Michael Darling

Courtesy of Dan Bernier Gallery Even an avowed believer in the potential of contemporary painting like myself gets a little tired of defending the beleaguered medium. Luckily, though, the sheer abundance of good painting going on out there speaks more eloquently than any critic about the vitality of the current......

Courtesy of Dan Bernier GalleryEven an avowed believer in the potential of contemporary painting like myself gets a little tired of defending the beleaguered medium. Luckily, though, the sheer abundance of good painting going on out there speaks more eloquently than any critic about the vitality of the current scene......

(courtesy of L.A. Louver)David Hockney at L.A. Louver One of the most dazzling painting shows of recent memory reminds us that as far as contemporary painting goes, Hockney is able to orbit in the same stratosphere as Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke. Ed Ruscha at Gagosian Plagued as we are......

Courtesy Gagosian GalleryYou know it's a good gallery season when the two most important artists in L.A. -- David Hockney and Ed Ruscha, neither of whom has had a substantial show here in years -- reassert themselves with drop-dead exhibitions. Hockney's show of recent paintings at L.A. Louver in September......

Contracted from architectural and telegram, Archigram is a word that came to stand for a radical, whimsical approach to urban and domestic design in the 1960s, chiefly through the work of six British architects and their eponymous leaflet. This publication brought Peter Cook, Michael Webb, Dennis Crompton, Warren Chalk, Ron......

The use of sweeping pronouncements and praiseful superlatives will most often land critics in the dog pound of disdain, for it's axiomatic that a positive review will make one artist happy and fill thousands with scorn. In the case of Tim Hawkinson, however, it is hard to resist the idea......