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    in Exhibitions

    Saudi Arabia’s First-Ever Andy Warhol Exhibition Enjoys a Sparkling Debut—Despite Criticism That It Sidelines the Artist’s Personal Life

    The mirror-clad façade of the Maraya Concert Hall in AlUla, Saudi Arabia’s ancient desert region, glitters just like the disco ball found in New York’s notorious Studio 54 club where the likes of Diana Ross, Truman Capote, Cher, and Jackie Kennedy, spent late nights partying in the 1970s. Fittingly, inside this shiny edifice is now the kingdom’s first ever exhibition of iconic works by another Studio 54 regular—Andy Warhol.
    Titled “FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla,” the exhibition (on view through May 16), is part of the second edition of the AlUla Arts Festival, itself among the region’s ongoing efforts to become a global destination for art and culture.
    Curated by Patrick Moore, director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, it is being staged at a time of great change for the kingdom under an ambitious reform agenda dubbed “Vision 2030,” which has been spurred by the country’s crown prince and prime minister, Mohammed Bin Salman. The agenda is rapidly pushing forward a complete transformation of the kingdom’s economy through top-down investment in all sectors with a particular focus on art, culture, and entertainment in order to grow a creative economy and wean the country off a dependence on oil and gas. 
    Andy Warhol, Liz (1964). The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 1998.1.2374 © 2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London.
    In many ways, the 70 iconic works exhibited at the glistening venue are symbolic of the kingdom’s change. The works chosen for display reflect Warhol’s own fascination with fame, glamor and Hollywood, and include portraits of Dolly Parton, Muhammad Ali, Salvador Dalí, Bob Dylan and Elizabeth Taylor. 
    “Warhol is so omnipresent in the world, but there’s never been really a proper exhibition in the Middle East and certainly not in Saudi Arabia,” Moore told Artnet News, adding that the exhibition was conceived in 2021 after he had been invited to AlUla to experience the region and its burgeoning arts scene for himself. 
    Staged concisely within an erected series of gallery rooms, the works present a clean and playful look into Warhol’s artistic legacy and genius. The first room showcases the artist’s “screen tests,” filmed black and white portraits of visitors to Warhol’s studio, The Factory, created between 1964 and 1966. Think personalities like Lou Reed, a founding member of the influential band The Velvet Underground slowly drinking a glass of coca cola while nonchalantly donning black sunglasses; Paul Johnson and the American actor known as “Paul America” after regularly staying at Hotel America in New York City. In another gallery, more playful, is Silver Clouds (1965), a room filled with floating metallic balloons prompting visitors to stop and play.
    Less lofty and playful, however, were the international political tensions that still hang in the air. Media reports roundly criticized the Warhol Museum’s decision to co-operate on the exhibition prior to the show’s opening, largely written by reporters who had yet to venture to the kingdom. They focused on the fact that Warhol was homosexual and Saudi Arabia criminalizes homosexuality, the maximum sentence for which is the death penalty. While this soured the air for some, Moore, like the Saudis who mounted the show, urged a focus on Warhol as an artist rather than on his personal life. 
    “Andy was a lot of things; he was an artist, he was a businessman, he was an entrepreneur, he was a media mogul, and he was also a gay man, but that’s not all he was,” Moore told Artnet News. “So not every exhibition should or needs to focus on that aspect of Warhol’s life because Warhol was an artist, not a gay artist.”
    There were no homosexual or otherwise controversial themes present in the works displayed. The works on display were carefully selected to focus on the themes of celebrity, status, and fame.
    Installation view, “FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla.” ©Flint Culture / ©2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./ Licensed by DACS, London.
    Amid the crowd of guests attending the opening, including notable members of the Middle Eastern art scene and regional and international press, praise was heard as was disappointment. 
    “The show is more concise, smaller than I had imagined,” quipped one journalist, expecting a grander affair for Warhol’s first Middle Eastern showing. Saudis, on the other hand, could be seen entering the exhibition with interest and excitement while local guides gave in depth tours of artwork in each room.
    Of note was a seeming increase of international and American art journalists covering the event—many journeying to Saudi Arabia for the first time. 
    “Several of my art world friends were apprehensive about my traveling to see the show,” said one American curator who was among the first timers. “But coming here and seeing the work on show and the quality of local Saudi artists has offered an eye-opening experience—it’s important to see the art here firsthand and give the artists a chance.” (Still, the curator only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity).
    AlUla continues to grow its local art scene, investing into local and international exhibitions, education programs, like the Madrasat Addeera, a former girls’ school in AlUla that offers around 70 local Saudi women free training in traditional arts and crafts by the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and artist residencies, such as the second edition of the AlUla Artist Residency Program that opened this week during the festival showcasing works by local Saudi and international artists within a lush desert oasis.
    Installation view, “FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla.” ©Flint Culture / ©2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./ Licensed by DACS, London.
    Local artistic growth has been done in tandem with large-scale blockbuster exhibitions in AlUla like Desert X, which has staged two editions, and now the Andy Warhol show. There’s also the upcoming Wadi Al Fann, meaning “Valley of the Arts” set to be completed by 2024, and which will exhibit local and international monumental artists by the likes of Ahmed Mater, James Turrell, and Agnes Denes in one of AlUla’s desert valleys. Iwona Blazwick, appointed chair of the Royal Commission for AlUla’s public art expert panel, will oversee Wadi Al Fann. 
    “A lot of the young Saudi artists aren’t known globally, and so by exposing them to artists of the magnitude that we’re bringing in and shows like ‘Fame,’ gives them the opportunity to be exposed to something they may not have ever had the opportunity to experience before as part of our strategy,” Philip Jones, chief tourism officer for the Royal Commission for AlUla told Artnet News. “We want to be known globally as one of the top arts and cultural destinations in the world. There’s tremendous arts and creativity in Saudi Arabia, but very few people around the world know about it.”
    Nora Aldabal, arts and creative planning director at the Royal Commission of AlUla, the government body responsible for staging the exhibition in partnership with the Andy Warhol Museum, also emphasized that the show is also about forging cross cultural dialogue.
    “For thousands of years AlUla was a place where civilization and diverse cultures came together through trade,” Aldabal told Artnet News. “We are continuing this today.”
    “FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla” is on view through May 16.
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    In Pictures: A Once-In-a-Lifetime Donatello Exhibition Surveys the Renaissance Master’s Revolutionary Sculptural Practice

