Pharmaka is Cool - so help them out

One of the galleries that spearheaded the burgeoning (perhaps it's beyond burgeoning?) arts district in Downtown LA is Pharmaka, which opened its doors in 2005 with a mission very different from the typical commercial gallery: to "actively pursue an intellectual and verbal dialogue with painting and its place in history and today's society."

Basically, the founders, who are painters and dealers themselves, wanted a venue to show paintings that challenge the "superficial, market-driven cacophony that has displaced real critique," extending from their belief "in the power of painting as a visual and emotional language, a language that has existed and flourished for millennia, serving a myriad of social, political, religious, and even mystical purposes." Wow!

They actually curate shows with purpose, much like a museum does, but in more of a gallery setting. You can read more about their mission here, but suffice to say it's SO REFRESHING to check out gallery shows that are actually addressing an issue and showing works to reflect that (rather than, as its web site states, galleries that emphasize "shooting stars and signature styles").

Pharmaka is indeed a non-profit organization, which means it needs the help of art lovers like you! Click here to become a member now. Better yet, pay Pharmaka a visit. It's a gorgeous space with a great show right now, "Dear Mr. Saltz," and you can mosey down to Pete's for a drink afterwards.

Downtown LA Artwalk

So if you peeps have yet to explore the spate of new-ish galleries that have sprung up along Main and Broadway in Downtown LA (at least a couple dozen of them - just look at 'em all!), get off your keester and head down there! Not that you should wait a whole month to go, but a really great time to check out the scene is the 2nd Thursday Art Walk (happened last night). Eric and I went last night, and it's such a refreshing atmosphere - if you squint, you might convince yourself you're in New York, with all the great old architecture that can be so hard to find 'round here. There are such gorgeous old buildings down there, some restored, some in dire need of restoration, and the galleries are just a cauldron of interesting shows by some really fantastic artists.

More on that in the next entry. Plan now, the next one is Thurs., June 14.

I hear ya, Pig, I hear ya

Andy Haynes at The Venice Contemporary

Jeesh, it's taken me all week to write about last weekend's openings! My last entry is from our last gallery of the evening, The Venice Contemporary. Yet another new gallery for me, it's part art gallery, part uber-hipster party spot. We actually saw Ryan Gosling there. It's heartening to see an opening full of young-ish people, and a lot of them were actually in the gallery, not on the back patio where they could be smoking and listening to the band.

Of course, there was a great reason to linger in the gallery - it's full of really great works by a bunch of emerging artists who are up to their eyeballs in talent. The show features work by four artists, and you can read all about them here, but the one I really clicked with was Andy Haynes.

Just a wee lad of 25 years old, Haynes already shows a technical skill that I expect to see in much more experienced artists. His figures live in hazy dreamscapes that are at once creepy and beautiful, mysterious and whimsical. This image, Skipping Stones, is a great example. A girl, wearing a horned hood, standing beneath a stormy sky and at the edge of an ominous body of water, holds a book whose tattered pages transform into moths that fly through her windowed body. Cool! I love Haynes' work, and can't wait to see what lies ahead in his artistic career.

Matt Adrian's work

More on Matt Adrian's work (kinda sorta started in the post below). There's perhaps no better work to be a part of an LA billboard project - Adrian's depiction of cars wildly flying off the highway is an excellent depiction of what many motorists must fantasize about on a daily basis. The works are a bit dark but also a little cheeky, painted in bright, chipper colors (love the bubble gum pink train!), and with their fair share of whimsy. No LA smog to be found in that bright blue sky! Even their titles carry a certain mirth - this one is entitled "Cancel my 4:30." He also has a great series of bird paintings. These portraits of the wee creatures are really engaging, and also have that tinge of humor. I love this one, "I'm West Nile Positive."

Billboard Art at Eco-Logical Art

So, back to last Saturday's gallery bonanza. We hit the opening for a very cool show and concept at Eco-Logical Art, a gallery I'd never heard of until I met Matt Adrian through Etsy. He and his girlfriend, Kim Bagwill, are two of many artists who participated in OFF THE WALL 3, which is, in the words of the gallery, a "unique indoor/outdoor experiment in renewable imagery." Essentially, the artists' paintings were printed on recycled billboard vinyl, and these billboards can now be seen all over Los Angeles. You can see one of the billboards, actually sitting atop the gallery, in the image above. That's Kim's piece on the far right. Click here to read her great blog about her own process in this project.

