Issue 35 February 2024

Issue 34 November 2023

Issue 33 August 2023

Issue 32 June 2023

Issue 31 February 2023

Issue 30 November 2022

Issue 29 August 2022

Issue 28 May 2022

Issue 27 February 2022

Issue 26 November 2021

Issue 25 August 2021

Issue 24 May 2021

Issue 23 February 2021

Issue 22 November 2020

Issue 21 August 2020

Issue 20 May 2020

Issue 19 February 2020

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
Parasites in Love –Travis Diehl
To Crush Absolute On Patrick Staff and
Destroying the Institution
–Jonathan Griffin
Victoria Fu:
Camera Obscured
–Cat Kron
Resurgence of Resistance How Pattern & Decoration's Popularity
Can Help Reshape the Canon
–Catherine Wagley
Trace, Place, Politics Julie Mehretu's Coded Abstractions
–Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.: Featuring: Friedrich Kunath,
Tristan Unrau, and Nevine Mahmoud
–Claressinka Anderson & Joe Pugliese
Reviews April Street
at Vielmetter Los Angeles
–Aaron Horst

Chiraag Bhakta
at Human Resources
–Julie Weitz

Don’t Think: Tom, Joe
and Rick Potts

at POTTS
–Matt Stromberg

Sarah McMenimen
at Garden
–Michael Wright

The Medea Insurrection
at the Wende Museum
–Jennifer Remenchik

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Mike Kelley
at Hauser & Wirth
–Angella d’Avignon
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Issue 18 November 2019

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
The Briar and the Tar Nayland Blake at the ICA LA
and Matthew Marks Gallery
–Travis Diehl
Putting Aesthetics
to Hope
Tracking Photography’s Role
in Feminist Communities
– Catherine Wagley
Instagram STARtists
and Bad Painting
– Anna Elise Johnson
Interview with Jamillah James – Lindsay Preston Zappas
Working Artists Featuring Catherine Fairbanks,
Paul Pescador, and Rachel Mason
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Children of the Sun
at LADIES’ ROOM
– Jessica Simmons

Derek Paul Jack Boyle
at SMART OBJECTS
–Aaron Horst

Karl Holmqvist
at House of Gaga, Los Angeles
–Lee Purvey

Katja Seib
at Château Shatto
–Ashton Cooper

Jeanette Mundt
at Overduin & Co.
–Matt Stromberg
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Issue 17 August 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Green Chip David Hammons
at Hauser & Wirth
–Travis Diehl
Whatever Gets You
Through the Night
The Artists of Dilexi
and Wartime Trauma
–Jonathan Griffin
Generous Collectors How the Grinsteins
Supported Artists
–Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Donna Huanca
–Lindsy Preston Zappas
Working Artist Featuring Ragen Moss, Justen LeRoy,
and Bari Ziperstein
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Sarah Lucas
at the Hammer Museum
–Yxta Maya Murray

George Herms and Terence Koh
at Morán Morán
–Matt Stromberg

Hannah Hur
at Bel Ami
–Michael Wright

Sebastian Hernandez
at NAVEL
–Julie Weitz

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Alex Israel
at Greene Naftali
–Rosa Tyhurst

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Issue 16 May 2019

Trulee Hall's Untamed Magic Catherine Wagley
Ingredients for a Braver Art Scene Ceci Moss
I Shit on Your Graves Travis Diehl
Interview with Ruby Neri Jonathan Griffin
Carolee Schneemann and the Art of Saying Yes! Chelsea Beck
Exquisite L.A. Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Ry Rocklen
at Honor Fraser
–Cat Kron

Rob Thom
at M+B
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age
of Black Power, 1963-1983
at The Broad
–Matt Stromberg

Anna Sew Hoy & Diedrick Brackens
at Various Small Fires
–Aaron Horst

Julia Haft-Candell & Suzan Frecon
at Parrasch Heijnen
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Shahryar Nashat
at Swiss Institute
–Christie Hayden
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Issue 15 February 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor
Men on Women
Geena Brown
Eyes Without a Voice
Julian Rosefeldt's Manifesto
Christina Catherine Martinez
Seven Minute Dream Machine
Jordan Wolfson's (Female figure)
Travis Diehl
Laughing in Private
Vanessa Place's Rape Jokes
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Rosha Yaghmai
Laura Brown
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Patrick Martinez,
Ramiro Gomez, and John Valadez
Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Outliers and American
Vanguard Art at LACMA
–Jonathan Griffin

