Shana Nys Dambrot
Art from rescued materials, art on video billboards, a circus-infused Stravinsky, an acne-riddled Shakespeare; art about rainbows, spectrums, biotech and outer space; history-making video and assemblage artists, a zoom play for Groundhog Day, and more.
Thursday, February 3
Diverted Destruction #14 at Cal State LA. Co-curated by Liz Gordon and Mika Cho, this annual exhibition series highlights art made of discarded objects to address global environmentalism and sustainability. The show features eight SoCal artists (Michael Arata, Chelle Barbour, Kate Carvellas, Aaron Kramer, Dave Lovejoy, Vojislav Radovanovic, Anna Stump, and Monica Wyatt) as well as Cal State LA art students who will work in collaboration with them, both in their studios and on site at the gallery — as the artists, students and curators collect refuse and other found materials to produce art in live collage and assemblage sessions. 5151 State University Dr., Los Angeles; Artists reception: Thursday, February 3, 7-9pm; Workshop: Sunday, February 6, 2-5pm; On view through February 26; free; ronaldhsilvermangallery.com.
Teenage Dick at Pasadena Playhouse
Teenage Dick at Pasadena Playhouse (Virtual). A raucous take on Richard III, Shakespeare’s classic tale of power lust, Teenage Dick reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16 year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Bullied for his cerebral palsy, Richard plots his revenge—as well as his glorious path to senior class presidency. Performances February 3 – 27; $25-$55; pasadenaplayhouse.org.
Circa: Sacre (Photo by Pedro Greig)
Friday, February 4
Circa: Sacre at the Broad Stage. In the first circus setting of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, critically acclaimed contemporary circus company Circa weaves together powerful world-class acrobatics and dynamic encounters suffused with dark humor and tenderness. Featuring new composition by Philippe Bachman alongside Rite of Spring, and under the direction of circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz, the Circa ensemble puts bodies on the line in electrifying explosions of physicality and power. 1310 11th St., Santa Monica; Friday – Saturday, February 4 – 5, 7:30pm; $45-$65; thebroadstage.org.
Chinese New Year Festival at the Huntington
Saturday, February 5
Chinese New Year Festival at the Huntington (Outdoor). Celebrate the lunar new year and welcome the Year of the Tiger at The Huntington. Enjoy lion dancers, mask-changing artistry, martial arts demonstrations, Chinese music, art and craft demonstrations, and more. The festivities will take place in and around the recently renovated and expanded Chinese Garden and other performance spaces. 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino; Saturday – Sunday, February 5 – 6, 10am-5pm; advance, timed tickets required, $13-$29; huntington.org.
Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Olafur Eliasson: Your light spectrum and presence at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Twelve circular paintings, created between 2012 and 2021, represent Eliasson’s long-standing investigation of light, color and the ways we perceive and interact with our surroundings. Known collectively as the ‘color experiment’ series, these circular canvases challenge our expectations and keep our eyes in constant motion. Several paintings feature the bright spectrum of a rainbow, a recurring motif throughout Eliasson’s practice. 1010 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood; February 5 – April 2; free; tanyabonakdargallery.com.
Julian Stanczak at Diane Rosenstein Gallery
Julian Stanczak: The Light Inside at Diane Rosenstein Gallery. Exploring the artist’s intuitive use of color and geometric abstraction to create a sense of radiant light, this historic series of paintings resonates with the themes of the California Light And Space movement. According to the late artist, his minimal compositions are emotional landscapes that express his desire to transcend the surface containment of the painting as object and connect with the viewer through perception. 831 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood; Opening: Saturday, February 5, 2-6pm; Talk by art critic and journalist Hunter Drohojowska-Philp: Wednesday, February 16; On view through April 2; free; dianerosenstein.com.
Lothar Schmitz at CMay Gallery
Lothar Schmitz: Artificia, and Ephraim Puusemp: Nebulous at CMay Gallery. Drawing on his training as a scientist, Schmitz has created a complex new work in which he amalgamates the natural and the artificial, commenting on the rapidly changing relationship and interdependence of nature and culture in a multimedia installation evoking a contrived laboratory setting as part of an ongoing investigation of how natural phenomena intersect with media and technology.
