dayoutlast: December 2013

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.

--Justin Lowman

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Ulrich Wulff @ Tif Sigfrids

What are people for, 2013

oil on canvas

80 x 56 inches

Dreams come true, 2013

oil on canvas

80 x 56 inches

The blues, 2013

oil on canvas

120 x 144 inches

Dianna Molzan "La Jennifer" @ Overduin and Kite

Pae White "Ursa Soft" in Pet Shapes @ International Art Objects

Ursa Soft, 2013

cat whiskers, dog whiskers, glue, metal

Dimensions Variable

Hayal Pozanti @ Susanne Vielmetter

Ruben Ochoa @ Vielmetter

Jim Shaw @ Blum & Poe

This artwork covers a lot of ground as its banner waves. I've always enjoyed the anagram of time as emit; now I enjoy the others Shaw has shown me here. What a clever sequence of events, this flow.

Brian Wills @ Nye + Brown

Untitled, 2013

Enamel and single string rayon thread on wood

36 x 36 inches

Detail

Untitled, 2013

Single strand rayon thread on wood

(4) 12 x 96 inch panels

Oblique view

Detail

Untitled, 2013

Single strand rayon thread and basswood on wood

45 x 6 x 6 inches

Detail

Untitled, 2013

Single strand rayon thread on wood

(4) 12 x 24 inches

Oblique view

Untitled, 2013

Single strand rayon thread, basswood on wood

36 x 36 inches

At first glance, this work is seductive by its use of color and that it requires a moving body to appreciate its perceptual shifts (hence my oblique views above). Upon further interaction, the pleasure of effect wears off for the most part, and I am left wondering if this is just an academic exercise (singles threads not weaving together to perform less than they would if they had or what other artists have already treated us to such thoughts regarding painting support inversion and thinness of ground. When there is no title, one goes immediately to materials for attempt at meaning). I liked the one piece that acknowledged its multidimensionality; it was the corner piece that simultaneously conjures Gene Davis and Donald Judd, albeit slight on both accounts.