Sperm Cult
at LAXART
–Matt Stromberg

Kahlil Joseph
at MOCA PDC
–Jessica Simmons

Ingrid Luche
at Ghebaly Gallery
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Matt Paweski
at Park View / Paul Soto
–John Zane Zappas

Trenton Doyle Hancock
at Shulamit Nazarian
–Colony Little

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Catherine Opie
at Lehmann Maupin
–Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 14 November 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer and Figurative Religion Catherine Wagley
Lynch in Traffic Travis Diehl
The Remixed Symbology of Nina Chanel Abney Lindsay Preston Zappas
Interview with Kulapat Yantrasast Christie Hayden
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Sandra de la Loza, Gloria Galvez, and Steve Wong
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews Raúl de Nieves
at Freedman Fitzpatrick
-Aaron Horst

Gertrud Parker
at Parker Gallery
-Ashton Cooper

Robert Yarber
at Nicodim Gallery
-Jonathan Griffin

Nikita Gale
at Commonwealth & Council
-Simone Krug

Lari Pittman
at Regen Projects
-Matt Stromberg

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Eckhaus Latta
at the Whitney Museum
of American Art
-Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 13 August 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor Julie Weitz with Angella d'Avignon
Don't Make
Everything Boring
Catherine Wagley
The Collaborative Art
World of Norm Laich
Matt Stromberg
Oddly Satisfying Art Travis Diehl
Made in L.A. 2018 Reviews Claire de Dobay Rifelj
Jennifer Remenchik
Aaron Horst
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Anna Sew Hoy, Guadalupe Rosales, and Shizu Saldamando
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews It's Snowing in LA
at AA|LA
–Matthew Lax

Fiona Conner
at the MAK Center
–Thomas Duncan

Show 2
at The Gallery @ Michael's
–Simone Krug

Deborah Roberts
at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
–Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi

Mimi Lauter
at Blum & Poe
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Math Bass
at Mary Boone
–Ashton Cooper

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Condo New York
–Laura Brown
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Issue 12 May 2018

Poetic Energies and
Radical Celebrations:
Senga Nengudi and Maren Hassinger
Simone Krug
Interior States of the Art Travis Diehl
Perennial Bloom:
Florals in Feminism
and Across L.A.
Angella d'Avignon
The Mess We're In Catherine Wagley
Interview with Christina Quarles Ashton Cooper
Object Project
Featuring Suné Woods, Michelle Dizon,
and Yong Soon Min
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Meleko Mokgosi
at The Fowler Museum at UCLA
-Jessica Simmons

Chris Kraus
at Chateau Shatto
- Aaron Horst

Ben Sanders
at Ochi Projects
- Matt Stromberg

iris yirei hsu
at the Women's Center
for Creative Work
- Hana Cohn

Harald Szeemann
at the Getty Research Institute
- Olivian Cha

Ali Prosch
at Bed and Breakfast
- Jennifer Remenchik

Reena Spaulings
at Matthew Marks
- Thomas Duncan
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Issue 11 February 2018

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Museum as Selfie Station Matt Stromberg
Accessible as Humanly as Possible Catherine Wagley
On Laura Owens on Laura Owens Travis Diehl
Interview with Puppies Puppies Jonathan Griffin
Object Project Lindsay Preston Zappas, Jeff McLane
Reviews Dulce Dientes
at Rainbow in Spanish
- Aaron Horst

Adrián Villas Rojas
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
- Lindsay Preston Zappas

Nevine Mahmoud
at M+B
- Angella D'Avignon

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960- 1985
at the Hammer Museum
- Thomas Duncan

Hannah Greely and William T. Wiley
at Parker Gallery
- Keith J. Varadi

David Hockney
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (L.A. in N.Y.)
- Ashton Cooper

