Top Ten of 2016

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“Rose Rising,” 1968, Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, 97″ x 132″ x 37⁄8″ Photo: courtesy David Kordansky Gallery
“Rose Rising,” 1968, Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, 97″ x 132″ x 3 7⁄8″
Photo: courtesy David Kordansky Gallery

TOP TEN 2016: LOS ANGELES EXHIBITIONS

“Rose Rising,” 1968, Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, 97″ x 132″ x 37⁄8″ Photo: courtesy David Kordansky Gallery
“Rose Rising,” 1968, Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, 97″ x 132″ x 3 7⁄8″
Photo: courtesy David Kordansky Gallery

1) David Kordansky, “Sam Gilliam: Green April”
Monumental works by this master of color and canvas manipulation receive overdue acclaim.

2) Steve Turner Gallery, “Jia & Luciana Lamothe: “Free Function”
Simplified Chinese characters transposed by Jia into elegant Op Art countered with Lamothe’s industrial assemblages.

3) Kayne Griffin Corcoran, “Deanna Thompson”
Hauntingly isolated homesteads, just out of reach, rest against an eternal horizon.

4) Christopher Grimes, “Sharon Ellis: Intimate Terrain and Pia Fries: seascapes”
Fantastical, luminous landscapes meet fractured, cataclysmic seascapes. Sublime.

5) LA Louver, “David Hockney: The Yosemite Suite”
Digital forays through Yosemite, from the parking lot through the wilderness to El Capitan.

6) Craft and Folk Art Museum, “Keiko Fukazawa: Made in China”
Technical precision: Jingdezhen porcelains crafted with subtly ironic interventions.

7) Gavlak Gallery, “Bovey Lee: Divertical”
Lee’s meticulous cut-paper works wryly reference urban interventions into the landscape.

8) Susanne Vielmetter, “Charles Gaines, Numbers and Trees: Central Park Series II”
When you can see (a mesmerizing analytic interpretation of) the forest for the trees.

9) William Turner Gallery, “Ed Moses: @ 90”
An evolution of intense experiments in process, mark making, and materiality from an LA original.

10) Richard Heller Gallery, “Amy Bennett: Small Changes Every Day”
At once nostalgic and cautionary: a quasi-documentary tale of suburban sprawl.

Originally published in art ltd. magazine (Jan/Feb 2017)