March/April 2004

Helen Frankenthaler’s paintings on view at Leslie Sacks Fine Art. Well-known color-field painter, she was among the artists associated with Post-Painterly Abstraction. Through 3/21.

Christina Ochoa curates an exhibition Contemporary Velvet Painting at Patricia Correia Gallery. It includes Mary Fleener, Laura Hazlett, Claudia Parducci. Through 3/27.

The Political Landscape at the Municipal Art Gallery examines both literal and political landscapes and includes artists Phoebe Brunner, Cynthia Hooper, Marina Moevs and Stephanie Sanchez. In the catalogue essay, curator Noel Korten writes that these contemporary artists endeavor to represent the landscape with a sophisticated awareness that surrounds our thinking about nature and environment. Also see City Dialogues – collaborations of artists and writers. Both exhibitions through 4/18.

Pae White takes over the Hammer lobby. Her hanging pieces of brightly colored paper on string resemble overgrown wind chimes. Moving by ambient air, they capture White’s interest in ephemerality, movement and translucency. UCLA/Hammer Museum through 6/27.

A Woman’s Touch on view at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. See sculpture by Margarita Checa, Isabel de Obaidia, Susan Espinosa, and Peshel. Through 5/30.

Two exhibitions to see at MOCA on Grand - Japanese artist Aya Takano creates an animated science-fiction story with interactive capabilities. Known for her fantastical figurative drawings that feature female protagonists, her work is guided by adventurous narrative. Through 4/1. Also A Minimal Future? Art As Object 1958-1968. Includes Jo Baer, Judy Chicago, Eva Hesse, Patricia Johanson, Agnes Martin, Dorothea Rockburne, and Anne Truitt. Through 8/3.

Deborah Aschheim exhibition called Neural Architecture (a smart building in a nervous building). The installation is composed of plastic, sensors, surveillance cameras and light. Based on the structure of the cerebral cortex, the sculptural environment lights up in response to each viewers’ approach. At the Laguna Art Museum through 7/5.

Annie Martin’s textile pieces and Marie Claude Bouthillier paintings on view at Mount Saint Mary’s College. Both are included in a group exhibition of Canadians in the Jose Drudis-Biada Art Gallery that continues through 3/27.

A collection of 20th century photographs of artists, politicians and poets are on view in Women of Our Time: Twentieth-Century Photographs from the National Portrait Gallery at Long Beach Museum of Art. See work by Lisette Model and Lotte Jacobi. Through 5/30.

Ruth Askey