Robert Barry, Inert Gas Series, 1969; Helium (2 cubic feet), 1969, gelatin-silver print

Art Talk with Robert Barry
MOCA – Downtown Los Angeles, CA
6/28/12

Join the MOCA and artist Robert Barry for a discussion of his work featured in Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, particularly in regard to his time spent in California.  The American artist captured the imagination with his pithy statement: “Nothing seems to me the most potent thing in the world.” →

The Sixth Annual Art Meets Water Conservation Exhibition
Riverside Municipal Auditorium – Riverside, CA
6/30/12

The Sea No Evil Art Show announces  the return of its massive, sixth annual art exhibition and silent auction to take place at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium on Saturday, June 30, 2012 to benefit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

This year’s line-up of globally renowned exhibiting artists include Gary Baseman, Jeff Soto, Shepard Fairey, Lola, Ana Bagayan, Tim Biskup, Amy Sol, Dave Kinsey, Tara McPherson, Travis Louie, Hydro74 and more – with music by DJ Juice. →

Waste Land follows a recent project by Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz in which he visits his native Brazil and connects with the “catadores” of Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest garbage dump near the outskirts of Rio. Determined to help the lives of a small group of people, Muniz invites the catadores to participate in a series of photographic portraits reconstructed with materials found in the dump. →

Near where I live in Orange County, the city of Irvine features a massive orange helium balloon at the site of the Great Park, the 1,347-acre regional park to be built on the former El Toro Marine base. From hillside roads and on clear days, you can see the balloon, clearly visible and afloat as an orange speck. Taxpayer money goes toward the operation of this balloon, which is supposed to provide visitors with a panoramic view of the project site. According to Popular Science, the world is running out of helium, and the U.S. is one of the biggest contributors to the depletion of this natural resource. The orange balloon has been operating since 2007, free of charge to park visitors. With helium becoming scarce, I wonder how long it’ll be before taxpayers balk at the prospect of spending thousands of dollars per day on the attraction.

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On December 19th 2009 I received a short e-mail from my brother who was on the ground at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. It was time stamped 2am and read: “Looks like no deal on COP15…at least not the one everyone was aiming for.” He was in Copenhagen filming a forthcoming documentary, already a year in the making. The project had taken him and the production crew from New York to the Congo and everywhere in between, following key players along the road leading to the largest ever conference of its kind. It was here the world would converge to agree that climate change is undeniable – but to disagree about essentially everything else.

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Design in the Blood
Design Opinion

On April 19th the geek-central tech-blog Gizmodo posted earth-shattering news regarding the next iPhone. Now nearing 10 million hits the post included video and photos of what is apparently the forthcoming 4G model of Apple’s wildly successful smartphone. Unfortunately for Apple however, this is several months before Steve Jobs’ planned smoke-and-mirrors unveiling that gets everyone so damned excited. In the design world  anytime Apple so much as sneezes it triggers speculation about what it could mean. In fact rumors about their next ‘it’ products abound no matter what, so an un-planned leak was like an early Christmas for many. Except me. →

Friedrich Kunath
Hammer Museum – Los Angeles, CA
4/17/10

Like a favorite poem, Friedrich Kunath’s works poignantly yet playfully distill the fundamentals of human emotion—desire, loneliness, and anxiety—creating comically tragic scenes in which human beings try to find their way in the world. Employing an impressive range of mediums—drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and neon—Kunath continuously takes up such subjects as the solitary being in nature →

“WATER: OUR THIRSTY WORLD” Photographic Exhibition
Annenberg Space for Photography – Los Angeles, CA
3/27 to 6/13/10

People accurately surmised that many of the modern-day conflicts would take place over oil.  However, few really speculate on the likelihood of future world wars being fought over fresh water.  A limited resource that Californians generally take for granted as the drought periods lengthen in the stolid face of global warming.  “WATER: OUR THIRSTY WORLD” is an exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography, organized in partnership with National Geographic Magazine. →

Water: Our Thirsty World
The Annenberg Space for Photography – Century City, CA
3/27/10 to 6/13/10

The Annenberg Foundation is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography, tentatively entitled “WATER: OUR THIRSTY WORLD” in partnership with National Geographic Magazine. The exhibit, opening to the public on March 27, 2010, will coincide with the release of National Geographic’s April 2010 issue on the precarious state of the world’s fresh water. →