Bad at Sports » LA

Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books & More

Christopher — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:24:09 +0000

Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books
Currently on display at Lillian Goldman Law Library’s rare book exhibition gallery at Yale the series showcases examples of images of superheroes in the dock, comic books about lawyers and examples of legal disputes and Congressional inquiries involving caped crusaders. My artist sense tells me somewhere a lawyer who loves comics is currently on kayak.com reserving a seat on the next flight to New Haven, CT. Read more here & here

Merchandise Mart adds LA to the portfolio of Art Fairs
Planed to open in fall of 2011 (want to lay odds it is close if not the same time as Scope: London & Zoo?) the Chicago based Merchandise Mart has hired MOCA’s Adam Gross as director of the event. Read more here

The Art on the Walls of Wall Street 2
Even though the original Wall Street film was a better story and all around film it did lack in a few areas most of all it’s representation of art. Work, design and taste that is so garish and laughably over the top that it is highly distracting from the story being told. In the sequal the art is more established and used as pantomime of the duplicitous emotions, mood or subtext of the film. The NY Times wrote and interesting article on the process. Read more here

Egyptian Van Gogh Heist now thought to be an inside job
A while back there was the report of a Van Gogh theft from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum which had the art security equivalent of a ADT window decal and nothing more (seven out of 43 security cameras functioning and none of the alarms attached to the museum’s paintings) now the talk is that it was an inside job. This very well may be true but llet me ask how hard was the planning session for that theft? How complex could it have been since the only thing to slow one down from a theft was remembering if it was a push or pull door at the exit? Habib el-Adly, Egypt’s interior minister, said the loss was a “difficult lesson”…. Read more here

Google brings a rough version of a actual usable universal translator
called “conversation mode” which in the art world we could all use more then we would like to admit.

Superclogger: LA Traffic Jam Puppet Theater

Christopher — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:00:46 +0000

As of June 1st if you are stuck in LA traffic you have one more option added to your short list of ways to pass the 72 hours a year you spend on the road: music, cell phone, yelling at the drivers around you & now existentialist puppet theater. Yes a theater in the back of a pickup that talks about chaos, control & the role of mankind in this short time we have on earth.

Artist Joel Kyack & Peter Fuller perform from the back of their white nondescript pickup truck and via short range radio broadcasts the spoken/soundtrack performance material is available to nearby drivers to have a relaxed intimate theater of the mind at 5mph.

Every performance of Superclogger except for two special showings will be during evening rush hours on different freeways across LA (The list is below) until September 24th. After that it will appear at the Hammer Museum, September 25th, 1-4pm. The Hammer Museum is located at 10899 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90024.

Performance Dates & Locations

June 11

110 N & 110 S Fwys (Between Downtown and Hollywood)

July 2

10 E Fwy (Between PCH and Downtown)

July 9

5 S Fwy (Between China Town and Bell Gardens)

July 16

134 W Fwy (Between Glendale and Sherman Oaks)

July 30

60 E Fwy (Between East Los Angeles and South San Gabriel)

August 13

10 E Fwy (Between Monterey Park and El Monte)

September 10

10 E Fwy (Between PCH and Downtown)

September 24

210 E Fwy (Between Pasadena and Duarte)

LA Times Gives Advice to Jeffrey Deitch For His First Day On The Job

Christopher — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:00:12 +0000

Christopher Knight, the Los Angeles Times Art Critic has written up an interesting article on Jeffrey Deitch’s start as Director (the fourth in 30 years) and gives his point of view on where the reality of life in LA can begin to match the goals of the Museum. Numbers mater in the Art world even if we don’t want to talk about it and MOCA’s attendance has been dropping steadily for years. Couple that with the fiscal mismanagement gamble back in 2008 where they created a budget that relied on donor money to cover around 80% of the cost (money that evaporated with the crash) and things were pretty bleak.

