LACE Turns Analytical Eye on Itself

Mounting a wide-ranging critique of the institutions that “present, preserve and develop the arts”--including itself--Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions will perform “auto-vivisection” for its 10th anniversary.

The operation will be enacted by 17 artists such as Liz Larner, who plans to construct a machine to bash in a corner of the downtown gallery, and Jeffrey Vallance, who intends to cut through closet walls to expose LACE’s structural inner-workings.

“Re:Placement,” Wednesday to April 17, is the name of this exhibition, which also includes other site-specific installations and videos.

“The show is about artists interested in criticizing and analyzing institutional frames or systems in the art community,” says LACE Director Joy Silverman, who co-curated the exhibit with artist and former LACE Director Marc Pally.

A whole range of issues within this theme will be explored, Silverman continues, from Larner’s literal attack against the physical structure of LACE, to Bill Wurtz’s effort to demonstrate that artworks may be defined by their placement: he’ll transform a LACE door knob and toilet paper roll into what will look like monumental architecture.

“If an object exists outside of a gallery, an arts institution or a museum, it has a very different meaning than when it’s placed inside a gallery, an arts institution or a museum,” Silverman says, “and it also takes on a different meaning if it’s sold or placed inside someone’s home or sold and placed in a museum.”

How art depends on the viewer will be explored in a mirrored piece by Linda Nishio. The issue of representation of women artists within local arts institutions will be addressed in a statistical presentation by Mothers of Medusa.

The critique is not exclusive to LACE, Silverman notes, but extends to institutions around the country and the world. It won’t totally tear down art systems, either, at least not LACE, she says: Local architect John Crodick will reconstruct the wall that Larner’s machine bashes in.

NEW PHOTO GALLERY: Santa Monica College recently inaugurated a contemporary photography gallery with an exhibit of photo collages by David Hockney running through March 25.

The new Photography Gallery will present six to eight exhibitions a year, featuring nationally and internationally recognized artists. Photographer and instructor John Humble, who has taught photography at UCLA and other universities and colleges, will direct and act as curator.

According to a Santa Monica College statement, the Hockney photo collages are said by the artist to be “pictures that describe how we see--not all at once, but in discreet, separate glimpses.”

PEOPLE: Thomas Rhoads, a former program officer with the visual arts division of the New York State Council on the Arts, has become director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The museum, which is to offer contemporary fine art exhibits, new music, media, film and performance art programs, is slated to open in late 1988.

Rhoads’ appointment was recently made by interim Board President Richard Hirsch and museum founder Abby Sher. The museum will occupy a 10,000-square-foot converted warehouse on Main Street in Santa Monica that was once an egg-processing plant for Edgemar Farms. It is part of a mixed-use complex named Edgemar designed by architect Frank Gehry.

HONOREES: The National Women’s Caucus for Art recently honored five senior women who have made significant contributions to the visual arts with an awards ceremony and exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Margaret Burroughs, Dorothy Hood, Miriam Schapiro, Jane Teller and Edith Standen were honored in conjunction with WCA’s 1988 national conference.

VIDEO GRANTS: Video artists may submit applications for grants from the Long Beach Museum of Art. The museum’s Open Channels IV Television Production Grant Program will give five artists each a $2,000 award, videotape stock and eight days of access to production and post-production facilities at a local cable system studio.

Applicants must be California residents and not currently in school. Applications consist of a written project proposal and budget outline, and a sample of the artists’ work. Deadline is April 15. For applications, write Open Channels, Long Beach Museum of Art, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach 90803. Information: (213) 439-2119.