Wednesday, July 22, 2020

ARATIKA: Film by Eric Minh Swenson

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MAT GLEASON, LOS ANGELES, CA — Michael Arata embraces the abject with the pleasant sentimentality of a proud uncle. The subjects that most people would cringe from and few artists would ever consider are his preferred topics. Be it photographing his own daily bowel movements or diligently painting portraits of convicted child molesters, Arata is an earnest, hard-working artist whose monastic studio practice makes the unpleasant ordinary. 

Unlike shock artists who mine such territory for its PR value, Michael creates with no hype in mind; he seems guided by a determination to make the reviled into something ordinary. Most Los Angeles artists give lip service to the late Mike Kelley. While emulating the slacker aesthetic of Kelley’s work, few artists seek the anti-sublime affect that it had on viewers. Arata is heir to that legacy of using simple, mundane materials to make the ickier things in life a central subject in art. 

The reactions viewers have had to his work vary — some collectors purchase it, others experience a reflexive vomit response. While he may not be the first artist to ever explore the theme of beastiality, he certainly found an original theme in adding the sainthood of deflowered sheep. In an art world glut of conflating high fashion with fine art, Arata examined the negative space in between the arms and legs of the supermodel and made spooky sculptures to be mounted for a couture pose. 

The possibilities are infinite — if it makes you recoil in shame, horror or disgust, Michael Arata is working on it in his studio to compelling results. For more info on Eric Minh Swenson or project inquiries visit his website :www.thuvanarts.com ART FILM SERIES: www.thuvanarts.com/take1

Film by Eric Minh Swenson. Music by Beefsmurf

Mike Arata Past and Present: LA Art in the 90s

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Your shows at Miller Durazo? “Killer Rainbows. I mostly remember random openings. It was a nice gritty time to get together with other artist and complain, dialog, plan and socialize. It was more like an art club.

“Life was bleak in the mid-nineties. I was teaching for low income and the future did not look promising. Things got much better as we approached the millennium. I was making “Pet Space” sculpture and photos. This included the colorful and grayscale rainbows. Content oriented.” How has your art evolved now? “Same, just more edgy content.




“Miller Durazo filled an alternative niche, like the “One Night Stand” shows we were doing at the Farmer’s Daughter Motel on Fairfax. (A series of rooms were rented for curated artists to exhibit their work.) There were about six or seven alternative for-profit spaces at the time.

by Gordon Grundy

This article originally appeared in Artillery Magazine & part of the essay “Past and Present: LA Art in the 90s”

PET SPACES – WHITTIER COLLEGE

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MICHAEL ARATA: PET SPACES; WHITTIER COLLEGE MENDENHALL · WHITTIER, CALIFORNIA



Michael Arata, “Spanking Machine,”, 2001-04, Lambda print

If you saw Michael Arata’s work around the mid-90’s, most curators would have told you he’s headed to hell in a hand basket. In fact, I can still recall a group show organized by Bill Radewic (“Documenta”-1996) in which Arata was outfitting gray scaled rainbows with machine guns. Arata referred to those particular pieces as “killer rainbows”-which was remarkably ironic. You see, at the time, most exhibitioners that were fortunate enough to grace the same halls as his work, esteemed him as anything but “killer”. As it turns out, the “Rainbow” series would lead to more art-this time, with greater maturity and significance.
In his most current exhibition entitled “Pet Spaces”, Arata builds upon the past with a series of photos posing as himself. In most of the photos he fills in the negative space between his legs and arms with color, assigning each of these “pet spaces” with fabricated dummy eyes. His poses mostly consist of him executing routine tasks like praying, making love, and playing games. In a few instances, he travels outside these safe boundaries by practicing ballet or posing in the same stance as a Victoria’s Secret model.

In one particularly memorable series of photos (“Spanking Machine 1, 2, and 3”) he gets a group of people to spank him in succession. As in the other photos, he makes sure that the blank space between each participants legs, like his own, are correctly accounted for with difficult to miss colors like hot pink and bright yellow.

The traditional knock against Arata’s work is that it’s too forthright, silly, and unimaginative. Some argue that Arata’s portrayal of negative space is overstated. While some of these points may have individual merit, they don’t by any means invalidate the substance of his work.

If there are any movements Arata’s work lends itself to, I can’t name them. In fact, for an artist living in Los Angeles, his work is about as un-Los Angeles as they come. In his photo FREDERICK’S OF HOLLYWOOD CATALOG POSE, for example, he pokes fun at the vanity of the famous lingerie chain based in his home city. Basically, he does a supermodel pose, but he’s dressed as a typical North American man, wearing a long sleeved shirt with black jeans.

Arata follows the same formula in other photos, with none being unduly self-conscious and always having an element of cheap entertainment. In the end, his work is inviting, not stuffed with long explanations, and furthermore, not contrived at gunpoint by the powerful hands of venture capital art dealers. Maybe this is why his work has been mostly avoided by the same group, established curators included.

