On a recent visit to Los Angeles, these three shows really stood out:

Suprasensorial:  Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, currently on view at The Geffen Contemporary through February 27th presents Latin America as the source of new ideas about the nature and function of art through the re-creation of five important large-scale installations.  This exhibit is really worth a visit for the artists you may know, as well as those who may be new to you.  Take time to explore and experience each work thoroughly and bring your swim suit!

Lucio Fontana Struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano, 1951/re-fabricated 2010, neon

Lucio Fontana dedicated his career to investigating the concept of space and a new iconography.  He pushed the boundaries of art through an awareness of new technology, such as neon and UV light.  This site specific piece was first created for the Triennial of Milan in 1951, and was his response to the architecture and stairway.   photo courtesy Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan

“The five large-scale environments on view exemplify the artists’ embrace of light, color, and space as art materials as well as their interest in forging a new object-viewer relationship. Conceiving works that require the active participation of the viewer, each sought to engender a sensory experience of art that goes beyond the aesthetic. This immersive encounter, which Oiticica described as “suprasensorial,” was intended to shift the viewer’s position vis-à-vis the artwork, bridging the distance between spectator and object, demystifying art by making it part of everyday life. The viewer no longer need stand in front of an artwork, as with painting, or walk around it, in the case of sculpture, but should enter it, becoming fully engaged in a kind of “sensorial exaltation.” Insisting on the viewer’s presence as necessary for the completion of the work, each of the artists in Suprasensorial makes him/her an indispensable part of the art-making process.” – The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)  

Carlos Cruz-Diez Cromosaturación, 1965/re-fabricated 2010, painted drywall, fluorescent lights, and colored plastic, 155 15/1 x 603 15/16 x 291 5/16″, colection of Carlos Cruz-Diez, photo by Iwan Baan.

Cromosaturaciónes are works of total color saturation; they comprise strucured rooms that allow the viewer to be completely immersed in color and to perceive it as a physical presence.

Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida, Cosmococa-Programa in Progress, CC4 Nocagions, 1973/re-fabricated 2010, water, pool, electric lights, projected images, sound, and paint, 24ft. 7 1/4″ x 45 ft. 1 5/16″, Projecto Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro.   photo by Iwan Baan.

This installation features a swimming pool installed amid colored lights and multiple wall projecttions of John Cage’s book Notations, a collection of music manuscripts, covered with lines of cocaine. Visitors are encouraged to swim–towels and lockers provided!

Josh Peters Furious Seasons at Kaycee Olsen Gallery… a newcomer in Culver City.  Josh Peters’ paintings can be described as ‘figures in landscape’ paintings.  We loved his sense of color.  This show closes February 12th.

Josh Peters Furious Seasons, 2010, acrylic on unprimed linen, 65 x 86″

Peters searches for figures in stills from obscure films and uses them in his moody landscapes.  The inspiration for the paintings in this exhibit came from a short story by the author Raymond Carver, from which the title of the exhibition Furious Seasons is borrowed.

Installation view at Kaycee Olsen Gallery

  Josh Peters Littlest Victory, 2010 acyrlic on unprimed linen, 57 x 76″

Josh Peters Twin Peaks, 2010 acrylic on canvas, 57 x 76″

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Joel Tauber, Pumping

 This ambitious exhibit includes videos, sculpture, and photographs by Joel Tauber.  Pumping is an investigation of the early history of trains in Los Angeles and that history’s intersection with water and oil resources. We were lucky enought to catch the tail end of this remarkable exhibit that closed on January 29th.  View the video below which is a good walk through of the entire installation.

     
Joel Tauber Untitled, 2010 lightjet prints on aluminum, 27 x 20″ each.

Installation view at Susanne Vielmetter Gallery  

The videos were originally filmed using a 16mm hand-cranked camera and the photographic prints are distressed so that the installation looks like it was made at the dawn of the 20th century.