The consensus & expectation is that Jeffrey Deitch will bring the kind of shows and energy that will rally the general population of LA and raise attendance above it’s current 600 people a day. Think about that, 600 people, more people visit this site then MOCA in a given day and MOCA is spending $20 Million a year. MOCA has a wonderful collection and this isn’t a referendum by the people of LA on Art but on the growing disconnect between Art Tastemakers and the general population. A rift that has been growing for years with little to no abatement.

It’s not just LA, we have had the same debates on hours of operation & marketing of events in Chicago for over 5 years. Christopher Knight goes on to offer his advice on what Mr. Deitch might want to examine as Director and the second I can agree with aspects of, the first not so much:

1. General admission: take it from $10 to free

I have always questioned why everything needs to be free. In my experience people have a habit of discounting what they don’t pay for and it effects the overall opinion. Work at a bar (or the music industry these days) and you can see that in action, lines and a small cover even if they are annoying increase the overall pleasure of the experience as long as guests expectations are met once they enter. Also even if the door charge is less then 10% of the budget that is still a valuable/usefull daily cash flow even for an institution of that size. Art like any other business lives and breathes on cash flow.

I would suggest price pointing it at $5 a person and make it free to seniors, students & active military (for many solid reasons not worth rehashing here). At that price it has a real value, is proportioned correctly to films, concerts & other nightlife activities and doesn’t nullify the whole selling point of yearly membership.

2. Hours of Operation: take it from closing at 5-6pm & 8pm on Thursday to more befitting late nights.

No argument but very tricky and might not be as useful as even I thought years ago. This just might be a tourist/weekday local/weekend world we live in.

The one thing that Mr. Knight doesn’t tackle is the one thing that everyone is so afraid of about Jeffrey Dietch as Director, the “curatorial” focus of the exhibits and I think more so “how they are marketed to the world”. Everyone is waiting on baited breath since it seems no one has faith that an intelligent discussion on Art can be molded into a form of interest to the general public. That is the great experiment going on in LA and if it is successful could echo throughout the American Art World as a whole and faster then you might think.

Postopolis! LA

Meg Onli — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:41:10 +0000

This coming week the awesome people at ForYourArt and five other blogs are putting together Postopolis! LA. If you’re in LA it looks like something you should check out.

via Postopolis! LA
On the occasion of Los Angeles Art Weekend, Storefront for Art and Architecture and ForYourArt are pleased to announce Postopolis! LA, a live five-day event of near-continuous conversation about architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, and design to be held in Los Angeles from 31 March to 4 April 2009. Six bloggers, from five different cities around the world, will host a series of discussions,
interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and presentations, fusing the informal energy and interdisciplinary approach of the architectural blogosphere with the immediacy of face-to-face interaction.

Hosted By: ArchDaily/Plataforma Arquitectura, BLDGBLOG , City of
Sound, Subtopia , Mudd Up!, We Make Money Not Art

For More info please visit Postopolis.

Episode 141:Ryan McGinley/Chris Perez

Christopher — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:46:45 +0000

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This week the West Coast Crew heads down to Ratio3 to talk to Ryan McGinley and gallerist Chris Perez.

Ryan McGinley makes large-scale color photographs of nudes in abstracted natural landscapes. With his subjects as willing collaborators, he used photography to break down barriers between public and private lives. Drawn from skateboarding, music, graffiti and gay subcultures, his models perform for the camera and expose themselves with complete self-awareness.

McGinley’s more recent work signals a departure from the urban youth culture images for which he is well known – over the past few summers he has been working almost exclusively in natural settings in the American west.

At 24, he was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has also had solo exhibitions at PS1 and in Spain at the MUSAC in Leon. In 2007 he was awarded the Young Photographer Infinity award by the International Center for Photography.

