If you haven’t been to LACMA lately, this is a great weekend to see a few new exhibitions and catch some smaller shows before they close. Opening Sunday—or on view now for members—is The Sun and Other Stars: Charlie White and Katy Grannan. Both artists tackle the subject of identity and representation in a media-saturated landscape, such as Grannan’s street portraits or White’s series of blue-eyed blonde girls who answered a casting call.
Charlie White, Girl Posed, 2008, courtesy of the artist and Loock Galerie, Berlin
Katy Grannan, Anonymous, Los Angeles, 2008/printed 2009, courtesy of the artist; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Salon 94, New York
The affecting exhibition is on view in BCAM, just across the way from Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol. Also on view on the same floor of BCAM is a new installation of photography from the permanent collection, Figure and Form in Contemporary Photography, which includes works by Ken Gonzales-Day, Bruce Conner, Wolfgang Tillmans, Catherine Opie, and more. (One more note for photography fans: over in the Pavilion for Japanese Art, Fracture: Daido Moriyama closes July 29!)
Wolfgang Tillmans, Volker, lying, 2000, gift of Dean Valentine and Amy Adelson
Also currently on view is Michael Heizer: Actual Size. As you might expect from the artist behind Levitated Mass and other land art works like Double Negative and City, Heizer also takes a large-scale approach to photography and documentation. Thus it requires two different buildings to house this exhibition. On view on the third floor of BCAM are photographs of rock formations, presented at the actual size you’d find the formations in their natural environment. On view in the Resnick Pavilion is Actual Size: Munich Rotary—a representation, via custom-built projectors, of a 1969 work by Heizer, Munich Depression, which displaced 1,000 tons of earth from an unbuilt area of Munich. Both installations add some context to Heizer’s larger body of work, and must-see shows if you’re coming to the museum to experience Levitated Mass. (Families, don’t forget: all month long our free Andell Family Sundays feature art-making activities inspired by Levitated Mass).
Michael Heizer, Actual Size: Egypt, 1970, courtesy of the artist, © Michael Heizer
This weekend is also your last chance to see Whistler’s Etchings and Japanese Paintings: Paths to Enlightenment—both close on Sunday. The Way of the Elders: The Buddha in Modern Theravada Traditions also closes soon—July 29.
Kaihō School, Japan, late 17th-early 18th century, Zen Sage Kensu with Shrimp (detail), gift of Laura Bastianelli in loving memory of Jeremy Ets-Hokin
On the music and film front, we have you covered as always. For tonight’s Jazz at LACMA concert, Katisse returns with his blend of jazz, hip hop, and world music. On Saturday, the Afro-Cuban Jazz Project takes it to Latin Sounds. On Sunday, iPalpiti performs at our Sundays Live chamber music series. All of these concerts, as usual, are free.
Tonight, our French Film Fridays continue with Robert Bresson’s controversial 1977 film The Devil, Probably, followed by Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom of Liberty.
On Saturday, filmmaker Alison Klayman will be on hand for a screening of the new documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Tickets for the Ai Weiwei film are free but are nearly gone, so reserve them in advance.
Scott Tennent