A Handbag?

A Handbag?  Yes, a Handbag.  Lots of handbags, purses and pocketbooks all in a museum exhibit at the V&A in London.  These products might be worth a lot but are they worthy of a museum exhibit?  

 

I won’t be traveling to London to see this one. But if I did, I would set up a pop-up exhibit out in front of the museum.   I would place cardboard boxes on the street as display stands to show off the best knock-off handbags $10 can buy.  

  “No officer, these bags are not for sale.  This is performance art!”

If the de Young is negotiating to host this show, I’ll be ready…

I actually have some history with handbags.   Like most artists, I ended up doing some temp work.   One time the agency sent me on an assignment to a small, designer handbag company.  I headed South of Market to a warehouse in an alley near the Stud.   This was the 1990s, back when some of the warehouses were still warehouses.   There was even a sweatshop on the first floor.

 

The space was filled with cardboard crates full of new merchandise shipped from overseas.  In one corner was an office area.   The temps (we started with three of us) had to work on the floor in the middle of everything.   Our job was to take new, large craft paper boxes and cut and fit them, inside and out, with pretty handmade paper (they spent a fortune at Flax).  The paper had to be spray glued into place.  It was labor-intensive and each box took nearly an hour to finish.  The plan was to use the pretty boxes to ship samples to journalists, fashionistas, etc.   “P.R. Sweetie.  P.R.!” 

 

A handful of enthusiastic, young women worked in the corner office.  All were very well dressed — especially to come to work in a urine-soaked alley.  They were nice and pretty much left us to our task.  Occasionally you would overhear snippets of conversation.   Let’s just say, I never needed to watch Sex in the City.   I lived it for about a week.

 

For a temp job, this was a better one.   Still, one of my temp coworkers never returned from lunch.   Another stopped showing up after a few days.  I was delighted.  More work for me.  All by myself, I worked about 9 days at this company.

 

They were in such a hurry, they asked me to come in on a Saturday.  There I was, all by myself, making overtime.   And here was my chance.   I could steal a few handbags.  But then I asked myself, “What would I do with them?  Who would I give them to?”  I thought about it.  My mom, my sister, all of my friends who carry a purse — not one of them would have any use for these delicate, useless little handbags.  No shoulder straps, small and impractical.  For the record, I did not steal a thing.

 

At that moment I began to realize the real purpose of carrying a designer handbag.  It is not just about the label and the cost. A woman carrying a precious handbag communicates to the world that she only goes to places where she does not have to worry.  Nothing bad happens in her world.  She certainly does not take public transportation.   Does she even walk down a street in a “bad” neighborhood? That handbag says she rides in a very expensive car.  Like those impractical and tortuous high heels, the handbag is way to reinforce her class and her perceived status.

Mail Art at the Getty

They currently are having a mail art exhibit at the Getty in Los Angeles.  You will not find a mail art show on their website.  The curators are not describing the work as mail art but it is there as part of the show Manet and Modern Beauty.  

The exhibit begins with a gallery full of Manet’s dough-faced portraits.  The highlight in the gallery is not a portrait but a painting of a plate of oysters.  Are we allowed to make fun of any Manet portrait?  I clearly was in the minority – the gallery was packed with visitors stepping over themselves to gawk and photograph.  

In the next gallery the crowds thin and you find delicate watercolors along with Manet’s illustrated letters sent from Bellevue.  Manet the impressionist, and Manet the Mail Artist.  The exhibit continues with a gallery filled with flawless still lives of fruit and flowers.  With exception of Georgia O’Keeffe, I don’t usually get excited about paintings of flowers.  The trick with Manet is look at vases. Manet’s crystal vases are magic, pure magic.

Three Museum Weekend

Any visit to Southern California offers a huge choice and variety of art museums to see.  I got a look at four excellent shows this weekend in three museums.

Proyecto Queer Icons, Gabriel Garcia Román

Long Beach’s Museum of Latin American Art  was the first stop.  This summer the entire museum is devoted to Gráfica América, a comprehensive showcase including artist collectives, print shops and publishing houses.  The exhibit features work by over 100 U.S. and Latin American artists.   It’s an opportunity to get a sampling of a wide variety of print work ranging from historic and traditional print methods to digital processes.  The only regret was, in many cases, that I wanted to see more work from some of the artists shown.  I was snapping photos of prints and museum labels with my phone for the purpose of looking up many of these artists online.  Of course I was excited to see map themed prints from artists like Lorena Pradal   and Maria Villanueva  and the final gallery offers print making opportunities for visitors that include making postcards (yay!).

Self Portrait, Patrick Angus

I enjoyed all the shows I saw over the weekend, but the one that blew me away was the Patrick Angus retrospective at the Long Beach Museum of Art.  I was unfamiliar with Patrick Angus until this past Saturday.  He was a painter’s painter with work that is unmistakably Californian in light, style in palette.  His life was sadly cut short when he died from AIDS in 1992.  The two New York cityscapes shown are something akin to California meets Hopper.  The influence of many artists from Diebenkorn to Picasso to Hockney comes through in his work.  The work is far from derivative but shows an artist with an observant eye who makes each painting his own.  The Galerie Thomas Fuchs has a good sampling of Angus’s work on their website.  I wish this exhibit was going on tour after it closes — Patrick Angus’s work needs to be seen.

Bob Mizer, historic costume

There was a smaller show of Bob Mizer’s work at the same museum.  From books, film and the internet I am no stranger to Mizer’s work.  But what made this show special, beyond the photography, was the collection of props, costumes and memorabilia — oh the stories those jockstraps could tell.  I really want to see it all find a home in the Smithsonian.