Blonde Redhead

Belle and Sebastian

Ratio3

Ryan McGinley

Chris Perez

The Whitney Museum of American Art

Nan Goldin

Larry Clark

Planet of the Apes

Lord of the Rings

Easy Rider

Paris, Texas

Jean-Luc Godard

Gus Van Sant

Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_141-Ryan_McGinley.mp3

Art is giving Mickey Mouse a Headache

Christopher — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:10:44 +0000

Pop artist Claes Oldenburg best known for his simple and iconic works of 4 story clothes pins and cherry laden spoons is appearing in court as one of the defendants in a lawsuit placed by the House of Mouse.

Back in 2003 the Disney Co. contracted Mr. Oldenburg, his manufacturers Carlson & Co (a San Fernando art fabrication company best know for building Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog”) and his partner Coosje van Bruggen to build a metal statue of a black bow and tie surrounded by a white wing collar to be placed outside the newly constructed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; a building which was designed by friend of the artist Frank Gehry.

Gehry personally promoted the idea of Oldenburg doing the peice and thought that a swanky collar and tie, looking as if they had been tossed on the sidewalk by some colossus, would sound a playfully artful keynote for concert goers and passersby. “Collar and Bow” as it would be called was contracted in May of 2003 for $2.2 million and scheduled to be delivered by Aug. 15, 2004. Donations of $1.85 million from Music Center patrons Richard and Geri Brawerman and $1 million from the J. Paul Getty Trust were expected to cover the cost.

“This is the most complicated work we have done, in detail, engineering and form,” Van Bruggen said in a 2004 interview. In fact, technical difficulties arose, and the Music Center granted a two-year extension and authorized spending an additional $1.6 million.

As the second deadline neared, Gehry and Stephen D. Rountree, the Music Center president, said problems with connections between sections of the giant white collar had not been solved. The artist and Co. said fixing those would cost millions of dollars that the Music Center could not afford. Gehry vowed to help raise the money, saying, “I am laying my body on the tracks for this piece.”

A little more than six months later, in February 2007, the Music Center took the unusual step of suing the high-profile artists it had commissioned.

“It came to a point where the [Music Center] was like, ‘Hey, we’ve done everything we could. They’re not going to be able to deliver the sculpture,’ ” Lira said. With attempts at mediation and a negotiated settlement having failed thus far, he expects several months of depositions to be followed by a jury trial scheduled for Oct. 14.

The damages, Music Center attorney David Lira said this week, will come to more than $6 million, including payments for the sculpture, additional money for consultants and $600,000 that the Music Center plowed fruitlessly into reinforcing the sidewalk in front of the Frank Gehry-designed hall at 1st Street and Grand Avenue so the ground could support the heavy steel objects that never arrived.

The defense is going to have a hard time disputing the case according to Lira “My case will be a lot simpler: ‘Look, we paid over $6 million for a sculpture, and they never delivered it.”

Oldenburg and Van Bruggen are not conceding failure, said one of their attorneys, Bruce Wessel. He said they recently asked Buro Happold, an international engineering firm, to submit a proposal. Subsequently, the firm said that for $350,000, it would evaluate the sculpture, suggest fixes and estimate what those repairs would cost. The artists wanted all parties to the suit to split the $350,000 and pledged $70,000 themselves.

The suit is proceeding at a difficult time for Oldenburg, 79, and Van Bruggen, 65. The Times of London reported in September that cancer that Van Bruggen had battled for six years had spread to her bones. She told the newspaper that “a lot of superficial things have dropped away from my life, but my creativity and my work with Claes remain central.”

Murakami Steals Awesome Graffiti

Brian Andrews — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:37:39 +0000

For two days in December, Los Angeles residents were blessed with some of the best public art I’ve seen in quite a while.

A billboard for Takahasi Murakami’s retrospective was bombed by legendary writers AUGER/REVOK.

LA weekly is now reporting that the missing work didn’t get censored, but was actually was picked up by Murakami himself for his KaiKai KiKi studio. Link to LA Weekly Article.

Episode 125: Tim Fleming/Art Reviews

Christopher — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:41:42 +0000

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100 minutes of raw power! Brian and Marc talk to Tim Fleming, Director of Art LA. If that weren’t enough for a whole show, we go that extra mile and knock your socks off!!!

