ARTISTIC ENDEAVORS
What could be better than food, fun and five centuries of art?
Well, there might be a thing or two, but short of a red-hot love affair or winning the lottery, you can always count the Los Angeles Art Show for a good time guaranteed. This year’s spectacular showcase at the Barker Hangar was the best one yet.
The Fine Arts Dealers Association kicked things off with a festive opening night gala to benefit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The tented reception area was transformed into a sleek modern art gallery, with large modular sofas, equestrian-themed statues and a clever display of botanical paintings composed of moss, bark and blooms. A string quartet struck a chord with a selection of classics while servers made the rounds with a bit of bubbly, mini-Ruben sandwiches and Caesar salad cups.
Hama Sushi was on a roll, whipping up smoked salmon with cilantro, spicy jalapeños and Vietnamese chili sauce. Over at Ocean Ave Seafood, oysters on ice were piled high and manager Christopher Hopgood was beaming over a pair of 3 3/4-pound California spiny lobsters used as table decorations.
After an epicurean pit stop, it was time to check out a mind-boggling array of paintings, prints, photos, drawings and sculptures. What started out as a cozy little Brie and Chablis affair 12 years ago has turned into one of the most prestigious art expositions in the country, featuring 80 galleries from around the world and 80,000 square feet of color, craft and imagination.
The first thing to catch my eye was a pair of provocative plastic-encased nudes, a collage of old Edgar Winter LPs and a dazzling pair of baby-blue Swarovski crystal boxing gloves. If you were in a shopping mood and had $13,000 to burn, these babies could certainly put some punch into the old art collection.
Adam Straus’ “Toxic Runoff” was a beautiful and thought-provoking piece. A takeoff on famed water lilies, it had the same mesmerizing deep purples, soft turquoise blues and vibrant emerald greens. On closer examination, it also had a bit of sticky black goo dripping from the bottom of the painting. “Straus has a great social conscious,” rep Cecilia Melian explained. “This is part of a series about what man is doing to his environment. It’s a play on Monet obviously, but also questioning why we destroy what we have.”
There were famous artists at every turn-a fanciful Matisse cutout from his 1947 jazz suite, a striking Warhol tree frog and an intriguing crayon portrait by David Hockney. Hot dog enthusiast Wayne Thiebaud was back with a few more unadorned frankfurters. Possibly the most expensive fast food artist in the world, his tiny pastel and paper drawings carry an asking price in excess of $600,000. That’s about $200,000 a dog (no mustard).
While half million-dollar wieners always give me food for thought-like “How do I get that job?”-other offerings were fun filled no-brainers. For a light-hearted blast to the past there’s no one like Josh Agle, better known as “Shag.”
“He’s huge,” said Billy Shrine, who brought some examples from his gallery in Culver City. “We have a 250-person waiting list.” Shag’s swinging ’60s beach scene featured a Day-Glo green surfer surrounded by bikini-clad beach babes, stylized blowfish and floating Tiki torches. His colorful paintings are a tribute to days gone by filled with retro references like rotary dial phones and starburst clocks, swanky conversation pits and swinging wet bars, not to mention cool cats and kittens grooving to the beat of bongos or the latest 45.
Art lovers wrapped up their evening with a stop by the dessert bar, where a piano man was playing favorites like “Rhapsody in Blue.”
The four-day event drew more than 20,000 art lovers and brought in a record breaking $10 million in sales.
Between the fashionable crowd, eye-popping art and endless feast of tasty treats, this sensational shindig is hard to beat. From old masters to the avant-garde, Chagall to Shag, the LA Art Show is gallery-going at its very best.