saying goodbye: emmeric konrad

GLORIA DELSON CONTEMPORARY ARTS HOST TRIBUTE TO EMMERIC KONRAD

Photo by RICK MENDOZA

It is with great sadness that we report the death late last week of Emmeric Konrad, one of the greatest and most talented artists to emerge from the LA art scene and a kind, brilliant and generous friend.

He will be profoundly missed. Just a couple of weeks before Emmeric passed, Tara Thomas died. She was another brilliant light of the arts community. Tara was a chef extraordinaire, entrepreneur, collector — and above all a benefactor whose generosity sustained and vitalized the art community. In light of Emmeric’s passing, his works will be displayed for exhibition only, not for sale. GDCA will host a tribute to Emmeric and Tara on opening night. This show explores the historical landscape of the DTLA art scene. The curatorial collaboration of Jonathan Jerald and Petra Wright assembles a three-part show, including an exhibition of eight widely divergent LA artists, an extensive collection of works by Emmeric Konrad and Rick Robinson’s 50 ‘Pink Fist’ wall sculptures offered as a fundraiser to help register voters (more at www.pinkfist.com) The signature voices of these artists are LA trademarks – as recognizable as they are evocative of the brutal sophistication that is DTLA Bohemia.

Emmeric Konrad’s exhibition, “BRING TEQUILA”, features old and new paintings, drawings and prints. Konrad’s work is exuberant, provocative and often profane. With signature bold, gestural strokes he explores with brutal honesty, keen intuition and dark humor the human condition from innocence to the orgiastic. Group Show Participants are: Mark Brosmer, Michele Castagnetti, Edem Elesh, Tanner Goldbeck, Gronk, Kathe Madrigal, Antonio Mendoza, Rick Robinson, and Bill Sherwood.