Edgar Arceneaux
at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (L.A. in S.F.)
- Hana Cohn
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Issue 10 November 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Barely Living with Art:
The Labor of Domestic
Spaces in Los Angeles
Eli Diner
She Wanted Adventure:
Dwan, Butler, Mizuno, Copley
Catherine Wagley
The Languages of
All-Women Exhibitions
Lindsay Preston Zappas
L.A. Povera Travis Diehl
On Eclipses:
When Language
and Photography Fail
Jessica Simmons
Interview with
Hamza Walker
Julie Wietz
Object Project
Featuring: Rosha Yaghmai,
Dianna Molzan, and Patrick Jackson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McLane
Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Reviews
Regen Projects
Ibid Gallery
One National Gay & Lesbian Archives and MOCA PDC
The Mistake Room
Luis De Jesus Gallery
the University Art Gallery at CSULB
the Autry Museum
Reviews Cheyenne Julien
at Smart Objects

Paul Mpagi Sepuya
at team bungalow

Ravi Jackson
at Richard Telles

Tactility of Line
at Elevator Mondays

Trigger: Gender as a Tool as a Weapon
at the New Museum
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 9 August 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women on the Plinth Catherine Wagley
Us & Them, Now & Then:
Reconstituting Group Material
Travis Diehl
The Offerings of EJ Hill
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
Interview with Jenni Sorkin Carmen Winant
Object Project
Featuring: Rebecca Morris,
Linda Stark, Alex Olson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McClane
Reviews Mark Bradford
at the Venice Biennale

Broken Language
at Shulamit Nazarian

Artists of Color
at the Underground Museum

Anthony Lepore & Michael Henry Hayden
at Del Vaz Projects

Home
at LACMA

Analia Saban at
Sprueth Magers
Letter to the Editor Lady Parts, Lady Arts
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Issue 8 May 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kanye Westworld Travis Diehl
@richardhawkins01 Thomas Duncan
Support Structures:
Alice Könitz and LAMOA
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Penny Slinger
Eliza Swann
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
taisha paggett
Ashley Hunt
Young Chung
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Alessandro Pessoli
at Marc Foxx

Jennie Jieun Lee
at The Pit

Trisha Baga
at 356 Mission

Jimmie Durham
at The Hammer

Parallel City
at Ms. Barbers

Jason Rhodes
at Hauser & Wirth
Letter to the Editor
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Issue 7 February 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Generous
Structures
Catherine Wagley
Put on a Happy Face:
On Dynasty Handbag
Travis Diehl
The Limits of Animality:
Simone Forti at ISCP
(L.A. in N.Y.)
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
More Wound Than Ruin:
Evaluating the
"Human Condition"
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Brenna Youngblood
Todd Gray
Rafa Esparza
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Creature
at The Broad

Sam Pulitzer & Peter Wachtler
at House of Gaga // Reena Spaulings Fine Art

Karl Haendel
at Susanne Vielmetter

Wolfgang Tillmans
at Regen Projects

Ma
at Chateau Shatto

The Rat Bastard Protective Association
at the Landing
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Issue 6 November 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kenneth Tam
's Basement
Travis Diehl
The Female
Cool School
Catherine Wagley
The Rise
of the L.A.
Art Witch
Amanda Yates Garcia
Interview with
Mernet Larsen
Julie Weitz
Agnes Martin
at LACMA
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Analia Saban
Ry Rocklen
Sarah Cain
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews
Made in L.A. 2016
at The Hammer Museum

Doug Aitken
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Mertzbau
at Tif Sigfrids

Jean-Pascal Flavian and Mika Tajima
at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Mark A. Rodruigez
at Park View

The Weeping Line
Organized by Alter Space
at Four Six One Nine
(S.F. in L.A.)
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Issue 5 August 2016

Letter form the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Non-Fiction
at The Underground Museum
Catherine Wagley
The Art of Birth Carmen Winant
Escape from Bunker Hill
John Knight
at REDCAT
Travis Diehl
Ed Boreal Speaks Benjamin Lord
Art Advice (from Men) Sarah Weber
Routine Pleasures
at the MAK Center
Jonathan Griffin
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Fay Ray
John Baldessari
Claire Kennedy
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Revolution in the Making
at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

Carl Cheng
at Cherry and Martin

Joan Snyder
at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery

Elanor Antin
at Diane Rosenstein

Performing the Grid
at Ben Maltz Gallery
at Otis College of Art & Design

Laura Owens
at The Wattis Institute
(L.A. in S.F.)
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Issue 4 May 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Moon, laub, and Love Catherine Wagley
Walk Artisanal Jonathan Griffin
Reconsidering
Marva Marrow's
Inside the L.A. Artist
Anthony Pearson
Mystery Science Thater:
Diana Thater
at LACMA
Aaron Horst
Informal Feminisms Federica Bueti and Jan Verwoert
Marva Marrow Photographs
Lita Albuquerque
Interiors and Interiority:
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Char Jansen
Reviews L.A. Art Fairs

Material Art Fair, Mexico City

Rain Room
at LACMA

Evan Holloway
at David Kordansky Gallery

Histories of a Vanishing Present: A Prologue
at The Mistake Room

Carter Mull
at fused space
(L.A. in S.F.)

