LA Art Show 2012

My last post covered the Los Angeles Fine Art Show (Jan 19-22, 2012). Now we turn our attention to the LA Art Show, the “other” show held simultaneously in the same location at the Convention Center. Confused? Never mind, it’s all art.

The LA Art Show, the subject of this post, was the modern & contemporary side. That means 20th and 21st century art. Much of it by artists who are still alive, some of them even quite young.

Let’s take a look:

I enjoyed perusing the work in this booth (below), Denis Bloch Fine Art of Beverly Hills. Some famous names in there. Did you spot the Damien Hirst spot painting? They seem to be everywhere these days.

Speaking of spots, I did see quite a few dots this year. Perhaps it’s a trend? You know I’m all about the dots, right? So I do tend to notice them.

Here’s an example from a Korean artist, who overlays accent dots on top of traditional eastern landscape paintings. The twist is that the dots follow the underlying shapes but are intentionally offset a little, like when a printer mis-registers the different colors:

Hyun-Jae Chang, untitled, 2011, mixed media on linen, 50×50 cm, $1,750. Offered by Chung Jark Gallery, Seoul, South Korea. Detail below, showing the offset dots.

I enjoyed this colorful arrangement of dot art by Justina Ko:

Justina Ko monoprints, 15×11 inches each, shown by ECF Art Centers, Los Angeles.

Although I don’t much care for political Chinese art, I succumbed to the allure of Chairman Mao decorated with an overlaid grid of dots (you can see the dots in the detail view below). Reminded me of some of my own paintings where I put a grid of dots over an underpainting (like this one).

Liu Sheng, “Chairman Mao,” 2011, acrylic on linen, 110×90 cm. Shown by Hao Space, Guangzhou, China. Detail below.

Perhaps it’s a stretch, but this next painting struck me as one big dot made up of many little dots (dabs of paint, really, but I’m not picky):

Richard Pousette-Dart, Radiance (untitled), ca 1965-67, oil on canvas, 30×40 inches, $350,000. Detail below.

Continuing with a circular theme, we have these delicate-looking constructions by Korean artist Hee-Kyung Kim:

Hee-Kyung Kim, “Bloom” series, 2011, Korean paper, 60×60 to 90×90 cm, starting at $2,800. Offered by Art Company Misoolsidae, Seoul, South Korea.

What goes with dots? Stripes, of course! There were several flavors of stripes, but I especially liked these big colorful ones:

Tim Bavington, “Susie Q” and “Susie Q (distortion),” 2011, 64×64 inches each, synthetic polymer on canvas, $20,000 each. Offered by Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Is “synthetic polymer” a fancy way to say spraypaint?

More stripes:

John Waguespack, “Hollywood Hills,” 30×40 inches, oil on canvas. Shown by The McLoughlin Gallery, San Francisco.

From the linearity of stripes we move to rectilinear geometry, created by carving patterns through layers of multi-colored acrylic paint. Most striking (and most easily seen) from an angle:

David Allan Peters, “Untitled #4,” 2011, acrylic paint on panel, 60×48 inches, $18,000. Sold (congratulations!) by exhibiting gallery Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, California. Detail below:

I’ve seen Peters’ work before and I’m always intrigued by the idea of carving through all those layers, like an archeological dig.

I’ll wrap up with this piece, also rectangular, though it seems just about ready to jump out of its geometric outline:

Matt Devine, “Ember #2,” steel with red, 48x48x6 inches, $14,500. Offered by Madison Gallery, La Jolla, California.

Next stop: we venture across the street to the new Affordable Art Fair, which made its Los Angeles debut this year.

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