    One of the most iconic artists of the early Renaissance whose ideas helped revolutionize Western culture forever, Donatello is the subject of a new once-in-a-lifetime survey at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
    The Italian artist is believed by many to be the greatest sculptor of all time thanks to his inspired reinvention of historical influences, including Classical antiquity and elegant medieval art. These ideas contributed to a novel and entirely unique vision that Donatello expressed through an impressive range of works in marble, wood, bronze, terracotta, and stucco.
    Some of the best examples in the show, which brings together about 130 objects, include the marble David, the stone relief Madonna of the Clouds, and other works that have never before been seen in the U.K., such as the eye-catching gold reliquary bust of San Rossore.
    Donatello’s varied life—from his humble beginnings as an apprentice goldsmith only to his time as an intimate of the powerful Medici family—also offers audiences a fascinating entry point into Florentine society during the 15th century. Building up this rich cultural context, the exhibition brings to life the old master’s artistic circle, including his teacher Ghiberti, one-time partner Michelozzo, colleagues from across northern Italy like Mantegna and Bellini and the goldsmith that his work inspired Beltramino de Zuttis.
    See some of the highlights from the show below.
    “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” is on view at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, through June 11, 2023.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Donatello, Spiritello with a tambourine. Photo by Antje Voigt, Berlin, courtesy of Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
    Donatello, Pazzi Madonna. Photo by Antje Voigt, Berlin, courtesy of Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Attributed to Donatello, Drawing of the Massacre of the Innocents, Rennes. Photo courtesy of Musée des Beaux-Arts.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Donatello, San Rossore. Photo courtesy of The Ministry of Culture Italy – Regional Directorate of Museums of Tuscany, Florence.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Installation view of “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” at the V&A Museum. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
    Michelozzo, Adoring Angel, commissioned from Donatello and Michelozzo’s joint studio. Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum London.
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    Artists Grapple With the Meaning of Motherhood in a New York Gallery Show. Here’s What They Say Inspired Their Work

