Nine from LA at the Hammer

A very worthwhile exhibit is currently running at the Hammer museum. Highly recommend it. Here is a detail swiped from the horses mouth because quite frankly I have been too busy to make a worthwhile contribution to the site and today is no exception. I want to watch Synecdoche, New York and fall into a deeeeep and powerful slumber thereafter (for the night, of course…not interminably). You on the other hand should get yourself prepared to be inspired.

Flight of the Reindeer

“Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from L.A. is the fifth in the Hammer’s biannual invitational exhibition series highlighting work created in greater Los Angeles. Nine Lives features over 125 works, much of it new, by nine artists spanning four generations —Lisa Anne Auerbach, Julie Becker, Llyn Foulkes, Charles Irvin, Hirsch Perlman, Victoria Reynolds, Kaari Upson, Jeffrey Vallance, and Charlie White. The works include video, paintings, drawings, photography, textiles, and two new sculptural installations. As all of the artists live and work in L.A., Nine Lives embodies many of the psychic complexities and paradoxes of the city – it is at once beautiful and frightening, refined and unruly. The reinvention of oneself is central to several of these artists’ practices. These mesmerizing artists create characters and tell stories of fantasy and science fiction, building alternate worlds grounded on their obsessions. Popular culture and mythology are common themes, as are alternative lifestyles, and subcultures. The luxury of space and privacy that Los Angeles affords allows them the freedom to tinker, research, and explore their obsessions which often parallel Hollywood’s dream factory. ”

Goto: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A

If: before May30

Then: Pay 5 to 7 dollars or free on Thursday

Send: 310-443.7000

end: www.hammer.ucla.edu