worlds within worlds

roland flexner

sn10, no date, sumi ink on paper

sn71, no date, sumi ink on paper

hiroshi sugimoto

lightning fields, 2009, gelatin silver print

lightning fields, 2009, gelatin silver print

on paper

john rosewall

queen catherine, 2012, archival pigment print

the ox-bow incident, 2012, archival pigment print

antoni tapies

saint gall, 1962, lithograph

transpuar, n.d., etching and aquatint

the brother from another planet

edward mapplethorpe

variation no. 10, 2011, silver gelatin print

variation no. 9, 2011, silver gelatin print

more at:  http://edwardmapplethorpe.com/

and now for a word from our sponsors

john rosewall

untitled, 2012, archival pigment print

vesuvius, 2012, archival pigment print

for more, please visit www.johnrosewall.com

A Glorious Mess

tara cronin

i would rather run together, 2011, medium not specified

soft as feathers, 2011, medium not specified

elizabeth neel

inglorious, 2006, oil on canvas

rivals, 2008, oil on canvas

still

michelle kloehn

untitled, 2009, tintype

untitled, 2009, tintype

lesley vance

untitled (48), 2010, oil on linen

untitled (51), 2011, oil on linen

way out west

I'm diverging from my usual subject matter this week to praise one of my favorite artists, Kenneth Price, who died just over a week ago at his home in Taos. In the small ceramic sculptures that Price has been creating for the last several years, one notes above all the play between sensuous, playful, suggestive forms and a mottled, sickly surface. Each is a multivalent reference to nature and the body, or as Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer put it recently on the Artforum website, "they are snot, slug, serpent, squid, scrotum, and surf." They are also supreme examples of the transcendent possibilities of the crafted object. Here is what Price said in a recent issue of Artworks magazine:

"My primary satisfaction comes from making the work, and my idea of success is getting it to look right. So if it looks right, if it has some kind of presence or energy, or comes alive, or has magic--those are all visual things, and it's very hard to translate those into words."

There is a Price show on now at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Santa Monica, and a career retrospective scheduled for LACMA in the fall.

kenneth price

inez, 2010, fired and painted clay

way out west, 2010, fired and painted clay

cocodo, 2008, acrylic on fired ceramic