    The questions of motherhood—whether to do it, how, when—is a major part of the female experience, and comes with enormous pressures related to the biological clock and societal expectations.
    At New York’s Trotter and Sholer gallery, the varied ways that women artists respond to this question is the subject of its current group show, “A Suitable Accomplishment.”
    The title is taken from the groundbreaking 1971 Linda Nochlin essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” which examined the social constructs that have kept women artists from receiving the same recognition as that of their male counterparts. (Spoiler alert: the demands of motherhood have sabotaged many a promising career.)
    And though the essay is more than 50 years old, it speaks to issues women still face in the year 2023.
    “A Suitable Accomplishment” on view at Trotter and Sholer. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer.
    “I’m not sure that we’ve progressed as far as we like to think we have,” gallery cofounder Jenna Ferrey told Artnet News. “And we definitely haven’t gone as far as we need to go!”
    Ferrey focused the show on a small group of women artists whose differing experiences of motherhood painted a wide picture of the subject.
    Barbara Ishikura, Jen (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    For some artists, motherhood is a creative inspiration, as with Fernanda’s Feher’s watercolors, which were “art directed” by her two-year-old, who asks her to incorporate elements like toys, ice cream, and cupcakes into her delicate works.
    Others reference multiple generations of women. One of Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster’s finely detailed paintings on glass is based on a drawing by her grandmother, with her mother’s reflection subtly included in the work to tie the three women together.
    Bahar Behbahani, Untitled (Immigrant Flora) 2018. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    There’s even a mother-daughter duo, Shamsy Behbahani and Bahar Behbahani, whose works appear in the show.
    “They created individual works, but they are in conversation with each other,” Ferrey said. “Bahar’s mother created a large hanging installation piece out of silver and copper thread which is hung so the light casts a shadow from Shamsy’s piece onto Bahar’s piece.”
    Bahar Behbahani and Shamsy Behbahani, All the Sea for You All the Pain for Me (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    The 13 featured artists in the show include both mothers and women who have decided not to have children of their own, as well as women who haven’t decided one way or another—a question that Ferrey, who has decided she does not want to have children, has grappled with herself.
    “Its something that’s been on my mind lately, and it comes up in conversations with friends, both those who have children and those who are choosing not to,” Ferrey told Artnet News. “But there’s social pressure no matter which position you take. And this is a conversation that almost probably every single woman could contribute something to.”
    See what some of the women in the show had to say in their artist statements about the question of motherhood and how it relates to their work.

    Fernanda Feher
    Fernanda Feher, Lilyland (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “As an artist, who is a single parent most of the time, I find it challenging not being able to go work whenever inspiration comes, and it is difficult for inspiration to come when having no alone time, having to do so many things at the same time and carrying so much responsibility by myself,” Fernanda Feher said. The artist credited her “infantile universe of imagination,” saying, “I can easily join my child in her fantasy to play and welcome her into creating worlds with me such as the ones we painted and drew together for this exhibition.”

    Isabelle Higgins
    Isabelle Higgins, A Feast (2021). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “Our culture does not support mothers or artists enough and this is something that comes to the forefront of my mind while weighing the option of taking on the role of motherhood,” Barbara Higgins said. “So for now, I am content with mothering my artistic works through care, time, and dedication.”

    Barbara Ishikura
    Barbara Ishikura, Holding Sho on Swing (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “When I gave birth to my children in the late 1980s, there was very little support for new mothers experiencing the demands of shifting cultural roles around career and childcare,” Barbara Ishikura said. “In my painting Holding Sho on Swing, I try to visualize the feelings of isolation that many young mothers experienced at that time. Looking at young women today, I see their vulnerability, but I also witness a level of confidence that was unfamiliar to me.”
    Alex McQuilkin
    Alex McQuilkin, Untitled (Blind Man’s Bluff), 2019. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “Prior to having children, that idea of self, though far from uncomplicated, could be approached in a conceptual way. Since becoming a mother, even the fantasy of a singular self is out of the question,” Alex McQuilkin said. “After having my children, I began to layer archival fragments of historical wall coverings in a claustrophobically shallow trompe l’oeil space on top of repeat patterns. The specificity of these material objects with their cracks, wrinkles, and imperfections, complicates the façade of neutrality in the repeat patterns and disrupts their grid-like ability to run rampant below the surface.”
    Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster
    Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster, Trois gestes (Three Gestures) 2022. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “Outside of this trio’ed collaboration, the women who precede me possess their own creative practices to sustain a fruitful life,” Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster said. “The act of making for us is as ordinary as drying dishes. My grandmother supplemented her husband’s income by selling her fiber arts, woven on her basement looms in order to dress her children. My mom fills her days with quilting after retiring from a career in cancer research, having fought to be considered both a scientist and mother. And I, after losing a child, have enveloped myself in painting.”

    Anna Marie Tendler
    Anna Marie Tendler, Good Mourning (2021). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “I do not particularly want children, yet at 36 I froze my eggs for fear I might change my mind,” photographer Anna Marie Tendler, who divorced her husband in 2021, said. “At first glance, my two works may appear to tell the story of a woman longing for motherhood, but I urge the viewer to consider the patriarchal conditioning that leads to this interpretation. Why does a woman clad in black and positioned in a room of empty twin beds signal loss? Why are we quick to assume she is sad? Perhaps she is Lilith, first wife of Adam, who in refusing to submit to her husband, left the Garden of Eden to become the figure of primal rage, stealing men’s sperm and devouring their babies in the dark of the night.”

