-----> X-TRA Vol. 8 No. 1 <-----

Sept. 22, 2005

Type: discussion

X-TRA
Contemporary Art Quarterly
http://www.x-traonline.org

X-TRA Volume 8 Launch Party

In celebration of the publication of Volume 8, Issue 1, we invite you to join the editors and publishers of X-TRA for a launch party in Los Angeles.

Friday, September 23, 2005, 7:30-9:30 PM
at
The Mountain
475 Gin Ling Way, Chinatown, Los Angeles

In Volume 8, Number 1, X-TRA features a pair of articles that address the historicization of the 1980s art world. In "The Myth of Criticism in the 1980s," Howard Singerman looks at the shifting critical positions on the art of the 1980s as represented in the recent pages of Artforum and Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia.

In conjunction with Singerman's essay, X-TRA is pleased to reprint of Douglas Crimp's original catalog essay from the pivotal Pictures exhibition at Artists Space in 1977. Substantially different from the later version published in a 1979 issue of October, Crimp's original essay has never been published outside of the exhibition brochure.

Responding to the recent passing of legendary curator Walter Hopps, Ken Allan reflects on Hopps' importance to the Los Angeles art world. Allan details how Hopps' career shifted from promoting artist friends in unconventional exhibitions to participating in a "scene" that exemplified the particular combination of creativity and commodification that characterized the 1960s.

Regular columnist Allan deSouza uncovers some delights and drawbacks of Parisian flaneurie in his latest postcard installment. This issue's Artist's Project features William Leavitt's Organism (a theatrical habitat), a fragment of a theatrical script that was in part generated by the semi-random selection of the images that are used to illustrate it.

In the Reviews section, Jennifer Wulffson Goodell provides a walkabout of Olafur Eliasson's Meant to Be Lived In, a recent installation at the Jamie Residence in Pasadena. In a review of Marina Kappos's recent paintings at the Happy Lion, Kristina Newhouse examines how the subject disappears into the Los Angeles landscape. David Hatcher contemplates assemblage, postcolonial aesthetics, and art politics in a review of Wangechi Mutu's Problematica exhibition at Susan Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Reviewer Shana Lutker looks at recent visions of the public in the work of Carey Young, Sharon Hayes and Paul Chan. Sandra Esslinger revisits the presence of the female body in Barbara T. Smith's early feminist performances.

With Volume 8, X-TRA continues its ambitious foray into arts journalism. Further refining the look and accessibility of the magazine, the editors have collaborated with Aaron King of Holiday Los Angeles in creating a new cover design. Additionally, X-TRA is now available on newsstands and in bookstores nationwide.

Open Call for Artists' Projects: For the first time, X-TRA is extending an open call for Artists' Projects for our upcoming Volume 8. Artists are invited to submit original ideas for direct-to-print artworks for publication that address the content, context, and format of the magazine. Artists are encouraged to incorporate a web-based element in their proposal for online publication at our website. For more information, consult the advertising section of the current issue, our website at http://www.x-traonline.org, or contact [email protected].

X-TRA is a contemporary art quarterly published in Los Angeles. Begun in 1997 by artists to provide an alternative to the limited critical discourse then available in Los Angeles, X-TRA has evolved into a provocative source for contemporary art criticism. Composed of Los Angeles-based artists and writers, the editorial board of X-TRA supports diverse critical approaches and unusual formats alongside historical essays, commissioned artists' projects, interviews, and substantive exhibition and book reviews.

X-TRA is published by Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism, a not-for-profit 501©(3) organization. X-TRA is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Community Foundation, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and the Peter Norton Family Foundation.

X-TRA Editorial Board: Ken Allan, Stephen Berens, Ellen Birrell, Allan deSouza, Kianga Ford, Micol Hebron, Kristina Newhouse, Elizabeth Pulsinelli, Kati Rubinyi, Jan Tumlir.

Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism: Jeff Beall, Stephen Berens, Ellen Birrell, Mike Kelley, Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Mitchell Syrop.

For information about X-TRA distribution, please contact [email protected]. Subscription information can be found at http://www.x-traonline.org. Please contact [email protected] for ad rates and specifications.

For more information about X-TRA, please contact : [email protected].