James Turrell- Roden Crater

There is an extinct volcanic crater in the Arizona desert that Turrell has been working on since 1974.  To me it seems like he's trying to create a cosmic and spiritual experience for the pilgrim who makes the trek out to the desert.  In a lot of religions, devotees have to make a long trip through barren land to get to an amazing mecca.  Roden Crater feels like that kind of place.  I can't wait until the second phase is complete and it opens up to the public.

 Check out this link for more info on Roden Crater.

James Turrell at LACMA

I went to this show last night and I feel like I went somewhere else. Remember that white room that Mike TV goes into in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original version)? This exhibit kinda feel like that at certain times. Other times it felt celestial and made me think of the afterlife- or at times he invokes a giddy curiosity about what could out there. Its an amazing, trippy show- if you want to experience something other-wordly you should definitely check this out before April 6th.

To see more of his work, here is a comprehensive catalog. There are a lot of public works that you can go visit!

Niels Shoe Meulman

NSM is a Dutch artist who first coined the term Calligraffiti- a blend of calligraphy and graffiti. I love that he's taken an old world technique and fused it with a street artform.  He is also a performance artist who creates calligraffiti on a large scale. Here is a video he did with Mos Def for Louis Vuitton.

Monica Dengo

Monica Dengo is a calligraphy artist who goes beyond just writing. Her words are many times illegible but the gestures themselves are the art. She creates a style that is a hybrid of markings and words.

Maggie Taylor

Maggie Taylor was also one of the artists at the Annenberg.  She's a photographer who then takes her images and creates bizarre dreamscapes. With Photoshop, anything is possible as Maggie clearly demonstrates.

The Annenberg Space for Photography:Digital Darkroom-Brooke Shaden

Brooke Shaden's photographs look like stills from a film or a painting from another era. Each picture creates an imagined story of a time that feels very far away. Shaden uses Photoshop techniques so seamlessly that things look surreal yet feel like they belong.

For those of you that are lynda.com subscribers, Shaden has a tutorial on how she creates one of her photograph- from capturing the image to compositing and retouching.

Art LA Contemporary|Peter Stichbury

Stichbury renders his subjects as distant, cool and slightly surreal. Though if you look at the last painting, the real person (Zach Klein) looks pretty lifeless in that photo.

Art LA Contemporary|Matthew Brandt

Guess what Brandt used to create these works?

It's guuuummmm! How did he do that? Did he melt the gum and then silkscreen with it? That's my best guess. Check out his other works created with edibles and other materials here. I especially like the image of honeybees created with honeybees.

Art LA Contemporary|Thomas Glassford

Glassford has used anodized aluminum to create a lot of his recent work. I like that he creates a quilt-like painting out of a very masculine, cold, architectural material like aluminum siding.

Art LA Contemporary|Ian Burns

This contraption uses light bulbs and magnifying glasses to write out this mantra. I love how low-tech it is...he even uses a tupperware box to hold the wires in!

Art LA Contemporary|Holton Rower

These colorful poured paintings look like some crazy topographical map. Check out the video below to see the process of how these are created.

Art LA Contemporary|Adam Belt

This piece is called "Down the Rabbit Hole." At first it may seem merely to be a suggestion to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. However when you look at the rest of Belt's work, he explores ideas of space, telescopes, light, the big bang, planets...etc. His piece feel more cosmic in context of the rest of his work.

It felt like looking into a bottomless hole in the exhibition wall...bottomless hole or infinite space...same thing i guess.

Check out Adam's site to see more of his work.

Art LA Contemporary|Ed Moses: Garden of Forking Tongues

I'm not really sure what these paintings are about. Here are a few references and clues that I picked up on though...

1. His cartoonish figures remind me of Kara Walker... something about the black cut-outs.

2. His patterns feel tribal.

3. Speaking with a "forked tongue" means to say one thing and mean another. It also reminds me of the serpent in the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story.

Hmmm... what do you make of this?

Check out the opening reception at Ace Gallery on Feb 25th, 2012 at 7pm.