Posts Tagged ‘emerging artists’

How many appointments have you made in the last week?  There’s the hair appointment, waxing, and obviously – therapy.  None of that, while necessary, sounds all too fun.  We think it’s time to make an appointment that not only brings you somewhere much more interesting, but that is also free.

Welcome to Marine, a private art salon that opened in July of this year.  Bringing us back to the days when an art salon was, rather than an anomaly, a chic and inviting way of viewing group shows and discovering new artists, Marine hosts bi-monthly events and it’s only open to be viewed by appointment.  Current artists represented in the salon include Drew Beckmeyer, Val Britton, Seth Kaufman, Matt Klos, and many others.  Their work can be seen through November 7.   The domestic space focuses on bringing attention to emerging, contemporary artists and is curated by Claressinka Anderson who has worked with galleries across the city including Pharmaka, Tarryn Teresa Gallery, and even Barker Hangar.

Remember, this is the kind of salon for which you place the emphasis on the first syllable – it’s not the kind of salon where you’ve got to choose a polish color.  We suggest putting their number in your phone with the name Marine – that way you can pretend she’s just a friend of yours with an enormous, amazing, rotating art collection.

Marine is a salon located in Santa Monica, CA.  For more information, please click here.

As anyone over the age of 22 can tell you, discovering your passion or dream is only half the battle.  Then you’re responsible for actually doing it, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do.  There are social pressures, your surroundings, fears, and a range of other factors that can hold you back from doing what you love.  One thing the movies have taught us, though, is that it’s never too late to just go for it. 

Yozo Abe has one such story that will hopefully inspire the artist or art collector in you.  Born in 1958 in Nagoya, Japan, Yozo has always harbored a love of and talent for painting.  Coming from a traditional family, however, meant that his responsibilities lied in taking over the family business in construction.  Of course, running the family business left little time for fostering a great love of painting until he reached his forties – a time when many other men would have simply bought a sports car.  Yozo reconnected with his passion for painting and discovered a multitude of techniques, styles, and subject matters.  Since then and over the past decade, Yozo has made great strides in his art and has now decided to bring his work to a new audience – the United States.   

Impressed by American views on art – more casual than in his native Japan – he feels that an audience here would respond well to and understand his work. With a style reminiscent of Picasso and Modigliani, his works have a bold, colorful palette and a sensual feel.  The pieces seem familiar and warmly welcoming with no sense of pretension to be found.  He pays homage to a woman’s curves and to the desires of everyman in a most creative, respectful way.  Then, by painting early in the morning, Yozo ensures that he’s able to introduce a true dreamlike state onto each canvas.  As a result of working with oil paints in striking colors, his pieces have innumerable layers that could each tell their own stories – dreams and desires develop into exactly what he was looking for. 

With plans to start by showing his work in Los Angeles galleries, Yozo is a study in what it will take to start fresh in a country not one’s own.  The work may very well speak for itself, but as we all know many a talented artist has fallen by the wayside without the right timing, luck, or even drive.  Having spent many years focused on his business with a love of art always in his mind, I’m positive Yozo has the drive.  He surely also has the talent.  And I truly believe that time is on his side.  The style of his work connects to a place in the viewers mind where beauty, passion, and even (as cheesy as it may sound) joy live – which is to say that he connects to a place in his viewers that never goes away.  Like many greats whose works hang in great halls and great homes, Yozo seems to know, through his painting and likely his life experiences, what we will like to look at for a long time to come.  

Like anything worthwhile, finding art that you love and really respond to takes time.  It also means not only loving those pieces you keep going back to see at LACMA – to fill your home with beautiful pieces is an exploration.  Some collectors are avid watchers of the emerging artist market, others will employ an art adviser to scour the scene for them,  and still others may fall prey to the trendiest artist of the moment, hoping the piece they bought will go up in value over time. 

Freddi Cerasoli, owner of Cerasoli Gallery in Culver City, knows all about putting on display just what you love.  She recently opened her doors to the Fine Arts LA team and chatted to us about how she became involved with art, how exciting LAs art scene is now, and how grateful she is for this new, vibrant scene in Culver City – she was getting pretty bored of all the same old restaurants!  After opening her gallery six years ago and watching the Culver City art scene grow around her, Freddi has really developed a style and reputation for showing not only emerging artists, but emerging styles of art. 

The Cerasoli Gallery is currently showing Meggs, an Australian graffiti and graphic design based artist alongside Pure Evil and a host of others.  Opening August 22 is an exhibit of Roy Nachum’s work, which will take over the entire space.  Check out our video interview here and then plug the address into your GPS, you’re going to want to see what she’s got up her sleeve! 

