Speedy Gallery: Action! Paintings by Billy Zane on View

Curator and Gallerist Yiwei Lu and Actor Billy Zane at Speedy Gallery, Santa Monica

The Pomonan
Published November 16, 2023 6:30am PST

If you haven't already, you should visit Speedy Gallery. Action! is currently on display at Santa Monica's Speedy Gallery until Saturday, November 26. The exhibition is brimming with vitality! Paintings, mixed media, and sculpture are accompanied by a brilliant abundance of sculptural material that contextualizes them. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the award-winning actor's works. The title, ‘Action!’ alludes to the connection between his action painting and his cinematic roots.

Concept

ACTION!
Paintings by Billy Zane

Concept by Billy Zane
– Since the now-legendary Hollywood verb was barked on a film set 100 years ago, ACTION! became the starter pistol for the collective, creative process used in cinema to this day.
A concert of diverse elements, talents and toolsets are primed, and at its utterance, unleashed before the lens, in a shining moment, to be captured forever.
Regardless of all the preparation, once off the starter blocks, what follows is controlled chaos, an improvisation, a sequence of events that effect the following ones uniquely with every TAKE.

In art, ACTION painting, is not dissimilar. Just as the artist informs the canvas with a gesture, the canvas informs artist as to what their next act, or stroke may be as a result.
It’s a conversation in as much like the term for the very words spoken by characters in a film script or improvised by actors on set, “It’s dialogue Jake.”

I am a grateful child of both parents.
31 years an actor, 25 so far as a painter… I happily inhabit both the film and art worlds and each informs the other, so much so, that most of my paintings are made on location; sometimes on set, in the long waits between shots.

I only use materials I can source in field. The more remote and exotic the location the better, as it reduces the number of variables and, for me at least, increases my creative hunger and desire for expression, as access to colors, canvas and brushes become limited. The search for materials, in fact, has become part of my “process”.

This pressing need to create excellence with “what ya got“, be it on film, memory card or on canvas, adds to this addictive urgency, and air of danger. It demands commitment and bold choices, while being responsive and in the moment. Like an Army medic or EMT, I feel like I’m
doing triage; anointing, wrapping, and bandaging a deep blue cut, tending to a fresh crimson gash. And crazy part is I’m the guy that causes the happy accidents!

Annnnnd…Action! -BZ

Curated by Yiwei Lu

ARTIST BIO
Billy Zane is an American artist most often associated with his celebrated work in cinema as an actor, starring in some of the highest-grossing films and tv shows of all time, such as Titanic and Twin Peaks. However, the raw authenticity of his paintings, drawings, and photography has garnered him nearly as much recognition and critical praise. Most of his artwork is created outdoors while working on film sets and with mostly found and recycled materials in remote locations.

Actor Owen Wilson, Speedy Gallery Owner Atsushi Fukuda, and Curator and Gallerist Yiwei Lu

Speedy Gallery Santa Monica, CA

Works by Billy Zane at Speedy Gallery Santa Monica, CA

Actor Lanre Idewu and Photographer Julian Lucas

Works by Billy Zane at Speedy Gallery Santa Monica, CA

Venice, CA Entrepreneur Todd Collins, Actor Billy Zane, Photographer Julian Lucas

Works by Billy Zane at Speedy Gallery Santa Monica, CA

Speedy Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave. B5B. Santa Monica, CA, 90404

Hours of Operation
Saturdays : 12 – 7 pm
Tuesday to Friday : 12 – 5pm
Please Call for Appointment (213)248-4712

Holiday Closing:
From December 19, 2021 to January 5, 2022

Please check our Instagram for updates or changes in hours of operation.

Bunny Gunner Gallery Claremont - Julian Lucas: Synthesis

Julian Lucas: Synthesis
Opening Reception October 1, 2022
230 W Bonita Ave, Claremont, CA 91711

Synthesis opens at Bunny Gunner Gallery, Claremont, CA on October 1st. The gallery will present a thematic showcase of Julian's photographic works from various bodies of work generated between 2014 and 2022, and will include framed darkroom prints on archival fiber paper printed by the artist. As a part of the immersive body of work, there will be an installation of unframed photographic prints.

The works displayed under the term Synthesis were entirely self-funded. The photographs are documentary or photojournalistic in nature. Each photograph offers a sense of events, the results of a larger picture.

"I'm seeking a visual synthesis combining all of these components to create something specifically from my experience. Each image is a retelling of the same narrative. My ultimate objective is to develop a new alternative point of view."

Yiwei Gallery Presents Wanderland

Artist reception
Sunday, Sept 25th
2 to 6pm.

