Major General William Caldwell, a senior commander of U.S. forces in occupied Iraq, compared the war in that country to a work of art in progress. At a weekly briefing in Baghdad, Caldwell addressed the violence now spiraling out of control, which includes the rising U.S. casualties (2,828 dead at the time of this writing), by saying, “Every great work…
On November 5th, 2006, the A Shenere Velt Gallery of West Los Angeles will present its latest exhibition – Utopia: Dreams of Paradise & Possibility. Reading from the gallery’s press release regarding the exhibit: “Our call for submissions went out this year asking artists to think about the theme of Utopia. ‘In a world climate of pessimism and fear, dreams…
Xican@ Demiurge: An Immediate Survey at L.A.’s downtown Pharmaka Art gallery, is the latest examination of Chicano art to grace the L.A. art scene. I viewed the works of the twenty-one artists in the exhibit, which according to the organizers of the show are referred to as “Los In-betweens”, both for their standing in-between cultures and for evading the clichés…
Enigma Variations: Philip Guston and Giorgio de Chirico, is a wonderful survey of paintings by these two promethean artists showing at The Santa Monica Museum of Art until November 25th, 2006. The twenty-six canvases on display reveal the far reaching influence the European Surrealist de Chirico had upon Guston, presenting works from both artists that trace the startling development of…
Designism: Instigating Social Change, was a panel discussion organized by the famed Art Directors Club of New York City, and presented as a forum that would focus on the “role and responsibility of creatives to instigate social change”. Naturally, as an artist long committed to a socially engaged art, the forum sounded interesting, but living and working in L.A. made…
A little more than a year ago, I wrote an article titled “Fernando Botero Paints Abu Ghraib.” The piece was about what I referred to as the Columbian artist’s “masterwork, a suite of 50 large oil paintings depicting the horrors perpetrated by Americans at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison.” Readers of this web log are by now most likely familiar…
At a little heralded press conference held at the White House on Monday, September 25th, 2006, first lady Laura Bush announced the formation of the U.S. State Department’s “Global Cultural Initiative.” With world public opinion of the United States and the Bush administration slumping to dramatic record lows, the initiative is a scheme designed to improve America’s image abroad through…
On Sunday, October 1st, 2006, twenty museums across Los Angeles will participate in the second annual Museums Free-For-All, by opening their doors to the public absolutely free of charge. The Free-For-All concept is a refreshing change from the worrying drift towards rising admission prices for national art museums, and while the day provides relief – it is clearly not enough….
