Co-organized by Thomas Lawson and Aram Moshayedi

The Experimental Impulse is part of Pacific Standard Time. [...]]]> The Experimental Impulse

REDCAT – Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theater
Walt Disney Concert Hall complex, 631 West 2nd St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 / Opening Reception: November 19, 2011 / 6 – 9 pm

Co-organized by Thomas Lawson and Aram Moshayedi

The Experimental Impulse is part of Pacific Standard Time. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.

 
More Information:
www.redcat.org/exhibition/experimental-impulse
www.pacificstandardtime.org

 

Raúl Guerrero, “Jack Goldstein”, Santa Monica, CA, 1976, Pin hole camera photograph, 8 x 10 inches

Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School
Arts Education Centre, #1714, 21 Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
October 1 – November 23, 2011 / Opening Reception October 15, 6 – 8 pm

Guest Curator: Kristina Newhouse

Women Gallerists: [...]]]> She accepts the proposition:
Women Gallerists and the redefinition of Art
in Los Angeles, 1967-1978

Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School
Arts Education Centre, #1714, 21 Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
October 1 – November 23, 2011 / Opening Reception October 15, 6 – 8 pm

Guest Curator: Kristina Newhouse

Women Gallerists: Eugenia Butler, Claire S. Copley, Riko Mizuno, Morgan Thomas, Thomas Lewallen, Foundation for Art Resources (FAR)

While galleries such as Ferus and individuals such as Irving Blum, Henry Hopkins, and Walter Hopps have been canonized for the part they played in ushering Los Angeles out of its notorious cultural conservatism, the role of others in the Los Angeles scene is less well known. Art dealers often had to step into the breach between artist and audience as intermediaries at a time when questions about remuneration for these kinds of gallery exhibitions were essentially unresolved. With this exhibition, we examine the critical contribution of several Los Angeles women art dealers to the advancement of nontraditional art practices, in the period from 1967 to 1978.

She accepts the proposition: Women Gallerists and the redefinition of art in Los Angeles, 1967-1978 is presented as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. Pacific Standard Time is 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. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take place for six months beginning October 2011.

Special Projects:
October 1 – 11: William Leavitt, Wind Sound (1970). Solo sound installation, first presented at Eugenia Butler Gallery in 1970.
October 15 – November 23: Daniel Buren, In following the white and red arrows: work in situ. For Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School and She accepts the proposition: Women Gallerists and the redefinition of art in Los Angeles, 1967-1978; 2011. Situational artwork on Crossroads campus.

More Information:
XRDS.org

Raul Guerrero has been an important presence on the Southern California art scene – particularly in the San Diego/Tijuana region – for more than twenty years. Making paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and videotapes, he has forged an expansive, ever-evolving [...]]]> Raúl Guerrero, “Club Guadalajara de Noche”, 1989, oil on linen, 27 x 168 inches

Raul Guerrero has been an important presence on the Southern California art scene – particularly in the San Diego/Tijuana region – for more than twenty years. Making paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and videotapes, he has forged an expansive, ever-evolving vision – one that combines technical innovation with symbolic power. Although his style ranges from early conceptually based abstraction to recent narrative realism, Guerrero’s self-described “search for the poetry of life” is a constant in all of this work. Traveling and reading voraciously, Guerrero continually engages the histories of culture in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, culling images and ideas for his art.

Guerrero’s search for images, ideas, and experiences has taken him to countless other places including Berlin, Managua, Madrid, Tangiers, and a farmstead in Iowa. An unreformed romantic, he instinctively seeks out the beautiful, the dramatic, and the tragic.

“Hatred, passion, love of a city, a continent- these may all be seen as iconic art objects.” Like the 15th century Spanish explorer, Juan de Cardenas, Guerrero is an explorer. But the territory he explores is largely intangible: it is the tumult of history and culture clashes that have shaped the Americas and the globe during the 500 years since Columbus.

