I have no choice but to make it short and sweet here : Ryan McGinness is like no other artists I have looked at before. His show Ocular Evidence is a visual bomb!
Seeing the full range of Tiffany’s Favrile glass vase production is very rare and such a unique opportunity is presented at the Tiffany Masterworks exhibition organized by the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA. On view until Feb 26th, 2018. As Louis Comfort Tiffany mixes both decorative arts and jewelry, it comes as no surprise that I have spent a fair amount dealing and researching his multi-faceted art. Before 1900, Tiffany’s expertise was in elitist and full interior designs for rich patrons like the Havemeyers. Quite adept at transforming a utilitarian object into a jewel-like work of art, he nevertheless soon felt such projects and subsequent large decorative lead-glass windows too fin-de-siècle Fine Arts and too exclusive for his business acumen.
If you’ve been to any museums in Southern California lately, you may have noticed omnipresent mentions of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Led by the Getty, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is the latest collaborative effort between 70+ arts institutions across Southern California. The aim is to explore Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. I have only made it to a few of all the exhibitions around and I have found most artworks and exhibitions very stimulating and thought provoking. Having shared quite a few on my Instagram (@reinventingrid), I wanted to bring you some and encourage you to seek those exhibitions.
This is the exhibition David Hockney came to visit the very day before I was scheduled to go. Jonas Wood at David Kordansky Gallery. A must see in Los Angeles, through December 16, 2017. It is fresh and inspired, much like David Hockney’s own work to which Jonas Wood’s self-assured brushstrokes pay a vibrant homage. Both artists seem to share a similar vision of life, where colors sing and textural patterns resonate quietly, albeit confidently. Yet in Jonas Wood’s paintings perhaps the time immemorial rhythmic quality of aboriginal motifs is more apparent. I find his palette is also tighter than Hockney’s: many of Jonas Wood’s landscapes play tone on tone, never straying far from keys of earthy brown or forest green. Even white on white manages to be colorful! He builds space with patterns which add vibrancy and energy, without necessarily resorting to vivid contrasts expediently. Case in point: how can Jonas Wood make Las Vegas so recognizable and yet so devoid of the contrasts we readily associate with Vegas? His paintings transported me into a universe flooded with light, much like the vivid quality of an illuminated stage as the theater lights go dark – except Jonas Wood uses […]
Spotting Raja de Kishangarh’s bowtie, being carved out of emeralds of a size usually associated with pebbles rather than gemstones, or a Mughal necklace rich of 150 carats of the finest Golconda diamonds and 47 Colombian emeralds beads, it could be tempting to reduce Mughal ruling of India (1526-1857) to Centuries of Opulence. Albeit the title of a new exhibition of Jewels from India at the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) in Carlsbad, CA, I would argue instead that the aesthetic eye of the Mughals was rooted in a true understanding of luxury and honed by learned interests in art, architecture, science, culture and religion extending well beyond their Muslim faith, a tolerance which left an indelible mark on the arts of India.
I am trying to vary the types of arts the kids and I see…It’s good for the eyes and it helps keeping it all real: too much of the sleek stuff and you get into a snobbish rut. Checking out a few artist communities in the Joshua Tree desert got our eyes on many different forms of assemblage sculptures. Along the way, we talked about recycling materials, living life as an artist, found objects and the loose definition of Art…
Dear readers, Ten months in this journey of appreciating art (and life) through exhibitions my eyes got attracted to, I hope to contribute to you visiting some of the art I have talked about week after week. One big question though: have you included your kids?
Don’t even entertain the thought of pastel colored Ladurée macarons as you take in the soft spoken colors of Adriana Varejão’s works. The azulejos tiles you may also see are no pretty Marie-Antoinette’s toile de Jouy.