Polemically Small is an ambitious and expansive exhibition of small works curated by the acclaimed British art writer, historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith, spanning two Los Angeles area venues—GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY in Beverly Hills (opening May 21) and the Torrance Art Museum (opening May 28).

This monumental undertaking by a single commercial gallery and a civic museum, together features close to 200 works by artists from the UK, USA, Germany, Russia, Italy and Spain. Polemically Smallat GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY is curated by Lucie-Smith in association with London-based The Future Can Wait. The companion exhibition at the Torrance Art Museum is curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill and Simon Rumley. Polemically Small is the first major curatorial undertaking by Lucie-Smith in North America and remains on view at both venues until June 25, 2011.

Finding the wall space for an encyclopedic survey of the international avant-garde, even if the works are small, is an undertaking in itself—but locating and delivering the work is another story entirely. In fact, the London-based Lucie-Smith went as far as to literally hand-pick and transport some of the works from Berlin himself—such extreme measures however are to be expected from a tireless advocate for contemporary art. The author of more than a hundred books total, and more than sixty books about art, Lucie-Smith is regarded as one of the most prolific and widely published writers on art today.

These exhibitions are meant to do two rather ambitious things within a physically small space. First, to suggest that contemporary art is changing rather faster than usual. An important part of this change is the rebellion against huge size. Artists are making small work not because they are forced to (though in some cases that is increasingly true), but because they actually want to – because small art, in current conditions, is actually cutting edge, and delivers a new and dissident message. “Look at me in a different way,” it says. Secondly, linked to this, the show invites visitors to explore, on their own terms, how this different way of looking functions, and what it may possibly deliver.”