Shana Nys Dambrot
This weekend’s arts and culture selection includes at-home options across visual art, dance, creative lessons, a massive print sale, and a virtual history tour. And as a special treat, we have not one, but two actual IRL art experiences which are explicitly designed to be viewed in person — and in strict observation of public health best practices — from outside (masks on!), or even from your car.
Thursday, May 14
No Pants Required, an online exhibition by Gabba Gallery, opens as of 10 a.m. Thursday morning. And why not start your day with some art-based comedy — or is that comedy-based art? Well either way, curators Jason Ostro and Elena Jacobson figured we could all use a good laugh. All pieces are priced at $500 or less, which also makes it an easy way to support the artists who work hard every day to make life better, and in this case, funnier. Opening night: Thursday, May 14, 10 a.m.. gabbagallery.com/no-pants-required.
Screaming Shapes – Experimental Short, Sophia Stoller [6:06] U.S.
Molly Larkey at Jacob’s West
The group exhibition poem from home opens at Jacob’s West not in its storied North Long Beach garden, but rather in an online only project curated by Rema Ghuloum. Some fantastic contemporary artists, including Nick Aguayo, Joshua Aster, Tomory Dodge, Amir H. Fallah, Iva Gueorguieva, Molly Larkey, Nick Lowe, Jacob Melchi, Sandeep Mukherjee, and Suné Woods, each contribute works expressive of what Ghuloum sees as the “longing for intimacy,” and the effects of thwarting the human desire “to touch, to embrace, to connect, to converse with a friend in person,” through works from the abstract to the fantastical, narrative, surreal and utterly mysterious. Thursday, May 14. jacobsla.com.
Friday, May 15
Sheinina Lolita Raj teaches a live art class for kids and adults of all skill levels, including and especially those in need of a creative outlet for processing all of this. I recently heard from the artist that her lockdown experience has made her even more aware of what artists can offer, to help bring sense to senselessness. One manifestation of this has been her work with the LAUSD, and she will be teaching a live Art Education Lesson on Saturday, May 15, 4:30-5:30 p.m. via Facebook, the first in what will become Raj’s new virtual art classroom. interculturalworldwidelearning.com/virtual-classroom.
Carlos Almaraz, Night Theatre, 2010 at Modern Multiples
Legendary print studio Modern Multiples is having a massive inventory sale starting today. Founded by the late RIchard Duardo and currently run by his favorite nephew, Montana Mills, Modern Multiples has literally worked with the most eclectic range of renowned Los Angeles artists you can imagine over the decades — from Carlos Almaraz to Sonia Romero, Shepard Fairey, Gajin Fujita, Camille Rose Garcia, SABER, Becca, and dozens more. While the sale technically runs through May 31, honestly there’s no good reason to wait, aficionados will be all over this and availability of the limited edition works are, by definition, limited. Saturday, May 15 – Sunday, May 31. instagram.com/p/CAGY2iFl2Hq.
TZ Projects
TZ Projects hosts the first of your IRL treats, with the exhibition Going Home: a picture show. It is not, we repeat not, virtual. A new non-profit art space in the big, bright corner space on Beverly and Crescent Heights, TZ Projects is all about displaying powerful new art that speaks to the times. The show consists of projected video installations in the windows, and as such is viewable after dusk. In these times of #StayHome, the wide-ranging group show addresses the very notion of home itself. Is it a dream, a memory, a sort of prison, an elusive fantasy, something lost, something to escape from, or perhaps not even a place at all? Additional videos will play from Karen Finley’s new Covid series of mixed media drawings alongside a video from Keith Mayerson’s USC Roski Capstone show. A Spotify playlist by Queen Kwong titled TZ Projects, Going Home is available to listen to while watching the show, or anytime really. Friday, May 15 – Wednesday, May 20, 6pm-midnight. 8070 Beverly Blvd. tzprojects.org.
Saturday, May 16
And for your second IRL adventure, Durden & Ray is ready with We Are Here/Here We Are — a Google Maps-based self-guided tour of outdoor/street view site-specific sculptures opening at about 100 locations across the county, from DTLA to Long Beach, the Valley to Venice. “As its organizers note, “As the streets remain empty, the restaurants and coffee shops remain closed, and the houses of social engagement remain shuttered, we are rediscovering “real life” through our homes, our neighborhoods and ourselves.”
Mark Steven Greenfield
So what better place(s) than those very locations — at or nearby the artists’ own homes and local landmarks — for a group exhibition. Installed in “unorthodox alternatives to a traditional gallery setting,” to say the least, the artists use “interventions in alleyways, yards, trees, bushes, on rocks, fences, telephone poles, and other publicly accessible areas.” Plus in a case like this the journey is quite certainly the destination, as the art punctuates a choose-your-own adventure out in the world that misses you as much as you miss it. It officially goes on view as of noon on Saturday and will remain installed through June 20, barring the inevitable interventions of weather, vandals, and thieves. Saturday, May 16 – June 20. durdenandray.com/the-exhibition-project.
Sunday, May 17
Cartwheel Art Tours crafts a free, Zoom-based edition of their very popular tour, L.A. Underground with Hadley Meares. Cartwheel Art is known for its colorful in-person guided tours in the Arts District, but since those are on pause for the time being, Meares will be checking in with audiences, sharing her personal favorite tales from the noir archives, and taking your questions. Sunday, May 17, 3pm, free. facebook.com.
Artist Camille Rose Garcia is back with her educational and engaging live sessions, Doom Lagooned, an hour long IGTV live-stream from her Pacific Northwest cabin-in-the-woods studio with art and inking lessons, book picks, dance breaks, and possibly cocktails. No, there will definitely be cocktails. Sunday, May 17, 5pm, free. instagram.com/crgstudios.
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