A visit to Bergamot Station Galleries on Thursday

The many galleries at Bergamot Station on Michigan in Santa Monica are continually changing their exhibits and several were in process when I roamed through.  Below is what I discovered today.

Below are two paintings from the Patrick Painter West Gallery by Andrew Piedilato from Brooklyn, NY.  The press release states "Through this body of work, Piedilato resolves issues of space, color and juxtaposition...the artist's struggle with blank space on the canvas, both literally and figuratively...with their energetic combinations of texture, color and motif, each painting functions as an entire world within itself."

"Q-bert," 2008

"Notebook Paper," 2009

The next stop was the Craig Krull Gallery and several artist.  The first is Phranc, an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades, and is known for her cardboard and craft fine art.  Born as Susan Gottlieb in Santa Monica in 1957, she still resides there.

These look like winter clothing and toys hung on a wall.  They are actually made of card board as the close ups below better show.

"Girl's Anorak with Mittens," 2013



Paintings by Nicole Strasburg, 2013



The Rosamund Felsen Gallery had just installed an exhibit of the works of Jean Lowe:  Lost Time.  The West Gallery houses an installation of a library with sections ranging from Food and Wine to Religion and Spirituality, these titles "comment on various aspects of contemporary culture."    What looks like actual books on shelves is actually a digitalized rendering of the papier-mache books Lowe has been fabricating since 1994.

My favorite in this section is at the bottom of my piccture "Freelancing in the New Economy"...yest that is a stick up.

The Talisman fine Art gallery featured photography by Paula Stoeke.

"Demeter's First Love From the Series Myth and Memory" by Paula Stoeke

The Skidmore Contemporary Art Gallery featured the oil paintings of Kelly Reemtsen.  She shows fancily dressed women with interesting tools...don't mess with them.

"Shear Pleasure" 2011

The TAG Gallery has a group show of all 41 of their artists.  A reception and silent auction will be held on the 25th to support the Santa Monica Malibu Educatioon Foundation.

Peter Kempson created this portrait of the Queen using mixed media.  If you look closely you will see photos of members of the royal family including lace on the right created by wedding pictures of the Queen and other members of the family.

"Steven Spielberg, Director" you can see that Peter Kempson references many of Spielberg's pictures.

Ernie Marjoram painted with oil these tempting treats. 

The JNA Gallery was featuring a group show.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

This delicious oil painting is "Lime Emotion" by Ganna Halvorsen

This playful acrylic on canvas, "Hockney," takes David Hockney's swimming pool scene a step further with an overflow caused by the dive and the need for sandbags.  It is by Ervin Kaplan.

This was just hung at the William Turner Gallery for a show that begins Saturday called "Shape Shift" with works by Charles Arnoldi, Dawn Arrowsmith, Michael Braden and Peter Lodato.

"A Far Country: Gaman Birds of Masato Wayne Sumida at the Armory Centerfor the Arts in Pasadena

My friend Jim and I roamed through the Armory Center in Pasadena to view the current exhibitions.  We were most interested in the birds and animals carved and painted by Masato Wayne Sumida while interned at Poston War Relocation Center in La Paz County, Arizona during World War II.  The Relocation Center was located on a reservation three miles east of the Colorado River and was the largest Japanese internment camp, known for its poor sanitation and unsettling relations between the interned Japanese and the Colorado Native Americans who remained on the land.

Sumida's carvings - between 1" and 5' - depict a variety of brightly colored creatures...most of them beautiful birds.  His practice was associated with "gaman," the Japanese Zen Buddhist term that refers to the idea of bearing through suffering with dignity and patience.  After the beginning of the war, ethnic Japanese were notified that they would be relocated within a week and could take only what they could carry.  After working to make the camps more livable, they turned to arts that symbolized their resilience and composure. 

Sumida's granddaughter and her husband found the items stored in a large trash can in her grandparents' garage after their death in 1999.  They began preserving the collection.

Masato Wayne Sumida was born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1903 and orphaned at an early age.  When he was 14, he took a boat to Mexico, arriving there illegally.  He later swam across the Rio Grande River to enter the US.  He worked as a gardener in Boyle Heights before being interned and later worked as a sign painter in Gardena.

Roaming through the Huntington Gardens and Galleries on January 6th

It was a beautiful day for lunch in the gardens and a stroll around this amazing place.  I roamed through the American Art gallery and enjoyed a few favorites and found a couple of new acquisitions.  They also had an exhibit on Junipero Serra and the California missions that was on view for the last day. 

San Gabriel Mission

Carmel Mission 1875 by Jules Tavernier, oil on canvas

Coleslaw anyone?

"The Long Leg" 1930 by Edward Hopper 1882-1967
This beautiful painting is also one of isolation, melancholy and loneliness.  The sail boat near Long Point Light at Provincetown, Massachusetts is sailing against the wind by zigzagging, short and long tacks, or legs. 
No people are visible on the boat or on the shore.  Hopper is considered an American Realist but the mood of isolation reflects the spirit of Modernism.

This new acquisition is entitled " Breaker Boys" 1925 by George Luks, 1867-1933 is an oil on canvas.