I love this concept! Not only does it get out into the public - even better, along highways, where too many Angelenos spend too much art-deprived time - it's recycling used materials, and the art is very cool, to boot.

Maritta Tapanainen at Couturier

I had a gallery trifecta this weekend - three openings, three GREAT shows. I was a kid in a candy store (aside from the driving-all-over-LA part. Oy.). I'll start with the Maritta Tapanainen show at Couturier Gallery.

Somehow, this was my first time to Couturier. I'm familiar with their work, mostly from their booth at the LA Art Show. They always have some wonderful pieces by Jorge Marin, an incredible sculptor from Mexico. His figurative bronze works are so poetic and beautiful.

But on this night, the featured artist was Maritta Tapanainen, a collage artist (*over simplification alert*) from Finland. I'd seen her work on the gallery's web site and just had to see it in person. Tapanainen works in hazy, dreamy black, white, gray and earthy tones, meticulously piecing together, in her words, "extractions cut-out from plant forms, microbes, organs, and obscure mechanical objects." A viewer can easily get lost in her work, staring at a single piece and deciphering what each little component could possibly be. This work Kutsu, from 1999, is a perfect example: somehow at once organic and mechanical, and altogether hypnotic. The show is up through May 26.

More to come on the other two shows...

Shooting at the Korakia

Have I mentioned how much I love the Korakia Pensione in Palm Springs? Eric and I stayed there during our honeymoon and recently returned for our third anniversary. It's so tranquil, situated at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. It's dreamy for photography, lots of earthy colors and weathered, rustic architecture. And oh that desert light! Fabulous. This fountain shot is one of the new ones at my Etsy site.

Steven Janssen in Palm Springs

We had kind of a crazy weekend in Palm Springs - what was originally going to be a quiet get-away to celebrate our third anniversary turned into going out en masse (in a limo!?) with our friends who also happened to be there. I'm so glad, because we actually made it to a cool art opening at Steven Janssen gallery, and the opening was for Steven's own work. It's cool stuff, colorful and energetic, totally abstract. The friends we were with own some of his work so they were like kids in a post-modern candy store.

The works I really loved aren't on his site, though many other great works are, like this one, "Mantrap". In the ones I was really drawn to, he used enamel paints to create big, smooth, round vibrant bulbs of color, layered over an acrylic painted background. They were really lovely in a sort of organic way.

Must give a shout out to one of our all time favorite hotels, the Korakia. Even though it appears to no longer be a secret (lots of poolside peeps there!), it's still one of the most peaceful and beautifully designed places we've stayed. We even got the same room we had for honeymoon. Ooh la la.

DUMPR: Your Own Museum Show

Now you, too, can see how your artwork looks in a Museum, thanks to the clever folks at DUMPR!

David Hockney at LA Louver

David Hockney - The East Yorkshire Landscape

I'm a little late writing about this show, since it closes today, but better late than never, right? It's David Hockney's "East Yorkshire Landscapes," and in case you happen to read this before 5pm today, head over to Venice to check it out! I'm so glad the gallery has such great installation shots on its web site, because it really helps show the scale of these works, plus the power of those blood red walls against Hockney's palette of colors, which are all over the place.

There are obvious connections to make with these pieces - particularly Cezanne's French countryside paintings, Monet's water lillies, and Seurat's frenzied pointilism. But these new works of Hockney's stand proudly on their own, mixing his typical brilliant color combinations with a comfy, easy-going British village sensibility. You can feel the change of seasons as you walk from work to work...you can almost feel the spring breeze in "Woldgate Woods, March 30 - April 21," and view the elongated shadows of the autumn trees in "Woldgate Woods, 6 & 9 November 2006." Even though they harken to the aforementioned 19th century masters, they have their own modernist bent. And did I mention I love the colors??

The works are HUGE - many made of six panels each and hung to symetrical perfection to create a cohesive landscape (kudos to whoever had the unlucky job of installing these works). And LA Louver's main gallery was perfect for the big works - it felt more like a garden than a room, save for those lipstick-red walls.