Awol Erizku
at FLAG Art Foundation
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 3 February 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Le Louvre, Las Vegas Evan Moffitt
iPhones, Flesh,
and the Word:
F.B.I.
at Arturo Bandini
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women Talking About Barney Catherine Wagley
Lingua Ignota:
Faith Wilding
at The Armory Center
for the Arts
and LOUDHAILER
Benjamin Lord
A Conversation
with Amalia Ulman
Char Jansen
How We Practice Carmen Winant
Share Your Piece
of the Puzzle
Federica Bueti
Amanda Ross-Ho Photographs
Erik Frydenborg
Reviews Honeydew
at Michael Thibault

Fred Tomaselli
at California State University, Fullerton

Trisha Donnelly
at Matthew Marks Gallery

Bradford Kessler
at ASHES/ASHES
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Issue 2 November 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Hot Tears Carmen Winant
Slow View:
Molly Larkey
Anna Breininger and Kate Whitlock
Americanicity's Paintings:
Orion Martin
at Favorite Goods
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal
Layers of Leimert Park Catherine Wagley
Junkspace Junk Food:
Parker Ito
at Kaldi, Smart Objects,
White Cube, and
Château Shatto
Evan Moffitt
Melrose Hustle Keith Vaughn
Max Maslansky Photographs
Monica Majoli
at the Tom of Finland Foundation
White Lee, Black Lee:
William Pope.L’s "Reenactor"
Travis Diehl
Dora Budor Interview Char Jensen
Reviews Mary Ried Kelley
at The Hammer Museum

Tongues Untied
at MOCA Pacific Design Center

No Joke
at Tanya Leighton
(L.A. in Berlin)
Snap Reviews Martin Basher at Anat Ebgi
Body Parts I-V at ASHES ASHES
Eve Fowler at Mier Gallery
Matt Siegle at Park View
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Issue 1 August 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
MEAT PHYSICS/
Metaphysical L.A.
Travis Diehl
Art for Art’s Sake:
L.A. in the 1990s
Anthony Pearson
A Dialogue in Two
Synchronous Atmospheres
Erik Morse
with Alexandra Grant
SOGTFO
at François Ghebaly
Jonathan Griffin
#studio #visit
with #devin #kenny
@barnettcohen
Mateo Tannatt
Photographs
Jibade-Khalil Huffman
Slow View:
Discussion on One Work
Anna Breininger
with Julian Rogers
Reviews Pierre Huyghe
at LACMA

Mernet Larsen
at Various Small Fires

John Currin
at Gagosian, Beverly Hills

Pat O'Niell
at Cherry and Martin

A New Rhythm
at Park View

Unwatchable Scenes and
Other Unreliable Images...
at Public Fiction

Charles Gaines
at The Hammer Museum

Henry Taylor
at Blum & Poe/ Untitled
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Distribution
Central
1301 PE
Anat Ebgi (La Cienega)
Anat Ebgi (Wilshire)
Arcana Books
Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth
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Babst Gallery
Baert Gallery
Bel Ami
BLUM
Canary Test
Carlye Packer
Charlie James Gallery
Château Shatto
Chris Sharp Gallery
Cirrus Gallery
Clay ca
Commonwealth & Council
Craft Contemporary
D2 Art (Inglewood)
D2 Art (Westwood)
David Kordansky Gallery
David Zwirner
Diane Rosenstein
dublab
FOYER-LA
François Ghebaly
Gana Art Los Angeles
GAVLAK
George Billis Gallery
Giovanni's Room
Hamzianpour & Kia
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Harper's Gallery
Hashimoto Contemporary
Heavy Manners Library
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Human Resources
Hunter Shaw Fine Art
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in lieu
JOAN
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Murmurs
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Night Gallery
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Park View / Paul Soto
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REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater)
Roberts Projects
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Sean Kelly
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SHRINE
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Smart Objects
SOLDES
SPRÜTH MAGERS
Steve Turner
Stroll Garden
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
The Box
The Fulcrum
The Hole
The Landing
The LODGE
The Poetic Research Bureau
The Wende Museum
Thinkspace Projects
Tierra del Sol Gallery
Tiger Strikes Astroid
Tomorrow Today
Track 16
Tyler Park Presents
USC Fisher Museum of Art
UTA Artist Space
Various Small Fires
Village Well Books & Coffee
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Outside L.A.
Libraries/ Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD)
Bard College, CCS Library (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, MO)
Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD)
Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, MN)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA)
NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, NY)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
University of California Irvine, Langston IMCA (Irvine, CA)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN)
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
Yale University Library (New Haven, CT)