    Shantel Miller
    Shantel Miller, Sherri and Sheryl (2018). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “These pieces are a labor of love for Black mothers in my life and for those who were not able to pro- vide love in the ways needed,” Shantel Miller said.

    Azzah Sultan
    Azzah Sultan, The Sewing Kit (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “Although we may grow up with our mothers, we never truly know their past and who they were before motherhood. These are conversations that are difficult to have with older generations, and I wish to explore it through a memory box,” Azzah Sultan said. “Here the biscuit tin has been reappropriated. Inside are pieces of fabric that hold personal stories. My mother starts to unveil a few but still keep some for herself.”

    Chellis Baird
    Chellis Baird, Hope (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “Artists, like mothers, also wear many hats, often functioning as both assistant and boss,” Chellis Baird said. The process of creation is often a juggle of several of these roles, with moments, sometimes unexpectedly, of absolute joy. Both job descriptions include the need for patience, love, and problem solving, with the witnessing of growth acting as a constant motivator and source of reward.”

    Marika Thunder
    Marika Thunder, Hungarian Woodshop (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “My mother is Hungarian and an artist herself. She didn’t allow her budding career and the inevitable challenges that came with raising a daughter to prevent her from achieving her dream. I’ll always admire her strength and courage to follow her own intuition,” Marika Thunder said. “The intuition of a mother, and intense psychic bond with the daughter always felt sacred to me. Though I am not a mother to a child, I feel very motherly toward each painting I make since they are objects that I’ve materialized from the ineffable parts of my lived experiences.”

    Lydia Baker
    Lydia Baker, Birth of an Idea (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
    “I’m interested in the psychological aspects of having an internal calendar—ovulation in particular, as it signifies letting go, an end, or potentially a beginning. My physical and mental experience with ovulation changes each year, and now in my early 30s, it’s become more pronounced,” Lydia Baker said. “As someone who adores children and doesn’t have them, it’s been interesting seeing my maternal energy announce itself in the studio.”
    “A Suitable Accomplishment” is on view at Trotter and Sholer, 168 Suffolk Street, New York, New York, January 14–February 18, 2023.
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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: Curator Roger Gastman Brings His Hit New York Street Art Show to London’s Saatchi Gallery

    Roger Gastman, curator of the celebrated exhibitions “Art in the Streets” at L.A. MoCA and “Beyond the Streets” in Brooklyn, is heading to the U.K.
    “Beyond the Streets London” opens today at the Saatchi Gallery, through May 9. Once more taking audiences along a journey through the history of street art, this latest offering includes entirely new works by Felipe Pantone that bring us right up to the digital age.
    The mammoth survey features work from more than 100 artists, filling every room of the gallery’s multi-floored, 70,000-square-foot space. Special installations will invite visitors into traditional venues for graffiti when it was still an underground practice, such as the recreated shop Trash Records, public transportation and back alleys. Here, we come to understand the role the art form played in forging identity, youth culture and artistic resistance.
    The exhibition also traces street art’s eventual acceptance by the mainstream art world, predominantly exploring its influence on leading contemporary artists as diverse as Todd James, Jenny Holzer, KAWS, Kenny Sharf, the Guerrilla Girls and Keith Haring.
    Archival objects and rare documents bring to life a rich range of subcultures, from punk rock to hip-hop. Some collaborations between musicians and graffiti art on display include the styling of the Beastie Boys and the a backdrop produced live by artist FUTURA2000 during a performance by The Clash. As the exhibition shows, street art has also long been an important cultural reference for so many creatives working in fashion and film.
    Check out some installation shots of the exhibition below.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May with headline supporter Adidas Originals.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May with headline supporter Adidas Originals.
    Saatchi Gallery, London presents “Beyond the Streets London,” 17 February – 9 May with headline supporter Adidas Originals.
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    Revisit the Dawn of the Digital Age Through These 9 Key Works From LACMA’s Exhibition on Early Computer Art

