Posts Tagged ‘Santa Monica’

On an overcast Tuesday afternoon, when the traffic from the nearby 10 and 405 freeways is just starting to pack in, Bergamot Station in Santa Monica looks and feels more like an industrial depot center than one of Los Angeles’s prime gallery  hubbubs, and local art-dealer hot-spot of international acclaim. The parking lot if half-empty. Lonesome employees rumble by with crates full of water-cooler jugs. Sporadic patrons drift in and out of massive gallery spaces. On the whole, the place seems cold, even uninviting.

That is unless you accidentally stumble into the hallway of the Santa Monica Museum of Art—denoted only by a metallic sign that says “Museum”—and find yourself wondering what all the small, clay objects are doing strung up on the wall, as if hanging from massive, marker sketches of keys, backpacks, doorknobs, and necklaces. It’s this quaint collection of colorful figurines which, from first sight, breathes humanity into an otherwise blue atmosphere. For good reason too: every ornament on the wall is made by an artist below the age of 18—mainly ranging from 5-years-old to 10.

It’s called Wall Works: Project Icons and is the brainchild of clay and found-object artist Anna Sew Hoy. In collaboration with SMMA and six participating schools from around the Los Angeles area, Hoy asked children from kindergarten through 12^th grade to describe their personal wishes, and transform them into pocket-sized “talismans” to help visualize their fulfillment. The wishes themselves, as written in the kids’ own handwriting, and paired with photographs of their corresponding talismans, can be viewed in conjunction with the exhibition. And all it takes is a quick glance at one or two of these wishes to get you digging through them like a treasure chest filled with jewels of innocent brilliance.

“I wish for a talking star to play with me,” writes Karina, who’s  yellow clay star sports sunglasses and a full rack of teeth.

“I had a limen tree so I can have limen juice,” says Megan. And no, this is not simply poor spelling, because Megan’s talisman is neither a lemon nor a lime. Not yellow nor green. It’s in between. It’s a limen. Why no sports drink has come up with this word combination before is beyond me.

It’s interesting: most of the younger kids’ wishes have to deal with fruit, or animals, mice in particular. And the pocket icons they create to represent these wishes are all courageously distorted versions of reality—imperfect, and yet lovely. Only when the children and their respective handwriting grow older, more refined, do the wishes become more realistic and abstract at the same time. Earnestness and anxiety replace playfulness.

“To be good at soccer,” one boy announces. “To be a better basketball player.” “To have a bigger garden.” “To be an architect.” Most all are sports and career related, with the occasional plea for world peace thrown in the mix. The older kids’ clay talismans also become more defined and mimetic, while losing some of the accidental whimsy of of their younger counterparts.

Extrapolating the results—or at least my observations—of Hoy’s project into the greater art-world, I can see how a place like Bergamot Station can seem so cold, the warm humor of its art lost in the jumble of warehouses and parking spaces. It’s the fulfillment of those older childens’ wishes for bigger and better things taking over the goofy vitality of those younger, fruit-and-mouse wishes.

And yet still, when you look at the wall of hanging talismans, they all pretty much look alike, old and young together. Each one the subject of natural distortion—due to the imperfect nature of clay-work—and each one something more than just a good luck charm. They are tactile. You can feel the wishes with your fingers. You can see it. It’s not just an airy idea. It’s a creation.

Anna Sew Hoy’s Wall Works: Project Icons can be viewed at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in Bergamot Station until May 31. For more information, please visit www.smmoa.org, or call (310) 586-6488.

In the past decade, the writings of Jane Austen have been adapted and re-adapted for film and television so many times that you wouldn’t even recognize the young Emma Woodhouse unless she called you from UTA with an offer for the next “Pride and Prejudice” miniseries. What is it about this early 19th century woman of letters that we just can’t seem to get enough of? The charming prudery of English Regency-era manners and lovely Empire-style fashions? The repeated–and maddeningly provacative–deferal of love’s consummation? Maybe it’s just Austen’s good ol’ sly sense of humor? Whatever it may be, Hollywood is back for more–but this time, it’s on stage. And with improv comedy.

That’s right. If you thought Jane Austen couldn’t get any better than Kiera Knightley’s making out with Matthew MacFadyen while the sun sets on some English moor, think again. Beginning this Friday, the Impro Theater will be bringing its holiday showcase of their improvisational play “Jane Austen Unscripted” to the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. The Impro Theater is already famous for it’s comedic adaptations of the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sondheim, and Tennessee Williams, and promises to deliver Austen with expertly swift, comic severity. You’ll be sure to roll in the aisles–while Austen rolls in her grave!

-By Helen Kearns

“Jane Austen Unscripted” runs through December 20, 2009 at the Broad Stage.  For more information, please call (310) 434-3200 or click here.

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 a young ballet student, it’s not easy to forget the first time you see an unparalleled performance – on tape, on stage, or in the studio.  I won’t forget the first time I saw the pointed toes, spectacular leaps, and turns of one Mikhail Baryshnikov, easily classified as unparalleled in every sense of the word.  Sitting in the ballet studio all huddled around the TV in tights and ballet shoes, we watched a video of Baryshnikov in a pas de deux, lifting Gelsey Kirkland with grace, ease, and his boyish charm.  It was one of those moments where, even as young boys and girls, we realized what we were working toward. Even those who aren’t ballet fanatics will remember fondly when they saw Baryshnikov light up their screens as the elusive artist Mr. Aleksandr Petrovksy in Sex and the City.

Kicking off the Broad Stage’s second season is a performance that, like Baryshnikov himself, inspires the word  ‘unparalleled.’  Dancing with Ana Laguna, the performance will see the start of their limited engagement tour of “Three Solos and a Duet” across the US.  They’re performing new works by contemporary choreographers like Mats Ek, Alexei Ratmansky (formerly of the Bolshoi Ballet), and New York City Ballet’s Benjamin Millepied.  

If there was any way to otherwise convey my excitement about a performance as groundbreaking and enticing as this one, I’d take it.  Once you move past Baryshnikov’s casual good looks, confidence, impeccable technique, and spectacular artistry, you’ll be faced with the performance itself, which marks four premieres as danced by a living legend. Ana Laguna, truly not to be overlooked, will hold her own next to Mr. Baryshnikov with ease – she’s long been Mats Ek’s muse (and wife),  danced with the Cullberg Ballet, and staged a number of Ek’s works at the Opera de Paris and the Compania Nacional de Danza in Spain.  Her career has also been studded with awards from around the world.  I’ll reason with you – they’re not exactly lithe twenty-year-olds up on stage.  But remember how good Something’s Gotta Give was?  Enough said – certain things really are better with age (and the wisdom that comes with it.)  They say that youth is wasted on the young for a reason…

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna are performing their “Three Solos and a Duet” at the Broad Stage on Friday, September 4 at 8pm and on Saturday, September 5 at 7:30pm.  For more information, please call (310) 434-3200 or click here.