct 7, 2011) that will highlight films that were created by African and African American students who entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in the late 60s and came to be known as the, “L.A. Rebellion.”

An article in the LA Times mentioned that these students were very much influenced by the Black Power politics of the time and were trying to create films that were very different from the Hollywood Blaxploitation films that were being made in those days.

At the end of the article, one of the series programmer's, Jan-Christopher Horak, is quoted as saying, "There is a certain iconic person who turns up again and again in these films: Angela Davis. She's an icon to these filmmakers and a heroine of the first order. This is a generation … that for the first time was able to express what they feel is authentic African American culture."

The UCLA Film & Television Archive website describes this film movement as follows:

Occasionally called the “Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers,” and perhaps more frequently “L.A. Rebellion,” the group’s significance is too far reaching to be fairly contained by any one name. In this exhibition, we proudly present more than fifty representative works that range from well-known films securely in the canon, to others seldom seen since school days. This series reveals a panoply of visions that do honor to individuals and the collective. Many films are presented here in new prints and restorations undertaken by UCLA Film & Television Archive.

There will be film showings--with many of the filmmakers present--and panels, some of which will be free.

Saber speaks

(Just a quick update to a previous blog I posted last week). In the 7th Letter blog, Saber talked about why he hired jets to sky-write over City Hall. He said:

"The reason I hired five jet planes to sky write over City Hall and downtown Los Angeles is to bring awareness to how ridiculous a moratorium on public art is.

The city states that all public murals are signage, effectively banning art from the walls of Los Angeles. And it is removed at the taxpayers’ expense. Money is given to private graffiti removal companies, who have broken onto private property to paint murals beige. The owners of small businesses where murals have been painted have been harassed and threatened with fines if they do not remove the artwork. Police officers raid homes and places of work, intimidating artists and building owners. During this time of economic crisis, “mural signs” are an easy target for the city to extract money. This moratorium is a clear violation of the first amendment right to free speech and enforcement for these unreasonable laws is a complete waste of taxpayer funds.

To put things in perspective I recently visited the beautiful set of murals inside the Terminal Annex Building on Alameda. This mural was painted in 1941-44 and was funded by the “Works Progress Administration” (WPA). Murals are just a part of the legacy of a national program that put the country to work during the Great Depression.

Fast-forward to the Great Recession, taxpayer money is now used to obliterate all traces of the artwork my generation have created. I believe this is city-funded censorship pushed by lawmakers with personal vendettas. Potential jail time is more probable for us than the opportunity of creating an artistic legacy for the next generation. In a city that used to proudly call itself the “Mural Capitol Of The World,” the officials who enforce this ban should be ashamed to call themselves “Angelinos.”

Art Is Not A Crime… End Mural Moratorium."

Saber also provided an online petition for people to sign and you can donate money to the cause by buying an #ArtIsNotACrime t-shirt. (Also, check out the 7th Letter blog for more info and cool videos of the "sky-bombing action").

Petitions by Change.orgStart a Petition

Councilman wants your info if you buy spray paint

Here's a quick summary from an LA Weekly blog I missed last week....

* * *

And even after the rousing success of the Museum of Contemporary Art's "Art in the Streets" exhibition, [Dennis]Zine don't stop.

He's now targeting people who buy aerosol paint:

Zine has introduced a motion that would require stores to get and keep your name and address if you buy spray cans and "graffiti paraphernalia"such as "spray paint nozzles, paint pens, glass cutting, and etching tools," according to a statement from the councilman's office.

Stores would ask for your ID and copy down the info.

* * *

This Councilman has also been in the news because he was demanding that Aaron Brothers, an art supply store, stop from offering a "Graffiti Starter Kit" during its back-to-school campaign because he thought it was glorifying graffiti. (By the way, he actually got his way in this case).

Luckily for us, the LA Weekly reached the ACLU for a comment and they suggested that it might not be constitutional and that such an ordinance would have a hard time surviving court challenges.

Take that, ignorant art-hating Councilman, (who used to be a cop/pig).

Beautiful and illegal

Last week, property-owner Adam Corlin unveiled a four-story art installation filled with a lot of color and meaning, but today--unless some drastic can happen, Corlin will have to take down the installation.

The art-work was a collaboration between west-coast graffiti legends, Risk and Retna, (both recently featured at the record-breaking "Art in the Streets" exhibit), who created it to help promote a Coastal Clean-Up Day (Sept. 17) by the non-profit environmental group, Heal the Bay.

However, not long after the unveiling, Santa Monica city police and code-enforcement officers showed up at the property and have threatened him with fines. Corlin told the LA Weekly on Friday that if it is not taken down by today they will even take the case to the L.A. County District Attorney's office. He was quoted as saying, "I think they just used the build department as an excuse to get me to take this down. . .There's a double standard going on here. Somebody doesn't like the art or the message or the artists."

This is something for all art-lovers to ponder: What kind of fucked-up society are we living in, when good artists and building owners, after teaming up to bring awareness of a much-needed pro-environment message--and doing it in a beautiful and creative way--are then told by city officials that the art has to come down!?

How would you handle this if this you were running things? It's pretty obvious to me, that the only thing keeping us away from this beautiful installation, are some real wack city officials with little appreciation and understanding of art.

To be a poet is to be an advocate...

