13ThingsLA: March 4
New Reviews Special for your art calendar
So, that happened. LA Art Week is now a memory, with all its pleasantries and provocations behind us. But wonderfully, the hazy craze has left a plethora of amazing ongoing gallery shows in its wake, so we take a closer look at some of our favorites. REVIEWS at Vielmetter Los Angeles, Wilding Cran Gallery, James Fuentes Gallery, OCHI Gallery, and MOCA Grand/LA Phil. Plus newness at Pasadena City College, ArtCenter, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Corey Helford Gallery, Copro Gallery, Mr. Wash’s studio, solo., and a very special edition of Little Tokyo Flea.
FEATURE
REVIEW: Hayv Kahraman: Libations at Vielmetter Los Angeles. In the wake of Eaton Fire’s ravages to her Altadena home and studio, Kahraman returns to the gallery with a suite of paintings that transform the female body into a visceral site of reclamation. Her signature mannerist figures remain the active protagonists of a survivalist theater, their forms lengthening and twisting into allegories of physical and psychological harm and rituals of grace. In these large-scale works, hair is understood as a conduit of narrative symbology and ancestral matriarchal orders—braided into protective webs, swung in circular trances, or threaded with teardrops—functioning as both a strike and a shroud. The skin of the figures, often marbled and heavily textured with handmade flax and other unconventional materials Kahraman favors, mirrors the scarred terrain of the “wildland urban interface,” grounding the women’s ethereal poses in a heavy, tactile materiality. It is a powerful study of the body as an alchemical vessel, where acts of sewing, dancing, and pouring become the very mechanisms through which a world is rebuilt from ash. Also, catch her in the PBS Pacific Standard Time documentary, along with yours truly, speaking further on her processes and their meaning. On view downtown through March 21; vielmetter.com. —SND
