"Also I like to rock" and other cultural phenomena

It is good to live in LA. There are many reasons, one of which is the Also I like to rock series of free concerts at the Hammer Museum by FM station Indie 103.1. Last Thursday The Duke Spirit and io echo rocked the Hammer Courtyard. The Duke Spirit, one of my new favorite bands, is a tight band from London. The lead singer Liela Moss is a little Siouxsie, a little Jefferson Airplane, a little Mazzy Star, with a powerful voice in her own right. Being from London, she thought that the Hammer gig was at "a museum of hammers." No, the Hammer is definitely not "full of tools," especially if they are putting on awesome shows like this for the community. Recession, shmercession, we've got our music. As long as awesome rockers are belting it out in nice museum courtyards for free, we are all going to be okay.

I left the Hammer crowd elated, only to see massive crowds lining the streets in Westwood and feeling a fervent electricity in the air, which only meant one thing: the first screenings of the new Batman movie by Director Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight. A much anticipated film with a record-breaking opening, The Dark Knight deserves the crowds and the accolades, for it is stunning filmmaking of a dark and complex drama. It's great to see that Director Christopher Nolan, who wowed the Sundance crowd with the nonlinear indie Memento, could evolve the Batman franchise into such an intriguing realistic entity with a life of its own, far beyond hopes and expectations, and oh so satisfying. And speaking of Sundance, that's where I was when I heard of Heath Ledger's death. It was snowing and cold, I was on a festival shuttle, and some girls in the back were talking about it. It instantly felt like a tragedy, such a great loss to the film community, and I have been looking forward to seeing this final performance ever since. I've read reviews of Ledger's performance of the Joker as "Cagney meets Brando," and I have to agree, but with the caveat that it was even better and deeper than that. Unforgettable.


:: bogna ::

Group Show at the Bird Museum

To those who think art is for the birds, artist Michael Giancristiano salutes you! He has recently created the Eli Bird Contemporary Art Center, a miniature museum in which
he curates art shows with accurate miniatures of original fine art pieces. I am happy to say his first show features a wide range of work from many contemporary artists, and it includes a miniature of my abstract color photograph the abyss.

I can usually spot Giancristiano's work right away. He knows how to work with wood and media to create something elegant yet organic. I've mostly seen his 'On Thin Ice' series of paintings on plywood which minimally reveal the deeper layers of his work, showing a process that feels persistent, measured, and natural.

As for the Eli Bird Contemporary Art Center, otherwise known as the EBCAC, part of Michael's concept is to have work that invokes nature, and I believe that the EBCAC shows will also benefit children's foundations.


The inaugural EBCAC show has work by the following artists:
Lori Agostino, Dori Atlantis, Arlene Bogna, Paul Blieden, Richard Bruland, Ellen Cantor, Rebecca Hamm, Yoichi Kawamura, Linda Kunik, Daniel Lara, Lynda Lester, Erika Lizee, Rebecca Lowry, Freyda Miller, Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, Hung Nguyen, Ana Osgood, Paul Pitsker, Bryan Ricci, Gina Stepaniuk, Elizabeth Tobias, David Eli Vaughn, Valerie Wilcox, Karen Frimkess Wolff, Kyoung Ha Yoo.
It's nice to see how many artists find Giancristiano's concept absolutely irresistible.

:: bogna ::

Looking for Something

If you are looking for an antidote to the kitsch trend in art this summer, then look just a little further, like towards Hyperion and Rowena in Silverlake, CA.
"Looking for something and maybe almost finding it" is the title of Kathy Jaroneski's solo exhibition at the Silverlake Neighborhood Council.
Her paintings have a quality of seeing both through and far into an introspective reality.
The color composition is bold and soothing at the same time, like good design, but the forms, strokes, and drips of paint have a motion which makes the paintings come alive.
There is a tension in her work, a dichotomy where discipline meets emotion. Color logic rules over expressive brushstrokes in "Silvia's Lake", while a light palette serves to offset an aubergine storm in "Aubergine #2". It lulls you in then shakes you up. Definitely a must for anyone seeking some emotional authenticity in a season of empty blockbusters and subprime refinancing.

On another note, let's hear it for seeing something you weren't really looking for in the first place, and would rather not have seen, but now that you have you can't help but grin a little. I found myself grinning at the Claremont Museum of Art when I saw this sculpture. You get the picture. You should see what the artist Amy Maloof did to a shopping cart as well.

Enjoy the heat and keep looking.

:: bogna ::