MAK Center

Curator Sylvia Lavin introduces her exhibition to a packed Schindler House

This is the third installment of our Pacific Standard Time Presents diary, tracking modern architecture happenings all over the city. Check out our previous entries:
*The Getty's Big, New Exploration of L.A. Architecture
*SCI-Arc's Gala and a Concert at Jackie Treehorn's House

High temperatures might be bad for art, but they're great for museums. The past week's blistering heat wave drove many an Angeleno into the air-conditioned respite of their local cultural institution -- I spotted Getty curator Christopher Alexander leading a particularly large tour through "Overdrive" on a steamy Saturday. Even when it's not serving as an escape from the heat, the show is an excellent destination, and a few hours wandering the exhibition filled me with a renewed sense of civic pride. In fact, I had a hard time seeing the "thoroughgoing urban mess" as described by one bitter East Coast reviewer in his description of the show (or maybe L.A. in general?) last week.

On another night, it was the promise of warm spring air -- and not a lick of air conditioning -- that packed the Schindler House for the MAK Center's "Everything Loose Will Land" opening. The al fresco vibe extended to the art: Sylvia Lavin -- in a snappy molecular-looking statement necklace -- admitted that she rather enjoyed curating an exhibition outside of a traditional museum, even though mounting a show in the drafty duplex is "pretty much like installing an exhibition outdoors."

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Courtesy Michael Benevento

A still from Wu Tsang and Alexandro Segade's Mishima in Mexico (2012)

This week, an artist makes deadpan jokes in vintage photographs, whistlers convene in Glendale and a Japanese novelist's tragedy of frustrated love is re-staged in Mexico.

5. Crowd of copycats
It's not yet certain how many people will participate in artist Sara Roberts' Clump and Whistle, a group performance at Glendale's Civic Center, but it shouldn't be more than 100, the number Roberts chose as her cut-off point. Clump and Whistle will work in the way the wave works at a football game, only with whistles. One person blows out a quick tune on one of the multitone whistles Roberts has provided, then the person next to him or her mimics the tune and so on until this tune has spread -- like a wave -- through the crowd. Two rehearsals precede this weekend's event, which means the effect will be at least slightly honed. Glendale Civic Center Plaza, Broadway and Glendale Boulevard; Sun., May 19, 1 p.m.; RSVP requested. machineproject.org.

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Kevin Scanlon

Heather Taylor

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

To gallery owner, blogger, fashionista, lifestyle maven and all-around It girl Heather Taylor, life consists of "little moments of making things pretty." Sitting barefoot and cross-legged in her living room, she looks around at the colorful throws, the Moroccan table, the moss-green velvet settee, the neatly stacked art monographs. She has dark eyes, dark hair, red lips and an effortless, eclectic sense of style — like Frida Kahlo, without the misery.

She can't put a precise name to her style, she says, except to note that it is cozy and classic, with elements of "the indoor-outdoor L.A. thing." Whatever it is, people want to be around her — if not outright be her — because Taylor is the epitome of a certain kind of Southern California living: casual, elegant, playful and creative.

The spine of her business is Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, which she and her husband opened in Culver City in 2006, when the neighborhood "was just starting to become fun." She was 26 then. She has since made the gallery a warm, welcoming place for both emerging artists and the public.

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Anna Jones

Camille and Kennerly Kitt, the Harp Twins, perform at ACE Gallery in Beverly Hills on Saturday

See also:
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week
*10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying

Martin Schoeller's new show "Identical: Portraits of Twins" at ACE gallery in Beverly Hills is interesting enough on its own, but the opening this past Saturday was an unusual and memorable experience that, quite literally, made this L.A. Weekly reporter do more than a few double takes.

The party featured a rare Los Angeles appearance by the sublimely beautiful and exceptionally talented duo known as the Harp Twins, Camille and Kennerly Kitt. Also in attendance were dozens of pairs of identical twins. Twins of all ages, ethnicities, and professions crowded the lofty space, mingling and sipping cocktails as the strains of such tunes as Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Rihanna's "Disturbia" lilted from the two golden concert grand harps and collective 20 fingers of Camille and Kennerly, transformed from gritty rock and pop into something that sounds downright angelic.

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Copyright Nan Goldin, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Nan Goldin's paired photographs, called Chimera (2013)

This week, an alien-inspired concert/party happens at an iconic bowling alley, and two artists make intricate renderings of mystery plants.

5. The art star with the bloody head
In Happy Song for You, the short film made by artists Stanya Kahn and Llyn Foulkes in 2011, Foulkes appears with blood dripping down his face and a bandage over his eyes, like the gory figures in the paintings he made in the 1970s and '80s. The camera also lingers over craggy rocks, dirt and funny toys, all things that might appear in a Foulkes artwork. This will screen along with other films, such as a 1959 short starring Foulkes as a deranged, eccentric artist, when the Hammer continues its months-long series of Foulkes programming with a "Starring Llyn" night. 10899 Wilshire Blvd.; Tues., May 14, 7:30 p.m. (310) 443-7000, hammer.ucla.edu.

