5.31.2010

The Legacy of Merce @ MOCA Thursday 6.3.

The Legacy of Merce: A Conversation with Bonnie Brooks and Trevor Carlson. Bonnie Brooks, noted dance writer, producer, and chair of Columbia College Chicago's dance program, and Trevor Carlson, executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, will share colorful memories about the legendary Merce Cunningham, from his innovative approach to choreography to his incomparable collaborations with artists such as John Cage, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.

FREE; no reservations required

@MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 South Grand Avenue - 90012

5.28.2010

Flight of the Conchords Sunday 5.30. @ The HOLLYWOOD BOWL

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie make up "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand," Flight of the Conchords. Come check out Business Time, and who knows, maybe they'll crowd surf!

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5.27.2010

Sunday 5.30. @ The Egyptian - THE WIZARD OF OZ - Digitally Restored

Digitally Restored! The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland is Dorothy in this sublime, candy-colored adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's favorite, one of the most beloved film classics of all time. Take a surreal stroll down the yellow brick road with Dorothy as she encounters the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, Glinda the Good Witch, and the Wicked Witch of the West. Directed by Victor Fleming 1939, Warner Bros., 101 min.

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5.26.2010

Tonight in Eagle Rock - Mike Kelley & MIchael Smith 'A Voyage of Growth and Discovery'

West of Rome presents...

A Voyage of Growth and Discovery, a collaborative video installation by artists Mike Kelley and Michael Smith. The installation includes a six-channel video featuring Michael Smith's character Baby IKKI. Filmed at a festival in the Black Rock desert in 2008, the related sculptures fill the 15,500 square foot space surrounding a 30-foot tall junk sculpture of Baby IKKI.

The installation reflects the fantasy-oriented environment of the festival, which is both grand and folksy-an odd mixture of fairground, playground, hippie commune, and the futuristic architectural aesthetics of R. Buckminster Fuller. Resembling an abandoned festival site of the post-"new age" era. This project is the first collaboration between Mike Kelley and Michael Smith, artists who have been friends since 1975.

Mike Kelley
, born in Detroit in 1954, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Kelley's work embraces performance, installation, drawing, painting, video, sound works, and sculpture. Referencing both high art and vernacular traditions, his works draw from historical research, mass cultural references, and psychological theory.

Michael Smith
, born in Chicago in 1951, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Austin, Texas. Smith's 30-year artistic career includes live performance, video works, commercial and cable television skits, puppet shows, exhibition installations, comic publications, and drawings.

Opens Tonight May 26 7–9p runs through August 26 , 2010

FREE!
@ The Farley Building 1669 Colorado Blvd. Eagle Rock, 90042

5.25.2010

TIM HAWKINSON @ Blum and Poe now through 6.26.10

Blum & Poe is pleased to announce their first solo exhibition of new work by Tim Hawkinson.

Tim Hawkinson’s practice is known for its sprawling surrealistic self-portraiture in which the body, through intense introspection, becomes an alien landscape open to radical redefinition and transformation. This artistic agenda is mirrored materially by Hawkinson’s use of familiar and ubiquitous consumer packaging and household objects in highly unconventional ways. The new work continues these refrains, while also exploring more pointedly temporality, mortality, and the cyclic.

Hawkinson works in a range of media, involving sculpture, painting, photography, and installation. The exhibition will present this wide array, including such pieces as, Orrery, a towering eight foot tall sculpture of a woman at a spinning wheel atop a platform that is itself made up of a series of rotating concentric circles depicting tire treads. This piece references the mechanical models and devices used to illustrate the motions of the planets and their moons in our solar system. A sculptural collage of water bottles, plastic shopping bags, recouped ordinary hardware, and odds and ends; every part of this piece is interconnected and eternally spinning, from her head, hands, eyes, and ears, to the optical pattern on her dress, which is a motion illusion called “Rotating Snakes” designed by Japanese Psychology Professor Kitaoka Akiyoshi. With wheels upon wheels, this hyperkinetic sculpture resembles a Whirling Dervish, a hypnotic mystical dancer forever cycling between the material and cosmic worlds.

A sympathetic sculpture, also approaching eight feet tall, is a giant foam candle. This dramatic increase in scale turns a once knowable and homey object into a caustic, volcanic landscape. A central wick appears to erupt in flames, sending a cascade of casts of Hawkinson’s heels and toes pouring down the side like a revolving wax waterfall. A small door on its side reveals a chamber lined with a golden emergency blanket that bathes the piece’s handcrafted motor in an orange glow, altogether evoking Earth’s fiery recycling processes. The burning candle also references vanitas paintings and their reflection on mortality.

In another piece, Hawkinson takes large self-portrait photos printed in the negative and collages them together to resemble a fleshy and precarious motorcycle. Suspended on an empty backdrop, Hawkinson reconfigures his body so that arms become handles, legs the spokes, and fingers multiplied and braided together to become tires. Eerie structural correspondences and analogous traits between the body’s composition, its locomotion, its internal cycles, and mass-produced two-wheeled motor vehicles give way to a sense of the “self” as “other”, a subject that is explored throughout Hawkinson’s practice.

