Amir Zaki's pandemic photography on view in L.A., plus the CSULB art blunder, the Cheech opening in Riverside and more in our weekly arts newsletter.
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[Essential Arts] PRESENTED BY Metro Art*
[Click to view images]Amir Zaki, "Built in 1872. Damaged in 1878, 1887, 1921, 1973, 1983, 1986, 1987. Renovated 1928, 1930," 2021, archival photograph. (Diane Rosenstein Gallery) Is âcrimingâ a word? The dictionary folks at Merriam-Webster have had criming on their âwords weâre watchingâ list for a while now, noting that âthe word âcrimeâ has mostly stuck to being a noun for its half-millennium existence, [but] weâve recently seen the word reaching into new verb territory, especially in its present participle form.â Criming is all over social media these days, where weâre watching a functional shift in grammar unfold. The [riveting televised Jan. 6 select committee hearings]( are no doubt the current accelerator â and judging from the past few days, itâs looking like we are about to hit peak criming. Iâm Times critic Christopher Knight, in for Carolina A. Miranda this week, and hereâs the latest essential arts news: Seductive estrangement Pandemic disorientation is a surprising subtext of seductive new landscape photographs by Amir Zaki. Twenty-two color photographs at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, all made in 2021 as urban lockdowns and domestic quarantines were underway, show shoreline piers along the California coast. Although the occasional seabird does show up, the piers are unpopulated by human activity. Unpopulated, that is, except for the deft hand of the artist, who creates a subtle sense of estrangement. They take a visual cue from the celebrated minimalist taxonomy of the late German photographers [Bernd and Hilla Becher]( who systematically recorded water towers, blast furnaces, grain elevators and other industrial structures, or the California bungalows and dingbat apartments photographed by [Judy Fiskin](. It takes a bit of looking to realize that the large-scale, frontally composed pictures, most 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet high, arenât what they at first appear to be. Each colorful landscape image is cut in half by a wide band that goes edge to edge â what appears to be the blunt end of the pier. Top and bottom seem to go together, mostly because we casually assume that a cameraâs lens captures a transparent view of an actual scene. Here, however, something appears to be quietly out of whack. Each pier is the site of a restaurant, a sport fishermanâs outpost, a Red Cross station, a tourist lookout or some other mundane use, all of them shuttered and closed down. The top perspective is just above eye level, so that the raised platformâs function is on clear view. Below, where massive wood or concrete structural pilings hold up the pier, a scene of roiling Pacific seawater, lazy waves or wet sand spreads out. Slowly it dawns that there is no way for a person to get from the ground up onto the pier â no stairs, no ladder, no gentle rise where the platform might meet a bluff. Sorry, you canât get there from here. Zakiâs seamless compositions digitally stitch together separate photographic imagery. The horizontal band, repeated in all the photographs, is a patch. For all a viewer knows, the pier and the supporting posts may or may not even be from the same location, such is the otherwise convincing fiction of the scene. A pier is a meeting ground between two distinct realms â sea and land. As the catastrophic viral pandemic of COVID-19 was raging around the globe last year, killing more than 6.3 million people (so far), Zaki was out photographing at the plane of transition where, a few hundred million years ago, life crawled out from the sea. The L.A. artistâs pictures record the site of the arrival of an evolutionary process whose lineage created us â a place that has left us cut off today. [Amir Zaki, "Built in 1920. Damaged in 1940. Renovated in 1928, 1992," 2021, archival photograph.]
Amir Zaki, âBuilt in 1920. Damaged in 1940. Renovated in 1928, 1992,â 2021, archival photograph. (Diane Rosenstein Gallery) Zaki titled each photograph with the year a pier was built, dutifully followed by notations of the years in which the structure was seriously damaged or had to be rebuilt, given the force of natureâs destructive power. The oldest California pier was constructed in 1872 (in Ventura) and, according to the title, was damaged in 1878, 1887, 1921, 1973, 1983, 1986 and 1987, with renovations in 1928 and 1930. All is not lost, however, as a bit of curdled hope peeks over the horizon. The piers in the pictures being fabrications, what you see is not documentary. Zakiâs shrewd and elegant digital photographs offer the newest pier renovation, so life does go on â at least for the moment. Whether that digital sleight-of-hand ranks as construction, damage or perhaps both is up to you. Tuesdays-Saturdays, through July 16, at [Diane Rosenstein Gallery]( 831 N. Highland Ave., L.A. (323) 462-2790. ADVERTISEMENT BY Metro Art
[Metro Art]( Metro Art Presents Summertime â Screening + Poetry + Music + More An uplifting love letter to Los Angeles and all the stories it holds, SUMMERTIME takes place over the course of a hot summer day in the city, where the lives of 27 young adults intersect via public transit. A skating guitarist, two wannabe rappers, an exasperated fast-food workerâthey weave in and out of each otherâs stories. Through poetry they express life, love, heartache, family, home, and fear. One of them just wants to find someplace that still serves good cheeseburgers. For information, go to: [metro.net/art](. End of advertisement Outrage of the week Cal State Long Beachâs art museum has decided to use its walls to showcase the painting of (surprise!) a major donor. Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld gave $10 million to the institution formerly known as University Art Museum, and now Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld artwork is exhibited inside the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Gallery at the renamed Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. [ Two artworks on a museum gallery wall depict abstractions of human forms.]
