Los Angeles is a mess. Sprawl, smog, clogged arterial freeways and just general congestion are symptoms that have long defined the city’s ill-repute to any number of people coming from the East, unused to such a colossal example of “urban expressionism”. Yet take one step backwards and the city’s preeminence begins to come together – from the global influence of Hollywood to the architecture articulated by Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright and seen in the Eames and Gamble Houses. The city has long been a cauldron of experimentation, and still remains as one perhaps as a lasting characteristic of L.A.’s spontaneous growth.

Over the past few years, photojournalist Ethan Pines has documented the constitutive building blocks of Los Angeles and its surrounding cities. From aerial landscapes of the city’s farthest reaches, to revealing portraits of single-family homes, Pines has created a compelling dialogue on the unique forms of Los Angeles and their peculiarity. Tomorrow, February 2, NEW THEME Gallery presents the first solo exhibition of Pines, which highlights the eccentricity of L.A.’s distinct urban forms, as well as proposing a future sustainable architecture for the city based on NEW THEME’s design of the Hollywood Hills residence of photographer Jill Greenberg.

The opening reception takes place from 7PM-10PM at NEW THEME Gallery. Click here for more information on the exhibition and to RSVP.

The esteemed voice of Fabrice Paineau, editor of Double Magazine, described the photography of Camille Vivier as “light as feathers, round as breasts, these images are voluptuous, straightforward, they swallow everything.” The work of Camille Vivier, which has already been showcased by the likes of Numéro, Grey, Another Magazine and Dazed and Confused, provocatively obsesses over the body, both it’s modern and ancient connotations.  Head down to 12Mail in Paris before November 16th to catch a collection of her best works; a collection explicitly and outwardly frozen in beauty, that reveals far, far more than its mere visual exterior initially suggests.
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The esteemed voice of Fabrice Paineau, editor of Double Magazine, described the photography of Camille Vivier as “light as feathers, round as breasts, these images are voluptuous, straightforward, they swallow everything.” The work of Camille Vivier, which has already been showcased by the likes of Numéro, Grey, Another Magazine and Dazed and Confused, provocatively obsesses over the body, both it’s modern and ancient connotations. 

Head down to 12Mail in Paris before November 16th to catch a collection of her best works; a collection explicitly and outwardly frozen in beauty, that reveals far, far more than its mere visual exterior initially suggests.

Much like steak preparation, appreciating art boils down to personal taste. Some like it raw and bloody, others prefer it dark and tough, and some have to chew it over for a while to truly get to grips with what the hell they’re dealing with.

So at the risk of receiving something you didn’t order, first flick though the visual preview above and get acquainted with the work of three Australian artists: Amanda Ceccato, Elliot Beaumont and Dord Burrough. Hosted by idrawalot, Medium Rare is a showcase of their latest work in a mash-up collaboration of their three personal and very different approaches to artistic expression.

The show runs until 22 September but of course opening nights are more fun. Get there for 19:00 sharp.

Medium Rare Vernissage  |  19:00, Thursday 6 September at Idrawalot, Berlin

Exhibition until 22 September

The purpose of art is regularly disputed; some feel it should be easily understood, just as others believe it should require thought. “Suspended Disbelief“—a group exhibition featuring nine contemporary artists—falls into the latter category, asking viewers to set aside preconceptions and accept a new kind of reality in which all new possibilities can occur. The exhibition runs through the end of August at NYC’s Von Lintel Gallery. 
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The purpose of art is regularly disputed; some feel it should be easily understood, just as others believe it should require thought. “Suspended Disbelief“—a group exhibition featuring nine contemporary artists—falls into the latter category, asking viewers to set aside preconceptions and accept a new kind of reality in which all new possibilities can occur.

The exhibition runs through the end of August at NYC’s Von Lintel Gallery. 

The “secret universe” series at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin presents the work of American artist Morton Bartlett. Central works of his oeuvre are fifteen semi-life-sized dolls, twelve girls and three boys. It took him up to a year to create each of the figures, and he designed various costumes and wigs in order to stage the dolls in true-to-life situations. He inserted them into various real-life moments, and breathed life into his creations through skilled photography.

His work was created for private use and was never exhibited during his lifetime. The dolls, approximately 200 black-and-white photographs, drawings, color slides and costumes were first discovered in 1993. 

