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JULY/AUGUST 2019
Anna Stump & Ted Meyer
JAPANESE ARTS AND CULTURE ADVOCATES CHALLENGE INCARCERATION OF IMMIGRANT CHILDREN • FORT MOORE DEDICATION AND TIME CAPSULE • PHOTOGRAPHS FROM POLICE ARCHIVES AT HOUSE OF LUCIE • JOSE RAMIREZ AT CENTRAL LIBRARY • GUATEMALAN MASKS AT FOWLER • SANDRA DE LA LOZA AT LACE • PREZ CANDIDATES ON THE ARTS • FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOUSE NAMED UNESCOWORLD HERITAGE SITE
EN SU PROPIA TIERRA / IN HIS OWN SOIL
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JOSE RAMIREZ AT THE CENTRAL LIBRARY Jose Ramirez’ work is familiar to many who live in Los Angeles. His bold use of color is immediately attention-grabbing, while his figures, often a great many of them in one image, tell stories about culture, urban life, music, labor, and political struggle. He combines his passion for urban gardening and his work as a teacher with the sights of Los Angeles. A large exhibit of Mr. Ramirez’ paintings, “Jose Ramirez: En su propia tierra / In His Own Soil,” is currently on view at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. Also included are photographs taken in Mr. Ramirez’ garden by Gary Leonard, providing a glimpse of the context and inspiration for a lot of the works on view. Mr. Ramirez’ works show the fruits of urban gardening, as well as the toils of laborers. They depict trees and plants as deeply rooted in the earth and as connecting the planet to the sun and star-filled skies. “An avid horticulturist, Ramirez draws inspiration from the sprawling perennial garden he planted behind his home in City Terrace a little over a decade ago,” reads the statement for the exhibit. “He frequently notes his interest in the roles that history and soil biology play in human survival on this planet. What started as paintings of trees and native plants slowly evolved into multilayered explorations of the land itself…” Children play a large role in Mr. Ramirez’ works as well. He has taught in Los Angeles public schools for over 23 years, and currently teaches third grade in Pico Union. He has illustrated a number of children’s books. Several of the most recent works at the Central Library illustrate the recent United Teachers of Los Angeles strike, depicting the energy and commitment of the striking teachers, as well as rendering the sea of UTLA red through the damp weather. Jose Ramirez paints a multiplicity of characters, and they in turn in present to us their offspring— their children, their songs, their plants, their arts.
Jose Ramirez: En su propia tierra / In His Own Soil through September 29 Central Library, Getty Gallery 630 West 5th Street www.lapl.org
Jose Ramirez, History of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund), 2018
Jose Ramirez, Strike Music Teacher, 2019 (photo: Los Angeles Public Library)
Jose Ramirez, Teachers Rally, 2019 Jose Ramirez, Read LA, 2017
Jose Ramirez, Fiesta, 2018
Jose Ramirez, Remix, 2016
Jose Ramirez, I Stand, 2019
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Jose Ramirez, They Hang Mexicans in LA, 2018 (Part of a series on the hidden histories of Los Angele)
FORT MOORE MEMORIAL WATERFALL FLOWS AGAIN AFTER 43 YEARS
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monument’s tiles began to degrade. The water was off for 43 years. In 2014, the County Board of Supervisors voted $4.1 million for restoration of the memorial. When there was a shortfall, the City of Los Angeles added almost $500,000. The work of restoration then took two paths. The Downtown Monument Restore County Department of Public Works oversaw the Time Capsule Reflects Cultures and restoration of the the original components, including making the waterfall environmentally conscious and Diversity of Los Angeles commissioning 285,00 meticulously hand-cut tiles that The Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial has been restored, and match the pallet of the originals. its 80-foot wide waterfall is flowing again atop Hill Street in The Los Angeles County Arts Commission meanwhile Downtown Los Angeles. Originally dedicated in 1958 on the site took on the task of ensuring that the site was reflective of a 19th century fort, the water had been turned off in 1977, and of the diverse communities of the County. During the the site had fallen into disrepair. But following a restoration effort restoration, a time capsule was brought out from the base of the flagpole, filled with historic information led by the County, the memorial was re-dedicated on July 3. Features of the monument include the waterfall, a terra-cotta wall pertaining to the memorial including a typed County Supervisor Hilda Solis and County Department depicting scenes of the settlement and expansion of Los Angeles manuscript from May Belle Davis. of Arts and Culture Executive Director Kristin Sakoda after the Mexican-American War designed by artist Henry Kreis, “Monuments represent collective memory,” said LA County Department of Arts and Culture Executive a large flagpole, and a pocket park. celebrate as the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial’s 80-foot The flagpole marks the hill where the United States flag was first Director Kristin Sakoda at the re-dedication. waterfall is reactivated after 43 years. Behind the water The Arts Commission, therefore, has filled are almost 300,000 hand-cut tiles, and to the right is a new time capsule with stories, memories, the memorial’s new time capsule. and mementos that represent LA County’s cultural, geographic, and historic diversity. “The Arts Commission has done a fantastic job,” said County Supervisor Hilda Solis at the re-dedication ceremony, “in soliciting input from many stakeholders and large segments of our community throughout Los Angeles County.” Supervisor Solis donated her County Pride pin to the capsule and contributed photographs of the female leadership of the County. Other contributors include The Autry Museum of the American West, Black Lives Matter, the California African American Museum, Ciclavia, Downtown Art Walk, Ford Theatres, Italian American Museum, Japanese American National Museum, METRO, LA County Military and Veterans Affairs, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Las Fotos Project, An image of the first raising of the U.S. flag over Los Los Angeles City/County Native American Angeles in 1847 Indian Commission, Los Angeles Public The new time Library, Los Angeles Football Club, Los capsule is carried Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Times Festival flown over Los Angeles in 1847. to the base of of Books, Mayor Eric Garcetti, National Park Service, That flag was raised over the newly conquered land by the the flagpole for Mormon Battalion and the New York volunteers, and it marked Pomona Fairplex, Robey Theater Company, San installation Antonio Winery, Santa Monica Mountains National the beginning of Mormon participation in the story of Los Angeles. In the years following the need for a fort, the hill was Recreation Area, Self Help Graphics, the Music Center, the site of a cemetery, a high school, and Victorian houses. After Underground Museum, and many private individuals, schools, the construction of the Hollywood Freeway seriously altered the and scout troops. Hill Street hill, it was a Mormon-led effort, spearheaded by May There are pressed rose petals from a bush planted by a Korean Belle Davis, a member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, immigrant grandmother in Los Feliz, quinceañera photos and that led to the construction of the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial, a tiara, and an image from the recent LAUSD teachers’ strike. As the waterfall was restarted on the very hot day of the redesigned by local architects Kazumi Adachi and Dike Nagano. The waterfall was a popular sight through the sixties and into the dedication ceremony, mists caused the temperature on the seventies. However, it was not environmentally sustainable, and sidewalk to drop noticeably as Supervisor Hilda Solis led by the late seventies, it was time to turn it off. That is when the a procession to place the new time capsule at the base of the flagpole. The capsule is scheduled to be reopened in 50 years. A letter included in the time
capsule
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NEW PACIFIC STANDARD TIME INITIATIVE ANNOUNCED Art x Science x LA Coming in 2024
In 2011, The J. Paul Getty Trust unveiled Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980, an unprecedented collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California, documenting and celebrating the arrival of Los Angeles on the world arts scene. In 2013, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. focused on the built heritage of the Southland. In 2017, more than 70 partner institutions joined the Getty to present Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles/Latin America (LA/LA), a massive undertaking exploring Latin American and Latinx arts. Now the Getty has announced their next PST endeavor, to be held in 2024. “Art x Science x LA” will create a region-wide civic dialogue about the intertwined histories of art and science, their roots on the Los Angeles region, and their relationships to worldwide concerns of today. According to the Getty announcement, Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA will use exhibitions and public programs to, “look at art through the lens of science, and at science through the lens of art.” Programming will reach back as far as prehistoric times, draw on present-day understandings from a variety of cultures, and lead into the future through a search for creative solutions on such issues as climate change and artificial intelligence. An open competition for research grants that engage with all dimensions of the ties between art and science will open for museums this fall, with awards announced next year. As in previous Pacific Standard Time initiatives, individual institutions will develop their own projects to explore the overall theme. “California has been and remains a profound center for scientific
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discovery, and visualization has always played a key role in this process,” says Dr. Ed Krupp, director of Griffith Observatory. “Many of the dynamic visualizations we now see in enthralling space initiatives, for example, trace their roots to Hollywood and motion picture technology. PST: Art x Science x LA will allow us to explore these relationships and more.” “Artists and scientists share a common commitment to invention and imagination, and the mutual influence between art and science has an especially rich history in Los Angeles,” says Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum. “With the next PST, museums and our scientific counterparts will have the opportunity to showcase the exciting areas where our work overlaps in engaging new ways.”