Two mixed media on canvas works by Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld on view at the Cal State Long Beach museum named after the artist. (Tatiana Mata) âA permanent chunk of a public universityâs tax-subsidized museum facility and artistic program has been effectively privatized to advance the personal interests of a wealthy patron,â I write in a column. âCSULB has now made a sizable commitment to continuing in perpetuity a [worthless but high-profile art project](. âWhat is the university teaching students through such an arrangement?â Now Iâll turn over the newsletter to my Times arts colleagues, who will run down the rest of the weekâs culture news. Design time Architecture critic Alexandra Langeâs latest book, âMeet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall,â is well timed for a city whose most famous mall magnate is [running for mayor](. Carolina A. Miranda dials into [Langeâs arguments]( including observations that plentiful seating and generous air conditioning make malls great places for seniors to socialize. âCommercial imperatives accidentally created an architecture that accommodates those who often have the least societal power: the young, the old, the disabled, and the poor.â Carolina also marks the passing of architect Harry Gesner, who designed prized homes across Southern California. Wave House, Eagleâs Watch, the Hollywood Boathouses, the Sandcastle â his [idiosyncratic creations]( made the most of dramatic sites that sometimes were written off as unbuildable. [A man stands on a curving white deck that extends over a sandy beach.]
Architect Harry Gesner, who has died at age 97, on the deck of his 1957 Wave House in Malibu. (Steven Lippman) When The Times polled experts in 2008 and asked them to rank the best SoCal residential architecture of all time, the design that finished No. 1 was none other R.M. Schindlerâs Kings Road house, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Carolina checked out an exhibition diving into the history and legacy of a [quintessential California retreat](. Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. [Become a subscriber](. ADVERTISEMENT
Meet the Cheech
[A closeup of a smiling man with graying hair.]
Cheech Marin. (Gustavo Soriano / For The Times) Itâs billed as the only permanent art space in America devoted exclusively to Chicano and Mexican American art. Yes, the official name really is the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, and yes, you can just call it â[the Cheech]( â please. In advance of the opening Saturday, The Timesâ Melissa Hernandez got a peek at some of the 550 works from Marinâs personal collection on permanent rotation and talked to the museumâs namesake about how it came to be. A stage set for change The big headline out of the Tony Awards was the [underdog victory]( for creator Michael R. Jacksonâs âA Strange Loopâ for best musical. âThis victory is significant not only because this unapologetically Black, queer musical ... is a stunning artistic achievement,â writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. âThe show represents a breakthrough for what kind of stories can be successfully presented on Broadway stages.â L. Morgan Lee lost her bid to be the first transgender performer to win Broadwayâs biggest honor, but âA Strange Loopâ producer Jennifer Hudson [got her EGOT]( reports Ashley Lee. And the understudies, swings and standbys who toil with little fanfare behind the scenes finally got a little [love and appreciation](. Moving forward, the success of âA Strange Loopâ provides hope for people of color aiming to break into that most rarified of theater clubs: producing. Lee talks to folks in the Theatre Producers of Color program, which is breaking down barriers to entry and building [a new generation of theater leaders]( ready to push new stories and new faces onto stages across the country. Catching up
[Closeup of a man seated on a couch near a window and speaking.]
Peter McIntosh, the theater usher and so-called âPatient Zeroâ who had the first documented case of COVID-19 on Broadway, in the new film âBroadway Rising.â (Five Minutes to Places, LLC) Lisa Fung checks in with filmmaker Amy Rice, actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his husband, producer Justin Mikita, about how they captured the [real-life drama]( of Broadwayâs historic COVID-19 shutdown into the documentary âBroadway Rising,â which had its premiere at the Tribeca Festival. Mark Swed wraps up the [Ojai Music Festival]( which, guided by American Modern Opera Company as music director, was by turns thrilling, mysterious, collaboratively comforting and startling confrontational. Things to do Matt Cooper has your [best bets for the weekend]( including Juneteenth celebrations in Leimert Park and Costa Mesa. You can find some additional SoCal options for Juneteenth in this [magic map](. And donât forget our list of the best [SoCal museum exhibitions]( in June. While weâre on the subject: The Times is in the process of reinventing its listings of concerts, exhibitions, stage shows, festivals and more. Want to share your feelings about what kind of SoCal culture calendar would be most useful to you? Send your suggestions to calendar@latimes.com and weâll incorporate your feedback into our planning. And last but not least ... The Times is launching a new portrait series celebrating Black culture in Los Angeles. Itâs called âBehold,â and you can sneak a peek on [Instagram]( before the big drop Sunday â in print as a multicover Calendar section package and online as a dedicated landing page within the [Entertainment and Arts]( section. ADVERTISEMENT
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