Sunday afternoon found me wandering the historic heart of Los Angeles with a visit to La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.  After some L.A. history, it was time to explore Linda Vallejo’s large solo exhibition Brown Belongings.  Her mandala-like and graphic pieces seem straightforward and stand alone on their visuals but look closely and read the labels and see each one is embedded with meaning and statistics documenting Latinx demographics and culture. In these times, it never hurts to remind us we live in multicultural and diverse society.  The second floor included many pieces from her Make ‘Em All Mexican series with the latinxafication of many of cultural and historical icons.  With some brown paint and pigment, you get a revised perspective on everyone from Marilyn Monroe, to Bob’s Big Boy, to George Washington to “Mateo” Damon.   The pieces have a serious message, but they are great fun.  It’s the sort of show that would trigger the deplorables — but they would not even get out of their cars if they found themselves in that part of L.A.  The ceramics are safe.

Make ‘Em All Mexican series, Linda Vallejo

A weekend with three museums reaffirms why Los Angles (and environs) is one of the world’s great art cities.

Not Your Grandma’s Chandeliers

July in San Francisco is typically a cold month, the fog and wind keeps us in the 60’s.  As pleasant as that might sound if you’re sweltering in the rest of the country, we start to miss the warm weather.  But just a quick trip down to Palo Alto and it was 84° and sunny yesterday.  The destination was the Cantor Arts Center down at Stanford.

When I previewed Josiah McElheny’s Island Universe  on the website, I was not particular excited. At quick glance I saw photos of what looked to me like bunch of retro chandeliers.  Maybe it is the damage of working in the world of interior design for 10+ years.  Well, McElheny is doing something far more amazing than pretty baubles to dangle over dining tables.  It is art, it is astronomy and photos can’t do it justice.  And once again I am reminded why, given the opportunity, you always need to see art in person.

I always enjoy the juxtaposition of old and new at the Cantor and after wandering past the Rodin horde, I encountered Do Ho Suh’s The Spaces in Between– this alone is worth a trip.   Now this is a chandelier!  When you enter the room, you don’t realize it is made up of plastic action figures.  The same for the colorful screen.  I didn’t immediately realize the wallpaper was part of the installation.  It appears to be some sort of 1970s grass cloth pattern until you step closer and realize it is a grid of teensy yearbook portraits (magnifying glasses provided).  Art that is not what it appears, color, grids and color.  I was in heaven and reminded once again that one day I must visit Korea, if just to see contemporary art.   

To finish off the visit one has to get lost in the Richard Serra and imagine they are in some canyon in the Desert Southwest. 

Surprised by Viola Frey

We escaped from San Francisco today up to Napa for a visit to the di Rosa Preserve .  It’s been quite a few years, and I was looking forward to seeing their vast collection of Northern California art.  Until we began the tour, I hadn’t realized that Gallery 2, their largest gallery space, is currently showcasing a large exhibit of the work of Viola Frey. 

Before today, I was only familiar with some of Frey’s larger-than-life, ceramic, sculptures seen in places like the Oakland Museum.    Seeing a comprehensive exhibit of her work and discovering she was first a painter was a surprise and unexpected to treat.  Once you see Viola Frey first and foremost as a painter, her ceramic work even feels like paintings rendered in clay and glazes.

About once a year, an art exhibit comes through the Bay Area that is truly a don’t miss, incredible experience for art lovers.  It is rarely the most hyped-up, big museum extravaganzas.  We are only about half way through the year, but the show to see in 2019 is most definitely Viola Frey: Center Stage.

Bay Area Scene Paintings

I said to the woman at the front desk, “It’s funny how I have to come down here from San Francisco to see Bay Area paintings…”   She laughed, and apparently they have been hearing comments like this a lot at the Hilbert Museum.  Yes, the best Bay Area art exhibit right now is down in Orange County. Bay Area Scene Paintings is on view until April 27, 2019 and well worth checking out if you’re down south.  

Plenty of artists I was unfamiliar with.  A bunch of lovely work that even featured the hideous and long gone Embarcadero Freeway. I actually am glad that freeway is preserved in some paintings.  Jack Laycox’s 1959 painting shows when it was brand new.

Will we ever get to see these up north? I would never expect them to make room for an exhibit like this among the baubles and schamtas at one of those San Francisco museums.  But the Oakland Museum needs to step up and show this work.

24th Annual Pink Week.

The Pink Week microART Invitational opens tonight at the Sparrow Gallery in Sacramento.  The show remains up until November 30th.  Of course I have a micro piece in the show.

Postal Pugs

About a year ago I responded to a  call for art and mailed my pug-themed mail art to Germany.  I really appreciated the Edition 753 catalog that arrived last week.  And my model, Sammy, was quite pleased with himself.

San Francisco Smalls

MUNI Mandala, mixed media on canvas, 8”x8”, 2013

San Francisco Smalls is the new show at Glama-Rama Salon & Gallery.    

The opening reception is this Saturday, January 13 from 7:30 to 9:00 pm (304 Valencia Street, San Francisco).  I only have one piece in the show, but, if I do say so myself, it is a good one.  My MUNIMandala made from old Fast Passes will be shown for the first time.  Come and have a look.  The show runs through April 7, 2018.

Happy Pink Week

Last Saturday we kicked things off for Pink Week in Sacramento with a meet-up at the Verge Center for the Arts. Then, in all our pink regalia, the flash mob marched over to a light rail station where we rode across town to Artspace 1616 for the Pink Week Show.  The show is up at the gallery until December 3, 2017.  You can see my piece below and read the story behind it here.