Guillermo Bert, QR code patterns resembling textile patterns woven by the Mapuche people of Chile Mundos Alternos, UCR ARTSblock, RiversidePacific Standard Time: LA/LA in 2017
Sergio Hernández, “El Chuy de Mars,” 2006 Mundos Alternos, UCR ARTSblock, Riverside Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in 2017
STAFF
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Publisher/ Creative Director Cathi Milligan Managing Editor Margaret Arnold Contributors: Margaret Arnold, Cornelius Peter, Brian Mallman, Amy Inouye, Stuart Rapeport, Cathi Milligan, Jennifer Hitchcock, Harvey Slater, Madame X, Tomas Benitez, Ted Meyer, Anna Stump, Peter Hess, LA Art News is published monthly at the beginning of each month. LA Art News is available free of charge. No person may, without prior written permission from LA Art News, take more than one copy of each monthly issue. Additional copies of the current issue are available for $1, payable in advance, at LA Art News office. Only authorized LA Art News distributors may distribute the LA Art News. Copyright No news stories, illustrations, editorial matter or advertisements herein can be reproduced without written consent of copyright owner. How to reach us LA Art News 851 N. Ave 50 Los Angeles, CA 90042 323-387-9705
THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE I have always embraced change. I grew up exposed to constant change by my gypsylike dad moving us around a bunch, in my youth. So speaking of moving...my art studio is leaving Highland Park. Yes, The Glass Studio is moving to Sun Valley, the land of industrial spaces and cheap rent. The paper is staying based in Highland Park. I do have to say...a new reality will be refreshing. Now, let’s talk about art and politics. Maybe just politics. Or art. With the world we’re living in right now, the two are tied together whether we like it or not. The shows around town can’t help but make statements about the state of affairs in Washington. Altogether now, “Fuck Trump!” Go see art. Make art. Make a statement. Stay woke. Thanks, Cathi Milligan Publisher LA Art News
On the cover:
Anna Stump and Ted Meyer. Artwork by Ted Meyer & Anna Stump featured in the March 2016 Future Studio Gallery show—“Chicken Boy, That’s My Name.” Future Studio has been the home to Chicken Boy on its roof (aka the Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles) since 2007 (he was in storage from 1984-2007), and it took them until 2016 to figure out to do an art exhibit about him. He’s a pretty good model, doesn’t move much and doesn’t blink at all. He’s got a distinctive look that responds well to a variety of portrait styles.
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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOUSE
FIRST UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE IN L.A. Eight buildings designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright have been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Among them is the first Los Angeles property added to the list, the Hollyhock House in Hollywood’s Barnsdall Park. According to the UNESCO listing, “These buildings reflect the ‘organic architecture’ developed by Wright, which includes an open plan, a blurring of the boundaries between exterior and interior and the unprecedented use of materials such as steel and concrete. Each of these buildings offers innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work or leisure.” UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The UNESCO World Heritage List includes 1,121 properties around the world. With its world heritage recognitions, UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. “This designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site underscores the significance of Los Angeles’ rich history of modern architecture,” said City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the area. “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is a beloved masterpiece locally, and now a treasure world-wide.” The Hollyhock House, built for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall between 1919 and 1921, was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles commission. According to the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation, the house was designed as, “an ode to California – its freedom and natural beauty.” Today, the house is owned by the City of Los Angeles and is operated by the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. It is open to the public, and tour information is available at www.barnsdall.org/tours. Other Frank Lloyd Wright properties listed include: Unity Temple (1909, Oak Park, Illinois), the Frederick C. Robie House (1910, Chicago), Taliesin (1911, Spring Green, Wisconsin), the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House (1937, Madison, Wisconsin), Taliesin West (1938, Scottsdale, Arizona) Fallingwater (1939, Pennsylvania), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1959, New York). Together, they represent they first listing of modern architecture in the United States.
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LA ART NEWS
GOVERNMENT NOTES STATE APPROVES MAJOR INCREASE IN ARTS FUNDING As the fiscal year came to a close at the end of June, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a fiscal year 2019-20 state budget that includes a $10 million permanent increased funding allocation for the California Arts Council, the State’s arts agency. This means that the new permanent baseline general fund allocation is $26 million. “We are grateful to Governor Newsom for immediately prioritizing the arts as a tool to meet the challenges facing California’s communities today,” said Anne Bown-Crawford, California Arts Council Executive Director. “Nourishing creativity creates a lasting ripple effect—fostering resilient people, resilient communities, and a resilient state. With this $10 million permanent funding increase, we will be able to make a greater impact across all corners of California through vital grants supporting communities big and small.” The allocation represents a resurrection for arts funding in the State, after years of languishing. From 2003-04 until 2013 the general fund allocation for the arts was only $1 million. The 2019-20 budget also includes an additional $27.5 million designated to promote California’s arts and cultural diversity by investing in the following: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust ($6 million), Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California ($5 million), National LGBTQ Center for the Arts ($500,000), Italian American Museum ($1 million), the Latino Theater Company ($2 million), Korean American National Museum ($4 million), and Navy Training Center Foundation Renovation for Performing Arts ($9 million).
8 The work of the department will be much the same as that of its predecessor commission, including grant funding, commissioning public art, managing the County’s civic art collection, implementing arts education initiatives, and striving to make arts accessible to all county residents. However, elevation to a full-fledged department status is indicative of the central role that arts play in the economic life of the County and across all of the many cultures that make up the County. The department is tasked with implementing the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative, a cultural plan with a progressive suite of recommendations to strengthen diverse, equitable, and inclusive access to arts and culture for everyone in the County. “Our work supports the full breadth of the Los Angeles County arts and culture ecosystem—from formidable museums and presenters, to small non-profits and community-rooted organizations,” said Kristin Sakoda, director of the new department. “As the County department dedicated to advancing arts, culture, and creativity throughout the County, we will be able to elevate and expand this work to reach more people, more deeply, in more diverse ways.”
The Los Angeles River
Aman Chaudhary, creator of the artwork for the City of Los Angeles LGBT Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, joined by Los Angeles City Councilmembers Mitch O’Farrell and Mike Bonin, and City Controller Ron Galperin (photo: Councilmember O’Farrell’s office) COUNTY NOW HAS AN ARTS DEPARTMENT As of July 1, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission is now the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.
