Courtesy of LACDA

Pia Myrvold's Flow, a digital video wall installation

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In a world where creative individuals increasingly work in a cluster of disciplines -- actors sing in bands, rock stars paint, poets take up performance art, architects explore couture, rappers write books, etc. -- Norwegian painter, fashion and architectural designer, installation and electronic media artist Pia Myrvold is still a remarkably industrious polyglot.

Her current exhibition, "Immersion" at LACDA, is derived from the large-scale installation Flow: A Work in Motion, staged in Italy as a satellite of the 2011 Venice Biennale, and focuses exclusively on digital art.

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Carol Cheh

From 'Everyman's Infinite Art' at Chapman University's Guggenheim Gallery

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The big wave of Pacific Standard Time shows that opened in September are starting to close, so the game is on to see the ones you want to see before they're gone. "Now Dig This!," for example, was totally packed with eager visitors this past Saturday, its second to last day at the Hammer Museum. And yesterday, I made the trek out to the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University to see "Everyman's Infinite Art," a true gem of a little show, tucked deep behind the orange curtain, and filled with whimsy, history, and delight.

The last day of the exhibition is this Saturday, Jan. 14. But theoretically speaking, you don't actually have to go see it. "Everyman's Infinite Art," originally mounted at Chapman in 1966 by artist and then-art department chair Harold Gregor, was a charming early entry in the language-based conceptual art sweepstakes. It primarily consisted of a published set of instructions for making the exhibition out of commonly available materials such as masking tape, ping-pong balls, juice cans, and boxes of envelopes. The instructions were clear and simple but could be installed in a number of ways, for example: "Ten yardsticks lined end to end. A stack of twenty-four white styrofoam coffee cups, open end down." And so on.

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Photo: Nick David. Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London.

Still from Marcus Coates' 30-minute video Journey to the Lower World

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The two-channel video work Journey to the Lower World by British artist Marcus Coates is a high point in an exceptionally engaging exhibition closing today at Pitzer College Art Galleries in Claremont. (You can still see the video online.)

"Synthetic Ritual," curated by the international team of Gabi Scardi and Ciara Ennis, gathers a group of artists hailing from L.A. to South Africa to Albania to Israel for an investigation of how faith and ritual manifest themselves in our daily lives -- sports allegories, for example, figure prominently, as do more secular superstitions and remarkable behaviors.

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Josh White, courtesy Honor Fraser Gallery

Totally doesn't doesn't do its awesomeness justice. But cool...

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Shipsearching, Mie Olise's awesome treehouse of an artwork at Honor Fraser gallery, stole the opening-night-in-Culver-City scene for me. You may be wondering, what's a treehouse of an artwork? Is that some newfangled whipper-snapper term for awesome? No, that would make me redundant.

A treehouse of an artwork is one you climb up and sit inside, as if hiding from the world below, with your trusty sleeping bag for comfort, while spying on the gallery-goers below through the spaces between wood slats.

Maybe "treehouse" isn't exactly the vibe it's going for, as the didactic says that Shipsearching speaks to the "intimate and poetic experience of being onboard a ship during a journey." That it does, too. There's a picture of a sailboat projected inside the constructed space.

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Eve Weston

Which roll to use?

​"Lady Wrestling, 'the video tape,'" anyone? How 'bout taking in some "John Sex and Co. Burlesque"? These were just some of the posters screaming at me during the opening of Royal/T Café's "East Village West" recently.

The place was a virtual provocativity-off: cocaine and heroine salt and pepper shakers, a kids picture book teaching first words through graffiti, a pre-fab breakup letter on a hanky, because we all know (s)he's gonna cry over you. And that was just the gift shop. Mister purple mannequin wearing tinsel in his banana-hammock was stuck behind plexiglass during the real show, which included Drag King Mo B. Dick as John Sex and a trio of Psych-out Dada go-go dancers.

Now, if that's just "another Tuesday night in WeHo" to me, maybe I've been in L.A. too long. But honestly, what I found most provocative was in stall number two. The art wasn't displayed in stalls. I'm talking about the bathroom.

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courtesy of Saber

​Artist/activist Saber has never been one to do anything in a "small" way as evidenced by his world record holding graffiti piece on the L.A. River -- done in 1997 and visible from space before it was buffed last year. His latest projects are no exception. A couple weeks ago he unleashed a genius skywriting campaign over city hall to try to end the L.A. County mural moratorium and this week he joined forces with Occupy L.A. to contribute his Protest Flag, a 32 x 16 ft flag that divides into 64 separate protest signs, with slogans like "Bail Out Skid Row," "Ass, Cash or Grass, Republicans Ride For Free" and "Art Is Not a Crime."

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Courtesy M+B

Matthew Brandt, CHCE0101, 2011, etched copper and fiberglas

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I first encountered Matthew Brandt's work when he was still a graduate student at UCLA. During the 2007 open studios, he had his portrait series tacked up on the wall -- photographic images of people he knew, made using the old-timey method of salted paper prints, and incorporating the subject's bodily fluids in the development process.

Thus, the portrait of Jackie contained traces of her skin oil, while the portrait of George held bits of his vomit. It was a memorable body of work that deftly infected the staid tradition of portraiture with the poignancy of the abject and the everyday.

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L.J. Williamson

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"Best Art I Saw All Week" is a new feature of the blog in which one of our contributors writes about one particular L.A. artwork he or she saw in a museum, in a gallery, on the streets or anywhere else. If you see a work that you like, feel free to submit your own a post by uploading a photo to the LA Weekly Flickr page and sending a link to the photo and 200 words on why you love the artwork to arts@laweekly.com.

Taking the back roads scenic route to Ojai, I rounded a bend on Grimes Canyon Road and made an unexpected discovery: a collection of carvings in the sandy rock embankment.

The subject matter had the feeling of dude appeal: snakes, dragons, mushrooms, penises. Maybe some sword-and-sorcery nerds too law-abiding to wield a spraypaint can found an outlet for the landscapes of their imaginations. The site beautifully fused the lawless spirit of street art with the rustic appeal of a canyon.

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