ArtRx LA

This week, a show featuring five influential female artists opens at Sprüth Magers, Self Help Graphics & Art hosts a discussion on art and gentrification, an artist explores her multifaceted identity in a video work at Grand Central Art Center, and more.

 Eau de Cologne

Eau de Cologne Magazine, issue 2, 1987 (via spruethmagers.com)

When: Opens Tuesday, June 28, 6–8pm
Where: Sprüth Magers (5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles)

Taking its name from the female artist-focused magazine published by Monika Sprüth in the late 1980s, Eau de Colognefeatures work from five influential women spanning four decades. Ranging from the media-saturated work of Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger, to photography by Cindy Sherman and Louise Lawler, to Rosemarie Trockel’s work in ceramic and yarn, the show reveals the different channels these artists have taken to redefine the way women represent and are represented.

 My Name is Lutz

When: Thursday, June 30, 7pm
Where: 356 Mission (356 S. Mission Road, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles)

Artists can be a pretty elusive bunch, but Lutz Bacher (a pseudonym) has made an artform of being an enigma. The Bay Area-artist, recently relocated to New York, has been confounding audiences with her appropriation-laden works since the 1970s that are challenging and enlightening in equal measure. Her current show at 356 Mission is no exception, filled with a range of seemingly disconnected works: a piano, a mountain made of packing foam, a video work featuring Leonard Cohen, and glitter scattered all over the floor. The gallery held a related symposium recently, and this Thursday it’ll be screening My Name is Lutz, a film that will probably raise as many questions about the artist as it answers.

Madame Gandhi (via hauserwirthschimmel.com)

 Madame Gandhi

When: Thursday, June 30, 5–9pm
Where: Hauser Wirth & Schimmel (901 East 3rd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles)

As part of its “After 5” performance series, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel presents Madame Gandhi, a collaboration between Kiran Gandhi, former drummer for M.I.A., and sound designer Alexia Riner. Gandhi made headlines last year when she ran the London Marathon free-bleeding on her period in support of menstrual equity. The drums and vocal duo create songs that pair foot-stomping grooves with feminist themes of liberation. The event is free but RSVP is required.

Self Help Graphics & Art (via Facebook)

 Artists Talk About Arts and Gentrification

When: Saturday, July 2, 3–7pm
Where: Self Help Graphics & Art (1300 E 1st St, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles)

The conversation surrounding art and gentrification has become especially heated lately, especially in Los Angeles, where the current art boom is seeing galleries expand into neighborhoods on the city’s eastside. This Saturday, Self Help Graphics and Art, a long-standing community arts organization in predominantly Latino Boyle Heights, will be hosting an Artist Dialogue about Arts & Gentrification. They are inviting the Eastside creative community to discuss issues related to these developments, in order to mitigate the potential of physical and cultural displacement.

 Françoise Grossen

Françoise Grossen, “Five Rivers” (1974), dyed manila, 107 x 93 x 12 inches (via blumandpoe.com)

When: Opens Saturday, July 2, 6–8pm
Where: Blum & Poe (2727 South La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, California)

Since the late 1960s, Swiss artist Françoise Grossen has been a major figure in fiber and textile arts, which makes it somewhat surprising that her upcoming exhibition at Blum & Poe is only her first show in Los Angeles. The gallery will be presenting “Contact III,” a 30-foot wide installation composed of 17 sections of knotted orange rope, first exhibited in 1977. Grossen breaks free of the flat, rectilinear boundaries that previously limited textiles to the wall or the floor, stressing the weight, mass, and three-dimensional qualities of her materials.

Danielle Abrams, “Quadroon” (via Facebook)

 Quadroon: Danielle Abrams

When: Opens Saturday, July 2, 7–10pm
Where: Grand Central Art Center (125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, California)

With candor and humor, Danielle Abrams explores her layered identity in the performance/video work “Quadroon.” A quadroon is Creole term for someone who is a quarter black, and in the work, Dean plays four different roles, creating a complex self-portrait. These range from a teen who tries to pass as Greek, a San Francisco butch lesbian, and characters based on both her African-American and Jewish grandmothers.