LOS ANGELES RIVER DAY Tuesday, June 11 was celebrated as Los Angeles River Day at Los Angeles City Hall. “The Los Angeles River is our origin story,” said City Councilmember David Ryu, who chairs the Council’s committee that addresses river issues. “It’s what gave life to the Tongva people who settled on its shores. It provided food and shelter for the early Mexican explorers, and it was the first water source for a fledgling city. The Los Angeles River is the force that shaped our city, and its 51 miles, which flows through the Valley to the ocean, connects us to our natural and cultural history. That history was almost lost when the river was encased in concrete and became just another industrial feature in our growing urban environment.” “This City’s river was once a place where the communities who lived alongside it gathered,” said Friends of the Los Angeles River Executive Director Marissa Christiansen, “and was the bedrock of ecological health and diversity in this City. We believe that this can be so again.” “The Los Angeles River is in a way our spiritual guide,” said
Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell. “…This is where is all began...10,000 years ago, where the Tongva established their roots, so there’s a very strong spiritual component to this. We have an obligation to our ancestors to bring it back fully.” LGBTQ HERITAGE MONTH LGBTQ Heritage Month was kicked off June 12 at Los Angeles City Hall. Among the honorees was actor Bex Taylor-Klaus, known for their work in AMC’s “The Killing,” CW’s “Arrow,” MTV’s “Scream,” and Dreamwork’s “Voltron: Legendary Defender.” They are also frequent speakers on their experiences in the entertainment industry as a queer, non-binary person. Councilmember Mike Bonin referred to Bex Taylor-Klaus as “someone who is groundbreaking and who is making waves and is telling young people who are struggling to find themselves reflected in society and in media that they are strong and they are
Los Angeles City Councilmembers Mitch O’Farrell and Mike Bonin, honoree Bex TaylorKlaus, and City Controller Ron Galperin kick-off LGBT Heritage Month (photo: Councilmember Bonin’s office) good and that they’re loved and they are okay.” Other honorees included Lori Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and Archbishop Carl Bean, founder of the Unity Fellowship Church Los Angeles, and the Minority AIDS Project, as well as a former Motown performer known for a hit version of “I Was Born This Way.” CITY HONORS MUSIC PRODUCER MUSTARD On June 19, the Los Angeles City Council honored music producer Mustard, who has presented a large number of musical artists to the world. The Council declared Mustard Day in the City. An activist in South Los Angeles, Mustard was born Dijon Isaiah McFarlane, and he started his career as a DJ, often working City Council President Herb Wesson’s district events. He has not only donated his musical talents to the community, he has mentored young people and engaged in such projects as distributing backpacks filled with school supplies. He has served as a voice of reason in difficult times following the murders of Nipsey Hussle and DJ Official. “I thank you especially for being, Mustard, a
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IN 2018 MUSICIANS FROM 60 COUNTRIES AND OVER 700 CITES WORLDWIDE PARTICIPATED
PLAY MUSIC ON THE PORCH DAY SATURDAY, AUGUST 31st PLAN SOMETHING AMAZING!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31 WORLDWIDE • 8AM - 10PM Instagram - @playmusicontheporch Twitter - @PlayMusic_Porch Facebook - Playmusicontheporchday continued from page 8
of million dollar homes should take personally the homeless problem,” said Mr. Bakeer.
Mustard Day in Los Angeles (photo: Council President Wesson’s office) centerpiece in what I think is a renaissance of culture and African American art in the country, but it really is headquartered here in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. NOVELIST DONALD BAKEER HONORED FOR MUSLIM HERITAGE MONTH The Los Angeles City Council kicked off Muslim Heritage Month June 28 by honoring local activists. Among the honorees was Donald Bakeer, a Muslim activist for over 50 years and the Board Chair of Project Islamic Hope, a civil rights organization based in South Los Angeles. Mr. Bakeer is known as an accomplished poet and novelist. He is the author of ten books, including “Crips,” which was adapted by Oliver Stone into the film “South Central” and is past president of International Black Writers and Artists. Mr. Bakeer used acceptance of the award to enlist his listeners in the struggle to end homelessness. “I think that we who live in the city that has literally thousands
Novelist Donald Bakeer honored by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell as part of Muslim Heritage Month (photo: Councilmember O’Farrell’s office)
N O V E L I S T M I C H A E L C O N N E L LY HONORED On June 21, the Los Angeles City Council honored novelist Michael Connelly. Mr. Connelly began his writing career as a journalist in Daytona Beach. He moved to Los Angeles to work for the Los Angeles Times, covering crime. His first book, The Black Echo, won him the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best first novel in 1992. He has written a total of 33 novels, and now serves as executive producer of “Bosch,” an Amazon Studios production based on
his best-selling character Harry Bosch. “One thing that always stood out to me as an Angeleno and to many of his fans in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Greig Smith of Mr. Connelly’s work, “is the commitment and passion he has for Los Angeles; whether it’s having breakfast at DuPar’s restaurant in the Farmer’s Market or lunch at Philippe’s down
the street or one of my favorite diners right down the street, the Nickel Diner, Michael Connelly has incorporated those into his stories and his movies.”
Novelist Michael Connelly honored by Councilmembers Joe Buscaino, Monica Rodriguez, and Greig Smith (photo: Councilmember Rodriguez’ office) Councilmember Smith also praised Mr. Connelly for filming all of his movies and his TV series in Los Angeles. STATE BILL AIMS TO ATTRACT ARTS, CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, AND SPORTING EVENTS A bill pending before the State Legislature seeks to support creative enterprises in California and their beneficial economic impacts. SB 736, by State Senator Tom Umberg of Long Beach and Northern Orange County, would establish a Creative Economy Task Force, which would be tasked with studying possibilities for a state fund to assist in the bidding process for major events.
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continued from page 9 These events are envisioned as including arts and cultural events, entertainment events, agricultural events, sporting events, and international conferences. The attraction of such events would spur job growth and boost economies. The task force would be housed within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go-Biz). Senator Umberg points out that such efforts have proven successful in other states. Supporters of the bill include the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, The Los Angeles Rams, and the Rose Bowl Operating Company. CALIFORNIA YOUTH POET LAUREATE A measure has made its way through the California State Legislature that will, if signed by the Governor, create the position of California Youth Poet Laureate. The creation of a Youth Poet Laureate has been promoted by Senator Henry Stern of Calabasas, as well as Los Angeles area Senators Ben Allen and Bob Hertzberg, based on an initial idea from the California Arts Council. “We feel that art is a way for young people to speak,” said Senator Stern at a recent hearing. The California Youth Poet Laureate would be appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom and confirmed by the senate from a list of three nominees provided by the California Arts Council. Anne Bown-Crawford, Executive Director of the California Arts Council, said that such a person, “would have the mission to advocate for the art of poetry in classrooms and communities across the State, to inspire an emerging generation of literary artists, and to educate all Californians about the many poets
and authors that have influenced out great state through creative literary expression.” “This legislation will take an important step toward recognizing that the creative voices of our youth are heard, that they matter, that they can make a difference, and that they have impact,” said Ms. Bown-Crawford. COUNCIL ADJOURNS IN MEMORY OF DJ OFFICIAL The Los Angeles City Council adjourned its June 25 meeting in memory of Grammy Award-winning producer DJ Official— Leslie Andre Wakefield, Jr. Mr. Wakefield was 26 years old, and lost his life to gun violence. On June 14, he was murdered in a drive-by shooting on 78th Street in the Manchester Square neighborhood. The shooting took place in front of his grandfather’s home where he had lived with his family all of his life. DJ Official worked with such names as Cardi B and Nipsey Hussle. He started his career in music as a DJ while in high school, and later signed with DJ Mustard’s record company, Ten Summers Records. He is survived by an infant son. MAKERSPACE OPENS AT CENTRAL LIBRARY “Octavia Lab,” a new digital media makerspace, is now available in the Central Library. The 2,630-square-foot facility features studios with an audio/video editing bay, a film stage with green screen and a makerspace. Equipment includes 3D printers and scanners, laser and vinyl cutters, sewing and embroidery machines, and audio and video equipment. Staff-led programs will help visitors create podcasts, digitize family memories to preserve for generations to come and experiment with equipment
to bring ideas to life. Octavia Lab resources and programs are free and open to the public by appointment. SUPERVISOR RIDLEY-THOMAS BUDGET REMARKS ON THE CREATIVE ECONOMY Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas at the County Budget discussion in June: “The County is forecasting an estimated 9 to 10 to 11 billion dollar in increase in the assessment role as the result of new construction. I said nine to eleven billion dollars. May I punctuate the point that three billion of that growth was generated by two new stadia in the second district—L.A.’s new soccer stadium in Exposition Park and L.A.’s new football stadium in Inglewood. It was a significant undertaking, and we should be mindful of what that impact is for the whole County’s budget, not just in one district but the entirety of the County. This clearly reveals the power of the region’s creative economy…It attracts investment, tourism, and consumer spending. It significantly contributes to the County’s employment and economic growth, and it fosters innovation that positively impacts other industries especially important to today’s budget deliberations…it seems to me that we should keep focus on that because the County is making a huge difference through the creative economy in the lives of our respective constituencies and districts.” COUNTY ARTS COMMISSION APPOINTMENT Madeline Di Nonno has been appointed to the Los Angeles County Arts Commission by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. Ms. Di Nonno is the Chief Executive Officer of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
PODCAST INTERVIEWS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON THE ARTS The Americans for the Arts Action Fund is giving voters a chance to learn where candidates for President of the United States stand on issues related to arts, arts funding, and arts education. “Arts Vote 2020 with Ben Folds” has so far interviewed Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Congressman John Delaney, Secretary Julián Castro, and Governor John Hickenlooper. Invitations have been extended to all candidates. Ben Folds is a singer-songwriter, Americans for the Arts Artists Committee member, and chair of ArtsVote 2020. He is joined in podcast hosting duties by former U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska. Questions about arts are not commonly asked in candidate forums, and the podcast offers a unique opportunity to hear candidate views on an often overlooked field. “I wanted to do this podcast series because I realize that if the arts community wants to move the needle on the future support of the arts, then we need to act now to engage candidates on these issues,” says Mr. Folds in the series trailer. Listeners can subscribe to ArtsVote 2020 with Ben Folds on the Anchor app or their preferred podcast app. Information about the series, including latest episodes and photos, can be found by visiting www.ArtsActionFund.org/podcast.
