This September marks the 10th anniversary of the first issue of Artillery, the Los Angeles-based contemporary art magazine. In the decade that followed, the LA art scene exploded, capturing international attention, drawing dealers and artists from all over the world.
Artillery has been part of that from the start. Back when Editor Tulsa Kinney launched the magazine it was the only glossy art publication in town. Others have come and gone, and more have arrived, but Artillery remains the leading source for writing on contemporary art in Los Angeles.
From the beginning Artillery has provided a medium for the arts community here in LA, and an LA-centric view of the contemporary art world in general. We are distributed through galleries and art spaces in each of the disparate arts districts across Los Angeles; at the same time, Artillery is on sale at more than a hundred newsstands throughout California and across the nation. We also feature controlled distribution at more than a dozen art fairs each year, including the original European art fair Art Basel.
In 2006, when Kinney founded Artillery she recognized a profound void in LA art coverage among the leading national art publications, and a profound need for an art publication that wasn’t stuffy or elitist. Thus Artillery was born, a unique art publication reflecting the real art world that is vibrant and speaks to the entire art audience, and not just academics. That’s why we say, Artillery is the only art magazine that’s fun to read!
COLUMNISTS AND WRITERS
One unique feature of Artillery is the eclectic community of voices we’ve assembled in our stable of regular columnists. They hail from every corner of the creative process, offering insight, humor and sympathy in a world of critical caution. Here is a sampler:
EZRHA JEAN BLACK: Culture critic, fashion cop, opera buff, Ezrha is Artillery’s sole staff writer. Her essays on LA artists and the shifting contours of the LA art scene, have given Artillery its edge from its inception. Her AWOL online blog features LA art reviews and opinions.
MARY WORONOV: Our envoy from art royalty, Mary was a Warhol diva and a regular for Roger Corman. She has also developed an impressive oeuvre of her own; as a novelist, painter and memoirist, as well as our connoisseur of masterpieces gone by with her RETROSPECT column.
DOUG HARVEY: Acknowledged as one of the most knowledgeable and perceptive observers of contemporary and underground California art culture, Doug is also an exhibiting artist and garage-band rocker. UNDER THE RADAR digs up art material from the underground counterculture.
ZAK SMITH: Artist, writer, porn star, Zak never let his Yale degree hold him back. He illustrated every page of Gravity’s Rainbow for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. His DECODER columns translates the art world.
JOHN TOTTENHAM: Purveyor of Magnanimous Misanthropy and Magical Cynicism. John’s poems are always acerbically entertaining, and his essays about art and life in Los Angeles are provocative and elegantly-wrought. Online, TOTTENHAM CORNER takes a bite out of the art scene.
SKOT ARMSTRONG: Only an Orange County queen could come up with a column based on reasons for not leaving one’s home. BUNKER VISION, Skot’s column, scours film-world oddities that only someone with a lot of time on their hands would discover.
JOSH HERMAN hits the streets from Los Angeles to Tijuana with his CURFEW column, covering graffiti and street art that creeps into the galleries.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF ARTILLERY
GUEST LECTURE: We open the centerfold of every issue to offer major artists a forum to publish, and to comment on, any work they chose. Participants thus far include Mike Kelley, Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger, John Waters, Jennifer Steinkamp, Nancy Rubins and Mark Bradford.
COMIX: BUTCHER AND WOOD: Producing original full-page comic strips, these recent winners of the prestigious Australian Bronze Comics award have appeared in every issue of Artillery, with their biting satire directed at the past sacred cows of the art world.
ADVICE COLUMN: ASK BABS dishes etiquette and advice on art-world queries.
ART LAW: Counselor Stephen J. Goldberg delves deep into art world intrigue and legal machinations with his ART BRIEF column.
SHOPTALK: Scarlet Cheng provides the latest coverage of the business side of the art world. Her specialty is the art fairs and keeping us abreast on the movers and shakers of the LA scene.
RECONNOITER: Our back-page Q&A brings you up-close and personal with LA art community tastemakers.
ROLL CALL: Snapshots from gallery openings and art scenes with Hollywood sparkle.
REGULAR COLUMNS ON THEIR WEBSITE
BEVERLY WESTERN writes about the weekend LA art scene at openings, closings, panels and events with witty observations and humor in her LAST NIGHT online column.
KILLER PICK OF THE WEEK: Eve Wood scopes out THE art show that is a must-see in Los Angeles.
GALLERY ROUNDS edited by Associate Editor Christopher Michno, offers timely, weekly reviews from the Los Angeles area. It is featured in our weekly newsletter, and augments our longer reviews section in our print edition.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
While celebrating their 10 year anniversary, Artillery is also working with the fabulous Theater at Ace Hotel to present a film series, with their next one featuring Marnie Weber’s “The Day of Forevermore.”
The Day of Forevermore
A film by Marnie Weber
Presented by Artillery & The Theatre at Ace Hotel
933 S Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90015
Sunday, September 11, 7:30 – 11 PM
Tickets are on sale now!
Coming in September, multidisciplinary artist Marnie Weber takes us on a journey of passion and transformation in her first feature length film, a modern day fairy tale called The Day of Forevermore. Presented by Artillery and The Theatre at Ace Hotel, The Day of Forevermore is an altogether familiar tale of rebellion amidst an uncanny world.
Written, directed and produced by Weber, The Day of Forevermore shows us a beautiful young woman living on Forevermore Acres, a rundown, junk-strewn ranch, full of aged witches and misfit monsters. Her mother, an elderly demented witch intends to indoctrinate her unwilling daughter into her coven of darkness but finds the girl has more spirit than expected.
By combining her own mythology of creatures, monsters, animals and female characters with costuming on film and stage sets, Weber creates her own fictional narratives of passion, transformation, and discovery. Weber creates uncanny worlds that exist in a realm between fantasy and reality, and invites viewers into an exploration of the subconscious. Using fairy-tale-like imagery, she places women in positions of power and primacy creating a backdrop as a site of transformation and magic.