Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Henry Taylor | Opening WPA


Henry Taylor | Couch Paintings
September 30 - October 23
Opening Reception | Thursday September 30th 7-10pm.

WPA is proud to present a new exhibition from Henry Taylor,
Couch Paintings.

Gallery hours:
Open 12-6pm, Thursday - Saturday or by appointment.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Andrea Bowers | Review



Christopher Knight has reviewed Andrea's current Show.
Click to view it here.
Also you can view the video on her artist page here on the site.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

New Artist Video | Andrew Hahn


Guide-LA is pleased to announce a new Artist Video by Andrew Hahn. This Super 8 film documents the recent performance at WPA Gallery of "Introducing Achilla".


Achillia - Sarah Tadayon
Countess - Terri Phillips
Militant Girls - Nicole Wang and Aiko Hachisuka
camera - Andrew Hahn and Dennis Hollingsworth
editor - Fil Rüting

Friday, April 30, 2010

Human Resources | Opening

New Neighbours to WPA and François Ghebaly Gallery - Human Resources are having an opening event for May Day.
Featuring music by:
My Barbarian, Mad Gregs, Wounded Lion, Corey Fogel, Lucy Indiana Dodd, Dawn Kasper, Sharon Hayes, W.A.G.E (Working Artists and the Greater Economy)
DJ’ing by Anh Do and Ian Marshall

Los Angeles, California, April 17, 2010 - On May 1, 2010, Human Resources opens its doors to the world with its inaugural May Day event. Located in the vibrant arts district of Chinatown, Los Angeles, Human Resources was founded by a collective of creative individuals who collaborate to curate exhibits focused on the experimental performative arts. To this end, Human Resources’ May Day event will showcase performances from musical artists, Mad Gregs and Wounded Lion; performance collective My Barbarian; performance artists, Lucy Indiana Dodd, Corey Fogel and Dawn Kasper; and video presentations from Sharon Hayes and W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy). Drawing upon the celebratory and labor-oriented cultural themes of May Day, Human Resources’ May Day event promotes a festive atmosphere with a labor rights consciousness. The event will begin with video presentations at 7pm. The live music and performance art program begins at 9pm. Admission is free.

May Day at Human Resources will converge cutting edge, internationally recognized artists from multiple disciplines. The evening begins with video presentations from New York-based W.A.G.E., an advocacy group that challenges the current economics of the art world from an artist-as-worker perspective, and Sharon Hayes, who utilizes video, performance, and installation to investigate the relations of history, politics and speech to the process of individual and collective subject formation. A special convocation of the new gallery space will be held by My Barbarian, a musical performance trio that explores cross-cultural misadventures in mythology and popular culture. Dawn Kasper continues the program with her investigation of existing and created emotional structure through performance art. Lucy Indiana Dodd uses colorful tapestries, found materials and drawing to structure poetic force of nature performance actions. Musical quartet Mad Gregs follows with their unique blend of vocal and instrumental harmonies. Musician and performance artist, Corey Fogel, then engages the audience with a solo performance incorporating musical improvisation and unpredictable encounters with materials and instruments. The post-garage music of Wounded Lion which has recorded with In the Red, SS Records and Gilongo, closes the performance program. DJ’ing by Anh Do and Ian Marshall will be interspersed throughout the evening.

According to co-founder and directing member, Eric Kim, “Our grand opening May Day celebration reflects our commitment to exhibiting diverse performative arts. We aim to increase public accessibility and awareness of the artistic value of these non-traditional art forms by supporting the work of performative artists in a traditional art gallery setting.” Directing member and performance artist Dawn Kasper adds “We are enthusiastic about the creative potential of this space both for the artists and the audience. By highlighting performative art, Human Resources fills an important niche in the Los Angeles art community. Live performance also engages the viewer in uniquely important ways, instigating an immediate and visceral response.”

Recognizing the relative absence of art spaces devoted to performance, Human Resources departs from the traditional visual art gallery, to support the expression of art performers by providing them with a gallery venue as well as video and sound archiving of performances that take place there. Human Resources is entirely volunteer run and seeks to foster widespread public appreciation of the performative arts by encouraging maximum community access. Human Resources also serves as a point of convergence for diverse and disparate art communities to engage in conversation and idea-sharing promoting the sustainability of non-traditional art forms.