Mark Begich and Ben Folds talk with presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about the arts (photo: Arts Action Fund)
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JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY AND CULTURE GROUPS SAY NO TO DETENTION OF CHILDREN Plans to use Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a detention facility for migrant children are under fire by a community that knows only too well the experience of unjust detention, the Japanese American community in Los Angeles. During World War II, more than 700 people of Japanese ancestry, 90 of whom were Buddhist Priests, were incarcerated at Fort Sill. Previously members of the Apache tribe who had been removed from their lands, including children, were held there. Now, Japanese American organizations, including several arts and culture groups and venues, are joining together to say no to further incarceration at Fort Sill, as well as an end to inhumane conditions at ICE facilities and and end to family separation. On June 27, several hundred people gathered in the plaza outside the Japanese American National Museum, where busses used to pick up Japanese American residents of Los Angeles to take them to camps, to forcefully demand an end to unjust detention. “For that location to be used again as a concentration camp to imprison children defies belief,” Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, said of Fort Sill. “It doesn’t matter if you call them detention camps, concentration camps, boarding schools, slave quarters, mission enslavement facilities,” said Tina Calderon, a Native Woman of Gabrielino Tongva and Ventureño Chumash decent, who led an opening blessing. “No matter what label you put on these places, they were all meant to control and dehumanize and break the spirit of the people who are thought to be less than—less than the colonizers, less than human. In our culture, we have respect for all, all of creation. That’s what’s necessary to live in harmony and balance.” “Though few stood up for Japanese Americans in the 1940s,” said Ms. Burroughs, “the Japanese American National Museum is steadfast in its support of any community now being targeted…If we don’t use the power of our voice as an institution to stand up for what is right, to stand up for other communities that are being unjustly targeted, and to recognize that never again is now, history will be repeated. And history does not shout much louder than it is now.” The protest was organized by East West Players, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) - Pacific Southwest District, Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Japanese American National Museum, Kizuna, Little Tokyo Service Center, Manzanar Committee, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Nikkei Progressives, Tuesday Night Project, Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition, Vigilant Love, and Visual Communications.
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PASADENA CHALK FESTIVAL
June 15 and 16 Produced by The Paseo and the Light Bringer Project, as a benefit for the nonprofit arts organization
Sasha Karla Most Humorous
Leo Aguirre Most Inspirational
Ester Petschar
Lacey O’Leary
Shuji Nishimura Community Grand Prize Clifton Gold Best of Chalk of Fame
Mon - Fri 10-8 Sat & Sun 10-6 5053 York Blvd Highland Park, CA 90042 323-274-4469 rosiebunnybean.com
JULY/AUGUST 2019
A NEW QUEEN RISES IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES Seven-story Mural by Judithe Hernández
A new mural by prominent Chicana artist Judith Hernández, La Reina Nueva de Los Ángeles (The New Queen of the Angels), has been installed at the new LA Plaza Village. La Reina Nueva de Los Ángeles is a tribute to the city’s founding patroness, Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles, the Virgin Mary. Originally created as an acrylic painting on canvas, it has been digitized and reproduced on vinyl. The seven-story tall image can be seen from much of the North end of Downtown, including the Hollywood Freeway, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, El Pueblo, the Civic Center, and the immigration detention facility. Judithe Hernández rose to prominence as a Chicana artist in Los Angeles during the 1970s. While studying at Otis College of Art and Design, her fellow classmate was the artist Carlos Almaraz. He introduced her to other members of the influential Chicano artist collective Los Four, and she became their fifth member. After graduating with an M.F.A. in 1974, Ms. Hernández and Mr. Almaraz collaborated on several projects, including creating banners and murals for the United Farm Workers and painting two of the earliest feminist empowerment murals in East Los Angeles at the Ramona Gardens Housing Project.
OXY ARTS & BOB BAKER MARIONETTES ARRIVE IN HIGHLAND PARK Two new arts venues have arrived on York Boulevard in Highland Park this summer. Occidental College has opened Oxy Arts, a community-based arts hub. The center, at the corner of Armadale Avenue will provide a space for introducing arts and arts programming of Occidental to the surrounding community. It will also provide a space for socially conscious dialogue and engagement in the local neighborhood and the region. Programming will draw from a range of the college’s academic disciplines, including Art & Art History, Interdisciplinary Writing, Media Arts & Culture, Music, and Theater. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles institution, The Bob Baker
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“During my professional career I have been the fortunate recipient of many opportunities to create public art in Los Angeles,” says Ms. Hernández. “But among them, the LA Plaza Village development is unique because it represents a full-circle moment in my 45-year career. In 1981, I created Recuerdos de Ayer, Sueños de Mañana, the bicentennial mural for the City of Los Angeles. It was commissioned to commemorate the founding of the city in 1781 and installed on the old Brunswig Garage Building located on what is now the campus of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. The mural, conceived as an homage to the city’s cultural roots in Mexicanidad, depicted the city’s patroness Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles standing against a blue sky with her veil overflowing with the history of the City” That mural was destroyed when the building was demolished in 2002. LA Plaza Village is a 3.7-acre, project being developed by LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (LA Plaza), High Street Residential, Trammell Crow Company, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, Principal Real Estate Investors, and the County of Los Angeles on two former surface parking lots that encompass Spring and Broadway Streets from the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial, between Cesar Chavez Avenue and Arcadia Street. La Reina Nueva de Los Ángeles joins new murals by José Lozano and Miguel Angel Reyes and a coming work by Barbara Carrasco in what is being billed as a new Broadway Mural Corridor.
Judithe Hernández, La Reina Nueva de Los Ángeles
Judithe Hernández, La Reina Nueva de Los Ángeles and Fort Moore from several blocks away on Los Angeles Street Marionette Theater, has moved in up the street near Avenue 50. The 2,000+ hand-crafted Bob Baker puppets have been popular with Los Angeles audiences for 55 years. Their new home was originally built as a theater, so the history of arts in Northeast L.A. continues. The two new venues are working together over the summer, with Bob Baker’s marionettes offering free workshops, shows, and an exhibit at Oxy Arts. www.oxy.edu/oxy-arts www.bobbakermarionettetheater.com
Bob Baker Marionette Theater at Oxy Arts
LA ART NEWS
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Visit us at NELAart.org Northeast Los Angeles Arts Organization, Inc.
July 13, 2019 | 7PM - 10 PM
(Individual gallery hours may vary. CHECK Gallery web sites for individual information. Just because a gallery is listed does not mean it’s open this month) 1
Avenue 50 Studio 131 N. Avenue 50 323.256.1435 avenue50studio.org
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Arroyo Arts Collective @ Ave 50 Studio 131 N. Avenue 50 323.256.1435 arroyoartscollective.org
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Bookshow 5503 N. Figueroa St. www.bookshow.com
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L34 Group 5622 N. Figueroa St. 323.788.1674 L34group.com
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Vapegoat 5054 York Blvd. 323.963.VAPE
Namaste Highland Park 5118 York Blvd. www.namastehighlandpark.com 10 Highland Cafe 5010 York Blvd. 323.259.1000 thehighlandcafela.com The Glass Studio 5668 York Blvd. 323.387.9705 theglassstudio.net Future Studio 5558 N. Figueroa St. 323.254.4565 futurestudiogallery.com
JULY/AUGUST 2019
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Mindfulnest 5050 York Blvd. 323.999.7969 mindfulnest.com
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Curve Line Space 3348 N. Figueroa St. 323.505.7278 curvelinespace.com
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Align Gallery 5045 York Blvd. www.aligngallery.com
Leader of the Pack 17 5110 York Blvd. 323.675.1055 theleaderofthepackvintage.com
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Mi Vida 5159 York Blvd.
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Vintage Tattoo Art Parlor 5115 York Blvd.
