I have to make a confession. Despite living in New York for the majority of my life and my total love and appreciation for art, I (embarrassingly) had never heard of The Museum of Arts and Design up until a few weeks ago. Naturally, I was quite eager to check it out and attend the Mad Metal Ball Young Patrons Gala there on Monday night. (Sidenote: talk about a night of seriously good people watching. Everyone from Moby to Karen O to Joe Manganiello. Anyway, I digress.)
If you’ve spend most of your days behind the viewpoint of a camera lense, you’ve probably heard of Lomography Gallery Store. It’s a snazzy two-story camera/accessory store meets photo gallery that overlooks the bustling Santa Monica Boulevard.
For those that are not camera privy, the lomography movement is centered around the use of Lomo cameras and the idea of approaching photography with an emphasis on more casual and spontaneous snapshots, from a closer range. The concept is governed by “The 10 rules,” which are inscribed on a wall within the Lomography Gallery Store:
This past Saturday, the preeminent pop-artist Ron English had an amazing viewing of his retrospective “Status Factory” exhibition at the spacious, 3-floor Opera Gallery in Soho, NYC. Whenever the term “Pop Art” is brought up, people’s minds inevitably go to Andy Warhol, the Pittsburgh-born, NYC icon who initiated the movement. But in present times, it’s impossible to find a pop artist with a body of work more influential, wide-reaching, and thought provoking than the dazzling paintings, screen prints and sculptures Mr. English has been cranking out since the ‘80s.
Even with this crazy recession, there is no way around the fact that real estate is expensive in Los Angeles. What if you could purchase a brand new home for $12, decorate it the way you want to, and place it in whatever LA county community your fancy? Would that resolve your house hunting woes?
The British Theater Company made this daydream a reality when they brought the Home Sweet Home concept to the Skirball Cultural Center. Over a ten day period, visitors banded together to create a cardboard City of Angels complete with homes, stores, bridges, billboards, zoos, farms, skateboard parks, circus tents, Capitol Records Tower, Disney Concert Hall…you name it.
The Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in NYC might not be your first stop. In a city so full of art and culture, museums and galleries galore, it might not even be your second stop. But I can honestly say, it should at least make the list. The current exhibit, Dead of Alive: Nature Becomes Art is captivating. It’s a collection of work “from 30 international artists who transform organic materials and objects that were once produced by or part of living organisms-insects, feathers, bones, silkworm cocoons, plant materials, and hair-to create intricately crafted and designed installations and sculptures”. Whether you are a fan of organic materials or not it will win you over.
Brian Viveros is a celebrated fetish artist, known mainly for his erotic paintings of smokey eyed pin-up girls with cigarettes dangling from their overly red lips. His recent show, The Dirtyland just opened this past weekend at Thinkspace Gallery . With images of strong women in situations of war and struggle, one would think the show might come off dark. On the contrary, it doesn’t position woman as victim, but fearless, seductive and entirely bad ass.
Saturday night, the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles was bustling. I passed by a plethora of shabu-shabu restaurants, bars, and boba tea joints and made my way into Hold Up Art to see the BUA Pops exhibit. Urban Art legend Justin Bua joined fans to proudly show off his collection on its opening night. I walked around the gallery for a bit and took in Justin’s masterpieces. He had a variety of work on display, some revealing city skylines, while others featured musicians, DJs, and other interesting urbanites. People were loving his art and after a gallery employee explained to me that the paintings with the red dots on the tag meant that they were sold, I took inventory and noticed that many purchases were being made. While Justin mingled with fans and autographed his original pieces, one of his friends ran around with a Macbook signing people into their Facebook pages and having them “Like” Justin’s page which really wasn’t a bad idea as far as a grassroots marketing campaign goes.
Gummi Bears are fantastic! They are colorful, delicious, and have that rubbery mouth-pleasing texture. They are the perfect snack to eat at the movie theater or to keep in your office desk drawer. They are timeless and loved by all generations. They are fun to eat. You can bite off their heads or shove the whole thing into your mouth. They are a favorite guilty pleasure of many. For artist Ya Ya Chou, they are the building blocks for fabulous pieces of art. Chow is a Taiwanese-born artist who moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to study Experimental Animation. After earning a reputation in the filmmaking world, her interests spun in the direction of sculptures and installation. Her work has led her in a variety of directions, most recently the Gummi Bear Series, which explores the relationship between food consumption and class. After seeing pictures of her impressive gummi bear chandeliers, I had some burning questions about all things gummi bears.
Growing up a punk rock girl I was always on the look out for the ultimate rock n roll accoutrement. As a fully grown punk rock girl, it gets a little harder to find appropriate accessories that still say “I’m edgy but won’t shop at Hot Topic”. Enter Good Art Hlywd! Founder Josh Warner creates handcrafted American masterpieces in Los Angeles one fine design at a time.
This brand is authentic Americana to the core. Admired equally for the perfection of the Spanish Cross, the elegant hand-assembled chains and the venerable Model 10 Bracelet, this is communication on a visceral level. Every facet of the line is steeped in Warner’s spare-no-expense attitude of “do it right or not at all”.
It’s really not possible to explore Jessica Lichtenstein’s work and not be strangely intrigued. Her art involves scantly clad Japanese anime women placed into an array of eccentric situations. She has one piece in particular that I couldn’t take my eyes off of, featuring partially naked lady friends, some with blue and purple hair, all chained together and attached to the wrist of a giant black robot looking figurine. Jessica’s an artist, with a definite attribute of distinctive flair. Her work speaks for itself- it’s dirty, it’s sexy, it’s fetish-forward.
