LACE ‘ANNUALE’ EXHIBIT SET TO OPEN THIS WEEK

Dana Friis-Hansen’s biggest challenge came concealed in “three huge boxes.”

The Massachusetts curator recently accepted an invitation to put together this year’s “Annuale” exhibit for Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). His initial charge was to select 25 Los Angeles County artists from among 300 who sent LACE documentation of their work.

“The boxes of all the artists’ slides and videos and photographs were sent to me here,” said Friis-Hansen, associate curator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology List Visual Arts Center, “and I went through them. It was the hardest part of the process; I had to eliminate a lot of work that would have been very interesting in the show.”

Friis-Hansen selected the 25, however, and flew here last month to see their work in-studio. Then, he further narrowed down the final pick, choosing 20 artists to participate in the all-media, 40-piece “Annuale,” opening Wednesday.

Adhering to his mandate from LACE: “I wanted to show the strongest work I’d seen,” Friis-Hansen said in a recent phone conversation, “to offer exhibition opportunities to artists who really hadn’t been shown widely if at all in public, and to put together a show which was cohesive and provocative.

“I selected work that piqued my curiosity and art that I wanted to learn more about,” he said, “art that had strong ideas behind it, which was carried out with facility and skill, and art that had some content in it, rather than pure abstraction. . . . I was very impressed with the quality and the intellectual as well as aesthetic strength of what I saw.”

Work by David Bunn, “who combines objects with photographs in provocative ways that comment on international politics and cultural expectations,” met Friis-Hansen’s curatorial requirements. So did that of Liz Larner, who does “pseudo-scientific experiments” creating cultures in petri dishes from a mix of unexpected elements as a metaphor for societal culture.

“Several months ago, Liz started a culture which had an orchid, buttermilk and a penny,” Friis-Hansen explained. “It started out as this beautiful white and pink mixture with this penny. Then as the elements interacted and time went on, the color and the physical characteristics changed. At LACE, we’ll show the culture she made earlier in the year as well as a fresh new one she’s made for the show.

“Liz’s work addresses process and change on a small scale as well as making reference to larger issues,” he said, “such as clashes between cultures in society, pollution and the extinction of organisms.”

Environmental installations by Hilja Keading and the collaborative team Jim Reva and Lisa Weger will also be in “Annuale,” along with works by Connie Hatch, Nancy Evans, Ernest Scott and others.

“There is not a theme for ‘Annuale’ per se,” Friis-Hansen said. “I didn’t want to force that on the artists. But there is a common thread: There’s a human tension and some concern or sort of a critical or investigative aspect to the world around us and to the world within.”

After his intensive exposure to Los Angeles art (visiting 25 studios in one week for the “Annuale”), Friis-Hansen said he did not detect a distinct indigenous aesthetic.

But, he said, “basically it’s a very exciting time for what’s happening in L.A. It’s a strong and vibrant art community. I think a lot of new galleries are opening up, though I was kind of surprised that there were not more places like LACE which support younger artists.”

Friis-Hansen said he used the knowledge he gained from curating the LACE show to organize “L.A.: Hot and Cold,” a fall exhibit at the List Visual Art Center, where “we do research and present work on the cutting edge, the same way M.I.T.’s biology or engineering departments would.”

“L.A.: Hot and Cold,” will feature Los Angeles artists who “emerged during the ‘80s or are currently emerging and who are not widely seen on the East Coast,” he said. “The hot side is the aggressive, sometimes personal, political and passionate side. Artists in this part are the heirs to Ed and Nancy Kienholz, to Chris Burden and Betye Saar. The cool end is pioneered by artists concerned with a more intellectual conceptual art and the use of irony, like heirs to Mike Asher, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari.”

The LACE “Annuale,” through Oct. 11, is part of the Fringe Festival/Los Angeles. Running simultaneously with the exhibit in the gallery’s book store is a display of artists books by Crispen Glover. A banner by Jett Jackson will adorn the gallery’s facade.

IN FOCUS: Photography historian Sandra Phillips, currently curator of New York’s Vassar College Art Gallery, will become photography curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art late this fall. Phillips succeeds Van Deren Coke, director of the museum’s photography department for eight years before his retirement last month.

Phillips, 42, received her doctorate in art history in 1985 from the City University of New York, where she specialized in the history of photography and of American and European art (1840-1940).

Among Phillips’ curatorial achievements is the exhibition “Andre Kertesz: Of Paris and London,” which she co-organized with David Travis and Weston Naef for the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum in 1985. Phillips’ current projects include a catalogue essay on Man Ray’s photography of the ‘20s and ‘30s for the forthcoming exhibition “Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray.” This is scheduled to open in Washington in March and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1989.

WATCHING THE WALLS: The Los Angeles Mural Conservancy, a nonprofit organization formed this year to protect and preserve the city’s public murals, is soliciting tax-deductible donations to support its efforts. Conservancy supporters who give a minimum of $10 will receive a semi-annual newsletter about the activities of the agency, whose mandate is to “document, routinely inspect and maintain and restore public murals in Los Angeles.” Information: (213) 620-0201.