    “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age,” an exhibition gathering 100 works that illustrate how artistic practices shifted with the emergence of computer technology beginning in the 1950s, opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at a fortuitous moment. Running through July 2, the show arrives as digital art, with the help of blockchain technology, has acquired new currency, and as A.I. is freshly ascendant as a tool in image-making. 
    But as curator Leslie Jones told Artnet News, the exhibition was some 10 years in the making. Its spark was not NFT art, but the gift to LACMA of a series of witty computer drawings created by geometric painter Frederick Hammersley in 1969.
    “Being a curious curator, I wanted to know more about their context,” she said. “The seed of the exhibition was about looking back on a period that I felt had been somewhat overlooked and needed to be recontextualized in relation to what was going on at the time.”
    Installation view of “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982.” Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA.
    “Coded,” then, takes as its starting point 1952, when programming was in its infancy and computers were room-sized mainframes (see: HAL9000 in 2001: Space Odyssey). However unwieldy the technology, early practitioners such as mathematician Ben F. Laposky and engineer A. Michael Noll, though not artists by practice, saw opportunities to use computational sequences to generate fine art. 
    Their work paved the way for the generative artists in the following decades—the likes of Vera Molnár, Harold Cohen, and François Morellet, who addressed the matter of art production systematically. Conceptual and Op art, too, owed a debt to these computational approaches, with such artists as Sol LeWitt and Bridget Riley using algorithmic calculations to determine outcomes of their work.
    The exhibition’s scope ends in 1982, when personal computers arrived on the scene—closing out a period during which, Jones points out, artists had to go to some lengths to create any kind of computer art. Without home computers, they had to seek out machines at universities or corporations like Bell Labs, which were friendly to artistic experimentation. Even with access, creators had to learn to program (or find someone who could), then wait hours for the mainframes to generate outputs. 
    “I was just amazed by the artists’ commitment to making it happen. They just understood the possibilities and were willing to go through that,” she said.
    Victor Vasarely, Vega-Kontosh-Va (1971). Photo: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
    The show makes sense for an institution that can claim itself a role in the history of technology-assisted art. In the late ‘60s, LACMA initiated its Art and Technology program, which paired artists with technology companies to ideate and create cutting-edge art projects. As detailed in the resulting report on the program, the majority of these pairings—Walter de Maria and RCA, Dan Flavin and General Electric, among others—would come to naught, whether due to creative differences, prohibitive costs, or the lack of technological capabilities.
    But even amid these failures, the catalog could also be read as a series of yet-to-be-realized proposals. In particular, “Coded” is revisiting Victor Vasarely’s 1968 pitch to IBM to create “a lumino-cybernetic screen that can send out millions of different color combinations.” The Op art pioneer reckoned there were “endless possibilities” to the project, but the corporation ultimately balked at the price tag of $2 million.
    In a companion piece to the exhibition spearheaded by LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, a descendent of the Art and Technology program, Vasarely’s proposal for a “multi-colored electric device” will be reimagined by new media artist Casey Reas. His interactive METAVASARELY, said Joel Ferree, the program director of the Art + Technology Lab, will contain “similar ideas that are in the original Vasarely proposal, but they’ll be executed in a way that has more semblance to Casey’s contemporary practice.” The work will be on view onsite and online throughout the run of “Coded.”
    Installation view of “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982.” Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA
    Reas’s installation, however, is the show’s only contemporary concession; Jones emphasizes that “Coded” otherwise centers a historical lens on computer art. The point is to examine how computing technology has disrupted and redefined the framework of what we consider art and who we deem an artist—a dialogue that has yet to run its course. 
    “Not everyone in the show is celebrating the computer as a device; there are some critical uses of it as well,” she said, highlighting that technology remains as much a tool as a barrier to acceptance. “But so much has changed since then. It’s not really about who did what first; it’s more about having that conversation, or starting the conversation.”
    Below, explore nine key works in the exhibition:

    1. Vera Molnár’s computerized ode to Paul Klee
    Vera Molnár, À la recherche de Paul Klee (1970), ink plotter drawing. Photo: © Vera Molnár, © Museum Associates/LACMA.

    2. Filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek’s early experiments in computer animation
    Stan VanDerBeek, Poemfield No. 1 (Blue Version) (1967), realized with Kenneth C. Knowlton. Photo: © Estate of Stan VanDerBeek, all rights reserved, digital images courtesy of The Box, Los Angeles.

    3. Edward Kienholz’s patchwork computer(which worked!)
    Edward Kienholz, The Friendly Grey Computer—Star Gauge Model #54 (1965). Photo: © Estate of Nancy Reddin Kienholz, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, California, digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.

    4. Analivia Cordeiro’s dance compositions,choreographed by a digital computer
    Analivia Cordeiro, still from M 3×3 (1973). Photo: © Analivia Cordeiro, digital image courtesy of the artist.

    5. Eduardo Paolozzi’s mechanistic silkscreens
    Eduardo Paolozzi, Universal Electronic Vacuum: Computer-Epoch (1967). Photo: © The Paolozzi Foundation, licensed by DACS/ARS 2023, courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

    6. Sonya Rapoport’s hand-drawn data visualizations
    Sonya Rapoport, page 4 from “Anasazi Series II” (1977). Photo: © Estate of Sonya Rapoport, © Museum Associates/LACMA.

    7. Bauhaus designer Angelo Testa’s tape reel-inspired textile, commissioned by IBM
    Angelo Testa, IBM Disks textile (1952–56). Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA.