"Portrait of Laura (Laura Bellows Mouett) 1915 by George Wesley Bellows, 1882-1925.  The description of the painting says that Bellows was Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism into the painting with "bold, almost jarring, juxtaposition of color." Bellows was a member of the "Ashean School" and previously had gained success with paintings of boxing  and other sports.  His last paintings were of a more personal nature.  He died at age 43.

The final exhibit I visited was in the Boone Gallery.  It is entitled "Face to Face Flanders, Florence, and Renaissance Painting."  The 35 works from the Huntington Collection and from around the world demonstrate the strong artists connection that Flanders artists had on Florence artists.  Flanders was a country that is now a part of Belgium.  It was a major banking center including a branch of the Medici Bank from Florence, Italy.  Both cities had citizens of great wealth who kept artists busy with painting or sculpting their portraits or works for their churches and palaces.  Here are a couple of examples:



This is a portrait diptych - a devotional image paired with a portrait of the owner on two hinged panels.  Members of the ruling elite in Flanders used diptychs to promote their private devotion.  These are painted by Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464).  The the left is "Virgin and Child" 1460 and on the right is "Portrait of Philippe de Croy," 1460.  The right painting belongs to a museum in Antwerp, Belgium the former capitol of Flanders and home of Peter Paul Rubens which I visited in 1964.  The left painting belongs to the Huntington.



"Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa" at LACMA

A History of Mexican film making, photography and art since the revolution that began in 1910 and lasted for 10 years is shown on the main floor of the Art of America's building.  It is a large and very impressive exhibit where I learn a little about Mexican history during the last century and the many artists who recorded it.

"From the early 1930's through the early 1980's, the Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997) helped forge an evocative and enduring image of Mexico."  In the 1930's his friend included Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco and others who "sought to convey the country's transformation following the trauma of the Mexican Revolution."  Later he worked with directors like John Huston.  The exhibit shows film clips, paintings, photographs, posters and documents.  The works demonstrate the beauty and command of actors like Delores Del Rio who were star in the mid century.

Figueroa made over 200 films where his cinematographer displays incredible skills.  Below is a sampling of what I saw.  There were also several early films of which I viewed portions.

"The Soldiers," 1926 by Jose Clemente Orozco, Mexican 1883-1949 oil on canvas

"Still from Enemies," 1933 by Gabriel Figueroa



"Still from Enemies," 1933



"The Rural Teacher," 1932 by Diego Rivera, Mexican 1886-1957, photo of by Edward Weston and Tina Modotti of a mural on a government building in Mexico City. where he painted over 5,200 square feet of murals.between 1923 and 1928.

"revolution," 1944-45 by Manuel Rodriguez  Lozano, Mexican, 1896-1971

"Flower Day," 1925 by Diego Rivera, oil on canvas

Twas a pretty afternoon for watching the Alexander Calder mobile gracefully dance above the water next to the sculpture garden at the museum.  This three part sculpture moves with the breeze and the force of the water on its panels.

Roaming through LACMA on a Thursday

There was a vibrant energy at the museum yesterday as out-of-towners and families flocked to the museum.  I made my way to David Hockney's videos of the countryside of Yorkshire, England.  His Landscape Videos (2011) were even more fun to experience for the second time.  The videos shown in a multi screen grid - 18 screens.  Hockney has taught me about seeing.  The eye only sees small areas at once and then skips all over the scene to take it all in...in this case, 18 times.  He fixed 18 cameras to his car to record multiple views as the car moved through various landscapes.  The lower cameras focus on the grasses and wild flowers in the fore ground.  The middle camera focus on the mid view areas and the top cameras focus on the more distant views.

I sat on a comfortable chair and enjoyed the ride. 

I then strolled over to the top of the Broad Building to view the works of "Agnes Varda in Californialand."  Agnes was born in 1928 in Belgium and became a photographer in Paris.  She belonged to the "Riv Gauche (Left Bank)" cinema movement.  She made many fictional/documentary films.  During her career, she visited Los Angeles in the 1960's and '80's and these photo's are on display.  LACMA has collaborated with the Film Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation to preserve four of her films.  Her newly restored films are being shown.  She created a shack with its walls and roof covered with one of the last two 35 mm prints of her film "Lions Love (...and Lies)" which she describes as a radical Hollywood hippie film that she made in 1969.  She also created a big collage where she pinned stills from the film and wrote out lines of dialogue.

The Film Shack

The Collage with clips of her film and scrawled dialoge

"Self-portrait in pieces," 2009

Looking out through the film walls

Film Cans Furniture in the Shack

"Two Children in Front of a Chicano Mural, East L.A., 'Mur murs'," 1980

"Tai Chi Group in Front of a Blue Whale Mural, Beethoven Street, Venice," 1980

Nearby were several new acquisitions by the museum.

"M.I.A." 2011 by Brenna Youngblood, U.S. b. 1979

"Second to None," 2011 by Ry Rocklen, U.S., b. 1978.  This sculpture was mad of trophies and parts.  The artist from L.A. has a particular interest in the overlooked and the unseen.  He reclaims found objects and materials and gives them a second life as a sculpture.  The trophies were once won and then discarded.