13ThingsLA: November 6

Bated Breath for your art calendar

Siri Kaur, Wonder Woman, 2005. Archival pigment print (Courtesy of Galerie XII)

Good morning, everyone! Well it’s Election Day in America, and you may notice we are out with an early edition today—because by 4:20 we will all be, um, focusing our attention elsewhere. But on the other side of this fraught moment, you will need either a place for celebration or for comfort. We suggest… exhibitions, discussions, screenings, and tours (and still more PST) at: Galerie XII, Regen Projects, David Kordansky Gallery, Inglewood Open Studios, Roberts Projects, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Pace Gallery, Hashimoto Contemporary, KP Projects, Von Lintel Gallery, Koplin del Rio Gallery, Getty Center, and Wonzimer.

Also, we wanted to take a moment to thank our friends at LAist for including us in their very excellent holiday gift guide article picking “12 amazing LA and SoCal experiences to give (and get!)” — we appreciate the love and support for our project more than we can ever express. 

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Feature

Siri Kaur, Levitation, 2024. Archival pigment print, 55 x 42 in (Courtesy of Galerie XII)

REVIEW: Siri Kaur: In the Company of Wolves at Galerie XII. Blending the feminist fabulism of Little Red Riding Hood with the primal energy of wild pagan spirits, photographer Siri Kaur has been exploring the archetypes of girlhood/womanhood liminality for decades. Using members of her immediate family as both muses and models, in this way Kaur further infuses her explorations with heartfelt autobiography. (Of note: the stone “henge” in which the figures are often shown cavorting was a real place Kaur’s father built on their property.) These days, Kaur’s images have absorbed a new dimension, an understanding of the power of women and the importance of self-determination and the freedom to be who we are. In the well-earned lines on the magnificent face of her own Grandmother, in figures at various borders between safety and the unknown, in metaphor-rich poetic details culled from nature. In her sister’s casual odalisque, where a red aura hovers like a portal to the past and/or the future, and her gaze catches and holds ours with an invitation and a challenge. In the jaunty confidence of a girl at the edge between home and the woods, posing with her pet dog, where we wonder, is that what the wolf becomes—a tame pet for a bright and powerful witch? Or have the girls been the wolves all along? On view through December 21 at Bergamot Station, Santa Monica; galeriexii.com. —SND

Siri Kaur, Sister with Her Dog, 2000. Archival pigment print (Courtesy of Galerie XII)

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