Human Resources
510 Bernard Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Web: humanresourcesla.com
Email: hmnrsrcs.la@gmail.com
Contacts: Eric Kim (213) 453-0539; Kathleen Kim (415) 269-3676

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Andrew Hahn | Opening


Andrew Hahn | Paintings for Achillia

February 20 - March 21
Opening Reception, February 20, 7-10pm

WPA is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and prints by Andrew Hahn. “Paintings for Achillia” features three oil paintings that continue Hahn’s investigation of the female portrait, but here his ghostly cinematic and disembodied faces achieve a grand scale, and the figurative fragmentation of bound feet shows up in two of the paintings. For Hahn, these works are like film stills from a surrealist movie about a female Achilles, a perversion of the Greek myth, that has yet to be made. The paintings’ surface remains relatively flat, though complex with Hahn’s layering techniques of both scraping wet and sanding dry paint, creating filters and blurred lines, and the occasional element of spraypaint, all making the canvases, and the fleshy subject matter, appear attacked.
Like in his earlier series of 50 photorealistic watercolors of crime scenes or his feature-length bio-pic on the Unabomber, these new paintings are about the procedural, assembling clues in a documentary fantasy, privileging fiction over fact. The depths of literature as well as the movement of projected film can be allegorized as a motive for Hahn’s mechanics of painting, wherein he has set up his own classical story of fear and seduction, paranoia and vulnerability.
Also on display is his varicolored collection of ‘Unfinished Girl’ monotypes. In the context of this installation, the artist has referred to these quickly painted and transferred portraits as “a casting call for various Achillias.” The chance blurring and smearing created in the printing process does much of the work in creating the psychological story of his subjects. These prints are installed in the office alongside the same lithographic press from which they were pulled.

Andrew Hahn lives and works in Los Angeles.

Gallery open 12-6pm, Thursday - Sunday or by appointment.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

New Artist Video | John Tottenham


Guide-LA.com is please to announce a new artist video of John Tottenham's performance at Pharmacy Presents: Thursday January 28th at the Mountain Bar in Los Angeles, Chinatown.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Conversation | Adam Janes Studio Visit

New Conversation | Watch Online Now!
Dennis Hollingsworth visits Adam Janes in his Chinatown studio to catch up on his recent show in Paris and discuss Adam's ongoing sculptural practice. In this interview the artists themselves operate 4 small digital cameras, while talking to each other.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Conversation | Michael and Miwon



New Conversation | Watch online now!
Michael Minelli and Miwon Kwon


Los Angeles based artist and writer Michael Minelli, talks to Miwon Kwon, UCLA faculty lecturer on Contemporary Art History, about his current studio practice and recent show at WPA Gallery.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Adam Janes | Opening @ The Company


Adam Janes ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE
January 14 – February 21, 2010
Opening January 16, 7-9pm

For ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE, Adam Janes retrofits The Company’s garage into a turquoise den filled with brightly hued wax candles molded in random shapes such as gambling die, skulls, diamonds, crystal shaped mountain, the artist’s teeth (with an incisor missing), a Chinese luck coin, and the iconic California brown bear. The cartoonish objects are displayed on wooden crates to form an altar, and a hanging carcass chandelier. The organized chaos is reminiscent of a cluttered new-age shop filled with crystals, trinkets, and tarot cards, each overwhelmed via display but significant in their individual meaning. Like crystals, which can be viewed as abundant glittering gems researched by geologists or as precious conduits for spiritual healing, the candles too can become fetishized depending on the viewer’s inclination.

Janes’ sculptural background, a discipline occupied with formal and structural concerns, loosens up in ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE. The balance between the completed product and the ever-changing one disrupts the formal obsessions and leaves everything to chance. Over the course of the exhibition, the burning candles will melt into other shapes, rendering the original forms unrecognizable and completing the cycle of total transformation.

The Company | 946 Yale Street | Los Angeles, CA 90012

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Joe Sola Opening | Happy Lion


Joe Sola: I found some Bic pens by the railroad tracks January 9th through February 13, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9th, 6 – 8pm Performance: Saturday, January 30th, 7:30 pm

The Happy Lion is very pleased to present an exhibition with Los Angeles based artist Joe Sola featuring the debut of a new video work, A Short Film About Looking. With his signature dry wit Sola’s latest work is a meditation on looking, as positioned by his characters: the artist, the patron and the gallery. A parallel narrative unfolds as we follow the morning of the two males: the first a scruffy artist type, the second a wealthy consumer. They pause to gaze—at seemingly random but formally chosen objects, shapes, colors. The differences in the lifestyles of these men are clear, and Sola builds this opposition with each edit. Narrative anticipation is fully and hysterically satisfied in a gallery—the obvious authority on looking, as “artist” meets “collector” and is arbitrated by “gallerist”. With an unparalleled ease of economy, Sola deftly dissects the politics of looking.

In addition to the video the exhibition will include several works on paper and a special one-night performance. Lush yet minimal, Sola’s recent watercolors convey humorous self-reference, as in the piece titled a painting of a book of ridiculous paintings and another me’n Kippenberger, and refer also to image production as in Industrial film. Sola’s highly physical performances use slapstick, live music, and Dada-ist abstraction to hilarious results. His newest piece, in collaboration with musician Michael Webster, will premiere on January 30th.

The Happy Lion is located at 963 Chung King Road in Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Weds through Saturday, 12-6 and by appointment. For additional information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 213.625.1360 or happylion@pacbell.net.