NEW Web Site! www.downtownartwalk.org

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New Features!
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Cool MAP! Eventually you’ll be able to build your own!

www.downtownartwalk.org

LACDA Celebrates A NEW Location!!!

LACDA Presents: Linda Alterwitz: Discarded Dreams
CELEBRATING A NEW LOCATION!!! Across the street!
102 West Fifth Street on the Southwest corner of Main and Spring.

Opening Reception Thursday March 10, 7-9pm
In conjunction with Downtown Art Walk
Show runs March 10 -April 2, 2011

©2011 Linda Alterwitz

Selected by Edward Robinson
Curator, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

ALTERVISION 3-D BLACKLIGHT EXPERIENCE… Benefitting the Downtown Art Walk

Back by popular demand….
The ALTERVISION 3-D BLACKLIGHT EXPERIENCE Thursday (3/10) at the Downtown Art Walk!
Art lovers of all ages are invited to experience Altervision 3-D, the hottest, mindblowing installation on this month’s Artwalk wants you to be part of the fun!

The ALTERVISION 3-D BLACKLIGHT EXPERIENCE is thrilled to unveil their visual world creation, for the March 10 Artwalk, on Thursday night @ the Medallion, on 4th and Main St. from 6 pm till 11pm

Inside A3D’s 20’x20′ space, guests will have an eye-popping experience like they’ve never imagined! Lit in black light and surrounded by local artist Debi Cable’s beautiful hand-painted florescent murals, viewers of all ages are drawn into another world with a variety of dazzling scenes, including “The Enchanted Forest,” a “Deep Sea Escape” “Koi Pond” and more!

To cover the cost of bringing you this fantastical experience, a one time admission is $3 per entrance, or $5 all night, with glasses to keep! 10% of each admission fee will be donated to the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk!

Like us at www.facebook.com/Altervision3D. There you will find some great pics and video of the installation!
Contact: Debi Cable: 714-317-2468 or email: info@altervision3d.com.

VIVA LA! in 3-D!
Disclaimer: We are not responsible for re-inserting eyeballs into their sockets!

CB1 Gallery Opening Reception 2/26: Edith Beaucage & Larry Mantello

CB1 Gallery Presents Two Exhibits opening 2/26:
Larry Mantello, Together Again
Edith Beaucage, .hurluberlu

Both exhibitions will be on view from Saturday, February 26 through Sunday, April 3, 2011. An opening reception for the artists will take place on Saturday, February 26, 2011, 5 – 7 p.m.
207 W. 5TH STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90013

Larry Mantello, Together Again

Larry Mantello Foul Play, 2007-09, Mixed media, 55" x 27" x 13"

CB1 Gallery is proud to present Larry Mantello’s return to Los Angeles for his first solo exhibition in six-years. The exhibition, Together Again includes several series of works ranging from Floats (sculpture), to Off-Springs, and Rijiggers, which include temporary tattoos on paper and multi-layered wall-hangings. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, February 26 through Sunday, April 3, 2011. An opening reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, February 26, 2011, 5 – 7 p.m.

Mantello’s current work is redolent with a pop-culture critique, which he packages with a reminiscence of childhood, a temptation with the body, and his interest in “the value of pleasure”. Throughout these works he suggests a subtle sense of sadness just below the surface, which is as important to the works as exuberance and celebration.

His most recent series of work, entitled Rejiggers, incorporate an image transfer technique that he combines with postcards, greeting cards, and balloons. Assembled with an assortment of packing tapes and shipping labels, which the artist has also reinvented, their playfully layered surfaces are both seductive and provocative. Larry Mantello hopes that these new works “…create imaginary places where fantasies can commingle with feelings of loss and disappointment. Moments from my past that are difficult to escape.”

Larry Mantello was born in 1964 and lives and works in New York. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. Since his first solo show at Food House in Los Angeles in 1993, Larry Mantello’s work has been widely exhibited, including shows at The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Art + Public, Magasin-Center Nation d’Art Contemporain in Grenoble, and the Neuberger Museum. His work is included in many private and public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Henry Art Gallery, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Edith Beaucage, .hurluberlu

hurluberlucubic.hur, 2011, Oil on canvas, 60" x 46"

CB1 Gallery presents “.hurlurberlu”, a first solo exhibition of the work of Los Angeles painter Edith Beaucage. The exhibition continues the artist’s exploration of painted images that investigate relationships between signs of abstraction and figuration and how we derive meaning by simple juxtaposition of these signs. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, February 26 through Sunday, April 3, 2011. An opening reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, February 26, 2011, 5 – 7 p.m.

Beaucage invents characters and places them side by side with an abstracted form into a scenario that mimics what happens in a social space. The emotional thread woven into the paintings, the social spaces, is meant to stimulate discourse with the audience.

In the artist’s native Quebec, a “hurluberlu” is one who is a little crazy, sweet and original in his way of thinking, how he dresses and behaves. Physical applications of volatile multicolor brush strokes to the canvas, are the basis for the hurlubelu–like characters, while the abstractions are an investigation of improvised construction based on the shape of a lozenge (diamond shape) and Catalan solids (geometric). Relationships between the figures and the abstractions are associated by modal logic theorems in which a lozenge represents a possibility and the figure is an agent (player). We are therefore in the domain of .hurluberlu.