To me, Arata is most about humanizing overlooked space and spaces in a world that isn’t paying attention. A good portion of contemporary America is too occupied in other worlds-like popular corporate hangouts such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Starbucks. America is so consumed consuming, they barely have time to notice anything anymore. Rather than criticize his audience, (as I probably would) Arata gives them a gentle nudge in the right direction with his almost self-defacing demeanor. It’s this highly polished and professional approach that makes “Pet Spaces” his most accomplished, complete, and best work yet.

Ronald DeLegge
Chicago, Illinois
2004

This article originally appeared in Zing Magazine

Campus Circle article, 2011

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Flock, 2005, mixed media, dimensions variable, by Michael Arata.


“How would you describe this exhibition?” I ask artist Michael Arata.

“It’s my life!” he replies.

Sure enough, as Arata describes, his exhibition at the Beacon Arts Building truly shows his life as an artist … and perhaps even more. Until May 22, Arata will be holding his largest solo exhibition for the public to enjoy.

Arata, born in 1955, is a playful, creative contemporary artist who challenges ordinary perceptions of various aspects of our lives through his imaginative work. A versatile artist who works with just about anything from newspaper, acrylic paint and soccer balls to tampon applicators (yes, weird), to name only a few, Arata deserves praise for his unconventional work that often confuses the viewer with its web of meanings.

In the 32,400 feet square art space that used to be used for storage is a massive collection of Arata’s works, some that have been previously seen and excitingly, those that have never been displayed in public. Expanding over the space of three floors in the four-story building, the exhibition has many installations that guests can ponder over as well as play with. Composed of small to large-scale installations, the show ignites a youthful energy in the viewer with its bright pop colors and whimsical forms.

Each floor of the exhibition has a specific theme. Within each theme space are several rooms (no rooms on the fourth floor, just a large space with different sections) incorporating installations with different concepts; concepts that are a bit hard to understand. Thankfully, Doug Harvey, the curator of the show and an acclaimed writer who has covered art extensively for LA Weekly, deciphers the complicated nature of Arata’s works in short paragraphs in each room. A definite must-read if you want to catch the artist’s motive behind all of that color.

Most of his pieces have audience participation elements. Pieces such as Venus as a Fertility Figure, Activityon the second floor will stand out. The work shows a pair of pantyhose attached to a hoop weighed down by heels and below it is a pile of “eggs” made out of potatoes. The key is to throw the “eggs” into the pantyhose hoop; this, of course, enhances the vulgarity of the depiction of the female figure as sort of a baby-producing machine, perhaps even a game (Do I have that right? I don’t know.).

On the top floor, you will see a broad range of pieces that also will call for your participation, such as the rollable disk art and beard disguises created from papier-mache. As exciting as all this sounds, Arata’s work is not all cute and humorous. Behind all of the color and forms is a certain creepiness and absurdity that calls for more than simple enjoyment. One constant recurring image in his works is the human body, which will be pretty obvious to even the most ignorant person. Even if you cannot see the message behind the works immediately, take some time to mull over them, because what seems like a flock of sheep (one of his installations) may surprise you with its intentions.

This exhibit demonstrates the artist’s appealing and psychotropic nature of his productive career. Arataland! is a continuation of the Critics-as-Curators series of Beacon Arts, a series where art critics and writers are encouraged to step out and curate their own large scale shows.

Beacon Arts Building is located at 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood. For more information, visit beaconartsbuilding.com.
Article originally posted on 4/6/2011 on Campus Circle

Arataland Exposition: Examiner article, 2011

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Beacon Arts continues its Critics-as-Curators series with Arataland! A Mid-Career Survey of Artworks by Michael Arata curated by art critic Doug Harvey, opening Saturday, March 26, 2011. Arataland! will be the first museum-scale retrospective devoted exclusively to the work of this important Los Angeles artist, and the first monographic exhibit hosted by the Beacon Arts Building during its inaugural Critics-as-Curators series. Drawing on three decades of sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, installation and performance work, Arataland! will transform the Beacon Arts Building into a theme park exploring the complex and idiosyncratic vision – darkly humorous, playfully erotic, conceptually quirky, and often confrontational – that animates Arata’s oeuvre. The exhibit will run for eight weeks closing on Sunday, May 22, 2011 with a Critics-as-Curators panel discussion from 1:00 to 4:00pm. Beacon Arts is located at 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302. For additional information please call 310-621-5416 or visit http://www.beaconartsbuilding.comas well as http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inglewood-CA/Beacon-Arts-Building/129817703733091?v=info.