    8. The Bangerts’ “computer grass” plotter drawings
    Colette Stuebe Bangert and Charles Jeffries Bangert, GRASS SERIES II 80-11-comp-a (1980). Photo: © Colette Stuebe Bangert and Charles Jeffries Bangert, © Museum Associates/LACMA.

    9. Frederick Hammersley’s clever dot matrix print-outs
    Frederick Hammersley, SCALLOP POTATOES, #50 (1969). Photo: © New Mexico Museum of Art, © Museum Associates/LACMA.

    “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age” is on view at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, through July 2, 2023.
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    See How Artist Brigitte D’Annibale Transformed an Abandoned Malibu Home Into a Spectacular Immersive Installation

    Six months ago, the artist Brigitte D’Annibale took cultural strategist Vajra Kingsley to see an abandoned home in Malibu’s Point Dume.
    With its sweeping views of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, this was where D’Annibale wanted to realize a dream of some 30 years: to create immersive environment that would bridge art, architecture, design, and the natural world.
    What Kingsley saw was a boarded-up structure slated for demolition. “I said, ‘this is a depressing home, and if you think you’re going to reactivate it in sixth months, you’re out of your mind!’” Kingsley told Artnet News.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Shedding Layers of Blindness part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    But with a team of contractors and builders, D’Annibale gutted the home and stripped it to its studs, only to later reuse the salvaged raw materials to bring it back to life.
    “As a metaphor, I took home, which is a point of origin, stripped it down, and everything I used to rebuild it as an installation came out of what was stripped away,” D’Annibale told Artnet News.
    The installation is titled B=f(P, E), after Lewin’s Equation, which states that behavior results both from a person and their environment, reflecting D’Annibale’s hope that the immersive space will help visitors connect with their surroundings in moments of contemplation.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    The result, on view just in time for Frieze L.A., is like nothing you’ve ever seen. An imposing metal gate sourced from a Bali junkyard stands in front of the property, creating a dramatic reveal for visitors when the doors are finally opened.
    The walls of the home are still boarded up in a patchwork of humble plywood. Visitors enter through a revolving sheet of glass that pivots to spin open.
    Beyond it lies a two-story atrium, where D’Annibale has cut through to the basement below and installed a massive steel and glass skylight in the ceiling, from which hang spherical sculptures made from letters carved from reclaimed teak. The letter forms are references to the importance of communication, D’Annibale said.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and Amalgamation, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    She’s christened the skylight The Oculus, and the entire atrium feature, which is designed to be seen at different times of day as the light and shadow changes, is titled Amalgamation.
    The rest of the first floor is something of a white cube. In it hang artworks by D’Annibale, including No Strings Attached, a 16-panel encaustic piece, and two pieces featuring canvas wrapped around darkened mirrors, inspired by the appearance of building materials that were delivered to the site.
    There’s also a moody dining room installation titled Pigs in Zen, above which hangs The Killing Tree, a hollow, naturally occurring, sculpture of vines that once surrounded a tree trunk that died and rotted away.
    Brigitte D’Annibale The Killing Tree, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    But the true marvel is what lies below, when one exits the side door and walks down a sculptural hand-poured concrete staircase to what was once the lower level of the home.
    D’Annibale has completely opened it up to the backyard, covering the ground with 38,000 pounds of loose stone. Mounded beds planted with greenery and olive trees echo the shape of the mountains in the distance, and a sunken conversation pit beneath The Oculus is literally built out of the mud where the foundations once stood.
    “Originally, I was going to carve out this area. I wanted it to be subterranean. After I excavated it, we had three weeks of incessant rain, so it became a mud pit,” D’Annibale said. “I decided to use mud as a medium. I mixed it with decomposed granite and road base with a binding material.”
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Basement, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    “I thought it would be beautiful to be able to have conversations in this very grounding environment,” she added. “I don’t think there’s a much more humble material than sitting in the dirt.”
    The overall effect of the installation’s lower level is reminiscent of a Japanese rock garden or Chinese scholar’s garden, which D’Annibale said is a reflection of the years she has spent in Southeast Asia.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, with Amalgamation inside B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    “I wanted to use the flow of the landscape to create this very holistic connection with nature,” she added.
    Now that the ambitious project is completed, D’Annibale, Kingsley, and curator Elysia Borowy are beginning to formulate plans to activate the space. They envision performance events incorporating music and dance, and opportunities to host wide-ranging discussions around the conversation pit.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Basement part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    “This space is a vessel that Brigitte has created,” Kingsley said. “It’s so much bigger than one artist.”
    Public visiting hours will be offered starting in June, with limited tours for registered guests during Frieze Week.
    “This is just the beginning. This is designed to open up dialogue,” D’Annibale said. “It’s about immersion and interaction and connection.”
    See more photos of B=f(P,E) below.
    Brigitte D’Annibale The Oculus,part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Pigs in Zen part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Restraint 1, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and Amalgamation, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and The Basement, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, B=f(P,E), 2023, detail. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Entropy 1, Entropy 2, Entropy 3, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, No Strings Attached, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
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    Beyond the Fairs: Here Are 9 Museum Shows to Visit in Los Angeles During Frieze Week

