Come into the Light at Norton Simon Museum

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Art lovers do not commonly associate neon and other electric/electrifying art mediums with the Norton Simon Museum, whose more classic art forms are what the lovely Pasadena museum are well known to embrace.

However with Plugged In: Art and Electric Light, curated by Maggie Bell in conjunction with PST Art: Art & Science Collide, takes viewers on a new and enlightening journey.

Above, Laddie John Dill

The exhibition examines the use of electric light as an art medium in the mid-20th century. Eleven works of art are exhibited, featuring 8 different artists:  Walter Askin, Laddie John Dill, Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Jess, Robert Rauschenberg, Allen Ruppersberg and Andy Warhol.

Each artist utilized electric light in their work. The star of the show is in the final of three connected, lower-level gallery spaces: an enormous work by Robert Rauschenberg, titled “Green Shirt.” Rising some 10 feet by 20 feet in length, multiple neon images, including an eponymous green shirt are illuminated. While based on the artist’s images, the work was created with Artkraft Strauss, which manufactured neon signage. It’s a lively, fun work, hissing with color and recognizable, figurative images such as a man’s tie, a woman riding a horse,  two pigs.

Also on view: Dan Flavin’s prefabricated fluorescent lights to create somewhat sterile and mysterious installations utilizing what the curator notes as “factory floor lighting.”  One such piece commemorates the historical figure and personal friend of his friend’s mother in law,  a “Mrs. Reppin,” during World War II as an ersatz monument.

Jess, aka Burgess Collins, uses art with incandescent light bulbs and salvaged objects. The artist’s “Assembly Lamp Eight” combines glass langer with images of families, landscapes, and busy harbor scenes with decoupaged magazine clippings. This collage of visual images is lit with electric candle light to create a sort of light box of layered and not quite understandable images.

 

Andy Warhol’s controversial “White Painting” is another fascinating and not quite discernable piece, presenting a naked female torso that is activated through the use of ultraviolet light.  Allen Ruppersberg’s large-scale “Location Piece” uses ambient lighting to bathe the viewer in an uneasy wash of illumination in a haunting space, while Robert Irwin’s “Untitled” combines sythemtic polymer paint on a metal disc and arm with a glowing light that’s half shadow-maker behind it.

Walter Askin’s “Polyplanographs” feature decals applied to layers of plexi. Per the late artist’s wife, artist Elise Anne Doyle, Askin wanted “the viewer to come closer and engage his “Polyplanographs” in order to discover forms and details which seemed to float in a dreamlike space – the light strongest at the bottom of the scene as if coming from stage lights to enhance a sense of mystery, play, surprise, expansiveness and discover the subtle fade to the top of light – and atmospheric float…the ethereal laying of forms floating and fading in color and shadow…” These are indeed intriguing works.

The exhibition is compact but well worth experiencing, given the unusual, even rare, use of electrically illuminated media by these artists.

 

Plugged In is illuminating the Norton Simon Museum until February 17, 2025. The museum is located atT411 W. Colorado Blvd. at Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena; admission is $20 for adults, $15 for senior, 18 and under admitted free. Admission is always free the first Friday of the month from 4-7 PM; the museum itself is open Thursday through Monday.

Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

Descanso Gardens Blossoms with Holiday Light

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Now through January 5th, catch a glimpse of the illuminated trees, gorgeous stained glass houses, and waves of color shifting tulips that make up Enchanted Forest of Light at Descanso Gardens in Pasadena.

This fairytale of a holiday light show uses elements of the gardens as part of its tableau. The singing tulip fields are first on view, charming as music shifts and colors change in waves; they are a returning favorite.

We pass through a tunnel of stars followed by a series of beautifully patterned lanterns colored in fushias and gold. Created by HYBYCOZO, these are delicate and astonishing, seemingly as ephemeral as the delicate woven shadows they cast.

Visitors move into a section of tall, coast live oak trees with musical steps around them – tap your feet to summon a bell-like sound.

Afterwards, illuminated “park benches” provide a rest and the chance to take in an entire field of stained glass houses created by artist Tom Fruin. Some are large enough to enter; some are themed with illuminated playing card patterns, four leaf clovers and the like, while others present orderly geometric patterns, or collage like colors. One floats like a lilypad of light on a small lake.

A field of golden light filaments wavers near by; wire fencing holding swirly abstract flourescent tubing rise adjacent to real, headily scented roses. Fountains glow; a large full faux moon rises above and reflects in a royal blue-lit pond and waterfall. In the Japanese garden, red lanterns cast a seductive glow.

Finally, there’s a wonderful and hushed magical forest, with soft sound effects played live and echoing through speakers in the woods. Here, fairy-like sparks flick between the higher branches, a chandelier is suspended from a towering limb; and in the “sacred sanctuary,” the final stop on the walk, the scents of fecund forest and recent rain petrichor add to the magic.

Carolers, classical quartets, and solo cello players appear at intervals create additonal aural pleasures. Guests can purchase hot chocolate, coffee, or tea or headier adult fare along with sweet treats and snacks in several different food areas.