Arataland! A Mid-Career Survey of Artworks by Michael Arata will kick-off on March 26th with an opening reception from 7:00 to 10:00pm. Join the artist for the unveiling of a new mural on the side of the Beacon Arts Building – a large rendition of a piece from Arata’s Pet Spaces series. Additional special events include “Deconstructing Arataland” an exhibition walkthrough and conversation with Michael Arata and Curator Doug Harvey on Sunday, April 10th starting at 1:00pm. At the end of the month on Saturday, April 30th, or Walpurgisnacht (a Northern European pagan renewal ritual), join the gallery for “One Night Stand: Walpurgisnacht” from 7:00 to 10:00pm. Like one of Arata’s famous “One Night Stands” – his series of one-night guerrilla exhibitions held in motel rooms dating to the late 1990s – the evening will center around a hot dog/drawing exchange, whereby guests can create a drawing in exchange for a hot dog in a bun branded with Arata’s signature. A 60-page catalogue, containing a map of Arataland! will also be published in conjunction with the exhibit and will be for sale at the gallery. All Arataland! events are free.

Critics-as-Curators is the inaugural art exhibition series at Beacon Arts. In recognition of the gallery’s first year, esteemed art critics and writers — recognized locally, nationally and internationally — have been invited to conceive and curate shows of their choosing at the Beacon Arts Building in conjunction with discussions, lectures, catalogues, or other ways to reveal the thought process behind why exhibition works are chosen with insight into their importance to the curator. The individual expertise and personal taste developed by the curators’ world-view will be on exhibit throughout Beacon Arts’ first year. Critics-as-Curators strives to enrich appreciation of contemporary fine art by critically engaging in art. This series of shows provides a wonderful opportunity for artists and art audiences to learn what individual critics look for, how they think about the art they choose to focus on, and what catches their eye. The series kicked off in October 2010 with Ghost Stories: Happenings, Hauntings, & Curiosities curated by art writer Shana Nys Dambrot, followed by Peter Frank’s exhibition, Densities: Line Becoming Shape, Shape Becoming Object in December/January.

This Article Originally appeared on Examiner, by Ryan Stabile, LA Nightlife Events Examiner

Mocking Beauty: Artslant, 2011

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Arthur Danto in his essay, Why Does Art Need To Be Explained”/Hegel, Biedermeier, and the Intractably Avant-Garde, proposes that contemporary art no longer has, “viewers”. Instead he speculates the proper description of a viewer would be that of an “encounterer.” According to Danto, a work of art is a moral adventure rather than an aesthetic experience. Danto predicts an artist/audience relationship that is at once carnivalesque and hopeful. Michael Arata’s mid-career survey Arataland! at the Beacon Arts Building and its accompanying essay by Doug Harvey suggests an inventive and humorous life open to change and yet rigid in its defiant stance embracing the relational aesthetics of his time in his own bombastic style. Because Arata has continued to work within the context of relational understanding, a survey show is difficult and at many times feels a bit disjunctive. One thing for sure, the show is never boring, from the gilded sphincter’s of sheep in, Flock to his more recent forays into spiritualism via shit in the series of floating turds entitled Souls, Arataland! entertains as well as it provokes.



Harvey’s essay implies that Arataland! is a place like Disneyland, a parallel reality that operates with its own play of opposites, art history and abusrdism in various forms. In Arata’s world angels spew methane gas and classical urns are cut up and reformed into paper dolls or intersecting diagrams. Arata consistently parses out theoretical shifts in painting, in raw humorous observations that are as uneasy as they are earnest. Arataland! wants to be slick but can’t help itself from slipping on the proverbial banana. For Example, in Arata’s Pet Spacesphotos, Arata re-creates the poses of Victoria’s Secret models as the ideals of feminine beauty, here is the catch, its Arata making the poses in the photographs. In Pet Spaces, Arata absurdly mocks his own masculinity and fascination with the Venus of our time typified by the Victoria’s Secret model. By mocking the model of beauty, Arata’s sexiness itself is nullified, that he chooses to decorate the areas of his own portraits with googly eyes is no wonder. The googly eyed negative “Pet Spaces” are as goofy as they are sad. In Arata’s own objectification he seems to turn the mirror on us. Through him we see desire as spectacle that prods us into such poses in the first place, and makes us all look a little pathetic.






On the fourth floor adjacent to the massive installation Flock, is an inventive activity area, Obstacle Course Activity. The individual sculptural objects in Obstacle Course Activity are meant to be arranged and rearranged by gallery visitors in a game of target practice. There are other audience related activities such as his early work, Secret Messages via Pine Cone. Audience members are invited to inscribe their own messages on the white painted dry scales of a pine cone. The cones are then submerged in water where they close and hide the participants secrets. The fourth floor of the Beacon Arts Building is itself an interesting context for looking at work with its massive concrete columns that evoke the aura of a parking garage or a club. Its an odd juxtaposition and Arata’s work is perhaps best suited to bridge the critical gap between what is meant to be an earnest attempt to present the building itself as a serious space to the greater Los Angeles arts community. The BAB has the same kind of witty intelligence as Arata, with small self-effacing touches such as chipboard wall bases and reclaimed restaurant furniture as community seating near the bathroom. Arataland! the show, encompasses hundreds of objects several floors that are to varying degrees provocative and entertaining. Its a solid show of an artist with an odd yet highly adaptable practice that is as determined as he is prolific.

-Mary Anna Pomonis

Originally published on Artslant

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