Email Author Catherine Wagley

2011 Stories by Catherine Wagley

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  FEATURED STORY

  Kurt Ralske's Avatar One D at Young Projects Boils James Cameron's Blockbuster Down to a Single Line

  published Dec 07, 2011

  Kurt Ralske has not seen Avatar. "I guess I just assumed I wouldn't like it," says the New York-based artist, even though his exhibition "The Mechanical Bride," installed in the second of Young Proje... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including 'Anti-Rock' Band Destroy All Monsters and Charles Garabedian's Pseudo-Biblical Painting

  published Dec 07, 2011

  With the exception of a panel of artists talking economics, this week's recommendations are all old-school, exhibitions and performances of artists working before Watergate. 5. Highbrow Comedy Guy d... More >>

• Harry Gamboa of Asco: How A Chicano Performance Group Turned Oppression into Dangerous Fun

  published Dec 06, 2011

  LACMA's show "Asco: Elite of the Obscure, a Retrospective 1972-1987," highlighting the famed performance art group, closed on Sunday. Harry Gamboa Jr., one of Asco's original members, grew up in East ... More >>

• A New Album Release, 40 Years Late

  published November 24, 2011

  Bob Dylan doesn't follow art that closely, but he likes Terry Allen. It makes sense. While Allen's assemblage and collage borrow as much from folk... More >>

• Victorian L.A. With a Modern Soundtrack

  published November 17, 2011

  If you've seen Robert Altman's classic Western McCabe and Mrs. Miller, you know how much sway the sad, satirical Leonard Cohen score has... More >>

• Anti Fetish Finish

  published November 17, 2011

  Artist Terry O'Shea went to show LACMA curator Maurice Tuchman his work in 1966, and pulled one piece after another out of his pockets. O'Shea got... More >>

• You Can Check Out Any Time You Like

  published September 22, 2011

  There are plenty of places to watch artists work — open studios, artist colonies. But you can't watch them sleep. You can't exactly do that... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to See This Week, from Wallace Berman Films to Anti-Cute to a Show Inspired by a Bigelow Tea

  published Nov 30, 2011

  Most exhibitions on this week's list are the work of youngish artists, but not the one by Sue Williams, who's been around since the 1980s. It's her first solo show in this city since 2006 and worth s... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, From Battling Buddhas to a Dinner Party at MOCA

  published Nov 23, 2011

  If you have family in town for the holiday this weekend, try dashing over to Patrick Painter gallery in Santa Monica to a film of battling Buddhas or to Chinatown's The Company for an overly enthusia... More >>

• Occupy L.A. and the Art World

  published November 24, 2011

  On Nov. 11, artists Elana Mann and Juliana Snapper brought two big, flesh-colored papier-mâché ears and a handful of poster-board... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to See This Week, Including Avatar in a Single Pixel

  published Nov 17, 2011

  This week's selection feels refreshingly down-to-earth, even practical in its approach to both nitty-gritty issues, like holiday decor, and theoretical ones, like how to think about passing time. 5.... More >>

• Cellophane Cities

  published September 22, 2011

  Get close to William Daniels' small oil paintings at Marc Foxx Gallery and you'll see how layers of color have been scraped away, leaving buoyant,... More >>

• Picasso Meets Spielberg

  published September 22, 2011

  You should get up close to the sculptures at newly opened Ambach & Rice gallery. Then take them in from a distance. Grant Barnhart's unfired clay... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Chuck Close, Aaron Curry, Richard Hawkins and a Guide to Suburban Survival

  published Nov 09, 2011

  The November/December gallery scene looks like it might be pretty exciting this year, starting with a surprising collaboration and crowd-pleasing paintings in Culver City. 5. Surviving the O.C. Jam... More >>

• Glenn Ligon's 'America' at LACMA, With References to Malcolm X and Richard Pryor, is Too Big...in a Good Way

  published Nov 03, 2011

  When the Whitney Museum opened its Glenn Ligon retrospective, "America," in March, they put one of Bronx-born Ligon's signature neon pieces in their Madison Avenue window. The sign read "negro sunshi... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Sam Benjamin's 'Brief History of Porn' Lecture

  published Nov 02, 2011

  If you need a break from all the nostalgic historicizing saturating the art world these days, dash over to see an ingenious artist-made, open-air storefront on Alvarado. But don't stay gone too long,... More >>

• Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Jeffrey Vallance on Blinky, the Friendly Hen

  published Oct 26, 2011

  My agenda includes a couple risks -- eight hours of United Nations-style debating and a visit to a temporary hotel room. Then there are the sure bets -- a lecture by an inimitably clever oddball and ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Susan Mogul Spoofs Jason Schwartzman and Anthony Kiedis in her own Pacific Standard Time Campaign

  published Oct 26, 2011

  Anthony Kiedis and Ed Ruscha both like words. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' front man and now-iconic L.A. artist drive around L.A. discussing this shared affinity in a promo video for Pacific Standard ... More >>

• Julia Roberts on the Side of a Muffler Shop and Five Art Events to See This Week

  published Oct 19, 2011

  More exhibitions are closing right now than opening, as fall museum headliners have all launched and galleries are installing November shows. The best art to see this week feels transitory -- it's pa... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Six Pacific Standard Time Artworks Worth Seeing

  published Oct 06, 2011

  Pacific Standard Time, L.A.'s 60-museum retrospective on L.A. art 1945-1980, is mostly packaged in box sets, each museum or gallery exhibition the visual equivalent of a multi-part, themed concept a... More >>

• Is Pacific Standard Time Trying Too Hardr

  published Sep 29, 2011

  My first official night of Pacific Standard Time started at a reception at Otis Art Institute's main gallery, where intrepid actress Lily Tomlin, the same Lily who filled Altman's Nashville with wry... More >>

• Heather Cassils Gets Ripped for LACE Performance Art Show

  published September 29, 2011

  Heather Cassils built up 23 pounds of muscle in 23 weeks. She changed her diet weekly, ate four raw eggs and three kinds of meat a day, spent... More >>

• Eight Reasons Why L.A. Art Is the Way It Is

  published September 22, 2011

  Smart people move to L.A. and then just "play tennis and swim" all day, quipped New York art critic Joseph Mashek in 1971. He wasn't entirely... More >>

• Peter Voulkos, Can I Have Your Autograph?

  published September 22, 2011

  Fandom typically involves frivolous pursuits like Dodger dogs or Comic-Con nerdery, but for artists it's practically a necessity. Try to find... More >>

• Yoshua Okon at the Hammer Museum

  published September 1, 2011

  "It felt like a job," said Carlos El Pájaro when an interpreter and I met with him at the hot dog stand outside the... More >>