X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly is an independent visual arts journal that focuses on criticism and conversation about contemporary art. X-TRA was founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by artists Stephen Berens and Ellen Birrell and is published quarterly by the non-profit Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism. The magazine is the longest running art publication in Los Angeles. X-TRA journal publishes features, reviews, columns, interviews, and artist projects. The artist-driven magazine produces exclusive online content and public programs in addition to its print publication. X-TRA’s audience includes a broad range of practicing artists, art curators, art dealers, critics and writers, the general art audience, and students.
History
1990's–1997: Early years and first publication
In Los Angeles in the late '90s, friends and artists Stephen Berens and Ellen Birrell formed Project X, an art curatorial collective. To accompany each exhibition organized by Project X, the group printed newsprint exhibition catalogs that documented the exhibitions and included additional essays and images of interest. Noticing the lack of lasting art publications in Los Angeles and limited sources of art criticism outside of the mainstream, Berens and Birrell evolved the scope of Project X to include X-TRA, a publication intended to diversify and broaden the dialogue around contemporary art in LA. Berens and Birrell published the first issue of X-TRA in spring of 1997 with co-founders Jan Tümlir and Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié. From its initiation, X-TRA has worked collaboratively through an editorial board of volunteer artists and writers.
According to Birrell, the magazine's unique spelling of "extra" stems from an idea of only publishing "an issue when had a great piece of writing to run, that it would be an extra edition to a publication that didn’t otherwise exist."
Executive Editors
Elizabeth Pulsinelli
Founding editors: Stephen Berens, Ellen Birrell, and Jan Tümlir
Events
X-TRA hosts a range of events, supplementing the journal with programming to enhance community building. Some examples include:
Andrea Fraser lecture at ICA LA, a commissioned lecture in combination with Fraser's essay, “Toward a Reflexive Resistance," in X-TRA. The program was part of X-TRA’s Artist Writes series. March 11, 2018.
Pope.L Reading at The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, a reading of Pope.L's commissioned essay for X-TRA, “The Cypress," as a part of X-TRA’s Artist Writes series. August 9, 2019.
Chinese Cocktail, a concert by Robert Wilhite at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre as part of the Performance and Public Art Festival organized by the Getty Foundation and LAXART. January 24, 2012
"Kitchen Table", reprise, a re-imagining of the series of conversations organized by Eugenia P. Butler in 1993 at the ART/LA art fair. Situated within the College Art Association Conference at the same LA Convention Center that was the site for the ’93 talks, these talks brought together a group of cultural thinkers—primarily artists—seated around a table over lunch to speak freely about art, politics, and whatever come to the fore. February 22–24, 2012.
X-TRA has staged five 1 IMAGE 1 MINUTE events, most recently at the LA Art Book Fair in 2015. Based on the artist Agnès Varda's series for French television in which members of the art community were invited on stage to speak for one minute about an image of their choosing. This event references a column of the same name, conceived by Micol Hebron, which ran in X-TRA from 2006 to 2010.