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Calamardojo, photo courtesy of Wonderland Gallery

Belin

See also:
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week
*Los Angeles' War on Street Artists

At the back of Kat Von D's High Voltage Tattoo shop, 20 distinct spray-painted faces stare back at you. This detailed mural wraps around the wall space in the parking lot, the shock of red hair on Von D's head standing out from the crowd.

The tattoo vixen and TV personality didn't employ just anyone to do the job. She flew out an artist who'd never been to L.A. -- Spanish street artist Belin. He completed the task back in 2010 (and appeared on Von D's reality show LA Ink) and will now show his exhibit "True or False Superheroes" at Kat Von D's Wonderland Gallery in West Hollywood, opening tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. and running through July.

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Photo by Robert Wedemeyer, courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

Shana Lutker's sculpture A very tiny evening (2013) at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

This week, an Yves Saint Laurent suit hangs in an elementary school, Marilyn Monroe sings in a Century City bathroom, and a group of writers revises a 1980s tome on looking your best.

5. OK, kids, get ready for fancy dresses!
Artist Shinique Smith traveled from New York to Los Angeles a few times this winter and spring to meet with students at Charles White Elementary School, to talk to them about her work and to invite them to help her make one of her hanging sculptures: fabrics mashed together, then suspended to look like unwieldy creatures. LACMA's education department spearheaded this effort, called "Firsthand," and the best thing about it is that work Smith picked out from LACMA's collection -- a bold, red and pink women's suit by Yves Saint Laurent, a ruffle-top evening dress by Bill Blass -- has been on view at the elementary school's gallery along with collages by students there since February. 2401 Wilshire Blvd.; through July 19. (213) 487-9172, lacma.org.

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Eva Recinos

Photo from the Die Antwoord/Roger Ballen installation at Mouche Gallery

On a quiet day in Beverly Hills, right around the corner from Rodeo Drive, Die Antwoord's "I Fink U Freeky" blasts through a white-walled gallery. A walk inside reveals a bathtub in which a mannequin stands with plastic body parts strewn beneath it, as furry, black rats crawl around. Parts of the walls reveal strange cartoon-ish figures drawn in black. A back installation projects the music video for "I Fink U Freeky" over a set-up that includes pigeons, spray-painted figures and ripped magazine pages with Xs over them (one featuring Kim Kardashian's recognizable mug).

No, this is not the setting for an underground party -- it's an exhibition by film photographer Roger Ballen. Visitors to Mouche Gallery on Friday evening could sip on champagne or tequila concoctions as they took in the unique aesthetic of Ballen and his collaboration with Die Antwoord, the South African shock rap group.

Ballen helped direct the music video for "I Fink U Freeky," an engrossing music video that has almost 30 million views. The two dynamic rappers, Yolandi Vi$$er and Ninja, spit rhymes while taking part in a strange series of scenes (take for instance, Yolandi finding a large bug when she's cooking).

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Shannon Cottrell

By Liz Ohanesian

See also:
*How a Star Wars Art Show Came to Be
*Elvis Mitchell Picks the 10 Best James Bond Openings
*Skyfall Review: James Bond Now Has a Superhero-Style Origin Story

Plasticgod's small, block-y paintings stand up on a top shelf inside Little Tokyo gallery/boutique Q Pop. There's Jaws, the large villain from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. There's a girl done up in gold, reminiscent of the opening title sequence from Goldfinger. In the middle is Bond, James Bond. It's a painting of the Roger Moore incarnation of the famed spy, dressed in the yellow ski suit that marks 007's infamous jump off a cliff in The Spy Who Loved Me. Hanging from the painting and over the edge of the shelf is a Union Jack parachute.

On Saturday night, Q Pop celebrated half-a-century of big-screen James Bond adaptations with a group art show inspired by the film franchise. The collection in "James Bond: 50 Years of 007 Art Celebration" was voluminous. Art was squeezed into every nearly every corner of the shop. There were paintings and prints, a small selection of DVDs and other themed gift items and a slew of golden guns carefully placed across the shelves.

See also: James Bond: 50 Years of 007 Art @ Q Pop Slideshow

Q Pop owner Christopher Mitchell played a selection of Bond themes over the sound system. Some people arrived dressed in Bond-like tuxes. One man stood in a corner, petting a plushie as though he were Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the Bond villain and obvious inspiration for Doctor Evil in the Austin Powers universe.

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Tiger Tiger

Sonos Studio set up with couches to bring back the social nature of listening to music

Last week, Sonos Studio presented the Los Angeles premiere of the new Green Day documentary ¡Cuatro!, and the band's followers enthusiastically turned out to the screening. The documentary, which chronicled a new beginning of sorts for the band, was an appropriate fit for the launch of a new line of programming at Hollywood's Sonos Studio, the almost-year-old multimedia gallery space.

¡Cuatro! ends with Billy Joe Armstrong's philosophical musing that there's a magic that happens when just wire, wood and steel -- the basic building blocks of instruments and sound -- turn into something that moves us. It's this same philosophy that is the focus of Sonos Studio, an outcrop of Sonos, the sound system.

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