Posts by Bondo Wyszpolski
Theater Review – “Love, Sex, and the I.R.S” – The Taxman Cometh
For subtle, turn the dial to the far left; for excessive, turn it to the right. In the case of “Love, Sex, and the I.R.S.” – an unabashed farce by playwrights Billy Van Zandt and Jan Milmore – the knob goes all the way to the right. Theatrically speaking, farce is my least-favorite genre, but…
Read MoreFlower Power: Manhattan Beach’s Foundation for the Local Arts highlights Bob Francis
Bob Francis is among the artists highlighted at FOLA’s Saturday fundraiser One of the hallmarks of a unique artist is that he or she has a personal style we can recognize from across the room: Giacometti, Rothko, Nevelson, Hopper, or, from even farther away, Richard Serra. You know them when you see them. Whether or…
Read MoreIn Mother Nature’s Arms
Two for Torrance: “Beautiful Planet” and “Sincerely Yours” When you live in the city, to reverse paraphrase the Eagles, you can see the light but still not see the stars, and perhaps towards that end “Beautiful Planet: In Celebration of Nature” urges us to step off the concrete and into the meadow – at least…
Read More“Thérèse Raquin” – carnal crisis at Long Beach Opera
In 1999, while the world was looking forward to the new millennium, Tobias Picker was gazing back more than a century, to the novel Thérèse Raquin that Émile Zola had written in 1868. Picker had already composed the operas “Emmeline” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox;” Zola would go on to write Nana, Germinal, L’Assommoir, and several…
Read MoreIt’s 730, and Time to Get Up
Plaza El Segundo’s spacious new art gallery Although the paintings and photographs are pressed close to one another up and down the walls, Gallery 730 is clean and spacious. It opened quietly a few weeks ago in Plaza El Segundo, in that area known as “The Edge,” just across from where Vanesa Andrade’s Artlife Gallery…
Read MoreA Second Chance
PV Art Center is hosting the work of forgotten Post Impressionist painter Paul Martel Sometimes one’s life and subsequent reputation hinges upon one key decision, and for the Belgian Post Impressionist painter Paul Jean Martel (1879-1944) that decision took place in the early 1920s when he and his wife, Muriel, decided to return to the…
Read More“Pick of the Vine” – Make it short and sweet, and they did!
Ten plays, eight actors, four directors – this is beginning to sound like “The 12 Days of Christmas” – and one small but feisty Little Fish Theatre are presenting an annual succulent treat, the best five- to ten-minute long works for the stage they can find. I counted 37 people on the list of those…
Read MoreKeeping Our Heads Above Water
“Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea Change” at the Annenberg Space for Photography By the end of the century, the sea level will be about a foot higher than it is now. Or it could be two feet or three feet higher, or even more. Margaret Leinen, director of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography…
Read MoreAn Alternative Universe: Art is an experience and an adventure at ESMoA
In 2014, artnet named ESMoA (the El Segundo Museum of Art) as one of the top ten privately-owned contemporary art museums in America. ESMoA’s rise has been rapid. Just two years ago, as we were writing in advance of the opening exhibition, we were wondering just how well an experimental “art laboratory” (which is…
Read More“Spectacular Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist” – Tapestries bigger than big, at the Getty
Haven’t seen it yet? There’s still time – and it’s well worth the investment. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was among the giants of late 16th century and early 17th century art, and the Getty Center has highlighted his work on previous occasions, including “Rubens & Brueghel: A Working Friendship,” in 2006, and last…
Read MoreHigher Branches, Deeper Roots – South Bay’s Twigs art group shows in L.A.
They lightheartedly called themselves the Twigs after branching off from a larger art group, but in the 15 years since then this sextet of South Bay artists continues to push forward and break new ground. They’re not youngsters, but they have the passion of youth and each one works daily at his or her craft.…
Read MoreGoing Out on a High Note as Dr. Joanna Medawar Nachef bids adieu to Los Cancioneros Master Chorale
She’d accomplished more in the preceding week than most of us do in a month or maybe two. Dr. Joanna Medawar Nachef, who’s been the artistic director for Los Cancioneros Master Chorale for well over two decades, had just returned from her native Lebanon and so far was suppressing any sign of exhaustion. Now she’s…
Read MoreTropical Treat: LA Opera’s “Florencia en el Amazonas”
Magic Realism, as a somewhat loose literary classification, emerged from Latin America during the 1960s and ‘70s with astonishing works by Julio Cortázar, José Donoso, Mario Vargas Llosa, and of course Gabriel García Márquez. Less well known internationally, of course, are the painters and the composers who were influenced by that wonderful outpouring of fresh,…
Read MoreArtist John Van Hamersveld’s endless summer
Everyone has seen it, the movie poster for Bruce Brown’s “The Endless Summer.” John Van Hamersveld was barely into his 20s when he designed it on his kitchen table while living in Dana Point and working for John Severson at Surfer Magazine.
Read MoreThe Way it Was: Robi Hutas at 608 North captures the look and feel of days gone by
Robi Hutas has been documenting the South Bay for five decades.
Read MoreCleared for Takeoff! Destination: Art has arrived in Torrance
Earlier this year they were like travelers with tickets in their hands but with no place to go. Nonetheless, they were pooling their resources and eventually wishful thinking became reality. And so they’ve arrived – at Destination: Art. Opening to the public this past Saturday, Destination: Art is a fine art gallery co-op, built around…
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