Tag Archives: Ann Magnuson

NASTY WOMEN AT GAVLAK

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I don’t really look for inspiration. I just let it come to me, but I don’t stop working. Work comes from work. When I’m stuck I just keep working and make terrible looking things until something else comes out of it. That’s the creative process… You can’t think yourself out a right action. You have to act yourself into right thinking. You can’t sit there and smoke cigarettes and look at the wall waiting for inspiration. — Marilyn Minter

NASTY WOMEN—a celebratory group exhibition at Gavlak Los Angeles—”seeks to uplift communities underrepresented in contemporary art and American visual culture at large… [giving] a platform to a diverse array of perspectives and female voices throughout art history.”*

The show is dedicated to the memory of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. See link below for details.

NASTY WOMEN*

Through December 12.

Gavlak Los Angeles

1700 South Santa Fe Avenue, Suite 440, downtown Los Angeles.

NASTY WOMEN features work by Tiffany Alfonseca, Candida Alvarez, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Judie Bamber, Whitney Bedford, Andrea Belag, April Bey, Delia Brown, Deborah Brown, Karen Carson, Elizabeth Catlett, Gisela Colón, Patricia Cronin, Kim Dacres, Linda Daniels, Vaginal Davis, Sonia Delaunay, Florence Derive, Nicole Eisenman, Judith Eisler, Anonymous (Emilian School), Beverly Fishman, Helen Frankenthaler, Viola Frey, Francesca Gabbiani, Vania Gunarti, Trulee Hall, Jenny Holzer, Deborah Kass, Angelica Kauffman, Rachel Kaye, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Becky Kolsrud, Marcia Kure, Yayoi Kusama, Nancy Lorenz, Ann Magnuson, Kate Millett, Anne Minich, Marilyn Minter, Jesse Mockrin, Betty Parsons, Ebony G. Patterson, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Fay Ray, Katherine Read, Joan Semmel, Shinique Smith, Sylvia Snowden, Linda Stark, Sophie Tæuber-Arp, AlexisTeplin, Betty Tompkins, Patssi Valdez, Marnie Weber, Brenna Youngblood, and Lisa Yuskavage.

Nasty Women, Gavlak Los Angeles, October 31, 2020–December 31, 2020, from top: Lisa Anne Auerbach, Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries, 2020, wool, image © Auerbach; Kim Dacres, Whitney, 2019, auto tires, bicycle tires, bicycle tubes, wood, bicycle parts, zip ties, and screws, photograph by Sebastian Bach, image © Dacres; Judie Bamber, Nancy Nielson (Miss April 1961), 2019, watercolor on paper, image © Bamber; Viola Frey, Stubborn Woman, Orange Hands, 2004, ceramic and glazes, photograph by Chris Watson, image © 2020 Frey and the Artists’ Legacy Foundation, licensed by ARS, New York; Nasty Women installation view; April Bey, Atlantica Archives (Earth’s Feminism) II, 2020, digitally printed woven blanket with hand-sewn “African” Chinese knock-off wax fabric and glitter, image © Bey; Karen Carson, Power Mad, 2011, acrylic on unstretched canvas, image © Carson; self-portrait Woman Artist Painting, circa mid-17th century, anonymous artist from the Emilian School, oil on canvas; Lisa Anne Auerbach, Karma is a Nasty Woman, 2020, wool, image © Auerbach. Images courtesy of the artists and Gavlak, Los Angeles and Palm Beach.

CLUB 57 AT MOMA — OPENING NIGHT

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Eric Marciano—director of The Age of Insects and four other films in MoMA’s collection—reports from the opening night of the museum’s new exhibition CLUB 57: FILM, PERFORMANCE, AND ART IN THE EAST VILLAGE, 1978–1983:
 “The reception at MoMA was stunning! I know that we will never again see that group of people together in one place at one time: Andre Degas, David Ilku, John Kelly, David Byrne, Bianca Bob, Chris Tanner, Alexa Hunter (Disturbed Furniture), Tessa Chua, Bob Carrithers, Marty Abrahams, Abel Ferrara, Michael Holman, Scott Covert, Henny Garfunkel, Scott Wittman, Art Labriola, M. Henry Jones, John Waters, Tish & Snooky (Manic Panic), Kenny Scharf, MoMA curators Ron Magliozzi and Sophie Cavoulacos, and guest curators Ann Magnuson and John “Lypsinka” Epperson were among the many in attendance. (Ignacio Valero—who was covering the bike path attack downtown—and Bill Brovold were unable to attend*)
“MoMA went all out. Truly a deep dive into one of the great scenes that was occurring in tandem with other great scenes. The show reveals an energy and crazy intensity in the art—people expressing themselves in an analog era when it took time to do art. Such an eclectic group came to admire and celebrate the work and reminisce about those vibrant (and dangerous) days. The Lingerie Family painting from The Age of Insects is one of the seminal works, with a video of Frank Holliday‘s eye taking the place of the lost original.”
Two days before the opening, participating artist Richard Hambleton died at 65.
CLUB 57: FILM, PERFORMANCE, AND ART IN THE EAST VILLAGE, 1978–1983, through April 1.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, 11 West 53rd Street, New York City.
*Bill Brovold, Victoire Taittinger, and Barlo Perry starred in The Jimmy Donahue Story (1982), written and produced by Ignacio Valero and Eric Marciano, and directed by Marciano—a participating artist in the CLUB 57 show.
Ann Magnuson at Club 57, circa 1980. Photograph by Robert Carrithers.
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ONE HOUR BACCHANAL: A MINI-CARNIVAL IN THE SPIRIT OF MIKE KELLEY AT MoCA L.A.

