Photo by Lindsey Best

I am in the process of updating my web page to create a suitable base for my little upgrade project that will include many more options for you, my dear friends.

I learned how to find, copy and paste the correct CSS code into the appropriate areas of my – !Achtung! new term!!!- child theme of my brand new purchased  wordpress theme and accomplished to add the Long Story into my About section – so here we go.
I had tons and tons of things to write about, for example the PJ Harvey Concert at the Wiltern I fortunately got reminded of ( I am a very, very bad fan – I even miss my favorite bands when they’d play in my drive way or like Radiohead last year at the Hollywood Bowl ) – or the ” Built” show by Createfixate, an Art/Architecture/Design show in downtown Los Angeles last weekend, but there are all those little adjustments that have to be done, due to the complexity of the situation,  around the entire online presence thing. I can say I am heavy lifting for sure at the moment but I will be back as usual soon.

That’s why we love him, right? We adore his movies because they are dark and puzzling. They have a surprising end or for the most parts, no end at all. He doesn’t give solutions just impressions and leaves it to the audience to spin a story in their minds into whatever preferred direction. He prepares the canvas and you draw on it – your personal thriller or romance or comedy – choose, you are the artist. In this way, he serves us in the most noble sense – not giving us an explanation or an ending – nothing ever ends. The beauty and the freedom of uncertainty – this is as close as he can get to the reality of human condition.

Something fascinated him about Oskar Kokoschka . He planned to study with this Austrian expressionist but left Vienna after 15 days again.

I don’t know what made him return so fast but I remember getting the feeling of a medieval Disney Land at times while living there. Some Austrian artists had a major impact on me none the less.

Danger Mouse decided to release a 100 page booklet of photographs by Lynch along with a blank CD-R, due to an ongoing dispute with EMI about the release of the new “Dark Side of the Soul” project. There is no music on the CD and it is not a book with a blank CD but a blank CD with a huge booklet -  burn your own soundtrack on it.

David Lynch’s Photographs are narratives, inspired by each songs of the album – fifty-seven creepy shots with a favorism for day and night contrast and super-exposure – you know what I mean, they could be extracts of his motion pictures.

Check it out: “The Dark Night of the Soul” until July 11, 2009

Michael Kohn Gallery
8071 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90048 USA

see all photographs of this exhibition on artnet.com

Edit 1: Did I forget to mention that the line for the show opening on Saturday had the length of a street block? Delirious LA.

Edit 2: This is an excellent post about Lynch and the crucial balance between meaning and meaninglessness in art by Colin Marshall and The War on Mediocrity.

A minute after the freeway exit you pass the Hitching Post, which you might remember from the movie “Sideways” – a personal favorite of mine.

Solvang itself is a nice little and buzzing town with a astonishing gallery as I discovered. The Artist Chris Pavlov, who is also the owner of the Pavlov Art Gallery, shows European artists ( France, Montenegro  and Macedonia ) , as well as local artists and is focused on impressionistic and contemporary art.

My favorite painting, indicated by the red arrow below, is rich in structure and very complex in color. I am still guessing around how the artist actually applied the different layers of color onto the very structured surface and it might remain a puzzle but is fascinating none the less.

Pavlov Art Gallery
1608 Copenhagen Drive
Solvang, CA 93463

Some favorites of mine: ” Random Event in Time Pt.2″ and “Tart” which is from the first album.

If you like it electronic, if you like distorted e-guitars, if you like it all in one track, if you like strong and powerful statements, if you like down beat and speed in a startling alteration, if you like house, if you tend to be the person that gets up, stops any conversation, cancels any orders at the bar to make it to the dance floor on time when you are hit by a certain kind of sound, if you REALLY like synthesizer sounds and you aren’t sure if you felt more drawn to the music or the pictures of all those Sci-Fi movies from the 80ies-  this might be of interest to you.

In this context I found some pretty sounds by Reactable.

Minimalism here I come. I was looking for this music instrument that was just a small black stick and would react to any approaching person by giving buzzing synthetic sounds. Once I saw a performance with it in the MAK in Vienna but I just can’t remember the name of the instrument. Something like muk, wuk,wok,mok,… three letters if I recall right. It was so fascinating. If you know what I am talking about please help me out.

The nature of human life makes it difficult to satisfy every call within us – we are just way to complex – but maybe it is already enough to admit that it is there. Art is a wonderful way to listen to this call. Get some nature in your home, get one of those fantastic paintings by  Bryan Ricci or take yourself out and make a trip to Wilshire to the  Lawrence Asher Gallery until May 23. Enjoy nature captured in two different ways at once – with the lens of a camera and through the hand of the artist. In super beautiful pictures of remote landscapes he implants animals as if they have been there to begin with. He offers in his art what a lot of people yearn for when they go for trips into the wilderness. Do you remember the last time when you spotted a majestic deer or have been surprised by raccoon?

At the same time Jennifer Beedon Snow is also showing daily-life symphonies in blue and green – when you look at her scenes it feels as if you were driving home to the place you grew up – very soothing.

Lawrence Asher Gallery

5820 Wilshire Boulevard, Ste. 100

Los Angeles, CA 90036

ArtFall from eric gradman on Vimeo.

I bumped into this installation during the Brewery Art Walk in April 2009 and after a brief instruction by Eric I was hooked within the first second – what a fun! The squares would also get redirected by your own shadow, how fascinating to see a virtual world behaving and responding to its environment as if it was real. An adaptive system – when you would draw a line in an angle the squares would move down the line as objects in reality would do when facing a similar obstacle. This installation recognizes changes in the environment and adjusts its behavior to it immediately. The rapidity of this self-adjustment is…dare I say it… intelligent? Maybe.

Please visit Mindshare Labs if you liked the Video, there are many more.
Mindshare LA
3rd Thursday of every month. 8:00 PM @ (location varies, check site for updates)

digg story

The opening took place in The Loft at Liz’s, a truly unique gallery space. It is located above Liz’s Antique Hardware Store and you enter through an old wooden stairway that leads you into a loft space on the second floor with a layout that can host events of different kinds but especially well art shows as it seems. The space filled up with people quite fast that night and the main gathering point for conversations was in the kitchen ( yes it IS a loft that makes it so one-of-a-kind ) around the old and heavy wooden table.

The art was exquisite. I liked every piece in it but one artist in particular caught my attention:

Jagane’s paintings are powerful, clear, dynamic and authentic. Sometimes parts are over-painted, I like this, I know it can be very joyful. The paint is applied with strong and wide brush strokes, within a small color range so you wouldn’t get distracted from the main feeling that gets transmitted – the attempt to hold an elusive moment. I love them.

This weekend, there is another group show coming up in The Loft at Liz’s with a focus on Los Angeles design firms “Ability/Designability”

The Loft at Liz’s

453 S. La Brea Ave. (& 6th St.)

Los Angeles , CA 90036

by Jagane

by Jagane

by Jagane

During the crowded opening night, clusters of people would accumulate around his books and observe those treasures behind glass. It is a little bit as if you would check out a ancient book in a museum. I have the highest respect for his work and the time he spent with each book – it must be truly meditative.

A fascinating coherence comes to mind – by caving out one story he caves another into it.When I discovered that one of the heavy old books had been a science book, I had to smirk – what a beautiful way to teach knowledge and break the limiting two-dimensionality of books.

Expect to be hypnotized and to get lost in the detailing and miniature world of its own. Take the opportunity and see it yourself, if you can, the exhibition has been extended until May 9th, 2009.

Scion Installation L.A.
3521 Helms Avenue (at National)
Culver City, CA. 90232