Hammer Blog

Featuring Michael Dessen Trio, Vinny Golia Sextet, and the Aram Shelton Quartet




The Hammer Museum’s JazzPOP music series celebrates its seventh year of free outdoor concerts in the Hammer courtyard this September, featuring trailblazing West Coast bandleaders/composers and their collaborators from Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. JazzPOP is once again curated by San Francisco musician Lisa Mezzacappa. Admission is free, all ages.



Michael Dessen Trio
Friday, September 7, 7:30PM

Southern California trombonist, composer, and electronic musician Michael Dessen makes music that expands the sounds and shapes possible within jazz improvisation. Christopher Tordini (bass) and Jason Nazary (drums) are smart and versatile New York players who navigate Dessen’s wildly inventive compositions with personality and conviction, balancing nuance and sensitivity with exuberance and virtuosity.

Vinny Golia Sextet
Friday, September 14, 7:30PM

Composer and multi-reedist Vinny Golia, a hero of Southern California’s improvised music scene, has turned up the volume with

Charles Gaines. Numbers & Trees VI, Landscape, #4, 1989. Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, watercolor, silkscreen, photograph. 46 5/8 x 38 5/8 in. (118.4 x 98.1 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase.

L.A.-based artist Charles Gaines works with various mediums, including photography, drawing, text, and video, relying on existing and invented systems to generate his works. Numbers & Trees VI, Landscape, #4 (1989) is part of a body of work in which Gaines transformed photographic images within a series of prescribed operations. For Manifestos (2008), Gaines wrote musical scores based on the manifestos of four revolutionary groups, including the Black Panther Party. Comprising five musical scores, four large drawings, and a video installation, the epic work is a meditation on social idealism.


Alexis Smith. Town & Country, 2001. Mixed media collage on folding table. 36 3/4 x 28 x 5 1/2 in. (93.3 x 71

Billy and Audrey Wilder

We are saddened to announce the passing of Audrey L. Wilder, beloved wife of the Academy Award-winning Hollywood screenwriter and director Billy Wilder. Opened in 2006 to coincide with the centennial anniversary of his birth, the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum was made possible by a singular gift from Audrey. Designed by Michael Maltzan, the Billy Wilder Theater is home to the museum’s rich calendar of public programs and the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s renowned cinematheque. Her generosity created a remarkable venue for film and spoken word experiences for UCLA students, Angelenos and visitors from around the world.

A longtime resident of Westwood, Audrey believed in the importance of supporting her community and chose to honor Billy’s legacy with the state of the art Theater just blocks from their home. On the occasion of the opening, Audrey said “Billy would have been

ON VIEW AT CAFE HAMMER
REBECA MÉNDEZ
April 26 -May 30, 2012

Eight single channel video works by Rebeca Méndez are on view at Cafe Hammer from April 26 through May 30, 2012. The 50-minute program features works captured on 16mm film in Iceland, the Svalbard archipelago in the High Arctic, the Atacama desert in Chile, and White Sands and Death Valley in the United States.

The works on display are:
Nothing Further Happens, 2011
Never Happened Again – Glaciers 2, 2010; – Kárahnjúkar, 2010; – Eucalyptus, 2010
At Any Given Moment – Grass 2, 2010; – FALL 1, 2010; – RIVER 2, 2010; – GRASS 1, 2009

Rebeca Méndez was born in Mexico City and received her MFA from Art Center College of Design. She is a professor in the department of Design | Media Arts at UCLA. Her work has been shown at ARCO Madrid 29th International

2012 Member Appreciation Days in the Hammer Store - 20% discount for Mother's Day.