Interview with Penny Slinger

Penny Slinger, The Web (1973-74). Photo Collage. Image courtesy of Broadway 1602.

Penelope Slinger was born in London in 1947 and graduated from Chelsea Art College in 1969 with a body of work made as a feminist reaction to Max Ernst’s collages. Since then, Penny’s art practice has constantly shifted mediums and viewpoints irrespective of art world trends, or profitability—as a result, decades worth of work remain unseen by the art world. In all of its iterations, Penny Slinger’s body of work is mutable, erotic, confrontational, mystical, and unapologetically Goddess-worshipping.

This past summer I went to visit Penny at her home and studio, The Goddess Temple, a sprawling group of buildings constructed in honor of the Divine Feminine. The Goddess Temple is hidden deep in a grove of redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with the word Resurgam emblazoned on the awning of the main building. Resurgam is Latin for “I shall rise again”—a bittersweet sentiment, as the Goddess Temple currently faces financial hardship and possible closure. I kept repeating the word under my breath during my visit, like a prayer or a spell.

Eliza Swann: Let’s talk about this place, your home and studio. It’s amazing here! Tell me about The Goddess Temple—what’s the story?

Penny Slinger: [My husband] Christopher Hills built this place as his retreat property—he was guided to it by divination. He built it to be a safe place on the planet to take the limits off and experience the Goddess’ energy direct. He built this place on the principles of sacred geometry and connected it to the sacred energy of the redwood groves. After he passed I have held it in that way. This place has been known as The Goddess Temple—I’m Reverend of The Goddess Temple, which I established here under the umbrella of the Universal Church of the Master.

ES: She needs strong reps these days. So, what kinds of work do you do for the Goddess here?

PS: Right (laughs). There’s an amazing energy here and I want to share it as much as possible. We’ve had performances and multimedia video recordings and parties on key dates like the solstices and equinoxes. It is all dedicated to Her. It’s like a healing circle between The Divine and the Earthly realms. When I invite people here it’s to be part of this sort of blessing, really.

For the last few years we’ve been trying to see what’s going to happen to the next phase of the evolution here. This space really needs to have some financial support beyond ourselves in order to be able to continue. Once it’s had some upgrades done that it needs, it can be offered back out to share again in the form of retreats, gatherings, salons, and bringing artists here for sabbaticals. We need to make it more of a busy heart center for the new paradigm, which is what Christopher said it should be.

ES: For me, holding space for Goddess worship is a way of accessing stories and tools for resistance and renewal that are in danger of being erased. We need to share human histories that took place before widespread patriarchy and capitalism to let us know what is possible for humanity. Have you noticed an upswing in interest or support for the Goddess Temple under our new presidential administration?

PS: No, I haven’t yet. One of the most upsetting things about the current regime is that they seem to [be] going backwards in the raising of consciousness that has been evolving about the impact that human life is having on the rest of the ecosystem. I love and embrace all life as part of myself and feel as if my very body is being ripped apart when assaults to the environment occur. If indeed our consciousness makes us the top of the life chain, we sacrifice that position when we plunder earth’s body.

I am not sure at this point what the future holds. I am ready to move on from the Goddess Temple if that is what the Universe requires. If support comes and I am enabled to stay here, I will continue and advance the program. That consists of using the facilities to gather those who are the change makers, the visionaries, and give them the opportunity to experience the pure flow of Goddess energy available here.