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Rock Rose Gallery 4108 N. Figueroa St. 323.635.9125 rockrosegallery.com
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Leanna Lin’s Wonderland 5024 Eagle Rock Blvd. 323.550.1332 leannalinswonderland.com TAJ • ART 1492 Colorado Blvd. www.tajartinc.com
Next Art Walk August 10, 2019
On t
businesses their doors love, get s
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the Second Saturday of Every Month galleries,
s and artists in Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Elysian Valley and Lincoln Heights open s a little later in the evening and welcome visitors. Use this map for locations of art and eateries; grab someone you some dinner, and enjoy some art. Friend NELA Art Gallery Night on Facebook for the updated last minute list.
LA ART NEWS
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NELAART SECOND SATURDAY GALLERY NIGHT JUNE 2019
Germizm, Selenas Germizm, Cobra (Toxic Warfare) Germizm, Pinky (Conart cola) Germizm, Sad Girl The Fine Art of Manual Labor at Avenue 50 Studio
Walpa D’Mark, Lincoln in the Swamp The New Colossus at Eastside International/ESXLA
Heather Hoggan, Connie Rohman, BetZ Ross, Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Perceive. A Community Weaving. Arroyo Arts Collective at Avenue 50 Studio Sid Tehran, La Vida Fresa The Fine Art of Manual Labor at Avenue 50 Studio Roderick Smith, Vulcan Sicilian Fire at Avenue 50 Studio
Shelly Vogel, So What So What Photography from 1965-2015 at Keystone Gallery
JULY/AUGUST 2019
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Erika Bradberry at L34 Group Winston Smith at Ramon’s Rags to Riches Vintage Clothing & Gallery
Johnny ESJ Otilano, The Metamorphosis of the Butterfly Johnny ESJ Otilano, My Guitar, My Song & My Music Healing in Hope at Vapegoat
Clare Graham’s MorYork Gallery Pin Vida at Mi Vida
Moments of Beauty Suzanne Urquiza Paints Her Canyon at Avenue 50 Studio
Frank Whipple Collage Exhibit at MorYork
Frank Whipple Collage Exhibit at MorYork
Clare Graham’s MorYork Gallery
LA ART NEWS
GOATS + YOGA = GOAT YOGA Hello Critter Goats Goat Yoga Goat Disco with Mona Jean at Twinkle Toes Dance Company, July 14
THRIFT SHOP FINDS
Sixth in a Series by Artist Ted Meyer www.tedmeyer.com
JULY/AUGUST 2019
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CYPRESS PARK HOMELESS CONNECT DAY IN CYPRESS PARK
Connecting people experiencing homelessness with resources Presented in partnership with Councilmember Gilbert Cedillo Organized by Monica Alcaraz
FRIEDA’S ROSES Expect big things from Northeast L.A. based band Frieda’s Roses, as the bend members have released their first album while still easily within their teen years. Greta Fannin on guitar and drums, Poppy Lang on vocals and drums, and Ava Miller on vocals and guitar blend well-crafted lyrics with pop sensibility, guitar riffs, and a bit of Bowie. Their album, Jessica’s Triangle, debuted at the Hi Hat in Highland Park in June.
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CLASSES IN NELA
Besides being a haven for artists and creative types, Northeast Los Angeles is the home of a fine array of arts classes, especially the industrial arts, but not limited to them. Below is a list of some of the businesses in the area that have classes. Do check with the facility to verify times and prices of their classes. As we find more places we will bring that information to all of you. Adam’s Forge 2640 N. San Fernando Rd. Los Angeles, CA 90065 Adamsforge.org
Molten Metal Works 3617 San Fernando Rd Glendale, CA 91204 moltenmetalworks.net
Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events.
Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events.
The Glass Studio 5668 York Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90042 323.387.9705 info@theglassstudio.net
Rock Rose Gallery 4108 N. Figueroa Street Highland Park, CA 90065 (323) 635-9125 www.rockrosegallery.com Visit: Rock Rose Gallery News, Instagram & Twitter
Check www.theglassstudio.com . Toros Pottery 4962 Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90041 323.344.8330 Blue Rooster Art Supply Company blueroosterartsupplies.com blue@blueroosterartsupplies.com 4661 Hollywood Blvd LA, CA 90027 (323) 302-5613 Check their web site for more information about their classes and events. Ave 50 Studio 131 No. Avenue 50 323. 258.1435 avenue50studio.org Guitar Lessons. Salsa Lessons too! Check their web site for more information for this and other classes. Center for the Arts Eagle Rock 2225 Colorado Blvd. Eagle Rock, CA 90041 info@cfaer.org (323) 561-3044 www.cfaer.org Check out their web site for a wide variety of fun classes for all ages.
Community Woodshop 3617 San Fernando Rd Glendale, CA 91204 626.808.3725 www.community woodshopla.com
Please check their web site for more information and a list of classes. Stained Glass Supplies 19 Backus Street Pasadena, CA 91107 626-219-6055 Classes are ongoing
A Place to Bead 2566 Mission St San Marino, CA 91108 626.219.6633 aplace2bead.com
Barndall Art Park 4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027 323.644.6295 http://www.barnsdall.org
Find a variety of jewelry making classes, including stringing and wirework.
Check they’re web site for upcoming classes.
Bullseye Glass 143 Pasadena Ave. South Pasadena, CA bullseyeglass.com
Los Angeles County Store 4333 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039 / 323-928-2781
They offer a full range of kiln forming glass classes as well as regular free artist talks.
Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events.
Leanna Lin’s Wonderland 5024 Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90041 323.550.1332 leannalinswonderland.com
Sugar Mynt Gallery 810 Meridian Ave. South Pasadena, CA 626.222.7257 sugarmynt.com
Check Leanna’s web site for a current list of workshops and events.
Paint and Pinot Twice a month. Check their web site for more detail.
Fahrenheit Ceramics 4200 N. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90042 323.576.2052 fahrenheitceramics.com
Holy Grounds Coffee & tea 5371 Alhambra Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90032 323.222.8884
SUPER CLEAN TURKEY TACOS These Paleo Turkey Tacos, also known as “Super Clean Turkey Tacos” are a simple and delicious way to get a nutritious dinner on the table, without the unwanted carbs and grease that come with a traditional taco. For something a little more filling, some diced red potatoes or yams would go great mixed into the turkey. You can use traditional Mexican pickled vegetables, or your favorite sauerkraut from the Farmers Market or grocery store. I used Wildbrine Organic Red Cabbage Sauerkraut and it was delicious!
Check out their workshops!
Cook until tomatoes blend into the mix, add the liquid aminos, then simmer on low heat until all the juices evaporate (about 10 minutes). When the turkey mix is ready, taste for salt and pepper and adjust if needed. Arrange lettuce leaves on a plate and fill each one with the mix like a taco. Top each taco with some of the fermented cabbage, and then garnish with some of the avocado and cilantro at the end. Serve as is or with your favorite healthy salsa.
Makes 8 tacos 8 Romaine Boston lettuce leaves 1 tbsp. coconut oil 1 pound ground lean, organic turkey breast 1/2 onion, chopped 1 tomato, diced 1 tbsp. mild chile powder 1 tsp. ground cumin 2 cloves chopped garlic 2 tsp. liquid aminos 1 avocado, diced Fresh chopped cilantro for garnish 1 cup fermented cabbage or vegetables In a large skillet or saute pan, heat coconut oil and add the onions. Cook onions until they start to become tender, then add the turkey, spices, and tomato.
