Shana Nys Dambrot

Ed Ruscha

L.A. Plays Itself: Hometown Artists at Gemini G.E.L.

Shana Nys Dambrot
For Frieze Week a preponderance of L.A. galleries are bringing extra panache to their own programs in anticipation of the international influx of art lovers. Among the most L.A.-forward, count “Local: Gemini G.E.L. Collaborations With Los Angeles Artists,” opening on Feb. 11, and anchoring an open house studio event on Feb. 16....
Alejandro Cartagena; Credit: Courtesy of Kopeikin Gallery

Alejandro Cartagena Is Out of the Picture in “Presence”

Shana Nys Dambrot
As with memory and history, sometimes with a photograph it’s all about what isn’t there — or, in this case, who. In Alejandro Cartagena’s new exhibition at Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City, the artist takes a conceptual approach to the modification of vintage and vernacular photographs that sees the main subjects painstakingly excised....
Credit: Otis College

Otis' Report on the Creative Economy States the Obvious (in a Good Way)

Shana Nys Dambrot
On Friday morning, Otis College released its findings for the 2019 Otis Report on the Creative Economy, and, as L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas put it at Friday morning’s official presentation releasing the report, it “illustrates and quantifies what we’ve known to be instinctively true.” Namely, that the arts are more than just essential to our society — they are essential to our economy as well....
Leonard Greco; Credit: Stephen Levey

Meet an Artist Monday: Leonard Greco

Shana Nys Dambrot
Meet an Artist is an ongoing series of Q&As with a diverse selection of eclectic and dynamic contemporary artists. This week it’s Leonard Greco, a painter and sculptor who channels a neo-baroque aesthetic in his epic mythological scenes and operatic characters, deploying art history in the service of analyzing experiences of life, sexuality and the visceral, thorny politics of our society....
Alfonso Cuarón (director) and Carlos Somonte (photographer)

Photo L.A.'s Snapshot of the Art Form

Shana Nys Dambrot
Some 70 exhibitors will occupy Barker Hangar this weekend — not only commercial galleries, but also independent artists, collectives, nonprofits, schools, artisanal presses, publishers and booksellers — bringing works from the medium’s 19th century origins to its cutting edge in the 21st, from digital to analog, paper to video, and books to sculptural objects....