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The fall season is a call
to the west coast...both for tag-arts and for some art fairs. Tag-arts has
picked up and moved to sunny California...just in time. PULSE had their
debut in L.A. this month along with Art Platform-Los Angeles, a new
contemporary and modern art fair bringing together local and international
artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and art enthusiasts that play
important roles in the vibrant Southern California art community.
Both
fairs opened in conjunction with the Getty's Pacific Standard Time
initiative: Art in LA 1945-1980, an unprecedented collaboration of more
than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming
together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Organized
through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take
place for six months beginning October 2011.
Many
booths at the fairs were showing art to reflect an L.A. theme: glamour,
L.A. living, the "Hollywood" lifestyle. Take, for instance, the
photographs by Lluis Barba.
He
visually edits well-known paintings, layering them with photos of
celebrities, art dealers, and tabloid sensations, to highlight the
relationship between the past and present as a commentary on contemporary
society. Sizes range as well as the prices. But a small 40"x50"
photo starts at $7,500.
Argentinean
artist Roman Vitali has a great sense of humor, creating gym equipment out
of beads and fishing line. Dumb bells, jump rope, yoga mat and boxing bag
complete his exercise regimen and can be sold separately or as a whole
installation.
Another
fun artist full of wit is William Powhida. Previously an art critic,
Powhida's work reflects his critical background while he develops his
artistic practice. His focus is on the fascination we have with the
politics of access and power.
 His print of "The LA
Makeover Chart" is a hilarious reminder of how to keep track of
appearances on the West Coast for a mere $1,800. This is part of an edition
of 30.
Rachel
Hovnanian takes beauty a step further, pointing out society's obsession
with it and the corrosive power of its trappings. She uses actual sayings
from magazines on her fictitious face cream jars, creates beauty queen
trophies, and preserves flowers in small botox-filled bottles.
Artworld
mainstay Ed Ruscha was ever present. His prints from the Petroplot series
give us images of the desert landscape that are affordably priced around
$6,500. 
They
are from an edition of 75 and highlight the quintessential intersections of
Hollywood and Vine, Sunset Boulevard and the PCH, Laurel Canyon and Ventura
Boulevard, and Pico and Sepulveda.
Kelly
Reemtsen's work remains consistently good. Her portraits of anonymous women
from the 1950s and 60s wielding heavy machinery and tools have multiple
interpretations. These figures would unlikely be engaged in the work they
portray, suggesting more ominous intentions.
She
branches out now into 3D, bringing some of her paintings to life, once
again giving her femme fatales some relief. Kelly's small sculptural pills
in dioramas go for approximately $1,800 each.
Of
course there are the steadfast truisms from Mel Bochner: Blah Blah Blah and Money Money Money,
among others. Originals of these works, which are engraved, embossed and
hand dyed, go for $75,000 and $15,000 respectively (on account of size and
medium). Editioned etchings go for less.
Other
notables at the fair were Bo Joseph's works on paper that have gotten
larger recently and more powerful.
He
is incorporating more shapes and depth into his art, using abstraction to
explore mythologies, world views and various cultures. He uses oil pastels,
acrylic and tempera on stencils to transcribe and layer his silhouettes of
graphic art.
The
phenomenally detailed photographs by Ed Burtynsky are getting more
painterly and more abstract. His aerial shots of highways and quarries
remain stunning and impressive.
Lalla Essaydi takes beautiful photographs of Muslim women, blurring the
lines of the henna tattoo with the image of the figure. The works
incorporate the changing and complex female identities found in Morocco and
throughout the Muslim world.
Photos
from her "Harem" series, her "Converging
Territories"
and "Les Femme du Maroc" series are available to be printed in
three different sizes and are priced accordingly, with the largest size
priced just under $25,000.
From
Japan came an artist named 3 (three) who melted plastic dolls to create an
interesting mottled affect from the front while maintaining layers of the
remains of the dolls from the back and side. Girls, hide your barbies!
Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers work together to conjure up wishful thinking
behind their glazed ceramic wall sculpture.
A
Klondike bar, half eaten, reveals a golden nugget in All That Glitters. The
wishbone, broken for good luck, allows us to think we have some sense of
control over the uncontrollable. Works are priced extremely well, under
$20,000. Sculptures are all hand made in editions of 5.
Laurie
Lembrecht is a special photographer; she used to be the studio assistant
for Roy Lichtenstein. Her photos document his process and chronicle his
work in the 1990s. If you can't own a real Lichtenstein, then buy one of
these photographs. They are gorgeous and tell the story of the man and his
work. Her images are also featured in a newly published book, Roy
Lichtenstein in His Studio.
Grey Area
is a fantastic resource for "art" that was at the PULSE fair.
It's a pop-up store or undefined space, where design and art come together,
reflecting the sensibility of the locale. Young artists create functional
art, such as jewelry, accessories, or wall sculpture that may not fit into
the traditional art-fair boundaries. All are at affordable prices so if you
can't walk out with a huge painting, you can still leave the fair with a
work of art.
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