Harvey Slater is a Chef & Holistic Nutritionist located in Pasadena. For more healthy recipes like this one check out his blog: thewholedishblog.com
LA ART NEWS
MADRES INMIGRANTES AT ROCK ROSE GALLERY
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by Tomas J. Benitez
My first foray into agit-prop political artmaking was as a young teatrista in the early 1970’s. I had been a theatre student, dutifully reading through my required reading list, and I was also an active MEChA student, participating in organized protests and cultural events with great vigor. But Teatro Chicano was the perfect merger of the passion in my heart and blood, and gave me the opportunity to use my creativity to voice my protest to social injustice and express my anti-Viet Nam War sentiments, as well as express sheer cultural pride and identity during that era. Art and politics have been merged in the national dialog since the days of Thomas Nast’s satirical cartoons, and actually go back to songs of derision and protest against King George prior to the declaration of independence. The artists have always been at the vanguard of the social climate, willing to offer their reaction, insight, and barbed critique. During the anti-Viet Nam war and Civil Rights Movement in the age of protest and social action throughout the 1960’s, artists in all mediums created work that still resonates today, long after the didactic and all the shouting has died down, underscoring their critical importance to the national debate and consciousness. Each generation of political unrest has been met with great art, art of protest, art of response and wisdom; art that mocks the powerful status quo. Rock Rose Gallery, a 20-year-old multi-cultural arts incubator for the Visual and Performing Arts, in Highland Park, will be hosting a night of poetry and song on Saturday, July 27th, 7 p.m. until we are done. In tandem with the current exhibition, Madres Inmigrantes (Immigrant Mothers), the evening will be an open forum for poets and singers to respond to the current immigration policy, injustices and abuses. The evening will offer participants one five-minute maximum spot to speak truth to power, vent anger and sorrow, and fight back with love, creativity and wisdom. You can sign up, to be heard by emailing Rosamaria Marquez at rockroseart@yahoo.com or calling her at (323) 6359125. You can also just show up and sign up that night, in first come, first served. Each of the poets, writers, singers, jugglers, contortionists and whoever has something to say but in a creative style will have a ONE shot, five minutes max, to add to the growing exquisite corpse of a creative community voice. The night will be documented and recorded with video and radio broadcast quality. Each person who appears will be asked to sign a waiver
JULY/AUGUST 2019
for use of image. It will be my honor to serve as a co-host for the evening. The gallery is also making an open call to visual artists to come add their work to the current exhibition in a salon style response as well. Work must be no larger than 18” x24”, MUST be ready to hang on a wall and for sale. Prints are welcome. Three dimensional or installation work must be approved beforehand, so call Rosamaria at the studio to make arrangements. All work will be displayed through August 11th. Some people want to build walls, we want to build community, BUT we will also be building a wall that night. A mural wall, to be completed by anyone wanting to add their touch, a drawing or sketch, graffiti, or attaching their small work to the wall in a collage of more voices and good hearts. None of the work that is attached to the mural wall will be returned to the artists, but the mural wall will be displayed for a month after the show and we are making plans to have it seen at other venues in Southern California. A number of immigrant rights and immigrant advocates groups have been invited to set up and disseminate material. If you would like to bring your resource literature, please call Rosamaria. The event is free. Refreshments will be available but feel free to bring food, drink and snacks. Rock Rose Gallery is located at 4108 N. Figueroa in Highland Park. Street parking. Come be a part of the night, come let out your voice and vision, come build a community voice against racist hate. (Tomas Benitez was born and raised in front of a TV set in East L.A. His film SALSA: The Movie was produced in 1988. He has also written for Fred Roos, Starz Encore Films, CBS, and several other producers. In recent years he has written extensively about East Los Angeles including an ongoing, online saga about his home life, titled “The Gully”. Several of his stories about East L.A. and The Gully have been published by Blue Heron in an anthology of new American fiction, and he is editing two addition collections to be published in 2018. Tomas is the former Executive Director of Self Help Graphics & Art.)
Madam X
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SUMMER READING Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was named the United States Poet Laureate in June. Appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Ms. Harjo is the 23rd Poet Laureate of the nation and the first Native American to hold the position. She is the author of eight books of poetry. A member of the Mvskoke Nation, she lives in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Harjo’s memoir, Crazy Brave, published in 2012, and the winner of the 2013 PEN Center USA literary prize for creative nonfiction, is a good book for our time. It is a story of resurrection after abuse and of becoming the artist one knows herself in her soul to be, even when much of the world seems to say that is inappropriate for a native American, or a woman, or a single mother, or a person in poverty. “What a tremendous honor it is to be named the U.S. Poet Laureate,” Ms. Harjo said upon being named to the position. “I share this honor with ancestors and teachers who inspired in me a love of poetry, who taught that words are powerful and can make change when understanding appears impossible, and how time and timelessness can live together within a poem. I count among these ancestors and teachers my Muscogee Creek people, the librarians who opened so many doors for all of us, and the original poets of the indigenous tribal nations of these lands, who were joined by diverse peoples from nations all over the world to make this country and this country’s poetry.”
Joy Harjo (photo: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress) Joy Harjo, Crazy Brave W.W. Norton, 2012
THE MUELLER REPORT IN ITS ENTIRETY
Highland Park residents and friends read the Mueller Report cover to cover on June 15. It took approximately 17 hours. About 30 readers and a gaggle helpful cohorts undertook the effort at Avenue 50 Studio, and 2,511 people checked in via the internet. Brian Mallman’s introduction to the reading: “There are certain times in history when we are called upon to do our part as citizens of a free country. “Most of the time our responsibilities are small. However, There have been times in the development of this great country when men and women have been called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to defend our democracy, and the institutions that it depends on. We owe it to them to be responsible citizens. “At this moment we have been called upon to do a simple task. We have been asked to read and understand a document. This document may or may not be one of the most important documents in our history. It is up to us to read it objectively, and decide as individuals what our next steps as free people should be… “Reading and understanding this document is a responsibility that we should not take lightly. We owe it to the people who sacrificed everything in order for us to have the freedom to decide our democracies fate. Thank You.” “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” —The Mueller Report
LA ART NEWS
MUSEUM LISTINGS
A Roundup of Arts and Culture Exhibits at L.A. Area Museums MUSEUM LISTINGS A Roundup of Arts and Culture Exhibits at L.A. Area Museums A + D Museum www.aplusd.org Re:Solutions through August 18 Reshape, the installation art of Adrian K. Wong through August 18 Spatial Interventions: Axis // Alex Ventura, Dense // David Zajdman, Eder Cetina, Eyeone // Raymundo T Reynoso, Fishe, Heaven One // Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez, Keef Aura through August 18 American Museum of Ceramic Art www.amoca.org Juan Quezada: The Legend of Mata Ortiz through December 30 En Iwamura: Legacy in the Vault through June 30 The Artists of Mettlach through July 2020 Silver Splendor: The Art of Anna Silver through August 25 John Toki: Fault Lines through June 23 Annenberg Space for Photography www.annenbergphotospace.org Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop through August 18 Autry Museum of the American West www.theautry.org Investigating Griffith Park ongoing On Fire: Transcendent Landscapes by Michael Scott through July 28 Indian Country: The Art of David Bradley Through January 5 Coyote Leaves the Res: The Art of Harry Fonseca through January 5 The Banning Museum www.thebanningmuseum.org Fashioning the Fan: Innovations & Materials Within the 19th Century ongoing The Broad www.thebroad.org Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power through September 1 Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms ongoing California African American Museum www.caamuseum.org Ernie Barnes: A Retrospective through September 8 Gary Simmons: Fade to Black through 2019 Adia Millett: Breaking Patterns through August 25 The Liberator: Chronicling Black Los Angeles, 1900-1914 through September 8 Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary through August 25 Aspects of Nude: Selections from the Permanent Collection through September 8 California Heritage Museum www.californiaheritagemuseum.org Lou D’Elia, Some Assemblage Required Lou D’Elia, Project: Warhol California Science Center www.californiasciencecenter.org Dogs! A Science Tail
JULY/AUGUST 2019
Science in Toyland
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Chinese American Museum www.camla.org Lightscapes: Re-envisioning the Shanshuihua through November 10 Claremont Museum of Art www.claremontmuseum.org Andrew Wenrick, Displacement Zero through August 25 Craft Contemporary www.cafam.org John T. Riddle, The Riddle Effect through September 8 On the Inside, group exhibition of LGBTQ+ artists who are currently incarcerated through September 8
Meleko Mokgosi June 22-August 18 Heritage Square Museum www.heritagesquare.org 50 Years of History at Heritage Square through December 31 The Huntington www.huntington.org Celia Paul through July 8 NASA’s Orbit Pavillion Sound Experience through September 2 Project Blue Boy through September 30
El Segundo Museum of Art www.esmoa.org OZ, celebration of L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz” through September 21
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles www.theicala.org Patty Chang: The Wandering Lake, 2009-2017 through August 3 Lucas Blalock, An Enormous Oar through July 31 Maryam Jafri: I Drank the Kool-Aid But I Didn’t Inhale through June 30
FIDM Museum www.fidmmuseum.org Graduating BA in Design Student Exhibition through June 29
Italian American Museum of Los Angeles www.iamla.org Fantasy World: Italian Americans in Animation through January 25