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5.24.2010

@ The HAMMER MUSEUM - Outside the Box Edition Jacob Samuel, 1988-2010

This summer the Hammer Museum will host a major exhibition marking the joint acquisition of the complete archive of prints by Los Angeles publisher Edition Jacob Samuel by the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since 1988 Jacob Samuel has published 43 portfolios of prints made by a diverse group of international artists, including Marina Abramovic, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Mona Hatoum, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Barry McGee, Ed Moses, Matthew Monahan, Wangechi Mutu, Gabriel Orozco, Nancy Rubins, Ed Ruscha, Robert Therrien, James Welling, Christopher Wool, and Andrea Zittel, among many others. Working primarily in series in intaglio mediums such as etching, drypoint, and aquatint, Samuel has invited artists to create prints in his Santa Monica studio but has also traveled internationally to collaborate with artists in their own studios. The number of prints included in each portfolio range from 6 to 36, with more than 550 individual prints included in the 43 portfolios. The exhibition will be situated in the museum’s main temporary exhibition galleries and will include all the published portfolios, as well as related proofs and other preparatory works.

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5.19.2010

JIM HENSON FAMILY DAY @ The Egyptian Theater Saturday Afternoon 5.22.

JIM HENSON FAMILY DAY: One of the world's most visionary puppetry artists, Jim Henson brought an original combination of playful fun and artful sophistication to his groundbreaking film and television works that widely appeal to children and adults alike.

Henson gave us such icons as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and a host of other memorable Muppets, not to mention the Fraggles and various Sesame Street characters. Join us for a special program of shorts from The Jim Henson Legacy and some new material from The Henson Company: A BETTER WORLD: LIVING IN HARMONY from world-touring series Muppets™, Music & Magic: Jim Henson's Legacy. Included in this wonderful, environmentally-oriented program of shorts from the beloved Henson studio is a 1983 rare episode from the "Fraggle Rock" TV show that contrasts three different communities (the musical Fraggles, the industrious Doozers and the giant Gorgs!) living in harmony in a carefully balanced underground world far below those mysterious silly creatures (the humans) who live above ground, and the short "The Song of the Cloud Forest," (1989) a beautifully colorful evocation of the rain forest and the adventures of a lovable golden toad, directed by Jim Henson. It features a blend of music, puppetry and animation resulting in a vibrant landscape of color that echoes the natural beauty found in the real world's rain forest. Starring a brightly colored cast of puppet animals, the show celebrates the beauty of this natural environment while educating the audience of the real dangers threatening the survival of both the rain forest and its inhabitants.

After the shorts program, the Henson Company will showcase exciting sneak peeks in the Rigler Theatre, and host lots of fun activities in the Egyptian courtyard until 2:30 PM. Free for ticket-holders.

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5.18.2010

This Saturday Night 5.22.@The Fowler Museum - SOUNDSUITS AFTER DARK


SOUNDSUITS AFTER DARK

For one night only, the Fowler Museum at UCLA team up to present a free, all-ages night of music, art and dancing on the UCLA campus. The event will include pop-up performances by dancers clad in “Soundsuits,” which are fantastic, costume-like works of art by visionary Chicago-based artist Nick Cave.

Live DJ sets by Jason Bentley and Garth Trinidad outdoors on Wilson Plaza; enjoy special after-hours museum access, pop-up poetry readings, art workshops where you can create your own Soundsuit-inspired apparel, cocktails from the Fowler’s amphitheatre and terrace bars, as well as some of L.A.’s most popular food trucks will be on hand.

This very special evening is part of the grand finale for the Fowler Museum’s 2010 exhibition “Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” -- the largest presentation of the artist’s Soundsuits -- on display through May 30.

If you've been in a cave since February, this exhibition features thirty-five 10-foot tall multilayered, mixed-media suits extraordinarily decorated with ordinary items from everyday life, everything from vintage toys and sequins to buttons and pot holders. The materials create unusual sounds when they are worn and performed, hence the name Soundsuits.

Live DJ sets start at 8pm and there will be multiple opportunities to catch the Soundsuits outdoors in action before the night ends at 11pm.

Make your own Soundsuit on the Fowler Museum Terrace - bring your own article of clothing to embellish with pom-poms, sequins, buttons and more - or be one of the first 750 guests and receive socks to decorate courtesy of American Apparel.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Fowler Museum - 310.825.4361

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5.12.2010

Friday @ SKYLIGHT BOOKS - DANIEL CLOWES will discuss and sign his new graphic novel 'WILSON'

Daniel Clowes, the acclaimed cartoonist behind Ghost World (the graphic novel and the Oscar-nominated screenplay), the mini comic (turned movie) Art School Confidential, and the Eightball comic series will be at the sapient Skylight Books to discuss and sign Wilson, his new first all-new graphic novel.

If the slideshow presentation isn't enough, Daniel Clowes will be joined by comedian and special guest moderator Dana Gould for a discussion and Q&A.