Featured on Jack and Jill Blog

A big thanks to Robyn over at Jack and Jill Design for blogging about Ernest and my other pics! She also has some great info for mommies seeking cool baby products.

Wall Batterton at Pharmaka

Seems like for every gallery in LA I've visited, there are 2 more that I haven't! I finally checked out the burgeoning "Gallery Row" in Downtown LA, and there are some very cool things going on down there, especially at Pharmaka Art. The current exhibition is work by Wall Batterton. Better-known in the early '70s, Batterton is still working on his frenetic, abstract works, and his old buddy Ed Ruscha curated a great show from his early work to the present.

Batterton's story is fascinating, and a little heartbreaking. In the '60s and early '70s, he worked with aluminum paints and auto lacquer (as with this work here). While he achieved a brilliant sheen and texture not possible with regular paints, it made him very, VERY sick. He was so full of toxins and so ill, he didn't paint for ten years. Of course that is ten lifetimes in the art world, and he was pretty much forgotten about during that time. This show is a great opportunity to see the work of an artist who should be better recognized for his contribution to the LA art scene.

While on Pharmaka's site, read more about their history and mission. It's a gallery, but it's also a non-profit institution, with a mission to show truly great art - and protest the superficial and market-driven cacophony that has displaced real critique.

Ernest Finds a Tree Stump

A comfy tree stump awaited Ernest on his morning walk to the pond. Ernest loves nothing more than soaking up some rays on a well-worn tree stump! Click here to view more adventures with Ernest.

Damien Hirst at Gagosian

Anyone with even a vague interest in LA art already knows about this show, but after seeing it in person, post I must! It's the Damien Hirst exhibition "Superstition," at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. I really wish the gallery would post some photos of the installation, because it is just impossible to convey the whallop it packs upon entering.

Hirst's new works are enormous and beautiful - at first glance they appear to be stained glass windows, brightly lit from behind. In reality, they are incredible labyrinths of butterflies - some whole, some in parts - arrayed in truly amazing symmetrical designs. The obvious inference of church windows, some a la Notre Dame's round rose windows, others with gothic-esque peaks, convey an almost memorial-like symbolism to the dead creatures.

I know some folks are really disturbed by the use of these deceased creatures, however beautiful they might be. I'd like to naively believe that Hirst didn't actually kill, or have killed, butterflies in the making of these works, but I don't know the truth, and I'd rather not know. Their beauty is so stunning, I'd like to just think of them as a beautiful post-mortem to the fleeting lives of these little critters.

Ernest Visits the Clovers

The adventures of Ernest recently led him to a field of clovers, inspired by the spring-like weather and the impending visit of his Leprachaun cousins. His hunt for the four-leaf variety continues....

Aaron Petersen - my current obsession

There's an artist rep'd at Ruth Bachofner Gallery in Santa Monica named Aaron Petersen. I've loved his work ever since his solo show there last year, but his new works really blow me away! While his earlier pieces had a earthy, muted and mellow feeling, these new works are so sensual and organic.

This triptych, "Metro," is so beautiful, like a red hot sky full of melting balloons and leaking clouds. It looks like how a dark, smoky jazz bar sounds.

Featured artist at Dandilion Designs!

The lovely Wren over at Dandilion Designs has kindly featured my Etsy store on her blog. I just love it that she's such a fan of Ernest - he feels quite honored! Check out her great blog and give her your comments!

Frostig Collection

Last week we went to a cool little event at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica. It was the unveiling of the 2007 Frostig Collection, an ingenious concept developed by parents of children at the Frostig Center, a school for children with learning disabilities in Pasadena, California. The annual collection features a series of sculptures and works on paper by some of well-known artists, some of whom happen to be my personal favorites. A limited number of works are produced and sold, with sales benefiting the school. This lithograph by Charles Arnoldi is in this year's collection, available for $1,200 (or $5,000 for the collection of four lithos and one woodcut created for this year's series). I LOVE this fundraising concept!

Make Your Own Pollock!

Got a minute and need to have a quick creative outlet? Check out this nifty online gizmo by Miltos Manetas: jacksonpollock.org. Turn up some jazz music and go nuts with the paints. Left click for color! Now go create your own Jackson Pollock.