dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

"Illuminations" Curated by Matthew Higgs @ Richard Telles Fine Art

The press release for this show reads like a lamentation of English light, a yearning for a personal nostalgia, a childhood moment. While certainly as good an excuse as any to mount a show, an exhibition grouping various interests in lights, that is to say lamps, objects tied to function, I would have liked to see the works after dark, perhaps in the dreary cold of winter. Instead, this proposal was staged during the longest days of the year, in "sunny California" no less. And the gallery hours for this one in particular are even earlier in the day! This ironical gesture does seem purposeful somehow though it does not actually render an opportunity to well to see these lamps in their, well, um, best light.  That said, here are two works by two artists that I consider strong examples in any light.

Matt Paweski



Noam Rappaport

Noam Rappaport




Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sean Paul @ Thomas Duncan

"Blue Jean, Belt Loops (Front/Back." 2013
Ultraviolet-curable inks, acrylic, Sintra,
aluminum, and wood
24 3/8 x 1 3/8 x 7/16 inches 

Detail.

"Arrangement Eos, Front/Top/Bottom/Right," 2013
Ultraviolet-curable inks, acrylic, canvas, and wood
32 3/4 x 49 3/16 x 1 1/8 inches

Detail (top left corner)

Detail (right side)

Detail (somewhere middle)

Detail (bottom center)
Last summer (2012), a couple of other Paul paintings were on view at Blum&Poe as part of Standard Operating Procedures, a group show curated by Piper Marshall (see the following link for details
http://dayoutlast.blogspot.com/2012/08/standard-operating-procedures-curated.html).  Hardly "paintings" in the literal sense, they do refer to paintings both historical and present.  Paul's relationship to the photographic and printed image is clear; certainly, other painters are engaged with such concerns. What I like about these works is how compositionally they draw attention to the edges, thereby, in one very practical way making it difficult to photograph and crop, that is to say reproduce and distribute. That being said, I'm not sure if what is actually there in the direct view is enough in and of itself. Because they appear so mechanical I am unable to access the marks of their making, and am left, instead, to read about why I should care about what I am seeing.  This latter point, indeed, fits the times.   My preference is for a more well-integated version of both (a palpable sense of its construction as well as a story behind it). Of course, sometimes it's nice to just riff mentally as a viewer with no guidance at all. On this latter point, unfortunately, there is just not enough points of departure outside of thinking about printing and cropping images, an issue of scale in the contemporary to be sure.

Jack Goldstein, "Untitled," 1988 @ LACMA

James Turrell "Retrospective" @ LACMA

"Afrum (White)," 1966 (left wall view)
"Afrum (White)," 1966 (right wall view)
"Raemar Pink White," 1969 (left side view)
"Raemar Pink White," 1969 (right side view)

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Richard Hawkins @ Richard Telles Fine Art

One could get lost in a place like this... but which place do I mean, the gallery installation, the sculpture, or the painting?  I suspect all three, especially as pictorial illusion and actual depth play throughout the objects in this show.  However one chooses to answer the question, one thing seems clear, Hawkins revelry in spatial ambiguities, color, handiwork, representative bodies, and art materials results in a true feast for the eyes. 

Smut Palace, 2013,
Wood, dollhouse parts, paper, and acrylic
104 x 28 1/2 x 28 1/2





















Rainbow Room: Farmer's Tan, 2013
 oil on canvas,  20 x 24

Night Gallery: Whiskers, 2013,
oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/8



Night Gallery: Voluptuaries, 2013
oil on canvas
40 x 48




Rainbow Room: Smoke Right, 2013
oil on canvas
16 x 20

Night Gallery: Double-Barreled Tranny, 2013
oil on canvas
32 5/8 x 39 1/4