Category: Art in Los Angeles
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Artist a Day Challenge (1): Ruth Waddy
In the fall of 1962 a group of black artists gathered in the back of Safety Savings and Loan’s community room. Brought together by a 53-year-old woman with no formal knowledge of art and limited resources, Ruth Waddy’s pitch to the group was a simple one: Her goal was to create a juried art show at a…
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Octavia Butler’s Radio Imagination
One of the best books I read in 2016 was Kindred by Octavia Butler and one of the most powerful essays I read in 2016 was “Broken Defaced and Unseen: the Hidden Black Female Figures of Western Art”, by Robin Coste Lewis. One work explored time travel, slavery and the black female body while the other takes the…
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Truth Sellers: My Thoughts on Loss, 2016 & Lucrative Appropriation
We’re finally closing out 2016 and I know am not alone in saying this: I’m tired. Last month I saw this Sam Durant looming over one of the LACMA galleries as diners were eating al fresco in the courtyard enjoying wine at Ray’s and Stark Bar. Around the same time my Instagram feed was flooded with Basel pictures, including Durant’s popular “End…
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The Price of Passage: Betye Saar at Roberts & Tilton
The human brain works as a binary computer and can only analyze the exact information-based zeros and ones (or black and white). Our heart is more like a chemical computer that uses fuzzy logic to analyze information that can’t be easily defined in zeros and ones. ~Naveen Jain One world deals in absolutes: “Black vs White”…
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“And Now, the Rest of the Story”: Simone Leigh at the Hammer Museum
Last week my latest review of Simone Leigh’s exhibit was featured on Arts.Black.com. The piece takes a close look at two of the strong influences found in Leigh’s work, the Herero and the Cupboard. While reading though sources for this piece I came across the fascinating, tragic history of the Herero. This gave me a much…
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Do I Look Like a Lady? Mickalene Thomas at MOCA
“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile…” ~Paul Lawrence Dunbar There’s something strangely familiar inside the dimly lit living room installation of Mickalene Thomas’s latest exhibition, “Do I Look Like a Lady?”…
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Hammer Projects: Simone Leigh
Happy Friday everyone! Today my review of Simone Leigh’s new show at the Hammer Museum is currently featured on Daily Serving. Be sure to check it out! ********* Colony Little explores Simone Leigh’s first West Coast solo exhibition at the Hammer in Los Angeles. Source: Hammer Projects: Simone Leigh
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The Art of Serendipity: James Van Der Zee & Derek Fordjour
I love little moments of artistic serendipity. I come across them often and they are the fuel behind this site. Today, while looking at the work of photographer James Van Der Zee, I came across this picture: It immediately reminded me of a painting by Derek Fordjour that I fell in love with a few months ago.…
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The Santa Monica Museum of Art Heads East
Last spring, in a strategic move that I related to on a very personal level, the Santa Monica Museum of Art decided to pull up stakes on its Bergamot Station location to re-evaluate its mission in a self-reflective, revitalization effort called SMMoA Unbound. Today the museum announced that it would be relocating from Santa Monica…
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Mural Buffings Confirm Fears of Runaway Development in DTLA’s Arts District
Early on in my career I was given a small piece of advice that dictated how I presented myself professionally: “Dress for the job you want.” In the intersecting space between gentrification and street art, developers have applied that age old career advice to the neighborhoods they invest in. When it comes to street art,…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 