Let’s talk about a force of nature. Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the founding members of Pussy Riot and intense performance artist, Nadya has been touring her show Police State all over the US and it is magnificent. Check out the images and commentary from her show at MOCA LA here.
Nina Chanel Abney
Nina Chanel Abney
These are soooooo cool.
I fell in deep love with Nina Chanel Abney’s work many years ago. She combines representation and abstraction, she examines diverse subjects such as race, celebrity, religion, politics, sex, and art history. Her work is large in scale, vibrant in color and the shapes, I just love it.
Nina Chanel Abney has an exhibition right now in Elleboogkerk in the Netherlands. Visit her site here.
The Jealous Curator
I have been a big fan of The Jealous Curator aka Danielle Krysa for many years. Her books, her voice and her honesty all drove me to look at her as a voice of reason in the world of art. It is hard to put your work out there as it is a part of the artist and that is vulnerable. She addresses this and many other issues artists deal with in her podcast and books. The Jealous Curator is really worth checking out. YAY…missy
IN OUR BACKYARD
This image has been on my mind lately. In a time when food scarcity feels increasingly real, I find myself worried, fearful, yet trying to hold on to hope. The photograph was taken just down the highway from where The Bunker stands. It shows 32-year-old Florence Owens Thompson and some of her children, captured by Dorothea Lange in 1932. Many articles explore this image from different angles, but I chose one that highlights Lange’s role in social justice—because now more than ever, it feels important to use our skills to make the world a better place. Lean more here.
THE EXPERIMENTS SHE UNDERTOOK…
While in NYC I got to see an amazing show at MoMA. It was Hilma af Klint and it blew my mind. She created an abstract language outside of normal communications to describe the essence of the plants, “what stands behind the flowers,” demonstrating her belief that careful observation of her surroundings reveals ineffable aspects of the human condition.
VISUAL, PHYSICAL, VISCERAL
Artist Sir Anish Kapoor best known for Cloud Gate (aka The Bean) in Chicago’s Millennium Park and his other immense public works recently collaborated with Greenpeace to create Butchered, a statement protesting the climate crisis. This piece took a lot of people power to make it happen and had one failed attempt before it worked. This is a really interesting article about protest art and the impact it can have in getting messages across. Learn more here.
Amy Sherald: Standing By Her Work
Artist Amy Sherald is well known for her portrait work, specifically the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama. Recently the artist canceled a major exhibition of her work at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, citing censorship over one of her paintings. I was so moved by her passion for her work and the chance she was willing to take by not letting fear to guide her choices. This is a quick and informative read, totally worth your time. And remember get into some good trouble today.
ART AS RESISTANCE
Resistance is on my mind a lot these days and art is always taking up space in my brain so what happens when you mix them together? Political/resistance art has been around for longer than you can imagine, with the Guy Fawkes Mask (the likeness of Guy Fawkes) dating back to 1605. We are lucky that on the Central Coast we have such amazing political artists like Lena Rushing, Robbie Conal and Mark Bryan. This article by the Portland Street Art Alliance is topical and interesting giving us more history on resistance art. Dive into the world of political art, look at the world around you and get into some good trouble.
Street Art by Robert Vargas
I had a wonderful experience recently while visiting my kiddo in Bushwick, NY and wanted to share. While I was there the Bushwick Collective event was happening, which is a street art, street fair and party in the Bushwick neighborhood. While waiting in line for a cuppa with my kiddo there was a woman wearing a Dodgers hat (go blue) and a cool shirt with the Vargas Dodger logo on the front. Of course we started chatting and it turns out that the great Robert Vargas was working on a mural across the street. Robert Vargas is an LA street art icon with some of the most bomb murals around. He paints very much from his heart and honors people, whether they be famous (Shohei Ohtani or Fernando Valenzuela) or local people of the community he is in. I got to watch his process, which is more like a block party, and see how he and his team of friends and fans communicate and chat up the local folx walking by. As a fan of street art it was magical to see how this all came together, to see the people hanging out that were painted in the mural, how Robert paints directly on the surface without any doodling, projecting or gridding. It was really amazing to see someone tackling the importance or belonging and community in such a beautiful and impactful way.
Currently Robert is working on a piece in Altadena, a LA suburb that was decimated by the recent LA fires. Check out this article about what he is up to and follow Robert Vargas on instagram for more inspiration from an artist that truly cares about people and belonging.
Who are Los Four?
Thanks to our friend and San Luis Obispo artist supreme Mark Bryan for bringing Los Four to my attention. Learn more about how Los Four became a part of the Chicano/a movement in the 1970s. Learn more about them in this PBS article by by Eva Recinos
Half Time Art
Kendrick Lamar made some absolute art during the 2024 Superbowl half time show and I love it. It is so rare to see this level of art on such a huge stage with and incredibly diverse audience. Check out this article by Jason Hellerman with a breakdown of the performance.
The Guerrilla Girls
I was poking around the interwebs and came across this very cool article by the Tate Museum’s kids programming department about The Guerrilla Girls. It is an amazing read. If you don’t know who the Guerrilla Girls are you better read up buttercup cause they are the real deal.