Lori Waxman and Duncan check out the current batch of shows around the West Loop. Did they review your show, oh yes they did, you’d better listen.

Tim Fleming
Art LA
Artforum
Seven Three Split
Bucket Rider
Butcher Shop/Dogmatic
Pedro Velez
Jose Lerma
Scott Roberts
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The Stray Show
Art Chicago
Tom Blackman
Melissa Schubeck
Joymore
Standard
David Roman
1/Quarterly
Daniel Hug
Heather Hubbs
Guido Baudach
Taka Ishii Gallery
Tomio Koyama Gallery
LA Art Show
FADA
Photo Miami
David Cordanski Gallery
China Art Objects
Alexis Johnson
Superflex
The Armory Show
Frieze Art Fair
Fred Snitzer
Patrick Painter
Michael Lett
Jeffrey Rosen
Bortolami Gallery
Hammer Museum
Dean Valentine
For Your Art
DAP
Mark Wallinger
Donald Young
Thomas Eakins
James Everett Stanley
Juan Angel Chavez
kavi gupta
John Isaacs
Nathan Mabry
Lorna Macintyre
Sterling Ruby
Felix Schramm
Michael Stumpf
Tony Tasset
Carrie Secrist
Ed Ruscha
Laura Owens
Bodybuilder and Sportsman
Phillip Guston
Portia Hein
Three Walls
Heather Mekkelson
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Siebren Versteeg
Walsh Gallery
Zhang Qing
Navta Schulz Gallery
Jason Hackenwerth
Gescheidle
Nicolas Lampert

Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_125-Tim_Fleming-Reviews.mp3

Episode 118: Circus Gallery/Navta Schultz

Christopher — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:32:26 +0000

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Marc and Brian interview Dawn Kasper with John Knuth of Circus Gallery featuring Michael Bauer of The Confederacy of Creative Ephemera.

Duncan talks to the delightful Ryan Schultz of Navta Schultz Gallery in Chicago about running a gallery, art fairs and the trajectory of the business.

NEXT WEEK: The Festival of Elkins!!!

Dawn Kasper
John Knuth
Circus Gallery
Michael Bauer
The Confederacy of Creative Ephemera
Three Walls
Aqua Art Fair
Rachel Mason
Circus of Books
Richard Jackson
Dave Muller
Liz Craft
H.R. Puff ‘N Stuff
Duane Hanson
Gilbert and George
Ed Beller
Bruce Campbell
Evil Dead 2
Alfred Hitchcock
Night of the Living Dead
George Romero
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Saw
Grindhouse
Quentin Tarantino
Peter Jackson
Tom Savini
Rotten
Rob Zombie
Monster
Gary Gilmore/a>
Matthew Barney/a>
Kasper Hauser
Paul McCarthy
Damien Hirst
Alice Neel
Bruce Campbell (artist)
Ryan Schulz
Navta Schulz
Linda Warren
Hot Cakes
Susan Gescheidle
Jason Hackenwerth
David Hendren
James Kelly Contemporary
Ellsworth Kelly
Tom of Finland/a>
Roni Horn
Scope
Bridge Art Fair

Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_118_Circus_Gallery.mp3

Bad at Sports » LA

Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books & More

Related Posts

Superclogger: LA Traffic Jam Puppet Theater

Performance Dates & Locations

June 11

July 2

July 9

July 16

July 30

August 13

September 10

September 24

Related Posts

LA Times Gives Advice to Jeffrey Deitch For His First Day On The Job

Related Posts

Postopolis! LA

Related Posts

Episode 141:Ryan McGinley/Chris Perez

Related Posts

Art is giving Mickey Mouse a Headache

Related Posts

Murakami Steals Awesome Graffiti

Related Posts

Episode 125: Tim Fleming/Art Reviews

Related Posts

Episode 118: Circus Gallery/Navta Schultz

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