This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists
This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists surveys an array of world-renowned artists and one indispensable assistant—the Los Angeles-based artist, sign painter, and fabricator Norm Laich. The exhibition will consist of paintings and graphic installations fabricated by Laich over the past three decades. Laich has been a key contributor to the production of many iconic works by a range of artists including Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Allen Ruppersberg, and Jenny Holzer, among many others.
The selected works included in the exhibition range from signage, wall paintings, and individual canvases to large-scale installations. This Brush For Hire will also include two major installations: Mike Kelley’s Proposal for the Decoration of an Island of Conference Rooms (with Copy Room) for an Advertising Agency Designed by Frank Gehry (1991–92)—which has not been presented since 1992—and a new, site-specific work by Arturo Herrera in the Courtyard.
A short film on the life and work of Norm Laich will be on view in the exhibition. Directed and produced by Los Angeles filmmaker Pauline Stella Sanchez, the film provides an intimate glance at Laich’s work and friendships with a number of local and national artists. Featured in the film will be short interviews conducted by Cranston with Laich, John Baldessari, Stephen Prina, Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Kruger, Alexis Smith, Gary Simmons, and more.
Co-Curators: Meg Cranston and John Baldessari.
This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists is made possible thanks to generous support from John Baldessari, Sigrid Burton and Max Brennan, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, Karen and Stephen Hillenburg, Kristin Hopfenbeck and Cary Jones, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Pasadena Art Alliance, and Patricia A. Quick Charitable Trust.
Media sponsorship is provided by 89.9 FM KCRW and Artillery.
John Baldessari (b. 1931, National City, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles)
John Boskovich (b.1956, Los Angeles; d. 2006, Los Angeles)
Karen Carson (b. 1943, Corvallis, OR; lives and works in Venice, CA and Big Timber, MT)
Center for Land Use Interpretation (founded in 1994, Los Angeles)
Meg Cranston (b.1960, Baldwin, NY; lives and works in Venice, CA)
Kim Fisher (b. 1973, Hackensack, NJ; lives and works in Los Angeles)
Scott Grieger (b. 1946, Biloxi, MS; lives and works in Venice, CA)
Arturo Herrera (b. 1959, Caracas, Venezuela; lives and works in New York and Berlin)
Mike Kelley (b. 1954, Wayne, MI; d. 2012, South Pasadena, CA)
Barbara Kruger (b. 1945, Newark, NJ; lives and works in New York and Los Angeles)
Norm Laich (b. 1955, Detroit, MI; lives and work in Los Angeles, CA)
Daniel Joseph Martinez (b. 1957, Los Angeles; lives and works in Los Angeles)
Renée Petropoulos (b. Los Angeles; lives and works in Venice, CA)
Amanda Ross-Ho (b. 1975, Chicago; lives and works in Los Angeles)
Stephen Prina (b. 1954, Galesburg, IL; lives and works in Los Angeles and Cambridge, MA)
Kay Rosen (b. 1943, Corpus Christi, TX; lives and works in Gary, IN)
Alexis Smith (b. 1949, Los Angeles; lives and works in Los Angeles)
Lawrence Weiner (b. 1942, Bronx, NY; lives and works in New York)
Artists Norm Laich and Meg Cranston discuss the exhibition This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists co-curated by Cranston and John Baldessari. Moderator: Asuka Hisa, Director of Learning and Engagement, ICA LA
A film directed and produced by Pauline Stella Sanchez
Executive Producers
John Baldessari
Meg Cranston
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles