Continuing through July 6, 2013
Curator Harmony Murphy has assembled an impressive line-up of works to make a convincing case for Arte Povera's legacy 40-odd years after the movement, if in a very different art market. One can never go wrong with Tara Donovan, the obsessive builder of dense objects with everyday materials, here featuring one of her mylar and hot glue affairs, a coral-meets-rock-crystal concoction. Karla Black's "Spared the Sight," which fills a large volume of space beneath a central skylight, is a visually weighty but materially light giant plastic bubble.
Actually, you can't go wrong with any of the works included in a venue that's uncannily suitable for the found-meets-Povera aesthetic of "Neo Povera." There's something hopeful in the freshness of the work here that uses well-worn (both literally and figuratively) approaches and makes a great case for perpetuating the arena of material-based art making. However there's simultaneously an elephant in the room — that of the high-flying market. L&M (notwithstanding the fact that it closes up shop at the end of the summer due to the split-up of its partners), as opposed to numerous more modest venues, isn't an innocent in that regard.
Published courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2013
