Inglewood Open Studios: Artists drawn to evolving community

When the annual Inglewood Open Studios kicks off Nov. 12 with drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and more, fans of art and design will find much to appreciate beyond the city's side-by-side Schindler houses.

Can the city finally get beyond Dr. Dre rapping in "California Love" 16 years ago that Inglewood is "always up to no good"? It's about time people drop the negative image, said MonaLisa Whitaker, executive director of Inglewood Cultural Arts, a nonprofit organization that fosters interdisciplinary arts programs.

"Inglewood has challenges like any city," she said. "It just seems there's always a tendency to highlight the negative rather than positive things that happen here."

One of those positives: the number of artists moving into the community in search of large, loft-like spaces and cheaper rent. Otis College of Art and Design graduate Renee Fox moved here about five years ago from Hollywood with her husband, sculptor and painter Kenneth Ober. Shortly thereafter, Fox and a few local artists organized the first open studios tour for family and friends.

"There were six artists that first year," Fox said. "This year we have more than 30."

Vintage European Posters plans sale in Santa Monica

Few things proclaim one's weakness for midcentury modern design as succinctly as a vintage furniture poster. (I should know: I bought one illustrating classic Danish chairs as a souvenir from a trip to Copenhagen.) Finding such works of advertising art, however, can be a bit of a treasure hunt -- a hunt made easier with the "trunk show" held in November every year by Berkeley-based Vintage European Posters. This year Vintage European Posters' trunk sale is Nov. 12 and 13 at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Admission is free.

The company, which specializes in product, exhibition and travel posters from 1880 to 1970 (with a few late 20th century pieces) sells its wares online but also participates in shows such as Dwell on Design. The selection includes the anonymously designed "Ameublement" ("Furnishings"), above, printed in France around 1965. It is a linen-backed period original, not a contemporary reproduction, available for $1,650 -- on the high side of the company's authentic offerings, which start as low as $220.

Other finds: Graphic prints designed for the General Dynamics corporation by Erik Nitsche in 1955 with text in multiple languages, and a stash of mid-1960s posters celebrating the Golden State, including the Amado Gonzalez design at right, $325.

You'll also find a stash of United Airlines and TWA travel posters and, of course, a multitude of French posters advertising soap, soda pop and more. For those who like a message, Vintage European Posters also offers striking patriotic designs from the two world wars.

The artwork varies from straightforward illustration to gentle surrealism. Owner Elizabeth Norris travels across the U.S. and throughout Europe to find her stock and is frequently approached by collectors. Recently, she wrote in an email, she acquired dozens of midcentury travel posters and nearly 200 World War II advertisements for volunteerism. Norris, who will be on hand at the trunk show, added,  "I have been collecting since I was young and love meeting other people who want to geek out on the history of graphic design."

Keep reading to see more posters ...

High Desert Test Sites 2011 this weekend

Art and architecture fans not put off by the possibility of digging fellow travelers out of the sand will want to head toward the Joshua trees this weekend for High Desert Test Sites.

For the eighth time, architects and designers have created installations that melt into the landscape by Joshua Tree National Park, turning spots of high desert near Pioneertown, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms and Wonder Valley into gallery space.

Ball-Nogues Studio's architectural installation "Yucca Crater," shown in the rendering at right, is part earthwork and part playground. The nearly 30-foot structure has rock climbing holds mounted to the interior, descending into a  pool of water -- a welcome relief in temperatures forecast to hit about 90.

The installation will be left intact after this weekend, the designers say, much like the  abandoned swimming pools of the Mojave.

Benjamin Luddy and Makoto Mizutani of Scout Regalia have created Trail Registry, shown at the top of the post and below right. The piece is inspired by the registries  found at trailheads.

The designers want visitors to leave or to take a memento tied to the enameled aluminum rods, similar to the way hikers leave rocks at the top of a mountain or trailhead.

High Desert Test Sites will feature works by Bodycity, Shari Elf, Dawn Kasper, ROLU and Welcome Projects and Claude Collins-Stracensky.

The schedule of events, driving map of all sites and list of curators are available on the High Desert Test Sites 2011 event page as well as at event headquarters, 4670 Veterans Way, off 29 Palms Highway in downtown Joshua Tree.

Water, cash, snacks, big hats, sunscreen and a trash bag for refuse are all advised.

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-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Scout Regalia; Ball-Nogues Studio 

Los Angeles Modern Auctions previews Dorso collection

Interior designer David John admits that he felt a little overwhelmed when Los Angeles Modern Auctions director Peter Loughrey asked him to style a vignette using some of the 400-plus pieces in the Richard Dorso collection, which includes works by the likes of Sam Maloof, John McCracken and John Baldessari, to be auctioned Oct. 9.