Advance ticket purchase is required.  Discounted admission of $10–$22 tickets on Dec. 2–3 and Dec. 9–10;  other dates, adult ticket prices range from $15–38 (members) to $22–45 (non-members) with children’s tickets (2-12) priced at $10–23 (members)
$17–30 (non-members); prices vary by date. The exhibition is held from 5:30-10 p.m. nightly,  closed Nov. 28 and Dec. 24–25.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

An Artist Who Matters: Hung Viet Nguyen Coming to Matter Gallery

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Opening December 8th at Matter Gallery in mid-city, Hung Viet Nguyen’s Chances Matter is a dazzling new body of work,  his first in which the human figure plays a central part in his highly textured, immersive landscapes. The exhibition marks a new direction for the artist. While continuing his masterful work in oil and palette knife, building up and manipulating his paint as if sculpting it, he now paints human subjects with a greater emphasis. The new prominence of humans speaks to both our coexistence in and joy of nature, but also to our effect upon it, from climate change to a self-absorption with our cell phones that may preclude the ability to be one with the natural environment around us.

When adding the human figure into the pristine yet entirely alive natural landscapes that he paints, Nguyen reveals that he’s not judging the intervention of humans – that judgment resides with viewers. He fully embraces the idea that while we can never regret experiencing beauty, we cannot control the outcome of our experience of it, one which affects not only us personally, but nature itself.

In “Hot Springs Bathers,” the human figures remain oblivious to jet trails in the sky that could represent wildly increased travel or an on-coming war. Above these floats what could be another view of the earth as if seen from a 360-degree perspective looking backwards, or another planet falling from the sky, also blissfully ignored by the human figures below.  Startlingly vivid colors and the dichotomy of tranquility with possibly ominous outcomes creates a visceral tension in the work.

Likewise, Nguyen’s “Tomorrow Won’t Be the Same,” above, fully embraces a belief he expresses that change will come, regardless of the hour, for good or ill. Here we see viewers taking a selfie in front of a beautiful waterfall, obliviously standing near a growing crack in the ground.

“Eclipse” shows the sun nearly fully occluded by the moon, leaving a stunning Ring of Fire. Below this astonishing spectacle, two women and a man, mostly naked, relax on the grass, cell phones in hand, small parts of the cosmic show.

 

In “Self-Baptism,” the human figure is what draws the viewer most fully. This figure wears a blue scarf as she enters the water of a flower-ringed, steaming spring. 

Although many settings in Nguyen’s new series are inspired by locations such as Iceland and the greater Mammoth Lakes area, “Journey Through Dry Lake” was inspired by the desert terrain of the Salton Sea. Here the human subject is carrying a boat across a dry lakebed speckled with dead fish; the artist’s “Contemplating,” below, reveals a man holding a stick against his shoulders behind his head, a position of relaxation that also recalls the crucifixion; sacrifice and acceptance in this pose.

While each of the above works are large, there are a range of smaller artworks as well, many featuring Nguyen’s arched gates, waterfalls, and snowy mountains, each perfectly rendered. He is also including a series of images created in tins, displayed as if they were open lockets; many which feature more of this evocative human subjects.

Do be sure to catch this meaningful show – your chance to see it matters!

Matter Studio Gallery is located at 5080 W. Pico Boulevard LA, CA 90019. The exhibition will be up through January the 5th.
Opening reception: December 8, 2024 4-8 PM; artist talk December 22, 2024 2-4 PM; closing reecption January 5, 2025 4-6 PM
The regular hours for tis show are Friday 4-6 PM; Saturday and Sunday 12-6 PM; also available for viewing by appointment.

  • Genie Davis; photos – Genie Davis and as provided by the artist

 

Fascinating Film Art Upcoming at Wonzimer Gallery: A Rack of Banshees Makes Noise

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Coming up November 7th – that’s this week — The Association of Hysteric Curators (AHC)  presents an evening of feminist experimental films and video art,  “A Racket of Banshees.”

Comprised of a series of twenty-one short films, the program explores an array of feminist and women’s rights issues, many of which currently occupy the forefront of US national policy debates. Collectively, all of the films invite viewers to reflect upon what it means to be a woman in our contemporary society and to gain a deeper understanding of how women’s identities shape their everyday lives.  This is particularly pertinent in light of the historic election taking place as I write.

Participating Artists: Attic Portrait (Michelle Tift & Sea Zeda), Melanie Elyse Brewster, A. Laura Brody, Alessia Lupo Cecchet, Ching Ching Cheng  & Manyu Gao, dama (aka Amanda Maciel Antunes), Victoria Delgadillo, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Rachel Finkelstein, Malado Francine, Raghubir Kintisch, Ibuki Kuramochi, Leslie Lanxinger, Marne Lucas & Tyler Hubby, Maya Mackrandilal, Sarana Mehra, Alexandra Neuman , Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Leah Piepgras, Mei Xian Qiu, Margie Schnibbe, Kayla Tange, Matt Odom & Caroline Yoo

Each flmmaker takes viewers into a world which critically examines feminist issues such as aging, disability, reproduction, ecofeminism, violence, politics, and self-determination.  The works are presented in a range of styles from claymation and AI and utilize source material such as wildlife camera footage.

Even the title of the program is fascinating: Kiki Smith explored the concept of the banshee in her 1991 work, Banshee Pearls, in which she cast herself as a banshee in a series of 12 lithographs, surrounded by images of skulls, death masks, and other beast-like forms. As in Smith’s Banshee Pearls, each film in “A Racket of Banshees” may be viewed as a single banshee in celluloid form, who has come to us to declare all manner of deaths: that of women’s reproductive rights; the pandemic of global femicides; the death of our Mother Earth; and the ultimate demise of patriarchy.

The program was curated by the Association of Hysteric Curators collective, under the special organizational direction of member artists Margie Schnibbe, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, and Mary Anna Pomonis. For more information about the Association of Hysteric Curators, please consult their website at: www.hystericcurators.com.