Part I: Los Angeles Report

I went out to Los Angeles last week to participate in an Art and Social Media Symposium at California State University, Long Beach, but I managed to squeeze in some gallery, museum and studio visits as well.

[Image at top: Timothy Nolan, Guardian of the Starry Gate, 2014, dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 4 1/2 x 72 inches (Edition of 3). Courtesy of CB1 Gallery.]

After stopping for sunscreen, I headed to LA’s historic downtown neighborhood to check out CB1 Gallery where I caught the last day of Tim Nolan’s exhibition of new collages, “The Soft and Sweet Eclipse.” Nolan pieced together images of geological landscapes, outdated scientific illustrations, and Art Deco patterns to create a witty series that contemplates time and space. To accompany the show, he collaborated with composer/singer/visual artist Donald Rubinstein (whom he had met several years ago during a UCross residency) on Light Maze and Star, a book of poems inspired by Nolan’s collages.

That night Rubinstein performed some songs at the gallery, and I was moved by his raspy, plaintive voice and solo acoustic guitar. Apparently he’s pals with actor Ed Harris because Harris sat next to me for the show, and I got a chance to tell him how much I enjoyed The Jacksonian and Wrecks, two plays in which I’d seen him in New York. Later I remembered that Harris also directed and starred in Pollock, so of course he would be interested in art.

Gallery Director Clyde Beswick took me into the back room, where many delightful small paintings hung cheek-by-jowl. I especially liked this one by his gallery assistant Matthew Scarlett:

Emily Davis Adams, Pearl Street (Sidewalk), 2014, watercolor and gouache on paper, 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches.

 Emily Davis Adams, Untitled (parking lot, 2014, watercolor on paper, 20 3/4 x 28 1/4 inches.

Feeling the jet lag kicking in, I got back on the freeway and headed home. Cruising down Sepulveda, I remembered how I taught myself to drive when I was twelve and began “borrowing” my mother’s car at 14. Yes, I thought, I’m pretty sure I could live in LA.

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Stay tuned for Part II, in which I visit painters Julia Schwartz and Marie Thibeault, LACMA’s Calder exhibition, and Laura Owens’s cavernous 356 S. Mission Road space.

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