Lari Pittman. ‘Flying Carpet with Magic Mirrors for a Distorted Nation,’ cel-vinyl, spray enamel on canvas over wood panel, 108 in x 360 1/8 in, 2013. | Photo: Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Lari Pittman.
Three monumental paintings, two large canvases and multiple series of drawings by CalArts alumnus Lari Pittman (Art MFA 76, BFA 74) are on view through Dec. 21 at Hollywood’s Regen Projects. The exhibit, titled From A Late Western Impaerium, is Pittman’s seventh show at the gallery.
From the press release:
Pittman’s From A Late Western Impaerium constructs a loose narrative of nationhood that travels between our present time and the distant past. The compositionally dense works play with the social and current realities of today, with an interest in ornamentation and surface, and draw on the legacy of history as told through the Western canon of painting and the applied arts. Pittman poses the question of what a contemporary “history painting” might be today.
Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine praises the exhibit, saying “some shows need to be seen in person, in a big spacious gallery, where gigantic canvases can overwhelm you in their peaceful positioning.”
Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight notes that the 10 feet-high and 30 feet-wide paintings point to the resistance of the medium to deskilling: “Within the rectangle of a painting, whether on paper a few inches square or wood panels the size of a ballroom wall, an artist can exert the absolute power—the Late Western Impaerium—of individual imagination.”
Listen to a story about Pittman’s From A Late Western Impaerium in KCRW’s Art Talk.
Lari Pittman. ‘New Map of America, cel-vinyl and spray enamel on gessoed paper, 22 1/8 in x 18 1/8 in, 2013. 5 drawings. | Photo: Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Lari Pittman
Event Details
Lari Pittman: From A Late Western Impaerium
Nov. 9 through Dec. 21
Regen Projects
6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles
Free