Wanted to share one last thing from the Harriet blog this week. This is also from back in April, and it's from Barbara Jane Reyes: a blog post titled, "Some Thoughts on Martín Espada’s The Lover of a Subversive is Also a Subversive." I'm just going to post my two favorite paragraphs from this essay, in which she is talking about a book by another of my favorite poets, Martin Espada. (By the way, isn't the title to that book awesome!?!):

To be a poet, Espada asserts throughout this series of essays, is to be an advocate, to advocate for those who have been silenced, and for places that are unspoken. I want to be clear on the difference between this advocacy, versus being a voice for the voiceless. Our work as poets can empower the silenced to speak. Our work as poets can be transformative such that we all prioritize resisting systems and institutions which engage in silencing others. Some examples of poets negating silence: Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Jack Agüeros, Sonnets from the Puerto Rican. Pablo Neruda, The Heights of Macchu Picchu. Diana García, When Living Was a Labor Camp.

The language of the official story, the master narrative, if you will, is not the truth of the people. The role of the poet is to write the truth of the people, to document, to tell the truth of the people; hence, Espada’s assertion in “Blessed Be the Truth-Tellers: In Praise of Jack Agüeros,” that “if Public Enemy is ‘the CNN of the ghetto,’ then Jack Agüeros is the PBS of the barrio.” In this essay, in addition to discussing the poetry’s necessary political themes, the telling of the people’s truths, Espada engages Agüeros’s use and manipulation of poetic form.


(Lines in bold, stressed by me: To read the entire piece, go HERE).

What Does a Black Poem Look Like?

Back in April, during National Poetry Month, Harriet, (which is the blog for the Poetry foundation) invited some poets to post on different topics--related to poetry--on their blog. On of those persons invited was Wanda Coleman, one of my favorite poets. Among her many blog posts was a short essay, (if you can call it that), that I want to post here in its entirety because of how powerful it felt to me when I read it. Dig that last line:

What Does a Black Poem Look Like?

By Wanda Coleman

The speculations of contemporary thinkers on the future of humankind tend to fail and often seem silly in retrospect. Only those with the power, position and money to design that future (on hugely political, scientific and economic scales) can predict it, because they control and influence the change in and the passage of the four governmental levels of laws and regulations that dictate the future for those living and for those yet to be born. They are in control of the criminal justice system. They are affecting who and who does not become a criminal of the most beastly kind. They are affecting who and who does not become a leader in one’s society. In the interval of Now, the poet and writer affects what will come in terms of the emotional, social and aesthetic values/landscapes of the culture, and does this best when being as representative, as much as possible, of one’s time, having mastered one’s craft as well as one is able. Poets and writers determine what is important in the present, with the hope that what is encapsulated will have increasing value over the passage of time. Some poets write to inspire social change. Some write to document a way of life. Some write for the sheer love of writing, and more. Whatever drives the poet and writer, we represent our Now to those future beings. In Y3K, I hope that the readers of my poetry will look back and find it dreadfully passé and that the emotional, social and oft political issues I confront are things of the savage past and God bless ’em. That a significant portion of the work of Langston Hughes, or Mark Twain, remains relevant; or, that Ai’s complaint, repeated by Kwame Dawes, still evokes argument and dismay, speaks volumes about what little progress has been made on those emotional, social and aesthetic fronts when it comes to discussions on race relations. Electing a Black president has not uprooted or effectively mitigated the racism that continues to dominate American discourse even when couched or unspoken. Celebrating MLK Day or Black History month ain’t bloody gettin’ it. Neither did the Bush Administration apology for slavery without attaching one effing cent in reparations to the parchment. To Hell and Damnation with timelessness. I want my poems to go out of date as fast as possible.

2011-04-09

(Lines in bold by me; See the orginal HERE).

UPDATE: If you're in southern California, make sure to catch Wanda Coleman at the Leimert Park Book Fair doing a tribute to Langston Hughes on tha Main Stage @ 4 PM.

Banksy - Idol Worship

The first major exhibit of graffiti/street art, and what does Banksy do? He goes and creates a piece that looks like it criticizes the genre itself--and those who follow this art genre in particular--with this brilliant and beautiful piece. Pretty brave in, my opinion; None of the other artists represented in the exhibit did anything that came similar to this. And the real beautiful thing about it, is that the graffiti-glass stained windows that the little street artist is praying to were created with the help of high school students in Los Angeles. Bomb.com, que no?

Below are a few more pics, in detail of the other pieces he had up at the show. (Please excuse me for not writing down the names for these pieces).


[click on pics to enlarge]

OK, time for this blog to get off Banksy's nuts for a while...

Haters Gonna Hate...on Banksy

So, someone decided to vandalize that awesome piece Banksy did over on Washington (near the Blue Line). That was a true piece of public art, so I'm pretty pissed. There's some glass over it that protects it, so I'm sure it's still in perfect shape, but people can't appreciate it with all this crap covering it. Fuck'n haters:



[click on photo to enlarge]


Anyway, tune in tomorrow when I upload some Banksy pics I took at MOCA's "Art in the Streets" exhibit.

FYI: That Banksy is Still Up

This BANKSY piece on Washington Blvd and Compton Ave (by the Washington Blue Line station) is still up for you to go check-out. Some real art in the streets. Seriously, though, people have paid hundredes of thousands of dollars, (up to a million even), for a Banksy piece, and here's one you can go look at and appreciate for free, so take advantage of that if you live in Southern California!

Art is important. I don't want to live in a world where art is not important. If that's your vision for a different kind of world, leave me out of it!