"It was a dream come true to decorate with Maloof, McCracken and Baldessari," John said. "I wanted to blur the line between living room and gallery space. Narrowing it down was so hard. You could go so many different ways with the collection."

Other highlights in the upcoming auction include works by Richard Tuttle, Roy Lichtenstein, Vasa Velizar Mihich and Gustav Klimt. All lots are on display as part of an exhibit exploring the role of Dorso in the L.A. art scene. For John's vignette, the designer aimed for calm and peaceful, choosing approximately 40 artworks based on color, texture and pattern. Dorso's apartment "vibrated crazy energy," John says, so he wanted the vignette to "vibrate with color and intensity" but still "tone it down a bit and make it modern."

John also highlighted California artists, given that the exhibit is part of the celebration Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980.

Los Angeles Modern Auctions will sell the Dorso collection with no reserve, meaning all lots including furniture and decorative arts will be sold without minimum bid requirements, spokeswoman Elizabeth Portanova said. For collectors living outside of Los Angeles, the auction house will offer absentee, phone and online bidding. All 418 lots from the collection can be viewed online. "We also offer condition reports on each piece, which must be requested by the client," Portanova said. "Condition reports are great for people who can't see the items in-person."

Los Angeles Modern Auctions is at 16145 Hart St. Van Nuys. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; (323) 904-1950.

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"California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way"

Pacific Standard Time: The Times guide

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Bethany Nauert

LACMA show on California design, 'Living in a Modern Way'

“California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way,” which opens Oct. 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, aims to dispel the myth that significant contributions by Californians during this period came mainly in fine art and architecture.

By extending the scope of the new exhibition to furniture, graphic design, fashion, surfboards, even the Studebaker Avanti designed by the great Raymond Loewy, "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way" argues that what flourished in the state, particularly after World War II, was in fact a much broader movement. Nurtured by the rapid technological changes brought on by wartime manufacturing and by the thousands who came to work in California's defense plants, a new creative class thrived here. Frequent cross-pollination between disciplines created what curators call California’s new “middle-class Utopias.”

The lamp pictured at right, Model 831, is a Greta Magnusson Grossman design dating to 1949. Appreciation for Grossman's place in the midcentury design movement has been rising, and L.A. Times readers might recall a 2009 profile and photo gallery of a 1948 house in Beverly Hills that Grossman built.

Among the hundreds of other elements in the LACMA exhibit, below from left: a mid-1930s Airline chair by Kem Weber, a 1953 Arts and Architecture magazine cover by John Follis and James Reed, and a Dan Johnson desk from 1947.

Article: "Califoria Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way"

Photos: Preview of the LACMA exhibition

 
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-- David Hay

Credit, top: Museum Associates / Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Credit, bottom, from left: Museum Associates / Los Angeles County Museum of Art, courtesy of David Travers, Dan Johnson

White House decorator opens furniture gallery Duke & Duke

Michael S. Smith, best known as interior decorator for the Obama White House, is far from the traditionalist that his Washington appointment might suggest. A case in point: Duke & Duke, the new gallery for furniture-as-art that Smith and his longtime art collaborator, Maya McLaughlin, recently opened in West Hollywood. Its first exhibition features the wildly inventive designs of Mattia Bonetti.

"Mattia holds true to the French classical artisan ideal of creating quality sculptural design, and then takes it to the next level with his use of magnificent and often unusual materials," Smith said by email. 

These materials include automobile paint and the kind of plexiglass used for the windshields of fighter jets. (The transparent material can be seen in the cabinet behind Bonetti, right, embellished with gold-plated brass.)

"He plays with the idea of old materials versus new materials, traditional versus garish, while always being  in control of how far he pushes the boundaries," Smith said. "His works always have a sense of humor and playfulness."

Indeed, the designs bring to mind styles such as Italian postmodernism (including the off-kilter polished stainless dresser with multicolored acrylic trim at the top of this post) and the flowing shapes of Art Nouveau in a bronze table lamp and Alu, an aluminum dining chair that seems to melt before your eyes (photo toward the end of this post).

Bonetti also seems to be a fan of Salvador Dalí, Antonin Gaudí and, in the case of tables made from what appear to be beads, Coco Chanel.

Prices? Brace yourself. The Alu chair costs $8,500. The Chanel-esque Broken Pearl Necklace with chrome- and gold-plated brass bead legs and a lava stone top, right, is $75,000 (produced in a limited edition of 12).

The pieces can be seen through Sept. 7 at Duke & Duke. The gallery then will have a show of Christophe Come work and, in mid-November, pieces by Mira Nakashima, the daughter of legendary designer George Nakashima. 

"We want to build a gallery that elevates furniture designers who cross over into the contemporary art arena," McLaughlin said.

