Mercury is in retrograde and winter storm Juno has covered the northeast of the US in snow; it’s time to hatch an escape plan! And it’s an especially great week to be in LA: this weekend, New York art-book store Printed Matter takes its immense Art Book Fair west for the third time, to the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The event also coincides with the Art Los Angeles Contemporary art fair in Santa Monica and the nearby Paramount Ranch — LA’s more offbeat art fair held in Paramount Pictures’ old west film set in the Santa Monica mountains. You can expect a wave of other gallery openings, talks, and after parties, but the main attraction is the sprawling book fair, where 250 international booksellers, indie presses, and zine publishers will be selling their wares. Here’s what else not to miss.
Musical guests
Arrive early on Thursday evening to catch performances by hometown experimental noise band No Age and Brooklyn psych-dance band Prince Rama. Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance plays as well, at the Ace Hotel, and local gallery 356 Mission Road brings Mass Extinction, a work from I.U.D. — Bougatsos’ artistic partnership with painter Sadie Laska — to Paramount Ranch.
Limited editions
Italian art magazine Mousse presents interesting multilingual releases, such as the new Too Early, Too Late: Middle East and Modernity, a guide to the current exhibition at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. Berlin’s Sternberg Press offers both the new — K.D.: Headless — and the old: a reissue of F. T. Marinetti and Fillìa’s The Futurist Cookbook, a book of absurd recipes, questionable advice (pasta is dangerous!), and manifestos first published in 1932. And other special projects include “Twenty L.A. Artists,” a bound collection of 20 poster-sized photographs from FOUNDATIONS, a new biannual magazine focusing on emerging art and ideas from around the world. Featured are photos by Dashiell Manley and JPW3, as well as Job Piston’s portraits of up-and-coming producer NAR.
Local eats
It’s not a party without food, and LA always delivers. Temporary cafés and food trucks offer a taste of the neighborhood, with refined pan-Latin American dishes from Rivera, hearty Vietnamese and Singaporean offerings from the Spice Table, fresh fish from Sushi Gen, rich classics from the Lazy Ox Canteen, and an appearance from pop-up favorite Starry Kitchen.
Carmen Winant
On Friday afternoon, artist and writer Carmen Winant conducts a brief lecture-performance to detail her work in photo collage and feminism. The presentation is being held in conjunction with the release of her new book, My Life as a Man (Horses Think Press), which makes its debut at LAABF. The book includes gorgeous photographs, with contributions from Jonathan Griffin, Michael Ned Holte, Jim Fletcher, and Matthew Brannon.
The K-HOLE report
Subversive trend forecasting group K-HOLE brings its latest report to The Classroom at LAABF on Saturday afternoon. The collective of artists, writers, and marketing strategists — formed by Gregory Fong, Sean Monahan, Emily Segal, Chris Sherron, and Dena Yago in 2010 — has issued detailed research papers on topics including anxiety and freedom, using the impersonal language of corporate marketing culture (and giving away their work for free to the public). The focus of this latest K-HOLE report is communication in America, both at the personal and global level. Take note(s).
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