Essential Arts & Culture: Ojai's new musical direction, a bangin' Bartók, an innovative arts patron gets her due

Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer is overseeing the Ojai Music Festival.

June 3, 2017 8 AM PT

Ojai takes a jazzy turn. Yuja Wang takes on Bartók. And LACMA features the history of an unsung Los Angeles gallery. Plus: the future of the movie theater, as well as the arts scene in Mexico City. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, with your weekly dose of artsy fartsies:

Fresh sounds in Ojai

Vijay Iyer, one of the most celebrated talents in jazz, is curating this year's Ojai Music Festival.

The Ojai Music Festival is generally known as a destination for classical music, dance and opera. But this year, jazz pianist Vijay Iyer is imbuing it with the sounds of avant-garde jazz. “The prodigiously talented pianist’s vision as a composer and improviser has stretched beyond his typically designated genre of jazz to encompass hip-hop, chamber music and South Indian classical music,” writes Times jazz critic and TV writer Chris Barton. “Most of these styles will be in some way reflected at Ojai, which this year looks like L.A.’s most adventurous jazz festival as well.” The show kicks off June 8. Los Angeles Times

Surprising with Bartók

Pianist Yuja Wang performs Bartók's First Piano Concerto with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall.

Acclaimed classical pianist Yuja Wang tackled Bartók’s First Piano Concerto at Disney Hall — which according to Times classical music critic Mark Swed is the composer’s “least lovable concerto.” Wang’s “motoric energy,” he writes, “all but set a Frankenstein orchestra in motion, and her sheer élan provided motivation” for a work of music that was ambitiously framed by compositions from Stravinsky and Janácek. Los Angeles Times

A skyscraper-sized harp

William Close with his Earth Harp, the longest stringed instrument in the world.

Musician William Close and a band of performers called the Earth Harp Collective have created a harp that employs a 52-story building in downtown Los Angeles as a spine — making it the longest string instrument in the world. This weekend, it will be played as part of the free Grand Performances summer series. The Times’ Jessica Gelt reports on how to make a harp that requires two days to tune and install. Los Angeles Times

Must-see: An inventive L.A. gallery

In the history of the L.A. art scene, it’s been the flashy spots such as Ferus Gallery that have commanded attention. But an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art offers a “welcome corrective,” writes Times art critic Christopher Knight. “Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971” looks of the innovative space run by Virginia Dwan, the arts patron who supported key artists in Pop, Minimalism and Land art. A special surprise? A hovering “screaming yellow” sculpture by Robert Grosvenor that feels like “a secular stairway to visual heaven.” Los Angeles Times

Meet me at the multiplex

This weekend, The Times presents a package of stories that look at the movie theater: Its past, its present and its uncertain future. This includes an article by Times movie business reporter Ryan Faughnder on cineplex innovations (would you like a cocktail with your action?); another by film reporter Jen Yamato on Quentin Tarantino’s throwback movie palace; and an essay by Jeffrey Fleishman on what it’s like to watch movies in Yemen, Rome and the Himalayas.

Plus, architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at theater design. “As the courtship between Hollywood studios and virtual-reality start-ups intensifies,” he writes, “it’s pretty clear who is most anxious about being left off the guest list for the eventual wedding: the multiplex.” Los Angeles Times

All eyes on Mexico City

In recent years, the Mexican capital has increasingly become a pit stop for the art-world jet set, with well-attended fairs and a host of new galleries and museums. Breathy media dispatches regularly refer to the city as “the new Berlin.” But the current art boom has deep roots: “Mexico City has always been on the map,” says Julieta Gonzalez, acting director at Museo Jumex. “It has a long tradition of connections with intellectuals around the world since the ’20s.” I look at the history — and the fragile political situation — on which this moment rests. Los Angeles Times

Sort of related: Artist Jill Magid turned the remains of famed Mexican architect Luis Barragán into a diamond as part of a work of art. In Mexico, this has not been without controversy. New Yorker

Calling actors who will work for (almost) free

Akemi Look attended auditions for theater representatives of Independent Theatres of Los Angeles.

A new rule that went into effect on Jan. 1 requires theaters with 99 seats or less (with some exemptions) to pay actors who are members of the Actors’ Equity Assn. union minimum wage for all time spent on set. For theaters on a shoestring budget, this was prohibitive — so more than a dozen of these have banded together to establish the Independent Theatres of Los Angeles to cast for non-Equity talent. Jessica Gelt went to an audition. Los Angeles Times

Controversial sculpture

A sculpture of a gallows by Los Angeles artist Sam Durant generated an outcry among Native American communities in Minneapolis for the ways in which it addressed the execution of 38 Dakota Indians in 1862 — the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The piece, which was set to go on view this weekend at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the Walker Art Center, will instead be removed and ceremonially burned. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Art critics from around the country respond to the controversy. Minneapolis Star Tribune

In the galleries

Artist Heather Rasmussen creates photographic self-portraits that, with the aid of mirrors, vegetables and furniture, dip a toe in the surreal. And Times reviewer Sharon Mizota, who recently saw a show of her images at Acme gallery, is intrigued: “Rasmussen suggests that while objectification may be inevitable, perhaps in the end it’s less about sex and more about squash.” Los Angeles Times

Mizota also has a look at Lezley Saar’s “surreal yet tender paintings of ambiguously gendered 19th century people” at Walter Maciel Gallery. In the largest work in the show, writes Mizota, Saar “confuses binary distinctions between male and female, white and black, while the figure’s beatific expression suggests a majestic transcendence.” Los Angeles Times

An online opera

Last year, I did a story about how composer Lisa Bielawa and the folks at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana had teamed to create an episodic opera to be streamed online. (Among the filming locations: Alcatraz.) Now “Vireo,” as the opera is called, is ready to be streamed in its entirety. KCET

In other news…

— Artists are taking over Mount Wilson Observatory this weekend for exhibitions and performances inspired by space and science. Los Angeles Times

— Susana Smith Bautista is the new executive director at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Los Angeles Times

— The artist who made a “landfill” with his art in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

— A refugee rights group in Athens has seized a sculpture from Documenta and claim they will not give it back. Artforum

— How a longtime art dealing family is under scrutiny as authorities investigate objects trafficked by Islamic State. Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

— A noose was found at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the second such incident in a week. Washington Post

— An examination of Alan Gilbert’s eight tumultuous years as music director at the New York Philharmonic. New York Times

— L.A. Dance Project’s Memorial Day weekend live streams drew half a million views. Dance Magazine

— The Getty Museum has published more than 30,000 images on the International Image Interoperability Framework — IIIF for short — which allows users to bring disparate images together for comparison. The Iris

— Art critic Peter Schjeldahl offers an insightful take on the Robert Rauschenberg show at the Museum of Modern Art. New Yorker

— In the wake of the Edward Albee Estate denying a theater director’s decision to cast an African American actor in a lead role, critic Mark Harris looks at the “absurdity” of “posthumous casting approval.” Vulture

— Goodbye, Dolly? Bette Midler may not be singing at the Tony Awards. New York Times

— In advance of Pride: An overview of L.A.’s LGBTQ historic places. Los Angeles Conservancy