You See LA: Winter 2017
Five things to see and do in and around Los Angeles handpicked by Fowler Museum Curator Matthew Robb
Matthew Robb joined the Fowler Museum at UCLA as chief curator in June 2016. Previously, Robb served as curator of the arts of the Americas at the de Young, one of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Robb earned an undergraduate degree in 1994 from Princeton University, a master’s degree in 1999 from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in 2007 from Yale University, where his thesis on the apartment compounds of Teotihuacan was awarded the Frances Blanshard Fellowship Fund Prize for an Outstanding Dissertation in the History of Art.
Tastemakers & Earthshakers: Notes from Los Angeles Youth Culture, 1943-2016
Image courtesy: Vincent Price Art Museum
Through Feb. 25
Tastemakers & Earthshakers: Notes from Los Angeles Youth Culture, 1943-2016
Vincent Price Art Museum
East Los Angeles College. 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754-6099
Free and open to the public. Guided tours can be arranged by appointment.
A gem of an exhibition focusing on 20th century youth culture in LA. Jumping off with a telling comparison between youth fashion and music in the UK and in LA, from teddys and pachucos in the 40s and 50s to punks and new wavers in the 1970s and 80s, it takes a deeper look at the history of conflicts between young people and civic authorities like the police and military in the '43 Zoot Suit Riots, and brings all these currents and energies together through to the present day. It's like a smart mix tape from the coolest person you know, making unexpected connections and brilliant segues. There’s a special, chaotic sense of vigor and energy that emerges out of these juxtapositions. Closes February 25—don’t miss it!
The Velaslavasay Panorama
Image courtesy: The Velaslavasay Panorama
The Velaslavasay Panorama
Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12–6 p.m.
Admission is granted to all with a suggested donation of $6 for entrance ($4 Students & Seniors).
With all its movie history, it’s great that LA has a few spots where you can experience the technologies and spectacles that preceded cinema and even photography. Effulgence of the North is a meditative 360-degree presentation of a frozen landscape, complete with changing light and sound suggesting cracking ice—a modern version of the kinds of visual spectacles that residents of London, New York, and Los Angeles could experience in the 19th century. A great break from the urban chaos of LA, this refurbished movie theater in University Park also has a funky garden, and they host a range of screenings and performances, including silent films with contemporary musical accompaniment and the occasional 3D movie.
El Tren Fantasma
Image courtesy: Museum of Latin American Art
Saturday, Feb. 25
El Tren Fantasma
Museum of Latin American Art
628 Alamitos Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802
General Admission: $10, Seniors and Students: $7, MOLAA Members and Children under 12 years: Free
Speaking of silent movies, I like the looks of this screening at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. The Ghost Train is a 1927 film by Mexican director Gabriel García Moreno and is one of a small number of Mexican silents that have survived to the present day. A team of restorers at the UNAM in Mexico City brought it back to life, using a variety of sources to confirm the sequence of the surviving reels and the intertitles. It’s got it all—action, suspense, romance, even a bullfight—often shot with incredible verve. Hearing it with a live score by Michael D. Mortilla would be a real treat. You could make an outing of it: see Tastemakers on its last day and then head south for this in the evening of Feb 25.
Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World
Jimmie Durham, Malinche, Guava, pine branches, oak, snakeskin, , polyester bra soaked in acrylic resin and painted gold, watercolor, cactus leaf, canvas, cotton cloth, metal, rope, feathers, plastic jewelry, glass eye. 70 × 23 ⅝ × 35 in. (177 × 60 × 89 cm). Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium. Image ©S.M.A.K. / Dirk Pauwels.
Jan. 29–May 7
Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World
Hammer Museum
Free
I’m really looking forward to this retrospective—the first ever in North America for this challenging and provocative contemporary artist. He is probably more well-known in Europe and Latin America, and it’s high time there was an exhibition in the U.S. that drew on his long history of activism on the part of indigenous peoples through groups like the American Indian Movement, as well as his role as a critic of the art world and the U.S. government, both through his writings and his artistic creations. As usual the Hammer has a great slate of programs to go along with the show—especially the walkthrough with James Luna, a Southern California-based contemporary artist who’s also overdue for a retrospective.
The Lilys at the Echo
Image credit: Part Time Punks
Sunday, Feb. 5
The Lilys at the Echo
The Echo
1822 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, 90026
$15–$18
The Lilys are an unheralded manifestation of US shoegazer rock from the early 1990s, heavy on droning feedback and subdued lyrics. Their first record, in the presence of nothing, came out in 1992, not long after My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Though the comparisons between the two bands are inevitable, I’ve lately realized that the opening chords to the Lily’s “There’s No Such Thing as Black Orchids” are (for whatever reason) more imprinted on my mind than those of MBV’s “Only Shallow.” This is a retrospective/reunion gig, with an emphasis on their early material—it will be a great, rare opportunity to put your ear plugs to good use and re-familiarize yourself with the tops of your Chuck Taylors. One night only, Sunday Feb 5.
Read past editions of this series.
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