13 Things LA: November 13

Afterglow/Aftermath for your art calendar

Umar Rashid, The Battle of Los Cabos (Ante up!) Or, The Daquan Maneuver, 2024. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 72 x 84 1/8 x 1 1/4 in (Photo by Hannah Mjølsnes, © 2024 Umar Rashid; Courtesy of the artist and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York)

This week we feature Reviews at BLUM and of a new documentary coming to Laemmle Theaters; thoughtful recommendations at Fahey/Klein Gallery, Highways Performance Space, Lisson Gallery, CMay Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Ultra High Frequency Gallery, The Trophy Room LA, Art Division, and the Huntington; more new PST: Art, at Disney Hall and The Broad (and the show at BLUM also actually). Full disclosure, I put this issue together early last week, while watching the election (because I knew I’d be off traveling this week, which I am) and thus it was composed in an emotional state best described as medicated—I mean, subdued. Okay love you guys, see you when I get back.

---

Feature

Umar Rashid, Surf or Die. Or, a silent prayer for the sun to burn our pursuer’s eyes out and lead us to safety beyond the rocky shore. A sacrifice is made. Vengeance to follow., 2024. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 72 x 72 1/8 x 1 1/2 in (Photo byHannah Mjølsnes, © 2024 Umar Rashid; Courtesy of the artist and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York)

REVIEW: Umar Rashid The Kingdom of the Two Californias. La Época del Totalitarismo Part 2 is now open at BLUM (PST). For almost two decades, painter, sculptor, performer, and writer Umar Rashid has been composing an extensive manuscript, a saga for the ages both sweeping in its scope, precise in its detail, and boundless in its eccentric imagination. This “fictional” story describes a 19th century colonial invasion of the Americas by the Frenglish, of the scope and with the surreal swagger of a Game of Thrones kind of world-building, but set amid the landscapes and cinematic universe of the Tall Ship era of the Euro-centric so-called New World. There are epic seafaring battles, almost Medievalist tableaux of conquest and insurgency, mounting of resistance by indigenous populations, instances of propaganda and religious hypocrisy—as well as surgically placed flashes forward to unexpected contemporary scenes which illustrate the saga’s bloody ongoing legacy. Rashid’s painting style deliberately channels a kind of folk art vernacular along with a cheeky code-switching literary historical tone in the accompanying texts. There are moments of humor—UFOs, leopard costumes, stallions, broadswords, mermaids with crossbows, naked patriarchs, flashes of cartoonishness and carnival fashions—and there is a lot of blood and gore. The Russians, Latinos, missionaries, fur trappers, and pool party fools all make dramatic cameos, as does the city of Los Angeles, including its graffiti writers, among those still mounting a thrilling resistance even though we kind of already know how the story turns out. On view in Culver City through December 21; blum-gallery.com. —SND

Umar Rashid, Hunters and Sirens (Santa Barbara), 2024. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 72 1/8 x 84 1/8 x 1 1/2 in (Photo by Hannah Mjølsnes, © 2024 Umar Rashid; Courtesy of the artist and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York)

Umar Rashid, The West Coast is the Best Coast. Or, Map of the Two Californias, 2024. Acrylic, ink, coffee, and tea on paper 71 1/2 x 44 1/2 in, detail. (Photo by Hannah Mjølsnes, © 2024 Umar Rashid; Courtesy of the artist and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York)

---