In celebration of Yiwei Gallery’s one year anniversary on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice Beach, we are pleased to invite Venice artist Corinne Chaix to curate Wanderland. This exhibition honors our community by featuring the works of local artists Lynn Hanson, Catherine Ruane, Elizabeth Orleans, and a performance created by Yolanda Tianyi Shao, Joe Zhang & Ryan Nebreja. Wanderland is a tribute to Nature, Dream, and Resilience by three women artists and a choreographer in a life which is ever-changing.

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Gagosian Beverly Hills: Cy Twombly Exhibition

Gagosian Press Release
Published 9/22/2022 8:57 am PST

In parallel to the J. Paul Getty Museum's exhibition Cy Twombly: Making Past Present from August 2 through October 30, 2022. The Gagosian exhibition, developed in partnership with the Cy Twombly Foundation, includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Cy Twombly. It is the artist's first visit to the Beverly Hills gallery since Cy Twombly: The Last Paintings in 2012, and it contains works from the artist's final decade. Making Past Present is Twombly's first institutional display in Los Angeles in almost three decades, and it will go to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2023.

In the 2000s, Twombly returned to large-scale painting, working in Gaeta, Italy, and Lexington, Virginia. He made the switch after his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1994 and the critical success of Lepanto, a suite of twelve paintings first shown at the 49th Biennale di Venezia in 2001. In these works, he used palettes of lush, saturated colors to take a new approach to color. Slender paint lines and loops combine expressive vitality and elegance, while bolder strokes are reminiscent of peony and chrysanthemum petals. The paintings have the unfettered energy of a Bacchanalia and the vivacity of young blossoms; they are both exuberant and elegiac, reflecting on poetry, history, and myth.

Untitled I-VI (Green Painting) (2002-03), a collection of six panels in rich greens and vivid white, standout. It was originally exhibited just once, as part of the Met's 2016 exhibition Unfinished: Thoughts Made Visible. Twombly's works on paper, which blur the distinctions between painting, drawing, and writing, as well as his sculptures, which carry his concerns with geometry, gesture, and materiality into three dimensions, are also included. These works, built of plaster, wood, and fragments found in his workshop, mimic relics of monumental architectural and sculptural forms from ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Twombly's sculptures were usually painted or cast in bronze, merging their varied forms while retaining the tactility of their surfaces.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with a conversation on Twombly between artists Tacita Dean and Julie Mehretu.

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, creative strategist, and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking unhoused veterans to housing.

Jeffrey Deitch Gallery New York - Sasha Gordon: Hands Of Others

Image: My Friend Will Be Me, 2022
Photo by Genevieve Hanson.

May 7–June 25, 2022
76 Grand Street, New York
Opening reception on May 7th from 6-8pm

In Hands Of Others, Sasha Gordon’s new paintings depict surreal scenes that explore a cross-over between dreams and hyperawareness. As if representing an out-of-body experience or a lucid dream, the artist paints versions of her persona to contend with the sense of unease that can occur when observing one’s own image, behaviors, and actions.

Gordon populates her paintings with doppelgängers who embody different facets of her personality and often interact with each other. She carefully constructs the figures with both naturalistic details and caricatured features such as endearing enlarged eyes. This childlike trait renders the figures hyper-communicative and vulnerable at the same time.

In Hands Of Others, the artist’s fascination with hand gestures as vehicles to describe relationships and interactions takes a central role. While her characters have autonomy, a “hand” exists to monitor and influence their actions and decisions. In the painting Almost A Very Rare Thing (2022), two figures sit across from each other on a boat. One offers the other a bouquet of pulled-out hair—revealing a bald spot on her head—while the other looks on in hesitation. This curious and intimate gesture references Gordon’s past experience with trichotillomania, a condition that involves impulsively pulling out one’s own hair. In this painting, Gordon confronts both her judgment and acceptance of normative behaviors and physical appearances.

In her recent work, Gordon uses color to articulate feelings that the figures’ facial expressions can sometimes only hint at. Artificial gradient skin tones, otherworldly landscapes and dreamlike scenarios create a realm where the artist can move freely and articulate the internalized pressures to conform to society.

Gordon’s surreal yet introspective paintings touch on the complexity of her upbringing as a young biracial Asian woman in a predominantly white and heteronormative environment. This experience led the artist to have a disorienting grasp on her identity, body image, and reality as perceived by herself and others. By portraying different versions of her persona as both the subject and the observer carrying out her own judgments and self-expectations, Gordon’s work addresses internal conflicts and the psychological conditioning of cultural representation.

