Long Beach Arts delivers its first exhibition in Bixby Knolls

EARL JUNGHANS’ ‘AUTO WRECK’
The real estate lockbox is still on the door, and the walls probably weren’t painted this millennium, but Long Beach Arts finally has its new home in Bixby Knolls. And really, what would you rather see—fresh white paint or fresh art? Exactly.
“People can [...]

Take your time with ‘art/tapes/22′

JOHN BALDESSARI’S ‘THE ITALIAN TAPE’
Thirty minutes with the University Art Museum’s “art/tapes/22” isn’t enough. Two hours, even, is too short. For those who worry about the appropriate amount of time to spend appreciating a painting or photograph—fearing, somehow, that a message can be lost if we don’t wait around long enough [...]

Alpha Cult marks three years with ‘Urban Legends’

It’s hard to believe East Village’s Alpha Cult is only three years old, but the proof is in the toy store cum art gallery’s light-hearted third anniversary show, which spans much of modern pop surrealism. Graffiti art, assemblages, reinvented circus punks, kitschy giclées—the unusual suspects are here, in [...]

A Historical Society exhibition examines postwar architecture

PHOTO by JULIUS SHULMAN
Today, Long Beach is nearly built-out. But 40, 50, 60 years ago, the opposite was true. Vast swaths of the city—particularly Los Altos and the Plaza—were undeveloped after World War II, and even in settled parts of town, vacant lots weren’t unheard of.
That’s the focus of [...]

Mangled rubber and backwoods BMX in ‘Bike Curious?’

NATHAN SAWAYA’S ‘BRICKYCLE’
You need not know what a fixed-gear bicycle is to understand “Bike Curious?,” which is to say that whatever you ride (cruiser, mountain, nothing), so long as you can still remember what it felt like when the training wheels came off, you’ll probably love this show. [...]

PHOTO by JAMI JOHNSON
In Purgatory, an attorney attempts to exonerate her client, the man who betrayed Jesus of Nazareth. Better to call this The Trial of Judas Iscariot, but even the name change wouldn’t save this play from its numerous flaws. First, you have to accept that Judas’s real sin was not handing Jesus over [...]

‘Controversy’ takes familiar subjects in new directions

ARTURO SANDOVAL’S ‘STRAIGHT JACKET’
What is “Controversy”? What’s controversial? Depends. Ray Vasquez, mild-mannered gallery manager, etc., etc., thought telling someone else might be too, well—you know. And because someone else was happy to decide, that was it.
“We just left that to the hands of the artists,” Vasquez says while leading [...]

‘Baseball in Long Beach’ full of wonderfully hazy memories

There’s a scrapbookishness to Baseball in Long Beach, the recently released retrospective of this city’s contributions to America’s grandest old game. Author Tom Meigs has assembled a lot of mostly old photographs of once-young ballplayers—faces both familiar and forgotten—who either claimed their fame in Long Beach or [...]

‘Spiritual & Religious Practices’ lets you see God as artists do

LAURA HERNANDEZ’S ‘EL HOMRE ELEMENTO AGUA’
For a show examining assorted deities and belief systems, as envisioned by artists from Argentina to Cuba, “Spiritual & Religious Practices” at the Museum of Latin American Art is as much about art as it is about God. That’s a [...]

Picture This Gallery finds images of Frida Kahlo we haven’t seen

M. ANGEL ACORDAGOITIA’S ‘FRIDA’
The star power of its namesake places high expectations on Picture This Gallery’s annual “Frida Kahlo Art Exhibit.” Mainly there’s the necessity that nothing here should resemble any other representation of Frida you’ve ever seen—on lighters, refrigerator magnets or purses; or in [...]