And, Drawn and Quarterly made some really nice double-sided posters - one side is the book cover and the other side is an enlarged page from the book - which are available with the purchase of a copy of Wilson at Skylight Books.

Fri, 5.14 - 730p

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5.11.2010

at the HAMMER Museum Tonight - Red Book Dialogues: Bill Viola & Beverley Zabriskie

Hammer Lectures

Red Book Dialogues: Bill Viola & Beverley Zabriskie The Red Book Dialogues Artists, thinkers, and cultural icons are paired on stage with Jungian analysts or scholars and invited to respond to and interpret a folio from C.G. Jung’s Red Book as a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation. This series is based on a series that originated at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.

For almost 40 years Bill Viola has created architectural video installations, video films, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast, as well as music concerts, opera,and sacred spaces. His works are shown in museums and galleries worldwide and are found in many distinguished collections. His single channel videotapes have been widely distributed on DVD, while his writings have been extensively published and translated for international readers. He is the recipient of many honors and awards; the most recent is the XXI Catalonia International Prize from the Government of Catalonia, Spain, 2009. Bill Viola lives and works in Long Beach, California with Kira Perov, his wife and long-time collaborator. Beverley Zabriskie is a Jungian Analyst in New York City, where she is a founding member of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association. She was the 2007 Fay Lecturer at Texas A&M University, and the 2002 psychoanalytic educator of the year for the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Education. She is the author of "The One and Many Souls of New York" for Psyche and City, The Soul's Guide to the Modern Metropolis, and she is currently writing a book on Emotion for Texas A&M Press.

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5.10.2010

Friday @ the Egyptian Theater - New 35mm Print of Akira Kurosawa's 'RAN'

New 35 mm! RAN, In Akira Kurosawa's epic and existential samurai/Noh theater rendition of Shakespeare's "King Lear," a once-merciless and bloodthirsty Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) leaves his kingdom to his three sons. As Hidetora attempts to enjoy retirement in his twilight years, he is dropped into a nightmarish hell when filial squabbling and betrayal erupts. In Japanese with English subtitles. 1985, Rialto Pictures, 160 min.

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5.07.2010

Method Contemporary Dance Company Tonight @ the BOOTLEG THEATER

Los Angeles’ cutting edge dance company, Method Contemporary Dance, presents the world premiere of a new contemporary dance work in the heart of Los Angeles. “then see if you still love us” is a non-stop, hyper physical, tour-de-force mediation on love and loss in the modern world. The 60-minute contemporary dance work is choreographed by METHOD Contemporary Dance Artistic Director Bradley Michaud and features dancers Chelsea Asman, Jay Bartley, Nicole Cox, Jessie Harper, Kalani McManus, and Bradley Michaud. “then see if you still love us” will premiere on May 7 and 8 at 8p and May 9 at 7p @ the bodacious Bootleg Theater.

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5.06.2010

CINEFAMILY MOTHER'S DAY MATINEE : Stella Dallas (1925 silent version)

Some stories are just so powerful, so compelling, with veins so deeply rooted within our collective unconscious that we can't stop retelling them. Among these tales -- Stella Dallas. Before the famous Barbra Stanwyck version, the radio serial with an 18-year run and Bette Midler's '90s variation, silent beauty Belle Bennett starred in one of the era's most popular three-hankie melodramas, which chronicles a young woman's escape from small town drudgery by marrying a wealthy New York socialite (Ronald Coleman), only to have the marriage collapse after the birth of their daughter. After the split, she makes the ultimate sacrifice: sending the daughter away to live with the father, instead of with her, in poverty. This was a story that spoke to people, to women everywhere, regardless of their background, thanks not only to its great performances, but through the lens of screenwriter Francis Marion's sensitive adaptation. Bring your mom and a box of tissues to this eternal story of mother-love, sacrifice, and a woman's soul.

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5.04.2010

Dance - CEDAR LAKE this weekend May 7 - 8 @ UCLA Live's ROYCE HALL

One of Dance Magazine’s 2008 Top 25 to Watch, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has in a few short years vaulted into the realm of elite troupes. Artistic director Benoit-Swan Pouffer, a former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater star, focuses his 18-member company on new work by today’s most innovative choreographers, such as Batsheva's Ohad Naharin, Luca Veggetti and Crystal Pite.

Friday’s performance is of “Orbo Novo,” a full-evening work with live music from Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Saturday’s program features new works by Pite, Jo Stromgren and Didy Veldman.

Fri - Sat, May 7 - 8 @ 8p

Royce Hall



Saturday, May 8 program:
Sunday, Again – Choreography by Jo Strømgren
Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue - Choreography by Crystal Pite
frame of view - Choreography by Didy Veldman


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5.03.2010

Thursday @ Walt Disney Concert Hall - Dudamel Conducts Tchaikovsky

Jump start your heart with two passionate Romantic-era masterpieces, written within just a few years of each other. The premiere by Stephen Hartke featuring the LA Philharmonic with the incredible Walt Disney Concert Hall organ and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel is certain to be as bracingly exciting as the Pathétique will be passionate.

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