Sasha Gordon (b. 1998, Somers, NY) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Hands Of Others is the artist’s first solo show in New York and is presented in collaboration with Matthew Brown, Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include Women of Now: Dialogues of Memory, Place & Identity, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2022); TAILS AND HEADS, C L E A R I N G, New York (2021); and Enters Thief, Matthew Brown, Los Angeles (2021, solo). Gordon’s work is also included in Wonder Women, curated by Kathy Huang, opening at Jeffrey Deitch’s 18 Wooster Street location in May 2022.

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GENERATIONS by Scot Sothern

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GENERATIONS | Scot Sothern

EXHIBITION DATES: May 14 – June 11 / by appointment 

ARTIST’S RECEPTION: Saturday, May 14, 6:00–9:00 PM / no appointment necessary 

THESE DAYS is pleased to present the exhibition Generations by Scot Sothern

In this exhibition, artist/writer Scot Sothern—best known for his controversial and lauded work LOWLIFE, photographs and stories of street prostitutes in and around Los Angeles during the 1980s—has compiled two bodies of work made nearly fifty years apart. Collected under the shared title GENERATIONS are Sothern’s earliest personal photographs, FAMILY TREE 1975 – 1980, and his most recent body of work, IDENTITY, both of which explore time, change, and the multi-directional evolution of America. 

GENERATIONS’ point of departure is FAMILY TREE 1975 – 1980. This series encapsulates some of Sothern's earliest personal photographs, which he began making soon after leaving the small Missouri Ozarks town where he was raised. In his late teens he left the confines of his father's portrait and wedding photography studio to chase the 1960s glorification of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. He worked as an itinerant photographer with a cache of gimmicks and a conman’s mindset. During this period he was also making photographs of characters he met along the way. In 1975, When Sothern began the FAMILY TREE series, complete strangers were more trusting of a person with a camera. Suspicion and mass antipathy had not yet blanketed the country, and a million-selfie-a-day habit hadn’t yet degraded the personal and sentimental value of the snapshot. The FAMILY TREE photos, shot on Kodachrome and printed as Cibachromes (both discontinued), combined with Sothern's written accounts of the interactions they document, are unique and meaningful stories of another time. These Days will publish a limited edition monograph of this series to coincide with the exhibition.

IDENTITY, Sothern’s newest and most original project, explores time and vast change from as far back as the American Civil War, with comparisons to the current American civil discord. Working with found antique, glass-plate ambrotypes and using Photoshop to print and size contemporary images, Sothern then physically binds these elements together to create small art works that are equally digital and analog—both handmade, and technologically advanced.

In the second half of the 19th Century professional photographers were few and far between. Using a wet-collodion process on glass and often guesstimating exposure times resulted in Ambrotypes that can be both stunning and flawed. The ambrotypes present people who are much like us but in a very different time. As in FAMILY TREE, comparisons to modern day selfies come to mind and force consideration of the relative value of a single image. While the social media selfie is shot for immediate and rapid consumption, these singular ambrotypes were originally greatly valued for their personal worth. Now altered they become objets d'art with meaning spanning generations and relevance in the contemporary world.

IDENTITY, the who and what we are, has never been more out of the closet. People young and old are declaring their previously covert sexual personas. We are as well living in a world of technology surpassing the imaginations of only a few years ago. This combination has contributed to a new social disintegration. Cutting edge advances, both socially and scientifically, are at odds with backward movements attempting to bring back good old days that in fact never existed. Xenophobia, white supremacy, and gender bashing have elbowed their ways into the forefront. Global Warming is at the brink of no return. America has never been as disconnected as in the immediate now. IDENTITY captures the contemporary zeitgeist.  

GENERATIONS doesn’t pretend to have the answers nor does it close any credibility gaps. This work, spanning three centuries, should help define with humor, pathos, politics and empathy who we have become. Who we need to be to move forward is up to the viewer.

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Writer/photographer/artist Scot Sothern grew up in his father’s portrait photography studio in the Missouri Ozarks in the 1950s and 1960s. A product of the sixties cultural revolution, he ran wild through the 1970s and supported himself as an itinerant portrait photographer. In the following years he took jobs here and abroad that kept him behind a camera and in the darkroom. By the 1990s he had become an autodidact writer as well. In 2010, at sixty, his first solo exhibit, LOWLIFE, photos and stories of life with street prostitutes, was held at the notorious Drkrm Gallery in Los Angeles. Scot’s first book of the same title was published in the U.K. by Stanley Barker in 2011. The British Journal of Photography called LOWLIFE, “the years’ most controversial photobook.” LOWLIFE immediately found its way into the international art photography community. This work along with other photography projects has since been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and Paris. Solo gallery shows have included Little Big Man Gallery in LA, Dan Cooney Fine Art in NYC, and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami. In 2013 Sothern began a biweekly column, Nocturnal Submissions, for VICE Magazine, and Curb Service: A Memoir, was published by Soft Skull Press. Writer Jerry Stahl called it “An absolutely amazing and essential book." STREETWALKERS, stories and photographs, was published by powerHouse Books in February 2016. “This penetrating book of photographs and text will haunt and challenge the viewer,” writes Roger Ballen.
BIG CITY, a novel, was published in 2017 by Stalking Horse Press. Other books include SAD CITY published by Straylight Press, and A New Low and Little Miss by drkrm editions.

