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The Brewery Fall Artwalk '99 in
Los Angeles was a stimulating smorgasbord of visual art. One hundred and
twenty artists participated. They washed the dirty dishes, stashed their
junk, hung their favorite pieces and opened their doors to the public for
two busy days. It was an excellent weekend jaunt for all manner of Angelinos,
some of whom, judging by the number of red dots, were even buying art!
This artist's colony (located off
Interstate 5 at 2100 Main Street near downtown Los Angeles, CA) may be
the largest of its kind in the world--21 buildings spread over 23 acres.
Almost 200 artists and organizations make it their home/work space with
wide variation in the types of media used, the stages of the residents'
careers, and their styles of work. It felt a little like Art School without
the teachers and the tuition. There seems to be a thriving community of
creative people here, most of them painters; but also product, fashion
and graphic designers, and showrooms for electric bikes, fossils, furniture,
and even aromatherapy. The studio spaces are great. Some of the buildings
date back to the late 1800s and the ways they have been converted from
factories to studios with sleeping lofts and kitchens and big bright work
areas is inspiring.
There was far too much to see in
one afternoon. Of the 30 or so studios I visited, these two were my favorite:
Vito Lorusso, 660 S. Ave. 21 #4. Think 50s tract housing--faux flagstone
fireplaces, spray-on sparkly ceilings, patchwork oven mitts in the shape
of chickens. This is the rich vein that Vito mines in his paintings, walking
an interesting line between parody and a genuine love of the textures,
colors and nostalgia of this imagery. He shows us the strangely beautiful
ugliness of suburbia with all it's hypocrisy and hope, but tempers it with
a sense of humor.
Marion Lane, Coagula Projects, 2100 N. Main #A8. Did you ever scoop up that liquefying
sand at the very edge of the beach and the ocean, and drip little mountains
and curls out of it? Marion's paintings have that same tactile organic
feeling, crossed with the look of a drawer packed full of tangled costume
jewelry. Her colors often vibrate--lime green next to construction orange
and Barbie pink, and she pushes the three dimensional capabilities of acrylic
paint to amazing new levels. She does all this with a refreshing joyous
abandon. This gallery is run by Matt Gleason of Coagula Art Journal (check
out their irreverent take on high art at www.coagula.com).
--Jennifer Murphy |
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