Last week, I was asked to accompany a friend to an art gallery opening in Beverly Hills. Getting dressed, I decided to step it up and wear khakis (so rare for LA, right?) and a pressed button down shirt with a nice thin summer sweater on top. I felt just right as I approached David Streets’ gallery on Little Santa Monica. I turned, smiling, to enter the soiree and saw that nearly every man inside was dressed in black tie: my jaw dropped.

It is customary in these situations to run away as quickly as possible before being stoned for any sub-par attire, but unfortunately I was trapped.  My “friend” assured me that I was fine and that there were other underdressed folk who also hadn’t gotten the memo. At the first sight of another pair of khakis, I relaxed and remembered I’m in LA – he who has never been underdressed in LA can cast the first stone.  I was safe. 

David Streets is one of the most interesting people I have met since living in Los Angeles. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, he has a slight southern drawl that tends to calm you, allowing his eloquent vocabulary to flow smoothly. “When it comes to entertaining, black tie is the norm in the south,” he explained to me.

Returning to interview him the following week, I assumed he’d been in LA for years, especially considering the Oscar-esque crowd he drew. I was shocked to find that he has only lived here for three years. David began and built his career in New Orleans on Royal Street in the French Quarter over twenty years ago. He started as a director in a gallery and eventually worked his way up in the New Orleans art world to own a 22,000 square foot gallery space that represented 45 different artists. 

On August 28th, 2005 his world was turned upside down, along with hundreds of thousands of others, when Hurricane Katrina struck.  In something he could only describe as a scene from Armageddon, he found his gallery ravaged and stripped of all its artwork– even the toilets had been ripped from the floors. Ironically, his gallery’s neighborhood, the French Quarter, sat on a plateau in the center of the city and was untouched by the flood- instead it was destroyed by the animalistic behavior of looters and thieves.  

Struggling with the decision to leave New Orleans, he was approached by friend and sculptor Richard MacDonald about moving to Los Angeles to open a gallery for him. David hesitantly took the offer and moved to LA in December 2005 and he hasn’t left us yet..

He left Richard’s Gallery, among other ventures, to open his own gallery. He opened the doors to both of his new spaces last week. David Streets Gallery is composed of a contemporary art and photography space, as well as a traditional and conventional space with a truly diverse array of artwork. His gallery doesn’t feel empty like so many others in LA – there is a sense of hospitality in its character that makes you feel welcomed and appreciated.  

Overall, David has built an empire (though humbly he wouldn’t say so) of A-list clients and artists from around the world that all value his unique vision, praising the educational and exciting “experience” of art.  

Please check out the video interview to hear more about how he has secured his place in  LA’s art world.

- By Gray Malin

Campari has long been the pre-dinner drink, mixed with soda.  Sitting in a hotel bar in Milan, you’ll catch many a glimpse of the reddish-orange liqueur being served to many a waiting hand.  Since 2005, however, Campari began branching out and has created the House of Campari – an annual series of exhibits and events that highlight and promote emerging artists in both Los Angeles and New York.  We imagine they serve Campari and soda at the events, so those who are fond of their cocktails don’t have to let them go. 

The exhibit this year, “First Look: An Exhibition of Emerging Artists from Los Angeles Galleries”, ends June 14 (hurry!) and is held at their temporary House of Campari on Beverly Blvd.  All of the artists represented are truly “emerging” and have either recently had or are about to have their first solo show at a gallery in the city.  The artists include such names to remember as Matt Chambers, Noah Davis, Angela Dufresne, and Mickalene Thomas and display a range of styles and media from contemporary paintings and sculpture to photography and drawings. 

What began in 2005 in Los Angeles has become a bi-coastal, annual look at new, up-and-coming artists who have caught the eye of galleries and Campari enthusiasts on both coasts.  Local galleries’ where the artists have recently shown their work include Angstrom Gallery, Roberts & Tilton, Honor Fraser, Steve Turner Contemporary, and plenty more.  It’s a condensed, thorough look at what’s going on in LA’s current arts scene with some of the most buzzed about artists’ work packed into one exhibit.  Rather than driving from gallery to gallery (and finding parking), the House of Campari is giving us the scores and highlights of Los Angeles’ art world.  And they seem to have a mutual support for one another – Campari supports and promotes local artists, while local artists support and keep drinking Campari. 

The House of Campari’s “First Look: An Exhibition of Emerging Artists from Los Angeles Galleries”, curated by Scenic in NYC, ends June 14.  Admission is FREE.  For more information, please visit their website.