Keep reading to see more of Bonetti's designs ...

Ranchito Cascabel, house as folk art

Ranchito Cascabel, also known as Timmyland, is Tim Sullivan's folk-art fantasy just north of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Inspired by the work of Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, Spain, Sullivan turned what had been a sleeping porch and storage room into a rambling, otherworldly folly.

Ann Summa, the photographer who's spending a year in community gardens for L.A. at Home, was on the road and toured Ranchito Cascabel for us. As her photos show, it's a trip.

Photos: Timmyland, a.k.a. Rancho Cascabel

Photos, clockwise from top: The kitchen of Timmyland, with its tile and stained glass; the main living room with loft sleeping area; the exterior, which has a giant bleeding heart on the wall and the dog Bici waiting out front. Credit: Ann Summa

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The new world of affordable art

 

Poster revival: Hand-screened works as budget art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The art of the poster is alive and well, reinvigorated partly by concert ad designers who are creating other kinds of work on the side. 

David A. Keeps reports that whether your tastes run toward punchy graphics, local landmarks or surrealistic bits of amusement, posters are one way to pick up limited edition, handmade work at low prices.

Article: A poster revival

Photos: Posters for every style

For an easy way to follow future headlines, join our Facebook page dedicated to home design.

Credits, clockwise from top left: "Me Without You" design by Dan Stiles; a graphic note from artist Jason Munn; and a motel image from the Poster List artist in Long Beach who simply goes by the name Adam. 

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The new world of affordable art

Is that a shopping cart or conceptual art? An installation that equates paintings with the essentials of daily living? Or merely a cheeky invitation to buy art so affordable, you'd want to stock up?

At Artspace Warehouse in L.A., neon-pink signs direct customers to sections organized by price, with small-scale original pieces by artists such as Berlin-based Kati Elm that cost as little as $40. “I am sure I sell more because of the democratic price,” Elm said.

Writer David A. Keeps looks at artists -- emerging and established -- who are reaching an audience, not through an exclusive show where a few works sell at high prices, but rather through new galleries and websites where low-priced creations sell in volume. For shoppers, the upshot is easier access to inexpensive work.

Article: The changing world of affordable art

Photos: Painting and photography, priced to sell

Photos, from top: The shopping cart and pink price signs in Artspace Warehouse. Credit: David A. Keeps

David Bowie’s Pop art-influenced "Iman No. 1," a portrait of his wife, the model and actress Iman, sold as a limited edition on the budget-minded art website 20x200. Credit: David Bowie / 20x200.

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Steve Keene's painting marathon

Steve Keene paint-athon starts Sunday; art is yours for $10 and up

Steve Keene, the one-man art assembly line, is back. In the 2000 exhibition "The Miracle Half-Mile" at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Keene frantically painted more than 10,000 works during the two-month run of the show.

On Sunday, Keene returns to the museum to begin a weeklong residency during which he will paint 30 to 90 multiples of the same subject, at the same time. The painting-as-performance will change daily in subject matter: animals, flowers, L.A. landmarks, outer space imagery, pop culture icons.

Have an idea for a daylong painting marathon? Keene is open to suggestions. Email your idea to info@smmoa.org.

All of the paintings will be on sale starting at $10, with proceeds benefiting the museum.

"I think of it as very disciplined silliness," Keene said from Brooklyn on Wednesday. "For me, it's a performance. It's about being brave and crazy enough to be creative in front of people."

The Times' glowing review from 2000 said that exhibition was "not just a cheeky critique of high-priced art. While it does take the popular accessibility of Warhol's mass-produced images to the next level, it simultaneously reveals the difficulties of making a living as an artist in America.... It lays bare the unglamorous reality of life as a hard-working artist -- on average, a low-paying job that cannot be redeemed by the Protestant work ethic, no matter how devoutly it's applied."

Keene, who said he has sold more than 250,000 paintings in the last 20 years, also will paint new modular furniture that will be used in the museum's planned outdoor space.

"I didn't intend for my career to be like this," Keene said. "But I got such a positive response that I fed off the energy. It's my favorite way to think about art."

The Santa Monica Museum of Art is at Bergamot Station, Building G1, 2525 Michigan Ave. From Friday through Sunday, the museum store will have discounts on Keene-designed furniture as well as animal-themed items from Danger Dogs, Venice Clay and jewelry by designer Krista Everage. (310) 586-6488.

Some Bergamot galleries will offer discounts on artist catalogs, limited-edition prints, gifts, jewelry, specialty paper and floral bouquets. 

Coming Saturday: More coverage of affordable art, including our article on handmade posters.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits, from top: Santa Monica Museum of Art; Los Angeles Times; Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

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