I’d like you to meet Kira and Chi Pig – two lovely ladies in search of a new home.

As some of you know I am moving to London, in less than two weeks, for graduate school (You can read all about it on art.blogging.la). Although I’m excited beyond words for the next step in my life it doesn’t come without its complications such as, well, leaving my beloved Los Angeles, selling really fabulous furniture, and finding a new home for my sweet kitties. I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof trying to find the right new parents and that’s where I’m hoping a Metblogs reader can help me…

Pictured above are Kira (the calico) and Piggy (the tabby). They are roughly thirteen years old and I’ve had them since they were wee-babies. No health problems except for the occasional fur ball. Kira is the sweetest thing ever and Pig, well, let’s just say the cat has some serious personality. Since my dogs have temporarily relocated to my parents’ house, the cats are much happier so I would say that a home without dogs would be best but they certainly can, and have, managed just fine.

Please contact me (at caryn at sixspace.com) if you’re interested and think you can handle the cuteness of their meows, snuggles, and cat fights. These girls are my children and I wouldn’t ever let them go unless I absolutely had no choice. I’m bummed but want to make sure they have the best life possible. I hope to hear from someone awesome soon!!

I find it interesting that two upcoming shows (technically three) in Los Angeles deal with gravity as a theme/medium: Gravity Art at TELIC opening on March 1 and Jimenez Lai Phalanstery Module at Materials and Applications opening on April 4…continue reading on art.blogging.la

Image: Jimenez Lai

On Saturday night I attended the opening of MAKE ART/STOP AIDS at UCLA’s Fowler Museum where works by artists (such as Robert Gober, William Kentridge, Sue Coe, David Wojnarowicz, General Idea) from the U.S., Brazil, India and South Africa highlight awareness regarding the epidemic of HIV and AIDS and explore the questions/history surrounding it. The media bombardment in the 80s and 90s regarding AIDS and HIV and how to protect ourselves has settled down to a wimper in the past decade. Remember all of the safe sex commercials on MTV?…continue reading on art.blogging.la

It’s a birth of the new collection. As I’ve mentioned here on abLA, I went to both the new BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum) and MOCA’s Collecting Collections exhibitions last week and actually had quite a blast doing so. I wrote a long piece on both for Art Review and probably could have written a lot more because comparing the two really brings up the issue of how important it is for a museum to have hold/preserve/preserve work in their permanent collection…continue reading on art.blogging.la

Raid Projects’ Max Presneill has announced that the gallery is closing. Honoring their past ten years in Los Angeles they are hosting their last exhibition, Swap Meet, on May 3rd and are inviting all artists to participate:

Bring along a small art work on that evening to hang then and there. After this we ask that you find another artist’s work that is hanging and speak with the artist about swapping it with them if they are so inclined. This can be done numerous times throughout the evening until we close at 10pm. The idea is we all get to meet artists new and old, many whom have had a show at Raid Projects in the past, and enjoy the night. Hopefully we will all make some new friends, as many of us have in the past via the Raid Project openings, and reminisce fondly about Raid Projects and its tenure in the Los Angeles art scene.

…continue reading on art.blogging.la

Three art publications have hit Los Angeles – GLARE, AREA SNEAKS, and MATERIAL – with the Glare launch party coming up on March 1. Read all about them and what’s inside on art.blogging.la

In the past couple of days I went to both BCAM and the Collecting Collections exhibition at MOCA…continue reading on art.blogging.la

I just got the email announcing that LAXART’s Lauri Firstenberg will be the guest curator of the Orange County Museum of Art’s 2008 California Biennial that will take place at the OCMA this October 26 through March 29…continue reading on art.blogging.la

You might have seen 2007 Art Center grad Christopher Michlig at last year’s L.A. Weekly Biennial: MFA WMDs (curated by Holly Myers and Tom Christie) – if you didn’t you don’t want to miss his first solo show, NEGATIONS at Jail Gallery this Saturday. The exhibition features twenty collages, six sculptures, a 16mm film transferred to video, and a limited edition poster made in collaboration with designer Brian Roettinger and theorist Jason Smith…continue reading on art.blogging.la

It’s been a while since I’ve made an Ed Ruscha post…long overdue in fact! I had the pleasure of seeing his Shattered Glass show at Gagosian when I was in London last fall and look forward to seeing his new show at Gagosian when I’m in London again this March! Lucky me. Appropriately, the Guardian (who, by the way, has a fantastic website for the arts including videos and articles on current shows) has an interview with Ruscha where this bit of info I found really interesting…continue reading on art.blogging.la

The month of collection exhibitions hits Los Angeles this month…MOCA’s Collecting Collections opens tonight and LACMA’s BCAM opens to members on the 11th. Do not miss Christopher Knight’s piece in the LA Times today where this particular paragraph struck me…continue reading on art.blogging.la

For the past couple of months I’ve been assisting with an art exhibition to be held in conjunction with my friend Kulov’s annual valentine’s tea festival; aptly titled Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art the show features the works of Emily Cheng, Hong Hao, Alexander Lee and Zhang Xianyong.. Each year the festival has a cultural theme and this year it’s China. So come this Sunday to celebrate Chinese culture and the New Year of the Rat with tea tastings & ceremonies, dim sum & other food specialties, calligraphy & herbal medicine workshops, music & dance, plus art, interactive performances, installations, raffle prizes and other surprises.

Kulov’s 8th Annual
Valentine’s Tea Festival
featuring teas & flavors of China

Sunday, FEBRUARY 10 from 3-8pm
@ Electric Lodge Performing & Visual Arts Center :: 1416 Electric Avenue, Venice, CA 90291

Tickets: $10 in advance/$15 at the door (free for children under 12) / plus $1 – $3 for goodies & workshops (proceeds to benefit Electric Lodge). Advance tickets can be purchased through Ticket Alternative.

More info: 310.699.7271 and complete festival info on www.kulovteafest.com

The fourth installment of ART LA ended last week and some of the verdicts are in (links provided below). Emma Gray on the Saatchi site had the same impression of the fair that I did; that it was enjoyable, an improvement from last year, participants were pleasant, work was generally good yet far from perfect, etc. Her write up, like mine for Art Review, concentrated more on the fair itself rather than the standard art fair statistics. This more overall analysis a healthy alternative to the obligatory sales/price mentions, gossip, and Hollywood sightings. Happy that Artnet Magazine’s Walter Robinson made it out to Los Angeles for fair week, I was disappointed that his Culver City gallery mentions were focused on artwork prices rather than artwork content. It’s fine to give sale prices/states for fairs because that it a hub that exists solely for commerce whereas galleries should be hubs for ideas…continue reading on art.blogging.la

Flowing, Pulsing, Beating, Burning also opens this Saturday (February 2) at the Glendale College Art Gallery featuring works by Dennis Hollingsworth, Torbjorn Vejvi, John McAllister, Jennifer Lane, Heather Cantrell, Caroline Thomas, and Katrin Jurati…continue reading on art.blogging.la

Truth be told, I’m getting a little tired of boring art…vanilla art I call it. The market has infected creativity so much that I see work that I neither love nor hate! Where’s the excitement, the fun, the ballsyness? In L.A., the antidote to mediocrity and boredom always lies with Machine Project. I mean, you really can’t do much better than performers decked out in medieval/space/fantasy armor re-creating, in slow motion with binaural beats said to induce out of body experience (!!), Bruce Nauman’s 1973 work “Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up and Face Down”…can you?…continue reading on art.blogging.la