2 Live and Die in L.A. Photography Group Exhibition Opens Today

Courtesy of Estevan Oriol

2 LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.
July 10th 2021
12pm-10pm

Featured Image Merrick Morton

 2 LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. is the most important art show of Los Angeles neighborhood culture that you won’t see in a big name gallery. Curated by Frankie Orozco for the fourth year running—the early origins of the show were focused primarily on Chicano arts with a high focus in photography. Frankie Orozco has now expanded the show beyond the original barrio artists to other neighborhoods such as Venice, South Central, and Skid Row.

This year’s show will coincide with the debut of the L.A. Six— six prolific Los Angeles documentary and street photographers that have come together to give the world a unique glimpse into the lesser known reaches of Los Angeles.  Their images include 1980’s L.A. gang culture, the low rider scene of the 90’s, the hip hop generation, the Mongols Motorcycle Club, East L.A. and South Central backyard punk scenes, stunning landscapes of the city, and intimate views of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Together, their works reveal a rare view of hidden Los Angeles. The L.A. Six includes Estevan Oriol, Merrick Morton, Frankie Orozco, Gilbert Godoy, Angela Boatwright and Suitcase Joe.  This year’s show is especially unique because Frankie has offered wall space to up-and-coming photographers, allowing their work to be shown along side well-known photographers.There will be some 40-plus artists sharing their work this year. For Frankie Orozco, this show is about conserving local culture that he feels is disappearing at a rapid rate. Frankie, “This is my way to help preserve L.A. street culture. Neighborhoods are being bought all over Los Angeles and new buildings are popping up and driving people out of LA. It’s becoming gentrified and, along with it, the culture is leaving.” 

2 LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. will present a one day showing July 10th at Chuco’s Justice Center in South Central. The center, once a correctional facility for juveniles, now hosts a variety of programs that help those who were incarcerated reintegrate back into society. “This building is important because there have been a lot of gang peace treaties put together here, too. The location lends to the whole feeling and vibe of the street culture. There have been 30 year long rivalries where many people have died from gang beef but, inside this building, the rivalries have been put to rest. It’s a neutral ground and mediation place for gangs,” says curator Frankie Orozco.

This year’s show will take place at Chuco’s, inside the juvenile courtrooms and jail cells, with art from inmates actively serving time, live musical performances, and a few surprises. Due to the pandemic, there will be limited tickets sold. For more information, visit instagram @2liveanddiein_la

Chuco’s Justice Center
7625 S Central Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90001

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William Catling, Navigating the Deep Pelagic

Willian Catling, Navigating the Deep Pelagic
Courtesy of The Progress Gallery

The Progress Gallery, Pomona is pleased to present Navigating the Deep Pelagic, a solo exhibition of the Los Angeles County-based artist-sculptor William Catling. This is his first solo show at the gallery.

Opening reception: on Saturday, April 10- from 6-8pm. The artist will be present.

The body of work explores how the horizontal and vertical interact; as they relate to birth and death, the spiritual and the physical, water and vapor, matter and spirit. The boat forms hover in the horizontal liminal spacebetween the fluidity of liquid and the intangibility of air; functioning as a kind of container for the human spirit. These forms reflect the interior space humans occupy at the soul level, the deepest part of the self. The works exist as a way of seeing in association with the power of memory, suffering and hope. The boat forms and the nests are symbolic of an internal journey, of silent prayer, of transitional spaces; quietly impacting the area around them or the viewer who comes close. The usage of clay reinforces a connection to the earth and the way we are rooted to the land while the vessel forms create a way of navigating deep waters. As a whole, the work creates a type of mapping where there are no landmarks, no place to anchor, and no way to know the way, without an upward gaze into the heavens.

Read more here

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INFORMATION

The Progress Gallery
300 S. Thomas Street Suite B Pomona, CA 91766 (Elevator Access Available)
April 8, 2021 to April 30, 2021

Artist Talk
April 17, 2021 7
7P - 8:30P