Forest Lawn Museum www.forestlawn.com Closed for renovations
J. Paul Getty Museum www.getty.edu The Getty Center: Bauhaus Beginnings June 11-October 13 Reading Between the Lines: Drawing Illustrations through September 15 The Wondrous Cosmos in Medieval Manuscripts through July 21 Mapping Space: Recent Acquisitions in Focus through July 14 Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits through October 13 J. Paul Getty Life and Legacy ongoing Greek and Roman Sculpture from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art ongoing Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World through August 18 Flight of Fancy: The Galle Chandelier through April 19
Fowler Museum at UCLA www.fowler.ucla.edu Guatemalan Masks: Selections from the Jim and Jeanne Pieper Collection April 7-October 6 Dressed with Distinction: Garments from Ottoman Syria through August 18 Inheritance: Recent Video Art From Africa through July 28 Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives ongoing India’s Subterranean Stepwells: Photographs by Victoria Lautman through October 20 Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art www.arts.pepperdine.edu Squeak Carnwath: How the Mind Works through July 28 The Grammy Museum www.grammymuseum.org Deep Heart: Roots, Rock & the Music of Carlos Vives through Spring, 2019 Cheech & Chong: Still Rollin’—Celebrating 40 Years of Up in Smoke through Summer, 2019 Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Popular Music and the National Pastime through Fall, 2019 The Prison Concerts: Folsom and San Quentin ( Jim Marshall’s Photographs of Johnny Cash) through August 5 Backstreet Boys: The Experience through September 2 Hammer www.hammer.ucla.edu Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel through September 1 Celebration of Our Enemies: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection through September 8 Hammer Projects: Yunhee Min through October 27 Triple Canopy, Omniaudience through November 3 Hammer Projects: Andrea Fraser through September 15 Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection:
Japanese American National Museum www.janm.org Kaiju vs Heroes: Mark Nagata’s Journey through the World of Japanese Toys extended to July 7 At First Light: The Dawning of Asian Pacific America through October 20 Kidspace Children’s Museum www.kidspacemuseum.org LA Plaza de Cultura Y Artes www.lapca.org Linda Vallejo: Brown Belongings through January 13 La Brea Tar Pits & Museum www.tarpits.org Mammoths & Mastodons through 2019 Lancaster Museum of Art and History www.lancastermoah.org Woven Stories Featured Solo Exhibitions: Ray Beldner, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, Victoria Potrovitza, Katherine Stocking-Lopez, Nicola Vruwink Installations: Rebecca Campbell, Peter Hiers, R. Rex Parris High School, Meriel Stern, Victor Wilde Group Fiber Exhibition through-July 21
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continued from page 22 Los Angeles County Museum of Art www.lacma.org The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China through January 5 Beyond Line: The Art of Korean Writing June 16-September 29 Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection through September 15 Isaac Julien: Playtime through August 11 Life Model: Charles White and His Students (at Charles White Elementary School) through September 15 Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikats from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection through August 11 The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka through June 23 Eleanor Antin: Time’s Arrow through July 28 Between the Lines: Typography in LACMA’s Collection ongoing Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust www.lamoth.org Women at the Frontline of Mass Violence Wordwide through August 31 The Last Goodbye: A Virtual Reality Experience ongoing Messengers of Memory: Survivors Empowering Students through August 31 MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House www.makcenter.org Constanze Schweiger and 69: Continuous Composition (at the Mackey Apartments) through June 29 Marciano Art Foundation www.marcianoartfoundation.org Museum of Contemporary Art www.moca.org MOCA Grand Cameron Rowland, D37 through June 24 Open House: Elliott Hundley, exploring collage through September 16 40 for LA, celebrates the forty-year history of MOCA through September 16 The Geffen Contemporary The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA’s Collection through January 27 Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Questions) (1990/2018) through November, 2020
Museum of Latin American Art www.molaa.org Gráfica América through September 1 Chiachio & Giannone: Celebrating Diversity through August 4 Museum of Neon Art www.neonmona.org shiNE ON, Two Artists Remembered: Brian Coleman (1945 – 2018) and Kunio Ohashi (1952 – 2014) through September 1 Signs from the Permanent Collection through September 1 Museum of Tolerance www.museumoftolerance.com Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County www.nhm.org Barbara Carrasco, Sin Censura, Un Mural Recuerda L.A., A Mural Remembers L.A. ongoing Antarctic Dinosaurs through January 5 Frozen in Time: Images of Antarctica by photographer Diane Tuft through January 20 Becoming Los Angeles ongoing Norton Simon Museum www.nortonsimon.org Matisse/Odalisque through June 17
Torrance Art Museum torranceartmuseum.com Generation W(ar) June 15-August 24 Run Straight Through, contemporary painting byTahnee Lonsdale, Kristy Luck, Michael Nauert, Thom Trojanowski June 15-August 24 University Art Museum, California State University Long Beach www.csulb.edu/university-art-museum USC Fisher Museum of Art www.fisher.usc.edu USC Pacific Asia Museum www.pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu Tsuruya Kōkei: Modern Kabuki Prints Revised & Revisited through July 14 Vincent Price Art Museum www.vincentpriceartmuseum.org Edgar Fabián Frías: Perpetual Flowering through July 20 York Chang: The Signal and the Noise through July 20 Carolina Caycedo: Apariciones/Apparitions June 15-December 21 Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers): The World You know is a Fiction. You Know We Had to Do a Remix, Right? Vignettes of the Frenglish Empire in North America (1780-1795) June 15-December 21
Pasadena Museum of History www.pasadenahistory.org Giddy Up: Children Take the Reins, exploring the world of carousel animals and childhood toys that rock, bounce, & roll through September 15 Pomona College Museum of Art www.pomona.edu/museum/ Skirball Cultural Center www.skirball.org Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite through September 1 Spotlight: Andy Warhol, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century through September 1 Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich through September 1 Southwest Museum www.theautry.org/visit/mt-washington-campus
LA ART NEWS
DOWNTOWN SITES RECEIVE MONUMENT STATUS
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GRAND CENTRAL MARKET AND MILLION DOLLAR THEATRE The Los Angeles City Council added two sites important to the cultural history of the Central City to its list of Historic Cultural Monuments in early July. The Grand Central Market building was completed on South Broadway in 1898 with an addition in 1905. It is listed as part of the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, which is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places. The initial Beaux Arts building was designed by John Parkinson (City Hall, Coliseum, Bullock’s Wilshire, Union Station), and the annex by Thornton Fitzhugh and Harrison Albright. The reinforced concrete buildings were considered the first fireproof buildings in the region. Originally, the structure housed a dry goods store, followed by a department store. Grand Central Market was established on the ground floor and basement levels in 1917. The basement functioned as a farmer’s market where farmers sold produce directly to customers. In the 1920s, it served a well-off population, with its easy access from Bunker Hill and the Broadway entertainment venues. At one time, it had a ladies’ restaurant and a tea room. The building has continually served as a popular shopping destination while reflecting demographic changes Downtown for over a century. “After World War II, the affluent residents that shopped at the market in its early days were drawn to the suburbs,” says the monument application prepared by GPA Consulting on behalf of owner Adam Daneshgar. “The Victorian mansions of Bunker Hill were demolished for new development and Angel’s Flight Railway closed. However, Grand Central Market endured. Individual merchants had always catered to a range of ethnic groups as the demographics of downtown Los Angeles changed over time, including early communities of Italian, Jewish, Russian and German immigrants downtown, followed by the Latino community that emerged after the war, by offering a variety of uncommon or otherwise unavailable products and dishes that appealed to their respective tastes and foodways.” The Million Dollar Theatre, located next door to Grand Central Market at South Broadway and Third Street, was completed in 1918, as a movie theatre and office tower designed by architect Albert C. Martin. It too is listed as part of the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, and it has a solo listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is a marvel of ornamentation, with a decorative ceiling dubbed “Cleopatra’s Jewel Box” and an abundance of sculpted flora, fauna, gargoyles, and personas inspired by the film and theater industries. The interior was designed by William C. Woolett (inspired by an English Fairytale) and the facade by Joseph Mora. The theatre has played a role entertainment history in several capacities. Its projection technology was considered revolutionary for the time, and the projection booth is intact. The building is important for its association with movie palace pioneer Sid Grauman, the original operator (The Million Dollar Theatre was his first project in Los Angeles), for its place among the theatres of South Broadway where glamorous movie premiers took place, for its jazz and big band shows featuring such stars as Billie Holiday and Artie Shaw, and, beginning in 1950, as a showcase for Mexican Vaudeville acts and Spanish language movies and television. Names associated with the theatre include Dolores del Río, Lucho Gatica, and María Félix.The theatre continued its central role in Latinx performing arts until it was sold in 1989. “The theater programmers at this time [the second half of the twentieth century] provided a variety of high quality entertainment for an underserved niche of the market through their live entertainment and television programs,” says the application. The theatre building is currently in need of some serious work. The Grand Central Market and the Million Dollar Theatre were related from the beginning. The market was created as the Homer Laughlin Building at a time of tremendous growth in Los Angeles. As South Broadway became the entertainment district of the newly bustling metropolis, Homer Laughlin looked for someone to manage a theatre portion of his complex. He found that person in newcomer Sid Grauman, whose name soon became legendary in Hollywood.
