Blum and Poe
Lee Ufan
January 16 – February 20, 2010
A single gray brushstroke, or something like it, reiterated. Minimalist painter Ufan is likely one of the most famous artists Korea has ever produced; the gallery angles to rewrite art history, casting him as a sterling local master of the international movement.
Drew Heitzler
“for Sailors, Mermaids, Mystics. For Kustomizers, Grinders, Fender-men. for Fools, Addicts, Woodworkers and Hustlers. (Doubled)”
December 10, 2009 – January 9, 2010
Dubious evidence piles up; wild conjectures, endlessly repeated, take on the guise of fact; coincidences feed a metastasizing plot. Some obvious poetry of LA in Heitzler’s oily conspiracies, a palmtree’d wonderland with all the blackness beneath the surface, finish-fetish car and cycle culture fed on dirty subterranean ooze.
15th Anniversary Inaugural Exhibition
10/3/09 – 11/14/09
A trophy room of the big game artists who have funded what is probably the largest commercial gallery space west of the Mississippi.
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Rodney McMillian
“Succulent”
January 23 – March 6, 2010
The normally politically-kneecapped McMillian (distasteful memories of cardboard coffins from his last outing plague this exhibition) searches for strangeness within and comes out with enormous, black pleather assholes stitched like gimp suits, and a scattered mob of potted green succulents.
Honor Fraser
Gustavo Godoy
“Fast-formal Object: Big White”
January 16 – February 20, 2010
It’s big. It’s white. It’s formal. It’s an object. The title says everything you need to know about the work. Its possibilities for post-industrial playgrounds save it from a quiet death by superficiality.
Kenny Scharf
“Barberadise”
September 12 – November 31, 2009
This cartoonish dreck looked great to me when I was cartoon age. A father now, I might still watch the cartoons with nostalgic joy, but Scharf’s remasterings barely qualify as grade-school pop art.
LAXART
Samon Takahashi
“Atmospheric Distortions”
November 21, 2009 – January 16, 2010
A collection of found objects subtly mixed, unfortunately anodyne, and difficult to recall moments afterward.
Gustavo Artigas
“Vote for Demolition”
September 12 – October 31, 2009
Gustavo Artigas likes games that take on the social dimensions of the various cities he works within. Here, he gives you the option to choose which landmark LA building you’d like to have demolished. I chose the Pacific Design Center, a garish blue glass spaceship I wish would finally takeoff.
William Leavitt
“Warp Engines”
September 12 – October 31, 2009
Next to Leavitt’s classically sinister theater sets stands a glass model for a molecule. In the background, a faintly ominous soundtrack softly plays. No clues are given.
Cherry and Martin
Brian Bress
“The Royal Box”
September 12 – October 24, 2009
Though Bress doesn’t vivisect mythologies in quite the same fucked up ways as Paul McCarthy, a similarly vibrant and disturbing spirit is at work in his diabolically bewildering videos. The difference may be this: Bress’s suckled his childhood from Jim Henson instead of Uncle Walt.
David Kordanksy Gallery
Rashid Johnson
“Other Aspects”
October 30, 2009 – January 16, 2010
There was something subtle about the collections of records and other psychospiritual radio objects mounted in black wall cases that formed the heart of the exhibition; there was nothing at all subtle, however, about the hot, naked girl with the space rock in Huey Newton’s chair that greeted you as you came in.
Elad Lassry
September 12, 2009 – October 24, 2009
Lassry’s bright pics resemble Christopher Williams’s forays into the critical appropriation of commerical photography—but the narratives here are entirely more cryptic. Sometimes found, but lately often composed, they look like bonbon fetish objects for intellectuals; the colors in the photos coordinate with the frame, like the curtains with the drapes.
Mihai Nicodim Gallery
Adrian Ghenie
January 23 March 6, 2010
Likely one of the best painters of his generation, Ghenie’s gray-streaked, dourly Romanian works were hated by all the dilletante painting students malingering at the opening (who preferred the dumbly bright work of local Monique Prieto to these grim Eastern promises.)
Marc Foxx
Guido van der Werve
“Nummer twaalf”
October 24 – November 28, 2009
The impossible gestures of van der Werve’s early work were delighted tricks played against overwhelming forces; this show’s more like a chess match, played with mathematical deliberation but without much joy.