Roamings of a Leo: Hammer Museum Visit

I met my friend Teri at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Thursday to check out a couple of new exhibits. We were first greeted by the Mark Bradford: Scorched Earth exhibit with a mural on the wall of the staircase entrance to the museum. It features a map of HIV diagnoses in the United States as of 2009. The description states that the work was created using Bradford's signature process of excavating through layers of paint and drywall.

This excavated wall painting is entitled "Finding Barry," 2015. Since 1999 the museum has commissioned artist to create twenty-nine site-specific projects for the lobby wall. By removing paint and layers, the artist creates his map by exposing the layers of previous art. The installation name refers to the California painter and graffiti artist, Barry McGee (b. 1966) who created a mural there in 2000.

This close up of the map is New Orleans and the Louisiana Delta.

"The Next Hot Line," 2015, mixed media on canvas.

"Untitled," 2015 mixed media on an unstretched canvas.

"Dead Hummingbird," 2015, mixed media on canvas.

"I Don't Have the Power to Force the Bathhouses to Post Anything," 2015, mixed media on canvas.

"Rebuild South Central," 2015, mixed media on canvas. The description states that this painting is inspired by a photograph taken shortly after the 1992 riots that besieged South Central in the wake of the acquittal of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King. This painting/collage incorporates layers of signs and other materials, which are sanded, leaving only a trace of the original color or image.

We then visited the exhibit entitled "Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition." Here are a couple that I particularly liked:

"Peas and Pickles," 2014 by Roe Ethridge. Dye sublimation print on aluminium.

"La Brea Avenue in the Snow," 2011 by Florian Maier-Aichen, chromogenic print using digital manipulation to "draw" in nonexistent snow and adding cars from different decades. There is never snow on La Brea Avenue.

Finally we visited a beautiful exhibit in one room by Joseph Holtzman. this exhibit includes a group of paintings dating from 2006 to 2011. His paintings are on slate or marble. They are largely abstract but include representational imagery that functions as a provocative symbolism situated within fields of color and pattern, according to the posted description. With each piece he applies thin layers of oil paint to the surface. He then uses razor blades to carve and cotton swabs to spread the paint on the support. The artist also created the design and interior decoration for the room to stage his paintings. The result is that I wanted to recline on the comfortable furniture, relax and enjoy the paintings and ambiance.