The beacon of light that the Goddess Temple is will continue to transmit, come what may.

ES: Do you find that the fine art world is uncomfortable with mystical work that isn’t made in the minimalist tradition? I’ve personally had a hell of a time being taken seriously. It’s a little easier here in Los Angeles, but not much.

PS: I’ve found that. In fact a couple of my galleries told me I had to redo my website, which I did do. And I made it, I hope, much more art-world friendly. They said “you mentioned Goddess too much and it’s putting our buyers off.”

ES: It seems like the art world has been more interested in classifying you as a 1970s feminist. I’ve always wondered why the academic and psychological aspects of feminism might be palatable for art world folks, but you can’t say the word “Goddess” if you want to be taken seriously. Why do you think the art world isn’t ready for representations of the divine feminine?

PS: This is quite a complex question. The Goddess movement has picked up a lot of steam since I discovered Her in the early 1970s and when I started doing events and gatherings in Her honor at the end of the 1990s. On the one hand I could reflect that this is great news; that the things I believe hold the keys to evolution are percolating into the social fabric. However, as tends to be the case with any popularization, there is also a diminution of essence, a trivialization, a tendency to take things at face value and face glamor, rather than penetrating to the heart and core of what these things really represent.

To embrace the Goddess in one’s life is so much more than putting on a crown and dressing up like one! It is about cultivating all the qualities the Divine Feminine represents in one’s heart and consciousness and having these principles be the guiding light of all one’s actions. This is profound spiritual and psychological work, demanding an absolute kind of commitment. In this society, so addicted to instant gratification, many who receive a taste of this rarefied domain are suddenly teachers, without putting in the kind of self-work required to earn and own that position.

In a lot of the art these days dedicated to the Goddess I also find the kind of honed and refined aesthetic that I respond to is missing. In this way, I can understand why the ne art world may be leery.

Be this as it may, there must be a place for the Goddess in the field of fine art, for it is Her time and those on the cutting edge of social and cultural change know that. My dedication to intense self-scrutiny has brought me here. And I have been schooled in fine art as well as my own direct experience.

Penny Slinger, I Hear What you Say (1973). Collage. Image courtesy of the Roland Penrose Collection.

ES: I am really moved by your collage book trilogy: The 50% The Visible Woman (1971), An Exorcism (1977), and Mountain Ecstasy (1978).

PS: The 50% The Visible Woman was made while I was still a student at Chelsea College and I discovered Max Ernst and his collage books. I did my thesis in response to those books and made a film and my own collage book. I hadn’t seen anyone really using the tools that Surrealism provided to explore the depths of the feminine psyche and to lay that bare. I collaged pictures of myself and then I wrote poems to go over them. I was very dedicated to the idea of being my own muse, and not being seen through the lens of a male artist, but seen through my own lens. I’ve done that all my life in work—being the seen and the seer.

So in that space I plunged into this book, An Exorcism. And one of the very first images in the book is called The Brick Wall Behind The Door, and to me that was a really shocking image of when you open the door to the imagination to go through to your magic world, and it’s got a brick wall behind it and you can’t get in! And in front of it, Peter (an ex of mine) as the man, the male archetype in the book, he’s holding the key. The question was “why has the man got the key?” What are the things that are projected on to me by my whole cultural milieu? What are the things projected on to me by my partner? And what are my things? Who am I in all this?

I worked on it for seven years. I mean it was a big work. I didn’t only do the collages; I did a lot of writing. I did a whole film script about it.

After that, I discovered Tantra. I discovered Tantra at an exhibition of Tantric art, the first one in the UK back in 1973. When I was nearly complete with The Exorcism, I met Nik Douglas and I went to India for the first time—Thailand, Nepal, all these places.

Mountain Ecstasy was really just our playing and coming together, me teaching Nik how to do collage. We were doing these pictures for our own pleasure. Everything was just juicy and erotic and full of bliss and the divine and the profane. Everything all at once.

And they put it out as a book— it did get into trouble. Thousands of copies got seized by British customs and burned as pornography. I had a show in London, and I had a show in New York after. It was too rich really for the British palate, too colorful.

