Tom Teicholz

Last June, when I interviewed Melissa Barak, the former dancer, choreographer, founder of Barak Ballet, who is now the artistic director of Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) she spoke of her belief that LAB could distinguish itself and catalyze the audience for dance in Los Angeles with new works, in much the same way the Los Angeles Philharmonic has done for classical music. Memoryhouse, her first full-evening ballet which she premiered then (and which I wrote about here), made a strong case for the ...

Nora Gold, the prize-winning Canadian author of novels and short stories and the founder and editor-in-chief of JewishFiction.net, has just published what Vegas aficionados call a twofer – that is two for the price of one, in this case two novellas, In Sickness and In Health, and Yom Kippur in a Gym in one volume (Guernica Editions).
At first glance, the novellas could not seem more different. In Sickness and In Health is the account of a few days in the life of a college professor who is suf...

The recently renovated Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica has an attractive circular bar in the lobby, a steakhouse and music venue in the basement, and a gallery in the back of the main floor, Gallery 33, which the night I visited last week, was holding an interesting exhibition devoted to Anais Nin, with artifacts, artworks, letters, portraits and personal belongings from Nin, or about her (such as paintings Henry Miller made for her) as well all as artworks inspired by contemporary artists ins...

The recently renovated Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica has an attractive circular bar in the lobby, a steakhouse and music venue in the basement, and a gallery in the back of the main floor, Gallery 33, which the night I visited last week, was holding an interesting exhibition devoted to Anais Nin, with artifacts, artworks, letters, portraits and personal belongings from Nin, or about her (such as paintings Henry Miller made for her) as well all as artworks inspired by contemporary artists ins...

There must be something in the water in Lubbock, Texas, to produce songwriters, musicians and artists such as Buddy Holly, Mac Davis, and the singer-songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen, whose artwork was featured at LA Louver’s booth at Frieze LA and who gave two performances during Frieze Week at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Allen performed with his band, The Panhandle Mystery Band, which featured not only his son, but also Charlie Sexton (who I’ve seen backing B...

Frieze Los Angeles, the contemporary art fair, was launched in 2019. This year’s fifth edition, held in Santa Monica, featured more than 100 exhibitors, from the international gallery multiplexes (Gagosian, Pace, Hauser & Wirth, Zwirner) to local single galleries from New York, LA, Paris, Milan, and other art-collecting friendly destinations.

Frieze itself was a four-day event, from February 29-March 3, but it is really just the eye of the art storm that passed over Los Angeles. For more than...

Steve McCurry, a Magnum photographer best known for his striking images from the world’s remote places and conflict zones, most notably his portrait of an Afghan girl with piercing green eyes, has gathered decades of work in both a new book, Devotion from Prestel, and in an exhibition, Endless Traveler, at Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, CA (on view until April 27th).
McCurry, was born in 1950, in Philadelphia PA. It was just a few years after graduating the College of Arts and Archi...

If all you knew of the Art world was art fairs such as Art Basel or the upcoming Frieze LA, or the crowds at the Met in New York, or The Broad in LA for a blockbuster show, you would imagine the art world is awash in support, and that there are hordes of young collectors eager to fill the boards of art institutions.
However, Scott Stover, a former international investment banker who is today one of the foremost strategic advisors in the art and philanthropy space, and host of the podcast, “Gi...

“LA deserves to have a remarkable dance company that's representative of this community,” Tina Finkelman Berkett, co-founder and artistic director of Los Angeles-based dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC, told me.
BODYTRAFFIC is a 17-year-old dance company based in Los Angeles that will be performing at the Audrey Irmas Pavillon performance space at Wilshire Boulevard Temple (3643 Wilshire Blvd) on February 29 with a program, “In Pursuit of Love” that features three pieces, Love. Lost. Fly by Micaela Ta...

Has someone at NPR been reading my posts and reviews of the wonderful Polish singer, keyboard sensation and performer Hania Rani? Could be.
This week Hania Rani turned up on NPR’s Tiny Desk stage to perform three songs, accompanied by upright bassist and synth player Ziemowit Klimek, as she was on her recent US tour dates.
Rani opened with Ghosts, the title song from her new album 0n Gondwana Records, which features her soft yet lilting English-language vocals, in which she is becoming more a...

Once upon a time in Journalism, when you got to the end of writing a story, you typed -30-. That meant it was finished. Over. Done. This was a year when we wrote -30- on the story of many great lives – as we do every year.
Some of this year’s losses were people of historic, cultural, and political importance such as Harry Belafonte. Henry Kissinger, Normal Lear.
I don’t have to tell you who these people were (just google them if you don’t know) but let me share what the very mention of their ...

Janet Sternburg, the accomplished poet, producer, memoirist, and photographer, recently moved permanently to Mexico after 25 years of intermittent visits and stays.

Sternburg’s artistic practice as a photographer began by taking images from disposable film cameras, and over time migrated to digital – but the tenets of her work have been remarkably consistent: She wanders and waits until something catches her eye, often a juxtaposition of items, or a multiplicity of images caught in a window’s...

Lately, having MORE, and displaying MORE has gotten a bad rap.
We live in a time of great income inequality and are suffering the results of decades (if not centuries) of conspicuous consumerist consumption, overspending, and of just having too much stuff (as Marie Kondo would be glad to tell you).
But I want to talk about another type of MORE, an aesthetic that celebrates not just the hunt for the right object but also its display, in conversation with more and more equally unique items. Thi...

Volante
Tom Teicholz heads to Georgia’s second city, where he finds familiarity and wonderful hospitality—topped by the extravagant supra feast
Photographed by the author
Above, from top: Downtown Batumi. Batumi’s changing skyline. Historical façades preserved in the city. The White House, a large synagogue in this multicultural city.
We’ve seen too many weeks of heartbreaking and emotionally exhausting world events. For a refreshing counterpoint, join us on an armchair voyage to Batumi, a re...

Groundswell: Women of Land Art is a milestone exhibition that just opened at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, and that reassesses and reasserts the importance of a coterie of women in the art historical narrative of works that have been labelled as conceptual, environmental, sculptural, and even as performance.
As both the introductory essay by Jeremy Strick, Director of the Nasher (who some of my readers may recall from his tenure at MOCA in LA) and the foreword by Nasher Associ...