Art in NY and in LA in NOV

ART IN LA November 17 - 24.

Back in LA I immediately went to see as many shows as I could catch up on. Unfortunately much of Culver City was closed after thanksgiving.

Glen Ligon's gold paintings line the walls of Regen projects, most have the same text stenciled in the center, yet a few offer something different. The black neon in the back room catches one off guard.

Jeffrey Vallance was at Margo Leavin. More shrines.

Anna Sew Hoy's installation at Karen Lovegrove really transformed the space and was one of the most interesting shows out there.

The show at 16:1 was Joella March
She made pieces with neon and language that was quite interesting

At Bergamot Station in Santa Monica

Thordis Adalsteinsdotter made quirky paintings at Shoshana Wayne Gallery

At Craig Krull Gallery Michael Light's images of LA from the sky are always amazing to look at. Lost of lush blacks.

Rosamund Felsen had photographs by Morton Bartlett who made pictures of dolls in the 1950's. His negatives were recently rediscovered and printed. The images sexualize these playthings in an unsettling way

Anton Henning's transformation of Christopher Grimes gallery painting the walls two toned and creating lighted frames for the paintings made one look at the work in a different way.

The show at Cherry was among one of the more interesting in LA at the time. Elad Lassry's work is formal yet also conceptual.

Before LA These were some of the shows that stood out in NYC

Kirstine Roepstorff at the Drawing Center

A berlin based artist who uses found and appropriated materials to make collages that both fill walls but also exist as stand alone works. She sews pins and glues disparate images creating new contexts and meanings from the political and social materials that flood the world.

Thomas Ruff (at Zwirner) continues to use appropriated JPG images from the internet blowing them up to large size photographs that maximize the pixelated nature of the the enlargements.

Miranda Lichtenstein at Elizabeth Dee photographs and video... enigmatic and interesting

Paula Scher makes painting of maps. She begins with a real place and enhances what is there by adding her own painted commentary. the colorful works define places in new and exciting ways.

Thomas Demand at 303... seemingly more of the same but this time the place is specific. The exhibition makes reference to the location where uranium was stolen from an embassy. The political and social overtones are there but sometimes they are masked by Demand's formal presentation.

At Lehmann Maupin Do Ho Suh fils the back space with a sculpture made of small figures creating the shape of a tornado.

The collaboration between John Baldessari and Alejandro Cesarco at Murray Guy is subtle but poignant. Images with just text and color line the gallery walls. What was quoted and how both artists reacted creates a conversation between all the works on the wall.

Robert Beck's drawings at CRG caught me by suprise as I don't know his work and I was immediately taken in by the work, The images are beautiful the text poignant. These pieces can be looked at over and over again.