    As the international art world descends on Los Angeles for Frieze week, we’ve highlighted some of the best art on view beyond the art fairs—in museums. From a glimpse into the life and work of the late polymath Milford Graves to an in-depth survey of South African artist William Kentridge’s oeuvre, plus the last days of Uta Barth’s beguiling photographs, here are the museum shows we’re looking forward to in the City of Angels.

    “Tala Madani: Biscuits” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCAthrough February 19, 2023
    Tala Madani, Blackboard (Further Education) (2021). Courtesy YDC.
    MOCA presents 15 years of the Tehran-born artist’s sketches, paintings, and animations, in her first North American survey show. With the patriarchy, the canon of art history, and law enforcement firmly in Madini’s scope, “Biscuits” is wickedly funny, timely, and long overdue. 

    “Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angelesthrough May 14, 2023
    Philippe Gras, Milford Graves at the Festival d’Automne à Paris (1974). © Philippe Gras.
    Milford Graves may have been best-known as a percussionist, but to call him only that is a disservice to a man who was a true polymath in every sense. As his New York Times obituary noted, he was “also a botanist, acupuncturist, martial artist, impresario, college professor, visual artist, and student of the human heartbeat.” The West Coast presentation of this show, which originated at New York’s Artists Space, features archival documentation, film, music, and the artist’s effusive sculptural assemblages.

    “Uta Barth: Peripheral Vision” at the Getty Centerthrough February 19, 2023
    Uta Barth, Ground #41 (1994). © Uta Barth, courtesy of the Getty Center.
    For those in Los Angeles for the weekend only, it’s the perfect time to catch the final days of Uta Barth’s work on view at the Getty. A true California artist, her photographs capture the unique light and space that filters through the city.

    William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows at the Broadthrough April 9, 2023
    William Kentridge, Drawing for ‘Other Faces’ (2011). Courtesy of the Broad.
    The Broad is giving over the entire first floor galleries to the 35-year career of William Kentridge, in the South African artist’s first major museum show in Los Angeles in more than 20 years. Set against a backdrop designed by Sabine Theunissen, more than 130 works by Kentridge rendered in his signature charcoal drawings, theatrical sets, and animated films provide a personal lens through which thorny socio-political issues are explored.

    “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt” at the Skirball Cultural Centerthrough March 12, 2023
    Bisa Butler, To God and Truth (2019). © Bisa Butler. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
    Works by more than 40 artists including Sanford Biggers and Bisa Butler stand out in this survey, which tells the story of America through quilts. As the show notes, “Whether produced as works of art or utilitarian objects,” the quilts “impart deeply personal narratives of their makers and offer an intimate picture of American life.”

    “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982“at LACMAthrough July 2, 2023
    Sonya Rapoport, page 2 from Anasazi Series II (1977) [detail]. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. © Estate of Sonya Rapoport, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.From experimental works made with hefty machines and analog works depicting algorithms to the rise of digital art made entirely online, creatives have been drawn to computers for decades. This show explores the rise of technology and how artists have interpreted its promises and perils.

    “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971” at the Academy Museum of Motion Picturesthrough July 16, 2023
    The Nicholas Brothers in a scene from Stormy Weather (1943). Courtesy Margaret Herrick Library ©Twentieth Century Fox.
    Taking its name from a 1923 movie, “Regeneration” explores the role of Black creatives from cinema’s inception in America through the Civil Rights movement. Through photographs, drawings, original costumes, and restored reels, the exhibition spotlights forgotten, overlooked, and suppressed films and filmmakers. 

    “Adee Roberson and Azikiwe Mohammed: because i am that” at the California African American Museumthrough May 7, 2023
    Installation view, “Adee Roberson and Azikiwe Mohammed: because i am that” at CAAM.
    Occupying CAAM’s atrium, “because i am that” is a two-person show that, across its six-month run, is inviting a range of collaborators to bring musings on Black creativity into the space. Curated by Essence Harden, the conversation between Robertson and Mohammed includes paintings, video, and sculpture. 