Ephraim Puusemp at CMay Gallery
Puusemp produces images created through a complex process of translation that starts with the Hubble Space Telescope, goes into drawings made with thousands of black dots, and ends with these being photographed and used as negatives to print large scale photographs. While these images present convincing representations of galaxies and nebulae, they are entirely man made. 5828 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; Opening reception: Saturday, February 5, 3-6pm; On view through March 26; free; cmaygallery.com.
Ulysses Jenkins: Two Zone Transfer, 1979. Still of video transferred to DVD, color, sound. 23:52 min. (Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix)
Sunday, February 6
Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation at the Hammer Museum. A pivotal influence on contemporary art for over 50 years, Jenkins is a groundbreaking video artist whose video and media work is remarkable for its fusion of forms to conjure vibrant expressions of how image, sound, and cultural iconography inform representation. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and elegiac soundtracks, Jenkins pulls together strands of thought to construct an “other” history that consistently interrogates questions of race and gender as they relate to ritual, history, and state power. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; on view February 6 – May 15; free; hammer.ucla.edu.
Dale Brockman Davis at Matter Studio
Dale Brockman Davis at Matter Studio. Davis’ current body of sculptures finds new perspectives and inspiration in his use of repurposed, found, familiar objects. As an artist, educator, and co-founder of Leimert Park’s legendary Brockman Gallery, Davis challenges the viewer to look deeper at the familiar, to take notice, and to create new relationships and unexpected connections with his unpredictable use of his materials. His open-mindedness, passion and curious mind have explored disciplines from sculpture to printmaking, jewelry-making, 3-dimensional design and ceramics. 5080 W. Pico Blvd; Mid-City; Opening reception: Sunday, February 6, 4-7pm; On view through March 20; free; matterstudiogallery.com.
It’s 3:07 Again at Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Ongoing
It’s 3:07 Again at Monica Bill Barnes & Company (Virtual). With the recent wave of cancellations, postponements, and the general feeling that it might be better to stay at home, Monica Bill Barnes & Company is re-releasing their virtual choose-your-own-adventure show to keep you company—commissioned by Arts Brookfield around this time last year and coming back on Groundhog Day. A dozen personal moments unfold as audiences jump into a time loop, choosing their own paths through heartfelt, hilarious glimpses into the everyday lives of strangers in a public space. Streaming on demand through February 11; free; monicabillbarnes.com.
Rene Ricard at The Little House
Rene Ricard: Nightcrawlers at The Little House. Dries Van Noten and Half Gallery present nine works in the first posthumous show of Rene Ricard in Los Angeles since his passing six years ago. Nightcrawlers, the show’s namesake and highlight work, was made in 1989 and has not been seen publicly since its debut in 1990. Doomed escapism, tragic romance, wit in the face of absurdity—the show hopes to underline Ricard’s often overlooked position between art and film. 451 N. La Cienega Blvd.,WeHo; On view through February 12; free; driesvannoten-la.com.
Cauleen Smith in Arts on Sunset (Photo: Nick Jaicomo/Orange Barrel Media)
Arts on Sunset at the Sunset Spectacular (Outdoor). An ongoing public initiative organized by Orange Barrel Media that commissions and displays video art, animation, and photography with an emphasis on collaborations with L.A.-based cultural organizations and artists. Curated by Diana Nawi, currently on view is a series of artworks by Cauleen Smith (through March 31), Catherine Opie (through February 28) and Pipilotti Rist (through June 6). Specially created for the Sunset Spectacular, Smith’s new video-based works feature animated banners combining powerful, poetic text and images that reflect on critical sociopolitical issues.
Pipilotti Rist in Arts on Sunset (Photo: Nick Jaicomo/Orange Barrel Media)
For Opie’s project, the artist revisited her photographic series of surfers from the early 2000s to turn these iconic works into a new site-specific moving image project. In Open My Glade (Flatten), a figure portrayed by Rist presses her face into grotesque contortions against a pane of glass, as if pushing against the screen of the monitor. Additional videos are derived from Rist’s newest works, referred to by the artist as the Neighbors series that recently debuted at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. These new works emphasize the surfaces of rusted metal, overgrown weeds, and especially aged skin. 8775 Sunset Blvd., WeHo; 10-minute loop every hour; free; orangebarrelmedia.com.
Catherine Opie in Arts on Sunset (Photo: Nick Jaicomo/Orange Barrel Media)
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