Katie Herzog with Andrew Choate, “DRUGS/JOBS” (2015), encaustic on panel, 36 x 48 inches (via Facebook)
LOS ANGELES — This week, Chinatown’s Peephole Cinema reopens, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive hosts a performance as part of the second Queer Biennial, Human Resources presents a video installation based on The Shining, and more.
Supernatural
When: Thursday, June 16 & Friday, June 17, 7:30pm nightly
Where: Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) (2245 E Washington Blvd, Downtown, Los Angeles)
The second installment of the Queer Biennial — taking place this month at multiple venues in Los Angeles — explores the influence of the AIDS epidemic on artists of the ’80s and ’90s, and how contemporary artists engage with that legacy. “Supernatural“, a performance featuring choreographer Simone Aughterlony, performer Antonija Livingstone, and composer Hahn Rowe, combines wilderness activities like wood-chopping with modern dance, violin, and electronic music to challenge normative ideas of what is considered “natural.” Tickets are $15, please RSVP.
Simone Aughterlony, Antonija Livingstone, Hahn Rowe, “Supernatural” (via lacarchive.com)
Peephole Cinema at Automata
When: Friday, June 17, 7–10pm
Where: Automata (504 Chung King Ct., Chinatown, Los Angeles)
For the reopening of its Peephole Cinema, Automata will be presenting two new experimental shorts by the venue’s co-founders. Janie Geiser’s “Ghost Algebra” uses found objects, re-filmed video, and medical illustrations to muse on the original meaning of algebra: the reunion of broken parts. Susan Simpson’s “Inconsolable Objects” features comic book action scenes to create a sense of unrest. If you can’t make Friday’s opening reception, the films can be viewed 24/7 through a small peephole outside the space.
Janie Geiser, “Ghost Algebra (Peephole Edition)” (2016/2009); Susan Simpson, “Inconsolable Objects” (2016) (via Facebook)
Coming to the Table
When: Opens Saturday, June 18, 2–5pm
Where: Angels Gate Cultural Center (3601 S Gaffey St, San Pedro, California)
Organized by the Association of Hysteric Curators (AHC), Coming to the Table is an exhibition and series of programs and workshops that “consider gender in dialogue with issues of memory, place, community, intimacy, race, labor, sexuality, autonomy, and the future of feminism.” The opening reception will feature performances by Christine Dianne Guiyangco, Siobahn Hebron, Thinh Nguyen, Linda Ravenswood, and Cindy Rehm, and a workshop by Meg Madison with more events to follow.
Meg Madison, “Coming to the Table,” Sun Print Napkins (via Facebook)
Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic
When: Opens Saturday, June 18, 6–8pm
Where: Klowden Mann (6023 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California)
For LA-based artist Katie Herzog’s first solo show at Klowden Mann, Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic, she collaborated with writer Andrew Choate to produce paintings that interrogate the use of language in the urban landscape. In a series of encaustic diptychs, Herzog has painted generic signs of the city, altering the text in one of the canvases to create evocative pairings. These seductive works focus on the moment when words become form in order “to see what new arrangements do to us,” as Choate notes.
Grafforists
Kimberly Rowe, “Be in the Ecstatic Present (Where All the Mystical Stuff is)” (2016), oil, acrylic, acrylic ink, and flashe on canvas, 125 x 111 inches (via kimberlyrowe.net)
When: Opens Saturday, June 18, 6–9pm
Where: Torrance Art Museum (3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, California)
Grafforists brings together a group of contemporary painters for whom mark making is a sign and affirmation of their existence. Serving a similar function as traditional momento mori paintings, these abstract works call out the artists’ mortality even as they record their physical presence and action of their bodies.
Artists include Tomory Dodge, Kimberly Rowe, Oscar Murillo, Pepa Prieto, Mary Weatherford, and others. Discussion with the artists and curator to precede the reception at 4pm.
Maura Brewer and Paul Pescador, “DAD DAD DAD” (via humanresourcesla.com)
DAD DAD DAD
When: Sunday, June 19, 12–5pm
Where: Human Resources (410 Cottage Home, Chinatown, Los Angeles)
Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining is not exactly what you would call a model father, but he is the central figure in “DAD DAD DAD,” a three channel video installation by Maura Brewer and Paul Pescador. Focusing on the formal aspects of Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece, as well as a recreation of the narrative using puppets, the piece likens the power relationships between camera and actor to those between father and child, an apt topic for this Father’s Day screening.