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ONE-HOUR BACCHANAL
SUNDAY, MAY 18, 3–4PM
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles

Artist Ann Magnuson hosts a mini-carnival in the spirit of Mike Kelley. Featuring special guests, live music, games, and a tribute maypole dance. Squeeze extra enjoyment out of this event by attending in costume and bringing a ratty stuffed animal to sacrifice to the pagan god of Art. Messy fun for all!

Glen Meadmore calls his music “pure unadulterated corn-hole and hillbilly homo-punk.” Meadmore was a member of the infamous Anti-Club in Los Angeles and formed the band Pedro, Muriel and Esther with internationally renowned performance artist Vaginal Davis. Meadmore’s most recent recording, Cowboy Songs For Lil Hustlers, was produced by Steve Albini. His band includes Dean Opseth on bass and Dave Kendrick formerly of Devo.

Kristian Hoffman is a singer/songwriter, producer, arranger, performer and CBGB regular who fronted the seminal punk-pop band The Mumps with Lance Loud, as well as The Swinging Madisons and various stellar solo projects. A frequent collaborator of Magnuson, Hoffman also worked as musical director for Klaus Nomi and Rufus Wainwright and is currently musical director for Prince Poppycock and the Brookledge Follies. Hoffman will be joined by musicians Pierre Smith, Joe Berardi and Kim Serene in performing music from The Luv Show, Magnuson’s 1995 album partially recorded with Mike Kelley and Supersession, “Talent is a Vampire” and “Obscene & Pornographic Art” by Magnuson’s cult psychedelic band Bongwater, and The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” in honor of the seminal MOCA exhibition.

Squeaky Blonde is a Los Angeles-based performance artist, musician, actor and designer whose work has been showcased at LACMA, The Hammer Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Machine Project and in publications such as Art Forum, 7 Hollywood, Paper Magazine, Oblivion, LA Weekly, Propaganda, Frontiersand BUTT Magazine. Squeaky has been a nightlife personality for nearly two decades and continues to charm and terrorize audiences worldwide. His unique style blends elements of macabre high art with occult overtones, facets of surrealistic and maniacal hedonism topped with a dash of dada-esque lunacy that compliments his unique vocal range and operatic schrei. Visit www.squeakyblonde.com for upcoming dates and future projects.

Gregory Barnett, the sex and camp prone performance artist of the Psych-Out Da Da GoGo Family joins fellow cult members Diamondback Annie, Nick Duran and Meg Wolfe, in his “Home For Wayward Satyrs” in a series of “Rituals For Reprobates.” Barnett is creating an original durational dance/performance piece that is inspired by Mike Kelley which will incorporate afghans, satyrs, and other Kelley references, as well as a new Magnuson track called “Be A Satyr,” inspired in part by Donna Summer.

Michelle Carr founded the Velvet Hammer Burlesque and is now curator at arts collective HM157. Carr also founded legendary all-ages music venue Jabberjaw.

Sean DeLear is a Los Angeles-based artist and performer who Magnuson met during her initial visits in the 1980s. Part of the art and music scene that inspired her permanent move, DeLear embodies the L.A. punk ethos. DeLear will sign the theme song to John Waters’ 1974 film Female Trouble. Watch out!

Marc Plainguet (“Your Pal Satan”) joined the event after Magnuson posted the event on her Facebook page. Plainguet’s submission included an accordion rendition of Joy Division and photograph of himself painted beet red and wearing devil horns. According to Plainguet, “your Pal Satan goes to and fro in the world and walks up and down in it playing his damned accordion to help you see the darkness.”

Stephen Holman is a wonderfully inventive and madcap Anglo-American performer and visual artist whose work incorporates painting, stop-motion animation and performance art. Magnuson first met Holman back in the day when he was directing in the era-defining performance troupe Theatre Carnivale. Magnuson said, “it was only after Magnuson scheduled the One-Hour Bacchanal that I realized I had to invite him because I remembered that the idea of having everyone perform simultaneously was partially inspired by the Big Mess collaborative he used to do with performance art legends Johanna Went, Brian Routh, and the late, great Tom ‘Alien Comic’ Murrin.” Holman will be “combining an assemblage of surreal props, quick-fire non-sequiturs and occasional bouts of action painting in order to deliver an authentic medieval bestiary lecture, complete with strange snacks, alchemical experiments and readings from steamy romance novels.”

Robert Dayton is “The Canadian Romantic” and he plans to display his Great White Northernly Lust at the Bacchanal while cloaked in a new ceremonial Love God robe direct from that Province of Passion, Ontario. For more about Robert visit www.robertdayton.com.

And we really hope other performers, artists and other local merry-makers show up and contribute to the madness! The invitation is officially OPEN!

FEATURING
Ann Magnuson with Kristian Hoffman, Joe Berardi, Pierre Smith & Kim Serene, Glen Meadmore with Dave Kendrick & Dean Opseth, Squeaky Blonde, Michelle Carr, Stephen Holman, Sean DeLear, Robert Dayton as “The Canadian Romantic”, The Psych-Out Dada Go-Go Family Dancers: Gregory Barnett, Diamondback Annie, Nick Duran & Meg Wolfe, and Marc Plainguet as “Your Pal Satan”