Posts by Bondo Wyszpolski
Art, Musicals and Magic – What’s happening this weekend at the beach
Concerts, galleries, music and upcoming weekend events near the South Bay.
Read MorePuss in Boots
“Long before he even met Shrek,” as the liner notes explain, “the notorious fighter, lover and outlaw Puss in Boots becomes a hero when he sets off on an adventure with the tough and street smart Kitty Softpaws and the mastermind Humpty Dumpty to save his town. This is the true story of The Cat, The Myth, The Legend… The Boots.”
Read MoreMy Week with Marilyn
“My Week with Marilyn,” Music from the Motion Picture (Sony Classical) With hindsight, and all of the mythologizing that has accrued, we look at Marilyn Monroe a lot differently now than when she was alive. Did we consider her a tragic figure when we first saw here in “Some Like It Hot”? As David Thomson…
Read MoreSpring Eternal: Jamie Lavalley and his Garden of Eden
“I’ve been working on this particular series for about three years, and it’s a marriage of my two loves, photography and a botanical interest in growing exotic flowers.” Torrance resident Jamie Lavalley currently has some 30 large-format flower portraits (about 30”x40”) on view through early February at Annie Appel’s Gallery 381 in San Pedro. If…
Read MoreEntertainment: The Year in Pictures
From El Segundo down the coast to Palos Verdes, art galleries are featuring new work every few weeks. The Power of Art, as usual was a big hit, and so was Flag Stop. Picking one example from each month leaves plenty of stones unturned, but the point is, there’s never a time when there…
Read MoreGallery goddess Peggy Zask
Running an art gallery takes smarts – and passion Peggy Zask has been providing a place for visual artists to show their work for over two decades. In the last couple of years she’s had to move twice, but each time she’s landed in a better location. Today Zask Gallery has a strong presence at…
Read MoreIn the Name of the Rose
An Italian artist blooms far from home The world is truly interconnected, and chance events play out in remarkable ways. That’s my conclusion upon hearing how the “Getsemani” project came to be. Comprised of three mosaic panels by Italian artist Enzo Aiello, the completed work now hangs in the Palos Verdes home of Leo and…
Read MoreValentine’s Day: sculptor De Wain Valentine and Pacific Standard Time
31 years elapsed before De Wain Valentine could see “Gray Column” standing as he’d originally envisioned “Pacific Standard Time” is a citywide exhibition of Southern California art from 1945 to the early 1980s. “Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970,” which is the Getty Center’s main slice of the show’s larger pie, reflects the climate…
Read MoreGoing global: there’s a lot riding on the shoulders of this new sculpture by Cinthia Joyce
Not long ago, Cinthia Joyce rolled up her garage door and a couple of dozen people peered in and then surged closer for a better look. Minding his own business, Atlas shrugged, and continued to hold up the universe. In the middle of last year – like the gods, I lose track of time –…
Read MoreComing ashore – Jeff Honea, Brent Broza, and Rob Waxman
Sights in the South Bay inspire this homegrown trio One for all, and all for one. Painters Jeff Honea and Rob Waxman, plus photographer Brent Broza, are as closely knit as the Three Musketeers, their mutual admiration for one another evident in “Paint Shoot Paint,” going on view Friday, Dec. 2, at Riley Arts Gallery…
Read MoreLifting the Veil: Artist Amy Myers is drawn to the fabric of the universe
The gallery looks almost bare when one walks in. Then the eye roves about the room and the rich combination of texture and tapestry beckons: Come closer, pull up a chair, sit down and let’s talk. “Contemporary Cosmology” contains half a dozen drawings – all but one of them the size of a magic carpet…
Read More“Private Lives”
Here’s what we’re in for – a British comedy of manners by the late Noel Coward, which premiered in 1930. It descends into farce and like the plays of Ray Cooney will make one laugh or make one look for the nearest exit. Elyot (Patrick Vest) has taken his new bride, Sibyl (Barbara Jean Urich),…
Read MoreThe Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes (Alfred A. Knopf, 163 pp., $23.95)
It doesn’t take long to realize that this novel – recently awarded the 2011 Man Booker Prize – is about time and memory, and the dance they perform with one another. As the author writes, “If we can’t understand time, can’t grasp its mysteries of pace and progress, what chance do we have with history…
Read MoreFading Out
Horses in the wild? Elissa Kline’s “ghost herd” photographs are all that remain of when these majestic animals ran free An array of equine images by Elissa Kline is on display in the group show “Finesse: Four Photographers,” through Oct. 27 at Zask Art Gallery in Rolling Hills Estates. Kline has turned her lens on…
Read MoreLang Lang, “Liszt My Piano Hero” (Sony Classical)
One can imagine from the title that pianist Lang Lang must have been enthusiastic. The rest of us have reason to be enthused as well. Franz Liszt was born on Oct. 22, 1811, and if you glance at your calendar you’ll note that his 200th birthday is this coming Saturday. It’s also the day that…
Read MoreOedipus Wrecks it for Everyone
It’s all Greek to Jeff Caldwell, but that’s a good thing “I came in and pitched an idea to do a modern adaptation of Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus the King’ and they went for it,” says Jeff Caldwell. Now, some months later, the play opens tomorrow at the Manhattan Beach Community Church. Although Sophocles lived a few…
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