An unconventional Father’s Day: Artist Karl Haendel’s questions for his dad

Not sure what to do with your father this Sunday? Not sure how you feel about fatherhood, period? Head on over to Suzanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects in Culver City for the Karl Haendel show titled Informal Family Blackmail. Our art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp says it’s a thought-provoking look at masculinity and its discontents. She calls the LA-based artist (who is apparently estranged from his own father) an “accomplished draftsman.”

There’s more to it than drawings. One of the four galleries features a provocative video, “Questions for My Father“, in which, Hunter writes, “A

number of men including Haendel, all appearing to be in their 30s, ask disturbing, funny and moving questions such as ‘Are you embarrassed about your bald spot?’ ‘Did you ever think about going out for a pack of cigarettes and not coming back?’ ‘Why are you so sure I will never meet your expectations?’ Others are frankly sexual but the most moving ones are simple: ‘Do you have any regrets?’ The absent father has no answers.”

Read Hunter’s full take on the show (with more photos) here.