Food stalls adjacent to the sidewalk at the Grand Central Market, c. 1937 (Los Angeles Public Library Digital Photo Collection via Historic Cultural Monument application)
The Million Dollar Theatre
Grand Central Market
JULY/AUGUST 2019
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TO OBLIVION SANDRA DE LA LOZA AT LACE
To enter Sandra de la Loza’s “To Oblivion: The Speculator’s Eden” at LACE is to enter a Los Angeles without time. It is to enter a streetcar tunnel on the last day of the existence of the Pacific Electic Car line in 1955, only to find oneself transported into a conglomeration of past experiences: an early 20th-century streetcar line, a segment of the Camino Real bearing an ominous procession of missionaries and settlers, an ancestral route for indigenous groups, a trail for coyotes and other animals, and a waterway for native plants. There is also the possibility that one could head in the other direction, the direction of the future, as the final Pacific Electric Line is heading toward the viewer bearing a banner that reads “To Oblivion.” Everything here is fragmented; shards of different epochs have sharp edges. Beauty mixes with devastation. Ghosts and artifacts materialize. “The Speculator’s Eden” is the latest iteration in an ongoing project, “To Oblivion.” This piece focuses on the Cahuenga Pass, the path that connects Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, which is now occupied by the Hollywood Freeway. The pass brings up images of dreams--Tinsel Town, the arrival of water, the creation of working class suburbs. The “To Oblivion” banner is prescient, and the installation forces one to ponder just how much of the dream is sustainable and whether there can be a link between the ghosts of what came before unbridled development and any optimism for the generations to come. The exhibition also includes a selection of related short films curated by¬†Penelope Uribe-Abee.
“There it is, take it!” Film by Cosmo Segurson, Ashley Ruiz, Chloe Reyes, Ellie Parker, Frankie Orendorff, Lisa Marr, Marilyn Hernandez, Paolo Davanzo, Andrew Becerra
To Oblivion: The Speculator’s Eden by Sandra de la Loza Through September 1 LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) 6522 Hollywood Boulevard www,welcometolace.org
To Oblivion: The Speculator’s Eden by Sandra de la Loza (Image: LACE)
“There it is, take it!” Film by Cosmo Segurson, Ashley Ruiz, Chloe Reyes, Ellie Parker, Frankie Orendorff, Lisa Marr, Marilyn Hernandez, Paolo Davanzo, Andrew Becerra
To Oblivion: The Speculator’s Eden by Sandra de la Loza
SANTA MONICA TURNS BACK ON MILLARD SHEETS MURAL An iconic mural in in the City of Santa Monica is no longer on public view there. Millard Sheet’s beach scene mural designed for the Home Savings building at Wilshire Boulevard and 26th Street is being relocated to Chapman University in Orange County. According to the Santa Monica Conservancy, the move comes as the result of the City’s settlement of a lawsuit brought by the property owner. The settlement reverses the 2013 landmark designation for the site. The settlement allows not only for the removal of the mural, but also for the ultimate demolition of the building. The City had the opportunity to find a new local home for the mural, but it either tried and was unsuccessful or it did not try. The mosaic mural was the most famous of several murals integral to the architecture of the 1970 building. The former Home Savings building in Santa Monica (photo: Santa Monica Conservancy)
Millard Sheets mural, Pleasures Along the Beach (photo: Pete Leonard, via the Santa Monica Conservancy)
LA ART NEWS
GUATEMALAN MASKS:
SELECTIONS FROM THE JIM AND JEANNE PIEPER COLLECTION A selection of some 80 Guatemalan masks on view at the Fowler Museum at UCLA bring to life indigenous and colonial cultures—and the clashes and melding thereof. The carved wooden masks depict a wide variety of beings, including animals, historic figures, conquistadors, warriors, saints, and deities. They pertain to highly scripted dances and pageantry, much of which dates back centuries. The dances carry on historic traditions and obligation, teach history through theatricality, and serve as centerpieces for community life. Today the dances are often sponsored by religious organizations known as cofradías. The masks are made, repaired, and rented out by family-owned businesses, which the exhibit presents as playing a significant role in the continuation of the celebrations. The masks are all from the collection of Jeanne and Jim Pieper. “For more than 50 years, Jim and Jeanne Pieper have traveled to Guatemala, attending festivities across the country, and meeting with carvers, masqueraders and Maya priests to assemble a collection of masks that retain their energy from years of use,” said Marla C. Berns, Shirley & Ralph
26 Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. “Their documentation adds immeasurably to the value of this collection, and its potential for future study and teaching.” Guatemalan Masks: Selections from the Jim and Jeanne Pieper Collection Through October 6 Curated by Patrick Polk Fowler Museum at UCLA www.fowler.ucla.edu
San Simón/Maximón, ca. 1992 San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá department, Guatemala
Tecún Umán, one of the last rulers of the K’iche’ Maya kingdom, ca. early-mid-20th century Totonicapán department, Guatemala Bull, Dances of Bulls and Cowboys, ca. mid-20th century Central Highlands, Guatemala Patrón, ca. early-20th century Totonicapán department, Guatemala Cowboy or Hunter, ca. early-mid-20th century Totonicapán District, Guatemala Mexicano, ca. early-mid-20th century Totonicapån deparment, Guatemala Mexicano, ca. early-mid-20th century Totonicapån deparment, Guatemala
Monkey, ca. 18th-19th century Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala
Bull, ca. late-19th-early-20th century Guatemala
JULY/AUGUST 2019
THE ART OF THE ARCHIVE
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Photographs from the Los Angeles Police Archive An exhibit of photographs at House of Lucie in Downtown Los Angeles leads viewers to ponder what documentary photography is, what art photography is, and whether there is overlap between the two fields. The photographs in the exhibit are police photos, most of them of crime scenes. They are drawn from an amazing discovery in 2000 of a warehouse full of negatives, some dating back as far as the 1920s. The negatives were rotting, and the warehouse was a fire hazard. Fototeka gallery was given access to the warehouse by the Los Angeles Police Department and the City Council, and Fototeka began the task of archiving notable images. Certainly, the images were not originally intended as art. Yet, now, in 2019, they are on the walls of a photography gallery. There is no doubt that they are of historic merit. And there is a certain element of voyeurism in not being able to look away from a crime scene. There are celebrities, and there are forever anonymous subjects living on the edges of mainstream society. Perhaps the artistic merit comes from a romanticizing of history. Perhaps it comes via the black and white film noir contrasts of the imagery. Perhaps it comes from Los Angeles itself: sunlight and neon and a once full-fledged river. Perhaps it comes from the fact that the photographers, whether by intentional action or not, captured the souls of some of their subjects in their work. “Rarely is the presence of a photographer as witness felt so strongly as in these images,” reads the gallery’s statement about the show.
Art of the Archive House of Lucie
The Art of the Archive Photographs from the Los Angeles Police Archive Presented by House of Lucie and fototeka Through August 11 Row DTLA 777 South Alameda Street www.luciefoundation.org
Seated woman in fur smoking February 4, 1049 Photographer: Walker (Photo: Lucie Foundation)
Art of the Archive House of Lucie
Kidnapping suspect displays hand February 9, 1933 Photographer: Driver Female Slumped in car April 2, 1951 Photographer: H. Epling Booking photo of male with powdered face September 17, 1947 Photographer: P. Baker
Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short) body in field January 15, 1947 Photographer: Laursen Actress Thelma Todd December 16, 1935 Photographer: Howatt Female in slip revealing back August 11, 1932 Photographer: Stewart Miles Davis: right arm with needle marks Miles Davis: left arm with needle marks September 16, 1950 Photographer: PB
LA ART NEWS