Ed Ruscha – The CSPA

Armory 20th Anniversary Exhibition

Installations Inside/Out
September 20 â€“ December 31, 2009
Opening reception, Saturday, September 19, 2009, 6â€“9 p.m.
Jay Belloli and SinÃ©ad Finnerty-Pyne, curators

This exhibition will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Armory Center for the Arts by commissioning twenty contemporary artists, who have created art installations in the past, to make new site-specific art installations both inside and outside the Armory. Artists in the exhibition will include Kim Abeles, Edgar Arceneaux, Deborah Aschheim, Daniel Buren, Carl Cheng, Seth Kaufman, Bruce Nauman, Barry McGee, Michael C. McMillen, Carlos Mollura, Matthew Moore, Jane Mulfinger, Sarah Perry, Rudy Perez, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Barbara T. Smith, John Trevino, Pae White, and Mario Ybarra Jr.

The Armory has a long-standing goal of supporting contemporary Southern California artists, as well as the Galleryâ€™s determination to bring art to the public in exterior, non-art locations.

At the Armory, Caldwell, Mezzanine, Art All iance Galleries and outside the Armory.

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MOCA Catalogue Sale!!!

My favorite part of a museum visit is always the bookstore and a recent visit to see Dan Graham at MOCA was no different. Only this time, we are all the beneficiaries of MOCA’s recent financial woes. They are having a huge sale on MOCA publications. I got the above five books for just over $100, and that was after paying full price for the Dan Graham catalog. I only bought older catalogues that were 50 percent off, but others were available for 25 percent off.

As I’ve heard a few people say, the best part of a MOCA show is always the catalog. Beautiful designs, lush photographs, revelatory essays, smart interviewsâ€”it often seems that the show is the catalog. Will this level of catalog production continue in the future? I’m not sure, but for now, you can get a piece of MOCA’s lavish spending over the past 10 years for half off. Unfortunately, I think you have to go in person to get these discounts, but I’ve put Amazon links below. Often, the used book price is about the same.

Here’s what I got:

For $15 (Retail $30):
Cotton Puffs, Q-tips(r), Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha

For $25 (Retail $50):
Gordon Matta-Clark: You Are the Measure

For $10 (Retail $40 but it was marked down to $20):
Rodney Graham: A Little Thought

For $17 (Retail $50, but it was marked down to $35):
Zero to Infinity: Art Povera: 1962-1972

And then, the Dan Graham: Beyond catalog, which I paid retail for. (Shoulda waited and bought it for cheaper on Amazon!) I can’t really say enough about this Dan Graham catalog. Not knowing too much about him, the show was a bit mystifying until I got to later mirror and glass work. But this catalog has interviews by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and artist Rodney Graham! A Manga Dan Graham Story! Writings by Dan Graham! Essays by important essay writer people! I now want to go back and stick my nose up close to his work, especially the early stuff.

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