I’m working on a new series of large oil paintings depicting the ubiquitous palm trees of Los Angeles, set on fire and blazing away against L.A.’s photochemical sunsets. The works allude to the intrinsic wildness of my city, where every year the surrounding hills are swept by fire, a phenomenon experienced by no other major metropolis on earth. It is…
I’m showing a number of artworks at Religion, Politics and Society, a group exhibit that also features artists, John Paul Thornton, Dolores Guerrero-Torres, Paul Batou, and David Ross. The exhibition is at the Lake Arrowhead Gallery and Museum of Art (LAGMA), located in the beautiful mountain resort community of Lake Arrowhead, California, in the San Bernardino National Forest. For those…
There’s an old adage that goes, “First they break your legs, and then they want thanks for giving you crutches.” New York City’s, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has mounted an exhibit that adheres to that truism. Dedicated exclusively to historic and contemporary design, Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibition, Design for the Other 90 %, is the museum’s presentation of innovative tools allegedly created…
May 4th, 2007 marks the 37th anniversary of the shooting deaths of four students by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. It seems few remember those who were felled by bullets during national anti-Vietnam war protests triggered by President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The killings represent a monstrous crime… and we must never forget the students gunned down…
Jed Perl is the art critic for The New Republic, and after reading his essay, Laissez-Faire Aesthetics: What money is doing to art, or how the art world lost its mind, it’s not hard to understand why his opinion of contemporary art is generally reviled in some quarters. While I disagree with aspects of Perl’s critique, he still manages to…
The first Earth Day was held on April 22nd, 1970, and the event was celebrated by 20 million Americans who held demonstrations across the country to demand protection for the land, air, and water. Earth Day came about as the result of concerted environmentalist action, and artists played an important role in that process. In fact, the Ecology symbol was…
This month, Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE), a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage internationally, helped to organize a worldwide candlelight vigil to draw attention to the four year anniversary of the systematic looting and destruction of Iraq’s museums. U.S. Marines seized Baghdad in the early days of April, 2003. While U.S. troops surrounded and protected Iraq’s National Ministry…
Art In America: 300 Years Of Innovation, is a massive exhibition of American painting from the Colonial period to the present, now on display in the communist People’s Republic of China. Billed as the first survey of American art ever displayed in the “People’s Republic,” the exhibit is drawn from major U.S. and European collections, and presents 130 significant works…
