This week marks the start of the season for galleries in Los Angeles. There are innumerable shows opening this and next week. I don’t normally want to use this space as an “exhibition listing” but I wanted to pimp some really great projects that some of my various friends and associates have going on this weekend. It’s been blazingly hot here in Los Angeles all week - I’m praying for some kind of freak rainstorm or cold front to come and return us to Mediterranean comfort before we all have to pile into tiny, hot rooms to look at art and swill bad wine.
Wednesday, September 5

Chris Hoff, who runs the excellent space, The Office, and who writes the invaluable OC Art Blog, has curated a show Who Killed Bambi? that opens this Wednesday at Cypress College. The opening is from 7-9 PM and the show features Diana Markessinis, Liz Young, Mindy Cherri, Carrie Yury and Sarah FitzSimons. The show runs until the 27th of September and here’s a handy link to directions. Here’s a link to the show’s Artscene announcement, which has the full press release and the gallery’s address.
Thursday, September 6
THE GREAT PICTURE. We showed Ghosts of El Toro, work by the six artists of The Legacy Photo Project, in 2005, at Angels Gate. This show was a bonus, because I finally got to work with Douglas McCulloh, an amazingly talented photographer who’s gifted with a smart eye for interpreting subject matter, and an ability to find just the right way to execute work documenting a difficult subject.
Less than a year after meeting and working with this really talented team of artists, they executed a major coup - tuning an airplane hanger at the decommissioned El Toro Marine Air Station into a giant camera obscura, for the purpose of making the world’s largest photograph. My schedule didn’t allow me to be one of the volunteers who assisted in the process, something which I’ll always regard as a serious personal disappointment, but seeing their work be so successful brought has brought me great joy.
For the first time ever, the piece will be on display in the South Campus Wind Tunnel at Art Center College of Design, starting Thursday, September 6. The opening is from 6-9 PM, and it runs through the 29th of September, so it’s not there for long. There will also be an artists’ lecture on September 20, from 7-9 PM. The Wind Tunnel is located at 950. S Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, CA. Great use of the Wind Tunnel - that space has all kinds of potential that have yet to be realized.
Friday, September 7

My co-worker and Contemplating Apocalypse artist, Meeson Pae Yang, has a solo show, Propagation, opening at Gallery 825. Meeson’s installations and sculptures are built with an amazing sense of craftsmanship and she is the queen of the sculptural wonderland that is the McMaster-Carr catalog. The reception is from 6 - 9 pm, and the show closes October 5.

William Pope L., Art after White People: Time Trees, & Celluloid at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
I recently saw the William Pope L. show at the Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts in San Francisco, and the most exciting part was watching a
woman sleep in a comfy chair in the darkened space. I may just have a
bit of a thing for seeing people fall asleep in galleries, though. I
can’t decide if I love his work, or if it’s devoid of anything I care
about, but I’m going to go see this show, just because I was so
impressed with SMMOA’s last show, and I have a certain amount of faith
in their curatorial abilities. The reception is from 7-9 PM and the show runs until December 23.
Saturday, September 8
John O’Brien at MorYork Gallery. MorYork is a totally new space to me, and John O’Brien is one of those people who keeps me in this crazy business. I’ve worked with him twice in the past decade, and both times I’m blown away by his abilities as a curator and as a gallery director. I’ve encountered his artwork sporadically, mostly in group shows - and it is made with the same brilliant attention to detail and form that he brings to everything else he does. I’m really interested in seeing his work in a solo environment, so I guess this is my chance, and yours, too.
The show, MorYork: (dis)place, two, is a reprise of DIS-PLACE IN TIME, an installation John did in 2005 in Seattle, Washington. The reception is from 7-10 PM and the Gallery is at 4959 York Blvd - at York and Ave. 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042. The show runs until October 6, and is open by appointment only after the reception. Call 323-376-4428. Also, this Saturday is NELA (North East Los Angeles) Art Night, so there’s more openings at galleries in the area.

Pipo Nguyen-duy, East of Eden, at Sam Lee. Sam Lee is a newer space in Chinatown, and I hope it finds success in the long run. I attended the opening for their last show, Nexus, and I was really impressed with the quality of work in the room. For a tiny room, the work was really well displayed, and it was somehow possible to see everything, despite the crowd. I don’t know Pipo Nguyen-duy’s work, but the image on the postcard is jaw dropping, everyone coming through my office keeps trying to make off with it, but I won’t let them. The opening is from 7-10 PM and the show runs until October 20.

Tom Sachs, Space Program, at Gagosian Gallery. Tom violates the friends and lovers theme of this post, but I’ve become an increasingly big fan of his work, so who cares? This show apparently involves the display of a huge replica of a lunar module. How can I not recommend that you go and see it? Apparently it contains a “full stocked booze cabinet.” I have a feeling that this exhibition is going to go over really well in LA. The opening is from 6-8 PM.
Sunday, September 9

GLAMFA - Greater Los Angeles Masters of Fine Art Exhibition. I’ve managed to work with quite a few folks participating in this show recently, so I’m pimping it, and specifically the boys and girls at CSULB. CSULB is home to the “largest art department west of the Mississippi” which could be a meaningless statement, if their faculty and students weren’t so damn good. This exhibition is put together by CSULB students, so hopefully they’ve turned their bullshit detectors to eleven, filtered out the crap, and are going to prove that MFA programs are capable of producing professional artists (I didn’t sound too cynical about the current state of MFA programs, did I?).
Putting this thing together has been a huge endeavor for the CSULB students, and a great chance to cut their teeth on the organizational side of things. I’m super proud of all of them, and I hope that this exhibition brings their program some much deserved kudos and attention.
Anyways, it’s also the same day as the CSULB Open Studios, so there’s probably no better chance this year to pick up a young, vulnerable artist for your soon-to-be-badly-run “gallery.” The opening is from 4-9 PM, with performances at 4 PM and a film screening at 7 PM. The show runs until September 20 - a quick run, catch it before it’s gone.
Technorati Tags: art, art galleries, art openings, exhibitions, art exhibitions, Meeson Pae Yang, GLAMFA, William Pope L., Chris Hoff, Tom Sachs, Santa Monica Museum of Art, John O’Brien, Sam Lee