Nick Aguayo
Wake the Town and
Tell the People
Susanne
Vielmetter
Los Angeles
Projects
Kim Dingle reviewed in X-TRA
"It’s also what makes Dingle’s work so fascinating; paradoxically fun and fatal, her paintings evoke girlish frivolity while imagining genuine brutality and total anarchic destruction."
By Claudia Ross – Fall 2019
Nick Aguayo reviewed in the Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles
"Aguayo’s visual lexicon works because he productively stymies the logic of his own forms and colors before they reach a formulaic point of exhaustion by throwing in red herrings—as with the yellow arches or surprise pops of color painted onto the sides of the raw canvases. The revelation of process, the “editing” of the image made visible, eschews the self-assured heroism of the old guard of abstract painting while upholding doubt as the necessary catalyst of—perhaps the true subject of—experimentation."
By Kathryn Poindexter-Akers – 02 October 2019
Rodney McMillian at The Underground Museum
Vielmetter Los Angeles congratulates Rodney McMillian on Brown: Videos from The Black Show, a solo exhibition at The Underground Museum (October 5, 2019–February 16, 2020). The exhibition is comprised of video works presented in the artist's major exhibition The Black Showat the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (2016).
Opening night will feature a performance by jazz musician, Alice Smith and a DJ set by Novena Carmel. The event is free and open to the public.
Nicole Eisenman profiled in artnet
"Eisenman has become a two-sport threat, a phrase associated with the unusual athletes who excel in, say, both baseball and football, like Deion Sanders. In the entertainment world, singer/songwriters are fairly common, but painter/sculptors are very rare entities."
By Phyllis Tuchman – 01 October 2019
Ruben Ochoa public sculpture at the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry
Ruben Ochoa is one of five artists selected for the U.S. General Services Administration's Art in Architecture public art program at the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry at the US/Mexican border.
Ochoa’s work entitled “Mis Marcadores” takes its name and inspiration from conchas, a type of Mexican sweet bread (pan dulce) and the bread stamp, or “marcador”, that is used to create the bread’s signature crunchy shell-like pattern. Pan dulce has a special place in Mexico’s gastronomic landscape and is commonly enjoyed as an everyday breakfast snack (akin to doughnuts) and during the observance of special occasions such as the Day of the Dead.
Pope.L reviewed in the New York Times
"The arduous, rebellious, absurdist spectacle was the largest group performance orchestrated by Mr. Pope.L, the Chicago-based veteran of more than 30 international “crawls” over the last four decades. He has used this willful gesture of vulnerability to explore race, class and power."
By Hilarie M. Sheets – 22 September 2019
Pope.L previewed in Forbes
"Pope.L: Instigation, Aspiration, Perspiration, an ambitious triumvirate of exhibitions by the Public Art Fund, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, erupts Saturday with Conquest, his biggest group performance, involving some 140 to 160 people representing the city’s diversity in every manner from race and socioeconomics to range of mobility."
By Natasha Gural – 19 September 2019
Shana Lutker in CURRENT: LA FOOD
Vielmetter Los Angeles congratulates Shana Lutker on her installation in this year's CURRENT: LA, Los Angeles' public art triennial (October 5–November 3, 2019), themed "Food." Titled "Contemporary Museum of Temporary Containers (CMTC)" and located at Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood, the installation is composed of single-use takeout containers painted a single color and organized by size, shape, or former contents. The work encourages creative reuse and considers the limits of sustainability and recycling at a critical juncture of environmental responsibility.
Wangechi Mutu previewed in the New York Times
"Inaugurating what will be an annual commission for the Met’s facade, Ms. Mutu is placing bronze statues of seated women in four of the niches, from Sept. 9 through Jan. 12. Crowned, blinded and gagged by highly polished discs, and born of traditions both European and African, these graceful, commanding figures will change the face of the museum, literally and figuratively. As a test run suggests, they will sometimes reflect sunlight with spooky intensity, in what Ms. Mutu calls “a stunning message from beyond.” It is testament to her belief that, like street theater or religious rituals, art can nudge viewers toward congregation."
By Nancy Princenthal – 05 September 2019
Wangechi Mutu previewed in W magazine
"Four six-and-a-half-to-seven-foot-tall bronze female figures—part African queens, part cyborgs—will take up position in the building’s exterior niches facing Fifth Avenue that have stood empty for more than 100 years. The sculptures are the work of the Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu, and this homecoming, if you can call it that, carries all manner of poignant historical, political, and redemptive narratives along with it. An institution founded on the appropriation of antiquities and a Eurocentric view of culture is being turned on its head."
By Eve MacSweeney – 27 August 2019
Ruben Ochoa in the Wall Street Journal
"Ruben Ochoa’s photographs of ficus-tree roots breaking through the sidewalks of his childhood Los Angeles neighborhood reflect the tug of war between nature and urban construction, as well as the disparities of wealth and class that leave these broken pavements unrepaired."
By Susan Delson – 26 July 2019
Sadie Benning, Nicole Eisenman, Rodney McMillian, Pope.L, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya at MOCA LA
Sadie Benning, Nicole Eisenman, Rodney McMillian, Pope.L, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya are included in the exhibition The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA's Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles (May 19, 2019 - Jan 27, 2020). The exhibition is organized by Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator, with Rebecca Lowery, Assistant Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.