“That style might be defined as primitive but not naïve, with a touch of magic realism from the time and incorporating a narrative feeling of space coming from [...]]]> Raúl Guerrero: CUE Art Foundation
Exhibition curated by Allen Ruppersberg
January 21 – March 13, 2010
Opening reception Thursday, January 21, 6:00 – 8:00pm

“That style might be defined as primitive but not naïve, with a touch of magic realism from the time and incorporating a narrative feeling of space coming from his sculptural tableaus of the past. The elements that made the sculptural environments stand out had passed into the paintings.”  — Allen Ruppersberg

Since 1975 San Diego-based artist, Raúl Guerrero has practiced the art of compiling Latino history and color of daily life, his visual work serving as a nexus for the myriad sub-cultures of the Southwest and beyond. Emulating the characteristics of piled, brilliant cellophane sheets, vignettes of seemingly disparate cultural imagery blend effortlessly together to create his luminescent oils paintings. Aside from his painting, Guerrero is also well immersed throughout Southern California and the Southwest’s art scenes for his photography, installations, video and sculpture. His work captures the processes of Toulouse-Lautrec and is infused with the ideas of Duchampian Dadaism and Surrealism. Through his vivid, mature cultural studies, like his most recent exploration of the drinkers, dancers, and prostitutes of the Tijuana’s La Coahuila red-light district, Guerrero skillfully examines aspects of Latino culture laying outside of traditional kitsch. His clear canvasses immerse the viewer into an environment that is tangible, but unattainable anywhere else naturally by the human eye — construction a variation on a dream. Most recently, Guerrero’s works have drawn specific imagery from cinema in order to make political and social commentary. This artistic exploration has forged an expansive, ever-evolving vision that continually engages the histories of culture and imagery in the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

The lurid, dark depths of “The Pool of Palenque” frame a hovering Mayan mask, surrounded by butterflies and a rushing waterfall. A small, almost incandescent frog in the foreground stares at the mask, transfixed. The viewer can almost see an underlying, powerful force tying these two things, nature and Mayan culture together. In this setting — as in the rest of his impressive portfolio, Guerrero’s collaged use of pre-Columbian and Chicano motifs infuse an illusionistic realism, uncharacteristic of their traditional depictions. In contrast, “Misterio” (2) takes on a more mysterious, dark perspective, reminiscent of de Chirico and other Surrealists. Despite the warm hues, a sense of impending dangers and past violence irk quietly in the background, inviting the viewer to push though the shattered wood doors and investigate. The border, or as he has put it for other works, “La Frontera,” becomes the inescapable mental connection. Clearly, he is more than willing to go beyond the ignorantly alluring and address the problematic. As a result, Guerrero is reinventing cultural experiences in a way that confronts and questions history on both a local and international level. By attempting to capture the expressive, diverse world he lives in, his works transform from mere memories and observations to unarguable sociopolitical statements.

Shown in its entirety for the first time ever will be Guerrrero’s Oaxaca Series (1984-1985) at CUE Art Foundation, his first solo show in New York City in over twenty years. These works run the gamut of iconographical content: Mayan temples, Venus de Milo, animals, and folk objects, illustrating Guerrero’s uncanny ability to meld our divergent cultural heritages into a uniquely personal, but also shared new “reality,” serving both as a unifier and critique on the present.

View Exhibition Catalogue

About CUE

CUE Art Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit forum for contemporary art and cultural exchange that provides opportunities and resources for under-recognized artists. We value the astonishing diversity of creativity that artists provide and the importance of their activity in the social context of the city.

CUE provides artists, students, scholars and art professionals resources at many stages of their careers and creative lives. Our programs include exhibitions, studio residencies, publications, professional development seminars, educational outreach, symposia, readings, concerts and performances. Since 2002, we have operated from our 4,500 square foot storefront venue in the heart of New York’s Chelsea Arts District.

CUE exhibiting artists are chosen by their peers who are themselves selected by a rotating advisory council from across the country. This pluralistic process ensures that CUE consistently offers diverse viewpoints from multiple disciplines of artistic practice. Simply put, we give artists their CUE to take center stage in the challenging world of art.

Exhibition supported in part by: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.
Major program support is provided by The Viking Foundation, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, The Pollock- Krasner Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, William Talbot Hillman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts (a State Agency).

www.cueartfoundation.org