ArtRx LA

James Turrell, “Light Reignfall” (2011) (via lacma.org)

LOS ANGELES — This week, James Turrell’s Perceptual Cell returns to LACMA, UCLA presents an elaborate shadow-puppet play, the Lodge hosts a panel discussion on women in the arts, and more.

 Alison Saar: Silt, Soot and Smut

Alison Saar, “Breach (large figure on raft)” (2016) (via lalouver.com)

When: Opens Wednesday, May 25, 6–8pm
Where: L.A. Louver (45 N. Venice Boulevard, Venice, Los Angeles)

A decade after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Alison Saar focuses on an earlier Southern tragedy in her upcoming exhibition Silt, Soot and Smut.

During a residency in New Orleans, Saar found parallels between Katrina and The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of them African American.

Through sculptures and paintings composed of found materials, Saar unearths historical narratives that continue to have an unsettling contemporary resonance.

 Carmen Argote in Conversation with Adrian Rivas

When: Thursday, May 26, 6–8pm
Where: Shulamit Nazarian (17 N. Venice Blvd, Venice, Los Angeles)

Carmen Argote’s solo exhibition Mansión Magnolia uses photographs of her family’s home in Guadalajara, Mexico to examine the intersection of architecture, memory, and notions of self. This Thursday, Argote will be in conversation with independent curator Adrian Rivas to discuss how her work relates to Chicano identity and modernism.

Carmen Argote, “Mansión Magnolia” (via facebook)

 Feathers of Fire

When: Friday, May 27–Sunday, May 29
Where: Freud Playhouse, Macgowan Hall, UCLA Campus (405 Hilgard Avenue, Westwood, Los Angeles)

Based on the 10th-century Persian epic, Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), Feathers of Fire is an elaborate and stunning shadow-puppet play created by artist Hamid Rahmanian. Featuring over 160 puppets and performers, as well as 100 digital backgrounds, the production draws on a myriad  of sources, and fusing Balinese-derived shadow-casting techniques with an original score from Iranian composers Loga Ramin Torkian and Azam Ali.

Feathers of Fire (via farhang.org)

 Women of Distinction in the Arts Panel

When: Saturday, May 28, 5:30–7pm
Where: The Lodge (1024 N. Western Avenue, Koreatown, Los Angeles)

Girl Trip at the Lodge is a group show featuring an international selection of 20 young female artists produced in conjunction with Girl Trip, a platform for female artists, writers, actors, musicians, and filmmakers under 35.

Coinciding with the final day of the exhibition, the Lodge is hosting a panel discussion “about thriving and advancing as a female artist in today’s climate.” Panelists include photographer Autumn de Wilde, director and actress Zoe Cassavetes, actress Latarsha Rose, painter Kysa Johnson, and others.

Work by JR Doty in “Girl Trip” (via thelodge.la)

 Refenestration

When: Opens Saturday, May 28, 4–6pm
Where: Tif Sigfrids (1507 Wilcox Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles)

The window is one of the most common tropes in the history of painting, corresponding to the boundaries of the canvas. Since the advent of photography, the metaphor of the window has taken on additional significance, as light passes through and bounces off the camera’s lens as it does the window. Refenestration is a group show that examines the window as self-referential subject and cliche in contemporary photography. The exhibition features artists Uta Barth, Heather Cleary, John Divola, Marten Elder, Peter Holzhauer, Owen Kydd, Jeff Wall, and James Welling.

Refenestration (via tifsigfrids.com)

 James Turrell’s “Light Reignfall”

When: Opens Sunday, May 29
Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles)

A highlight of pioneering light and space artist James Turrell’s recent LACMA retrospective was the “Perceptual Cell,” a spherical chamber in which visitors would lie down to experience an intense program of changing light and color. It was so popular that tickets sold out long before the end of the exhibition. If you missed it, you’ve got another chance, as “Light Reignfall” returns this Sunday for a yearlong run. It’s sure to fill up quickly, so don’t wait to get tickets for this dazzling perceptual event.