Morton Bartlett  | May 11 - September 23 at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

For his fourth solo exhibition at Paris’ art: concept, Lothar Hempel presents a spanking new series of paintings that mix oil-colour, crayon, collage, acrylic, print, stains, drips, scratches, sheddings, smears and splatters. These intriguing paintings are filled with unintentional signs that result from the multiplicity of the layers applied by the artist, who tells an unknown story: The Story of The Old New Girls… Vernissage: May 12, 18:00 | Exhibition: May 12 - June 23
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For his fourth solo exhibition at Paris’ art: concept, Lothar Hempel presents a spanking new series of paintings that mix oil-colour, crayon, collage, acrylic, print, stains, drips, scratches, sheddings, smears and splatters. These intriguing paintings are filled with unintentional signs that result from the multiplicity of the layers applied by the artist, who tells an unknown story: The Story of The Old New Girls…

Vernissage: May 12, 18:00 | Exhibition: May 12 - June 23

Irish Artist Simon McWilliams brings his unique perspective on the urban landscape to the heart of Culver City’s art district with an exhibition of his new paintings at Skotia Gallery, Los Angeles. McWilliams takes his observations of the city around him and filters them through his bold, painterly imagination. What he delivers is a fictional developing city, housing mysterious forms cloaked with impasto paint, reminiscent of Christo’s wrapped buildings. Not a drab concrete city but a new optimistic metropolis, resplendent in abundant, tactile colours, promising, “a glorious morrow”.   Capturing a kind of grand and dizzying chaos that is both beautiful and alarming. By doing so for purely visual reasons the potential for analogy to our own crazy civilization and it’s dazzling potential for demise is made all the more powerful. Yet, this is visual work first, conceptual second. SIMON MCWILLIAMS “Shoots and Ladders”   12th May - 16th June 2012
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Irish Artist Simon McWilliams brings his unique perspective on the urban landscape to the heart of Culver City’s art district with an exhibition of his new paintings at Skotia Gallery, Los Angeles. McWilliams takes his observations of the city around him and filters them through his bold, painterly imagination. What he delivers is a fictional developing city, housing mysterious forms cloaked with impasto paint, reminiscent of Christo’s wrapped buildings. Not a drab concrete city but a new optimistic metropolis, resplendent in abundant, tactile colours, promising, “a glorious morrow”.
 
Capturing a kind of grand and dizzying chaos that is both beautiful and alarming. By doing so for purely visual reasons the potential for analogy to our own crazy civilization and it’s dazzling potential for demise is made all the more powerful. Yet, this is visual work first, conceptual second.

SIMON MCWILLIAMS
“Shoots and Ladders”
 
12th May - 16th June 2012

Not content with bending Berliners’ minds with his recent sound and light exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Ryoji Ikeda returns to the city in April with a new audiovisual installation as part of an unexpected collaboration. Working with  Mitsuru Kariya, the development leader ofthe new Honda Civic car, the three-screen video projection, entitled data.anatomy [civic], immerses viewers in an intricate yet vast audiovisual composition derived from the entire dataset of the car. True to form, Ikeda abstracts the complexity of the physical object into a captivating aesthetic experience. He explained: “As a Japanese artist I have great respect for Honda’s long tradition of excellence andinnovation in engineering. This installation will reveal the richness and beauty of theephemeral concepts that are embodied physically in the car itself.”  data.anatomy [civic] will be exhibited in the Turbine Hall at the iconic Kraftwerk Berlin (Köpenickerstraße 59-73) from the 19th April to 1st May 2012. Watch this space. 
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Not content with bending Berliners’ minds with his recent sound and light exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Ryoji Ikeda returns to the city in April with a new audiovisual installation as part of an unexpected collaboration. Working with  Mitsuru Kariya, the development leader ofthe new Honda Civic car, the three-screen video projection, entitled data.anatomy [civic], immerses viewers in an intricate yet vast audiovisual composition derived from the entire dataset of the car. 

True to form, Ikeda abstracts the complexity of the physical object into a captivating aesthetic experience. He explained: “As a Japanese artist I have great respect for Honda’s long tradition of excellence andinnovation in engineering. This installation will reveal the richness and beauty of theephemeral concepts that are embodied physically in the car itself.” 

data.anatomy [civic] will be exhibited in the Turbine Hall at the iconic Kraftwerk Berlin (Köpenickerstraße 59-73) from the 19th April to 1st May 2012. Watch this space. 

The New York subway in the 1980s was - literally - a grimy underworld, but photographer, Bruce Davidson, also saw beauty. His new exhibition, simply entitled Subway, opens at Berlin’s C/O Gallery on 16th March, featuring original photographs on display in the city for the first time since the book of the same name was published 25 years ago.  

Combining photographic illustration and avant-avant performance, Parisian artists Estelle Hanania and Christophe Brunnquell will be exhibiting their collaborative work, entitled Guerre de Feu (War of Fire), at the beginning of April in Paris’ 12Mail creative space. Fluctuating from ethno-folk influences to gothic iconography, their work consists of portraits of battered faces, primeval dressings and further presentations of the crude, clandestine world they inhabit.

Their exhibition opens on April 15 and is on display until June 1st. Find out more about the opening here, and check out the work of Estelle Hanania and Christophe Brunnquell.

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