In LA, January is where it's at, unless you're LACMA

By Caryn Coleman

January in Los Angeles means two things: the city's annual downpour of rain and the opening of new shows at nearly every exhibition space. It's cleansing time – the smog of L.A. washes away and the art scene comes back refreshed after the Miami art fair madness and the holidays. While the official art season begins everywhere else in September, January is when things really kick off in Los Angeles. It's just one of the many ways we operate on a different plane than the rest of the art world, and we like it that way.

The infamous L.A. sprawl was my only guide on Saturday as I attended select openings from each side of the city. Starting on the west side, Ruby Osorio's Looking Through the Blind at Cherry and Martin was an aesthetic departure from her usual demure Asian girls; here she focused on the archetype of the trickster in Greek mythology. Still using gouache and sewn elements as her medium, the new thought-provoking work feels like a natural evolution of her work, with negative space and fluid natural imagery that is at once appealing and grotesque. Also at Cherry and Martin was the The Marsupial Project, the west coast debut of New York-based Taiwanese artist Yuh-Shioh Wong in the gallery's project room.

Painting, just like punk, is not dead (has it really ever been?) – especially in Los Angeles. In December, LA Times critic Christopher Knight boasted that L.A. artists were keeping painting thriving, and even listed 45 hot local painters under the age of 45. So it seems fitting that the theme of this year's LA Weekly Biennial (now in its third year and my must-see opening for the evening) would be focused on paintings. The premise behind Some Paintings at Santa Monica's Track 16 Gallery, curated by critic and artist Doug Harvey, is simple – "a broad-spectrum sampling of contemporary L.A. painting in one space." And that's certainly what it is. With around 80 artists (even the curator lost track) ranging from David Hockney to Amir Fallah to Robert Williams to, my personal favorite, Kaz Oshiro, this show is quite overwhelmingly full of paintings. And the opening itself was so jam-packed I felt like I was at Art Basel Miami Beach, being shuffled and squeezed through each room barely being able to see anything. Too much of a good thing?


Reception for L.A. Weekly's Biennial exhibition Some Paintings at Track
16 Gallery. Photo: Caryn Coleman


Kaz Oshiro's piece at the L.A. Weekly's Biennial

After a quick perusal of David Lloyd's new work at William Turner gallery at Bergamot Station, I ended up on the east side (Highland Park) with Erik Bluhm's solo exhibition at David Patton, Cooperate With The Energy And Anything That Happens. These series of collages, incorporating a very 1970s coolness vibe, are some of the best works I've seen in ages.


Reception for Erik Bluhm's Cooperate With The Energy And Anything That Happens at David Patton Gallery


Erik Bluhm, Worship, 2007, collage on paper, 24 x 32 in. Courtesy of David Patton Gallery and the artist

Culled from vintage books, magazines and album covers, the images are vaguely familiar in that comforting way while being re-contextualized into almost abstract shapes and forms. Patton's gallery has only been operating for about a year-and-a-half but has already presented some fantastic new exhibitions invigorating the east side Los Angeles art scene. The work was pretty affordable too ($2000-$4000), lifting my occasional art-humbug spirit.

But perhaps overshadowing everything right now is the biggest news in Los Angeles and, quite frankly, the art world. Last week, the mega-collector Eli Broad announced that he would not be donating his massive collection of nearly 2000 works to any museum, not even the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum (who just so happens to be opening the $56 million, Renzo Piano-designed Broad Museum of Contemporary Art next month, which will include select pieces from Broad's collection as well as works from the collections of other patrons). Instead, Broad has decided that his Santa Monica-based Broad Foundation will remain the sole custodian of his collection, and will handle the lending of the works to many different museums and institutions, in the desire to have as little of it in storage and as much of it out in the world as possible. This is disappointing and embarrassing news for LACMA. But it signifies greater changes going on in the art world as a whole, and issues a whole slew of questions: Is this a greater privatization of Broad's art or does it have the potential for it to reach a greater public? Will Broad's personal lending foundation become the model for other mega-collectors? Is this a reaction to the frequent mismanagement of works by museums and their often poor permanent collection displays? Museums have always had to rely on the support and donation of wealthy patrons. But has this catering gone too far, with the balance of power now shifting from the museum to the collector? And has the sky-rocketing price of contemporary works left museums without a chance anyway? I would argue that Broad's decision comes from a smart businessman who would like to continue to control his collection as much as possible. I also think the Broad Foundation has the structure to properly ensure the loan of works for decades to come. But I'm wondering what this means for the future of art – putting control even more into the hands of wealthy collectors. Meaning, what will be deemed valuable, worthy, and exhibited in art institutions will ultimately be decided, even more than it is now, by those who purchase it rather than those who produce, show, and critique it.

Caryn Coleman runs Sixspace gallery in Culver City, and art.bloggin.la