German artist Joseph Beuys used to do “actions,” his word for “performances.” His most famous was I Like America and America Likes Me in 1974, in which he wrapped himself in felt and spent a few days in an New York gallery with a live coyote. A few years earlier, in 1969 in Frankfurt, Beuys performed Iphigenie auf Tauris, reciting text from Goethe's play Iphigenia, about the woman who sacrificed herself so Greece could take Troy. A white horse stood behind Beuys on metal sheets attached to a microphone, so every time the horse scratched or clunked, the sound was amplified. L.A. photographer Michael Montfort was there, and his images of Beuys, looking gaunt and shamanistic in his signature felt fedora, hang in the basement of Coagula Art Journal's new Chinatown space. 977 Chung King Road, Chinatown; through June 3. 88gallery@gmail.com, coagulacuratorial.com.

Wednesdays-Saturdays. Starts: April 21. Continues through June 3, 2012

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