    “Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio” at the Hammerthrough May 28, 2023
    Bridget Riley, study for Shuttle (1964). © Bridget Riley.
    Behind every Riley painting is a series of exploratory and probing drawings. As her first West Coast show in 50 years reveals, the black-and-white optical works are no less beguiling. The Hammer’s exhibition offers visitors a chance to track the British artist’s development from her student work in the 1940s through today.    
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    Carolyn Lazard’s Latest Work Offers Another Way to Experience the Beauty of Dance—Almost Entirely Without Sight

    Dance is a highly physical art form that often includes numerous senses. Dancers traditionally respond to a beat or melody through hearing; their sense of touch will be used for intricate movements against the floor and in relation to fellow performers. But it is usually the sight of dance that is put centre stage for the audience. Carolyn Lazard, a New York and Philadelphia-based artist and writer, dynamically challenges the way that dance is experienced in a new exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. 
    In their collaborative work Long Take, Lazard almost removes the sense of sight and presents a creative dance piece through a sound installation, complete with recorded reading of a dance score, sounds of the performer’s movements and breath, and an audio description on a black screen. The piece confronts the hierarchy often given to the senses within the arts, with sight typically valued as the most important. Long Take calls for a different approach to rigid ideas that impinge accessibility, expanding the limits of what dance in a public space can be.
    “European culture and philosophy has largely privileged sight as our primary means of producing knowledge,” said Lazard. “It’s an epistemic violence that narrows the infinite possibilities for how we make meaning in life.”
    The exhibition takes a complete approach to its message. As part of the installation, Lazard has altered four of Nottingham Contemporary’s benches to create a more welcoming and comfortable experience for visitors with different access needs. The heights of the benches have been altered, and cushions and backrests have been added. Their practice is not only a powerful call to explore accessibility and inclusion within the work itself, it also takes a practical approach to reframing the oftentimes exclusive world of art galleries and institutions.
    In 2019 they wrote Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice. It is a clear yet richly researched guide for small-scale nonprofits to become more open to the public they serve. It covers topics from how best to list access information to different accommodations that can be made to support visitors with varying needs. The straightforward guide delves into matters such as childcare, content warnings, and touch tours for people who are blind or vision impaired. 
    “Museums are a colonial project, and therefore inherently ableist,” said “Long Take” co-curator Olivia Aherne, who has worked with Rosa Tyhurst on the exhibition. “They create, perpetuate and reinforce forms of hegemonic power. Within that, productivity and competency are of utmost importance.” The curator added that Lazard’s guide was persuasive that greater accessibility can be achieved regardless of available resources. “It’s about assessing priorities and redirecting resources, both in terms of what you value and privilege but also more practically what you budget for.”
    Many of the suggestions in the Accessibility in the Arts guide are seemingly simple for galleries to take on, but surprisingly few spaces have. Lazard’s collaborative approach to art making exposes the power that can be found in working together to find innovative solutions. 
    “Long Take is about the relational and how people provide care and access for each other always, before, after, and beyond what one might call the state or the economy,” they said, adding that they invited dancer and writer Jerron Herman and writer and artist Joselia Rebekah Hughes to make this work. “We are all in an extended community of artists who are interested in questions of care and access aesthetics…We danced together, we listened together, we recorded together, and we wrote together.”
    An urgent issue within public care systems is the racism and inequality that lie at the heart of their structures. Lazard’s 2019 work Pain Scale confronted the minimization of Black pain that is inherent within the United States’ medical services. The piece depicts a row of brown faces, created in the image of the emoji-like expressions that are presented to patients in hospitals to communicate the level of pain they are feeling. Except in Lazard’s work, all the faces are smiling. The only option for those picking from this scale, is happy and pain free. 
    The work speaks to disturbing findings that have been uncovered within the US care system. A 2016 study found that 50 percent of US medical students believed Black people to have thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings than white people. A broader meta-analysis of two decades of studies found that Black patients were 22 percent less likely than white patients to receive pain medication when requested. These deeply rooted, racist misconceptions can make a world of difference to how a patient is treated by the medical profession, if indeed they are deemed to need treatment at all.
    We need to see “the end of the world as it is,” Lazard said, when asked what must change in the United States to address this systemic racism within the care system. Their work is a rallying cry for equality in care and access, but also a creative and often practical exploration of how this might happen.
    In Long Take, the work embodies its message. It doesn’t just tell its audience why vision-favored works can be problematic, it shows them another, highly enriching way of experiencing a popular art form. Importantly, the work shows that accessibility within art does not have to mean a reduction of complexity. “In its layered form—score, sound, description—Long Take turns away from ideas of transparency or coherence, arguing that disabled people also deserve access to incoherency,” says Ahearne. “I think that’s really important to note.”
    “Carolyn Lazard: Long Take” is on view through May 7 at Nottingham Contemporary.
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