ES: Your description of working on The Other Side of the Underneath (1972) is super intense. The film is built around a long sequence that is a sort of group therapy on acid, right? The melt-downs sound horrific. The emotional pain, psychic death, crucifixion. You were doing feminist work with Jane Arden and theatre group, Holocaust: A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets and Witches…

PS: Well, you know, I had never liked to label myself a feminist because of the flavor that feminism had at that time. Of late I’ve been much more willing to take on that mantle because feminism is now a lot more inclusive— for instance of sexuality, sensuality, and spirituality.

In England in the ‘60s, women hardly owned their sexuality at all. In those nascent years it didn’t feel like it was a very full body experience let’s put it like that. It seemed to be much more like, we want the power that men have had and we’re gonna get in that world and fight for it. I didn’t resonate with the feminist scene because I felt that female qualities needed to be recognized and empowered in their own right too. I have a body and I want to own that body. I want women to be seen for all of ourselves, as full psycho-sensual emotional beings.

Eventually I did become part of this all-women’s theater group, Holocaust. And that was because when I went to that first meeting and met Jane Arden, she talked about how she wanted to create artwork that was from a political and an embodied perspective.

With The Other Side of the Underneath, we were trying to shake out all the sacred cows and really get in people’s faces. We wanted to present the blood and guts of feminism, not just the intellectual and political and more heady kind of side of it.

ES: What’s your relationship to feminism now in your work?

PS: I got the opportunity to connect back into the fine art world in England with a couple of exhibitions—at The Tate with The Angels of Anarchy (2009) show and then at Riflemaker Gallery (2015). The recognition I’ve been getting has all been around the work that I was doing in the ‘60s and ‘70s and hasn’t gone past my discovery of Tantra. At this point it doesn’t seem like the fine art world is ready yet for the divine feminine work, which is where I’ve been all these last years since. This year I worked for awhile on a project called Reclaiming Scarlet with a young woman who’s very much part of this whole wave of feminism that’s happening now with The Red Tent movement.

I haven’t yet got an outlet for that even though it’s in a more proto-feminist surrealist style. My gallery in London just wrote to me and said, “It’s very strong and it’s very real, but I don’t know that there’s a market for it.” I want to do something that shows that I’m not just a historical gure. I want people to recognize that someone in her later years can be totally relevant and do something in society rather than being cast aside as no longer of use. I would like to have some success and some recognition this time not only for the old work, but for what I’m doing now. I want to put a stake in the ground for all women of this age whose wisdom hasn’t been percolated back into the world.

This is why we have such an immature, materialistic society; the wisdom of older women is not being put back into the energy cycles. People are going off into old people’s homes filled with drugs to veg them out.

ES: Are you still using your body as the main vehicle for your collages and life casts?

PS: Yes, I am using my body in my latest work. I’m 68 and my body has changed somewhat, but it hasn’t changed that much since I was 28. So I am wanting to use that as my vessel and to bring that forward to make this statement about it not being over. I’m still embodied!

ES: Do you have any advice for young artists and activists trying to cope with the Trump presidency?

PS: Art is the instrument we use to lift the veils and give insight into what is otherwise invisible. At this time I fully believe that awareness needs to come through an opening of the heart. Any work that an artist can do to help do this, even if it means ripping the heart open, is where it’s at. We need to melt the deep freeze of the collective numbness. And it starts with the self. I believe only that which is deeply felt can be in the politics of self, that there can be no political change without inner revolution.

This interview was originally published in Carla issue 8.

Penny Slinger, Transmutation of Equatorial forest – The Hermaphrodite, (1969). Photo collage. Image courtesy of the artist.

Penny Slinger, A Difficult Position (An Exorcism) (1970-77). Photo collage on card. Image courtesy of the artist.

Penny Slinger, No Return (An Exorcism) (1970-77). Collage. Image courtesy of Broadway 1602.

 

 

Penny Slinger, Bride’s Book (Page 2) (1973). Photo collage in card vignette. Image courtesy of the artist.

Penny Slinger is (born London 1947), graduated with a first class honors degree from Chelsea College of Art 1969. In the 1970s she was known for her pioneering Feminist Surrealist collage work. She has published several book including An Exorcism, Sexual Secrets, The Alchemy of Ecstasy, and The Secret Dakini Oracle. Penny lived in the Caribbean for 15 years where her work focused on the Arawak Indians. In 1994 she came to California. She is represented by Riflemaker Gallery (London), and Blum & Poe (LA, New York & Tokyo).