Out of and Into the Blue

While one of our Art Girls has gone off to Europe to visit the Venice Biennale and Art Basel, two of us stayed home to explore the rich cultural finds of LaBrea and Fairfax Avenues.  I am happy to report, we saw two terrific exhibitions that dealt with truly American concepts; the vast landscape and baseball.

The new Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery has opened with an inaugural exhibition of architectural drawings, photographs, notes and various materials relating to James Turrell's opus  work "Roden Crater."  As our followers know, we've experienced several Turrell works of art and are always "hungry for more" (to quote Anthony Bourdain). With retrospectives in Houston and Los Angeles and a monumental work for the Guggenheim Museum soon to open, this is the year of  James Turrell.  After working on "Roden Crater" for four decades, art lovers are eagerly awaiting to experience the monumental work in the Arizona desert but for now we were happy to have experienced the "Meditation Room" at the back of the KGC Gallery.

Since we won't be enjoying any bellinis at Harry's Bar in Venice any time soon, we figured why not treat ourselves to the pork sliders and bacon/chocolate bar with sale & pepper ice cream at Animal. While waiting for a table we wandered into KNOWN Gallery on Fairfax Avenue with little expectation except to kill some time. On first blush the images of baseball players and baseball cards seemed uninteresting to two art girls who don't know much about baseball. However, upon closer examination it because clear that each of the large images of (black) baseball players was composed of small dots, raised, small dots that soon revealed themselves to be chewing gum. The artist Pat Riot had painstakingly and chewingly composed these work entirely out of bubble gum. (Seriously! He had numerous trips to the dentist and oral surgeon as a result of his artistic efforts!) A George Seurat of the 21st century.  The stats on his baseball card reveal facts like," 400 chews to make gum usable,"  "70-90 dots per wad of gum," and "4-5 minutes of chew time per piece of gum."  Jackie Robinson was sold but there were a few other sluggers still available.

      

At the back of the gallery was a smaller room with an installation by Bill Barminski in which he constructed a typical American living room using predominantly cardboard.  The scene includes an arm chair reminiscent of Archie Bunker, a tv tray complete with a tv dinner, a television with a baseball game playing on an endless loop and a few firearms.

What a terrific pairing these two artists made for "Out of Left Field," the exhibition's title. Over our asparagus and strawberry salad, we couldn't help but contemplate some of what it means to be American; the freedom to pursue the dream of building a place in a crater to view the sky and the freedom to enjoy owning a semi-automatic weapon and a ballgame from an arm chair. God bless America and God bless that chocolate/bacon dessert!