I’ve been reading Giant Robot since the first issue, back when it was a black and white, photocopied zine. They’ve come a long, long way, baby. The GR boys now operate their own little media empire. I know that their shows have gotten some criticism, since their magazine does these softball interviews with their artists, but they’ve shown some really great artists in their lineup since they started devoting wall space in their GR2 store in LA to original art, and the art is what matters in the end.
No one I’ve spoken to has explained the “biennale” aspect of the show to me. To my knowledge, this is the first one, and none of the press materials say anything about future events. But hey, LA is short on biennale action, so seeing anyone jump in that pool in this town is a breath of fresh air.
The opening for this show was a madhouse. The gallery was really difficult to see anything in, so I didn’t shoot much. I’ve never seen a higher camera-to-visitor ratio in action, though. About 50% of the crowd was packing a camera of one kind or another, and the docents either couldn’t or didn’t do anything to stop flash photography. This is the future of openings, folks. I guess it works, since there’s not really enough time to see anything until you get home and view it on the computer. I’ve got a set of images from this opening, and I’ll probably shoot some more on Saturday when I make a return to the JANM before seeing the Murakami show again.
Participating artists include APAK, Gary Baseman, David Choe, Seonna Hong, Sashie Masakatsu, Saelee Oh, Pryor Praczukowski, Souther Salazar, Eishi Takaoka and Adrian Tomine. GR has it’s own coverage of the opening, too, via Eric Nakamura’s blog, where Eric gives major props to Clement Hanami, the Art Director at JANM, whom I met as one of my co-Discussion Leaders in the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program this summer. Everywhere Clement goes, people smile. Also, here’s a link to the full Flickr set of my images from the opening.
Above – David Choe’s wall piece for the show – David Choe is my favourite graffiti artist, and the primary reason that I was willing to brave what I knew was going to be a packed opening, where it would be hard to see anything. He has can control and a hand like no other writer, and a seemingly nihilistic and mistanthropic worldview that really resonates with me. This piece is chock full of chaotic, nice touches, like the Snoopy hovering overhead to the unicorn on the right. There’s really something about Choe’s work that I can’t get enough of. If you’re in LA, you’ve gotta go see it – this is the best that graffiti has to offer. Here’s a partial view of the piece with less crowd.
Above – Shuriken detail – The Choe wall piece also has this strange detail. He’s thrown a few dozen shurkien into the piece. I can’t really interpret that in any way other than as a throwaway (literally, I guess, no pun intended) gesture of stereotypical “orientalism.” The presence of these sharp objects did merit the construction of a barrier with a series of hugely printed warnings about sharp objects. I hate warnings or disclaimers of any sort in a gallery, and I don’t use them in mine – I’d rather not show the work than show it accompanied by some kind of excuse as to its content. Does this piece really need a warning? Aren’t people able to tell the difference between dangerous sharp objects and non-sharp objects without killing themselves these days? I know liability is the issue here, but can’t we go back to a more survival of the fittest model of society?
Above – Salee Oh – Sorry about the crookedness of this shot, but I couldn’t get the whole piece in frame any other way. Just tilt your head and get over it if it bothers you. Oh does beautiful things with cut paper. I much prefer her cut paper works to her works that mix painting or drawing with cut paper, but that’s just me and my devotion to monochrome. Again, really beautiful craft at work here.
Above – Sashie Masakatsu – Masakatsu’s work is amazing. It’s tight and beautiful and it was so damn hard to photograph. This was the only one of his pieces that I was able to shoot that came out well, and I’m not even that happy with this shot, as it doesn’t do justice to his work. He uses a fairly dry and flat colour palette, and despite the almost cutsey-ness of these pieces, they’re darkly revealing presentations of the current reality and limits of contemporary life for much of the 1st world, they remind me of the truth of America that I’ve been seeing on my road trips over the past several years – that a homogeneization is occurring that is unprecedented in human history.
Technorati Tags: Giant Robot, art, David Choe, Saelee Oh, Sashi Masakatsu, JANM, Japanese American National Museum, art, art opening, art exhibition, biennale