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LA's best summer shows include 'Bitch is the New Black' (below) at Honor Fraser, which features a group of LA-based female artists, 'Interiority Complex' at Artist Curated Projects, and a survey of 12 Korean artists at LACMA.

Honor Fraser's annual summer group show has been curaed by Emma Gray and spotlights 14 Los Angeles-based women who are all emerging or established artists from roughly the same generation and are bright lights on the local scene. All share a certain maverick outlook and ballsy attitude that distinguishes them at a time when their male counterparts continue to receive the lion's share of the artworld's attention. ... read more...

The best shows on in the City of Angels include the contents of Agathe Snow's former New York apartment at Peres Projects (below); Rob Pruitt's life-sized portraits at Mary Goldman; Daniel Dove's paintings of contemporary America at Cherry and Martin; and Cathy Ackers' dioramas at Honor Fraser.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue - well, maybe not blue. In the case of Los Angeles-based artist, Anna Sew Hoy, perhaps something shiny and black instead. Sew Hoy, who will show a giant sculpture of an armcast at LAXART on March 15th and will be included in the Orange County Biennial in October 2008, layers meaning into her artwork one personal artifact at a time - Sew Hoy is the first to liken her sculpture-making approach to an ancient bridal ritual. ... read more...

Not to miss in LA this month - the newly opened Broad Contemproary Art Museum, a Valentine date with Fragonard at the Getty, films by Bruce Nauman, an homage to Roman decadence featuring Hedi El Kholti and El Lassry, a debut in LA for Swiss painter Johan Nobell, and the last chance to see Jon Paul Villegas' knock-out show at Lizabeth Oliveria (below).

Never mind the uncharacteristic torrential rain in Los Angeles, the heavy blows LACMA has received (the latest was a raid by federal agents as reported by the LA Times) and recent jittery stock-market dives - the art scene here continues to flower and the vibe with visitors and locals alike at the City of Angels' most cutting edge-art fair, Art LA, was feel-good and quietly excited. Highlights included Miguel Calderon (below) at Kurimanzutto Gallery from Mexico, a fine abstract canvas in Payne'... read more...

Our LA correspondent Emma Gray picks her top 10 shows on in Los Angeles this month including the LA Weekly Annual Biennial presenting over 70 painters, Rosson Crow's exhibition 'Night at the Palomino' featuring her painting of the late Jason Rhoades' Black Pussy lounge (below), debuts in the city for both Karen Liebowitz and Scoli Acosta, and a group show of up-and-coming LA-based artists Dan Bayles, Dorsey Dunn, Brad Eberhard, Max Lesser, Chris Natrop, and Bari Ziperstein. ... read more...

The winner of the November Your Studio competition is Nelson McLeod whose 'hysterical characters', Emma Gray comments, 'are either hosing down the lawn with suspiciously yellow water, or they are like taking a leak! Either way, they look like fuzzy-edged versions of art work by Palm Springs artist Brian Calvin.' The Saatchi Gallery will donate £500 in his name to Children's Hospice Care,
Chestnut Tree House, West Sussex, England. ... read more...

For multi-media artist Jen Liu, the narrative process is a playground - the place to grapple with issues both disposable and deadly serious: environmentalism and hair metal, religious fanaticism and abdominal exercise. In the artist's digital films and paintings, all of it gets diced and inter-layered, making Liu a kind of art world Mary Poppins, doling out spoonfuls of hysterical sugary pop ideas onto a background of spirituality and ritual. The work exists as a visceral mash-up. ... read more...

On view in LA this month are new works by cult artist Slater Bradley, a Murakami retrospective with, controversially, a fully functioning Louis Vuitton store within the exhibition, a new neon text piece by Glenn Ligon, Jen Liu's exploration of the Brethren of the Stone, paintings by Kim Dorland, Nicole Eisenman and Kim Dingle (below) and a chance to unwind at James Turell's new skyspace at Pomona College. ... read more...

The winner of the October Your Studio competition is Jean-Pierre Chevassus-Agnes. Ana Finel Honigman, the judge of this month's competition, comments, 'With sparse lines, muted colours and only the allusion of texture, French artist CHEVASSUS-AGNES creates characters with the charm and chic of Godard's distinctly Parisian protagonists. His pared-down portraits have personality and emanate elegance.' The Saatchi Gallery will donate £500 in his name to a children's hospital in England, as per his... read more...

Not to be missed in LA this month - Ruben Ochoa continues his urban ode to freeways, Jessica Stockholder finds a provocative tension in everyday detritus, MOCA offers another chance to see the Whitney's Gordon Matta-Clark retrospective, Belgian artist Cris Brodahl shows her religious and sexual paintings (below), and Dash Snow continues to stir things up with his gloriously titled show, 'God Spoiled a Perfect Asshole When He Put Teeth in Your Mouth'. ... read more...

If you had to pin down LA-based artist Kristin Calabrese in terms laid out by the epidemiology classic The Tipping Point, she'd certainly qualify as a connector - a social pivot point between curators and dealers, brand-name artists and up-and-comers. Describing herself simply as someone who "likes to be part of things," Calabrese is, tellingly, an ENFP type according to the Myers-Briggs personality test, which may explain why she understands her rarefied position as a kind of social aggregator,... read more...

It was Cicero who declared:" "Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better." As if defying the Roman orator's existentialist call, in the 1970s, three women from different parts of America began personal odysseys with their art practices. Lynn Hershman (below), Eleanor Antin and Suzy Lake initiated three separate artistic journeys at a pivotal moment for Wo... read more...

A summer of strong group exhibitions in LA, featuring Brad Eberhard, Eddie Martinez, Euan Macdonald, Kirsten Stoltmann, Amir H Fallah, Roman Wolgin, David Hammons, Cristi Pogacean. Plus stand-out shows by David Korty, Charles Gaines and Chris Ballantyne (below).

Even in the flat-screened passageways of cyberspace, there is something about Jeffrey Porterfield's sculptures that actively engages the imagination to roam in and out of the negative spaces that each piece lays down. Perhaps it is the powerful mix of a surfer's laid back touch and an ability to comprehend the rigors of an ordered universe that Porterfield's work seems to tiptoe along, that beckoned me in for a second look. ... read more...

LAXART and Uber.com have launched a new online project bringing together artists and writers. Each month an artist will design an Uber page as a studio/gallery/personal profile. After visiting the artist's page a chosen writer will contribute a piece of critical commentary that describes the work, raises questions about its implications and sets it within a new frame of reference. If you would like to take part, add your views and show your own work, click on www.uber.com/art. ... read more...