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San Diego's Photo Gem
Although San Diego is less than three hours south of where I live, I visit there less than I would have imagined, mostly for lack of reasons to do so.However, a recent invitation to visit the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park in San Diego introduced me to a gem I had not appreciated before.First, a few words about the Museum. The Museum grew out of a local group of photography enthusiasts who, beginning in 1972, operated the… -
Of Arms, The Man And The Metaverse
Arma Virumque Cano, I sing of arms and the man. Thus begins the first line of Virgil's epic Latin poem, The Aeneid, which came to mind as I sat down to write about one of the most fascinating and extraordinary experiences I"ve recently had.Late one afternoon, I found myself in Downtown LA, standing in a large high-ceilinged room surrounded by a selection of rare items from the largest private collection of arms and armor that holds, according to its owners,… -
Comic Tom Segura Books Funny
The other night Natasha, my adult-ish daughter, asked me to accompany her to a book author event for standup comic and podcaster Tom Segura's best-selling "I"d like to Play Alone, Please" (Grand Central Publishing), a comic she is a fan of and whom she thought I would enjoy. It would take me too long to unpack all the dissonance and significance in that first sentence but suffice to say that this was so rare an event in every respect that… -
Wynton Marsalis And Georgian-American Friendship Makes Hamptons Swing
On a recent Saturday night, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performed at the Southampton Arts Center as part of the Hamptons Jazz Fest to celebrate 30 years of Independence for the Republic of Georgia and to honor thirty years of Georgian-American friendship; and, like all things Georgian and all things Wynton, it exceeded all expectations.There were speeches by Joe Diamond, General Manager of the Southampton Arts Center and Claes Brondal, co-founder of the Hamptons ... View… -
Take Me To Church
As a general rule, great or interesting art and exhibitions are not found in summer resorts, the art buying and appreciating public being transient, the season short, and the major galleries in urban art centers (New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Hong Kong) being proprietary about their artists and their collectors. However, that may be changing as what were once one season destinations are becoming year-round bases for work-from-home.A case in point is Sag Harbor's new artist-focused ce... View Original… -
The Full Picture: Black Cinema 1898-1971
Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971, the new exhibition currently on view at Los Angeles" Academy Museum is a revelation, an education, a corrective to our blindered knowledge of American Film history and a lot of fun. It is superbly researched and curated with a wealth of artifacts intelligently installed and displayed, and really makes the case (if it even needed to be made) that the Academy has indeed launched a museum rather than merely a tourist attraction.At the press preview, Academy...… -
Cy Twombly At The Getty: Where The Past Is Present
When we look at abstract art, we tend to see in it a spontaneous investigation of a self-made universe untethered from the past. We decipher the works by the emotion they produce, the feelings they conjure, the intelligence we imagine informing the patterns, lines, movement, motion, color, and negative space and how they all interact on the canvas. The sum total leads us to see a work as art and not merely decoration or, for that matter, child's play.Cy Twombly:… -
Here It Is: Larry Klein's Tribute To Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen who died in 2016, has since been memorialized by several tribute concerts, including ones led by his son Adam Cohen in Cohen's native Montreal and in Sweden led by the duo First Aid Kit (sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg) and their friends. There have been touring museum exhibitions, and post-humous books of fiction and poetry, and documentaries about Leonard and Marianne, and about Cohen's song Hallelujah.Leonard Cohen was an old soul. Among the cultural fixtures of the Sixt...… -
Dallas Contemporary Looks Backward Forward With Shepard Fairey
Although Shepard Fairey is a Los Angeles-based artist, and I am a Los Angeles-based journalist, last month I traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend the Dallas Contemporary (DC) annual gala and to see backward forward, Fairey's exhibition of his new work, on view at DC through July 23, 2022 â all of which was very much worth the trip.Dallas Contemporary is housed in a renovated 37,000 square foot industrial building in the Dallas Design District.DC is a non-collecting art institution,… -
Inside The New Orange County Museum Of Art
In early October, I drove down to Costa Mesa, a drive of around an hour from Los Angeles (traffic dependent), for a preview of the newly opened Orange Country Museum of Art (OCMA).OCMA is located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and is right off the 405 at Bristol Avenue. The striking 53,000 square foot building with 25,000 square feet of gallery space was designed by Thom Mayne and Brandon Welling of Morphosis, the Pritzker Prize… -
Chris Burch Never Stops Listening
Chris Burch, the mega-successful investor, and brand guru was a poor student in school, as he would be the first to tell you. But he has been a great student of life and of people.Burch has seeded, launched, and invested in many successful businesses including Guggenheim Partners, Upstack, Rappi, and BaubleBar; products such as Jawbone, Jambox; fashion brands such as Staud and Danielle Guizio and, most notably, Tory Burch which he launched with his now ex-wife. Burch has also been… -
David Hockney's Beautiful World
"I know it's an unusual picture because there are not many made this way. I think it's what we need today. New looking fresh pictures of a very beautiful world." â David Hockney.Late November-Early December has gotten cold, damp, and grey in most places, even in our paradise of Santa Monica, and Venice, California. Fear not! Along comes David Hockney to cheer us up with his new exhibition 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures.This collection of 20 iPad drawings of…