Born in Canada, Edith Beacauge now lives and works in Los Angeles. She is a recent MFA graduate of Otis College of Art and Design, having studied at Palazzo Spinelli, Centro per L’arte e Il Restauro in Florence Italy and received her BA from Bishop’s University in Quebec, Canada. Her work is in many private collections and was recently acquired for the collection of Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, CA.

FIDM’s 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit

On view will be actual costumes from over 20 movies from 2010.

This exhibtion is free to the public and will be open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The Museum & Galleries will be closed April 22 through April 25 for Spring Recess. Group tours may be arranged by calling the college at 213.623.5821 x3367.

Burlesque costumes by Costume Designer, Michael Kaplan

Award season is in full swing with much of the coverage focused on what the stars are wearing on the red carpets in front of the Kodak Theatre, the Beverly Hilton Hotel, or the Shrine Exhibition Center. However, on February 5th, the place to be was the FIDM Museum’s Gala Opening of the 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition, which shines the spotlight on the costumes worn in the films being honored with nominations and awards.

Before there is a red carpet there is a film, in which the contribution of the costumes is incalculable in telling the story. Costumes help actors develop character, and offer nuances and an enriching authenticity to every scene. They are vital in taking actors and audiences to Alice’s Wonderland, the old West of True Grit, and the technology controlled future of Inception.

For the 19th year in a row, the FIDM Museum honors the work of costume designers by presenting actual costumes seen on the big screen. Costumes from 20 of the year’s most important films and work from some of the industry’s most accomplished designers are displayed in the museum.

This exhibition is a rare opportunity to get an up-close view of over 100 original costumes from 2010. Here are a few insights into the creation process:

Clash of the Titans : “The people (in the town and palace of Argos) are living a very decadent life, so I decided it should look like a Versace party. I used all natural silks and cottons, hand-pleated and dyed to pale apricots, creams, peaches, yellows and pinky terra-cottas, with lots of handmade gold jewelry.” —Lindy Hemming

Shutter Island : “We had to make 44 versions of the orderly outfit Teddy puts on because it is drenched and rumpled in the hurricane and he goes through different adventures in it; he goes into the sea, walks along cliffs, and sleeps in a cave. He passes through various stages of dirtiness, if you will, and that was a process.” —Sandy Powell

Burlesque: “The finale had to top everything else. …I decided not to use fabrics… Then we realized how many hundreds of hours were going to go into each costume.” In all, some 250,000 Swarovski crystals in fifteen different colors went into the intricately linked costumes. —Michael Kaplan

True Grit : One of his (Rooster Cogburn’s) most distinguishing features is his eye patch, for which Zophres presented Bridges with several choices based on her research. “Jeff instantly gravitated towards the most raw one—it looked like a piece of leather he had tanned himself and stuck on his head…Joel and Ethan then let him decide which eye Rooster had lost.” —Mary Zophres

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: “Very few people on the films I do go to the set in a new costume. We always have to break it down first. I want costumes to look real, even in a fantasy film like this. Our breakdown department employs tools like a cement mixer. Once the leather goods are newly made, we put them in the cement mixer for a couple of hours with a few stones, and they come out looking well used. They also use cheese graters to distress costumes, believe it or not.” —Penny Rose

True Grit

Many of the costume designers featured in this exhibition were on hand at the Opening Night Gala to celebrate their craft while they mingled with the press, their peers, and other VIPs.

In attendance were Academy Award® Nominees for Best Achievement in Costume Design, Colleen Atwood, Costume Designer for Alice in Wonderland, Mary Zophres, Costume Designer for True Grit, and Jenny Beavan, Costume Designer for The King’s Speech.

Other costume designers that accompanied their work in the exhibition were Mary Claire Hannan, FIDM alum and Costume Designer for The Kids Are All Right, renowned Costume Designer, Judianna Makovsky with her costumes from The Last Airbender, Deborah Hopper, Costume Designer for Hereafter, Costume Designer, Julie Weiss, for Get Low, Costume Designer Lindy Hemming, for Clash of the Titans, and Jeffrey Kurland, Costume Designer for Inception.

Also on view are the costumes from Clash of the Titans by Lindy Hemming, Robin Hood by Janty Yates, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky by Chattoune Bourrec and Fabien Esnard-Lascombe, The Wolfman by Milena Canonero, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps by Ellen Mirojnick, Shutter Island by Sandy Powell, Burlesque by Michael Kaplan, Nanny McPhee Returns by Jacqueline Durran, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Isis Mussenden, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by Penny Rose, and The Tempest by Sandy Powell, 2011 Academy Award® nominee for Costume Design.

NEW for March Art Walk: LA Times Tours!

If you’re a freak for photography or video, celebrate the power and explore the craft of visual storytelling via a free, hour-long tour of the iconic Los Angeles Times Building. This is a rare opportunity for a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into photojournalism in today’s nano-second world.

Times staff photographer Kirk McKoy will be on hand and highlights of the tour will include a demonstration of an editorial shoot, a visit to the 1935 Art Deco Globe Lobby and access to examples of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos shot around the world.

Tour will be conducted during the next Art Walk, Thursday, March 10th and will be led by 33-year Times veteran Darrell Kunitomi. Attendance is limited and reservations are first-come, first-served. RSVP at www.latimestours.eventbrite.com

The Tour includes free parking for the evening in the Los Angeles Times lot at 2nd and Spring, convenient to the Downtown Art Walk.
Photography is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. Bring your camera.

And, in the meantime, please feel free to visit Framework (www.latimes.com/framework), The Times photo and video blog.

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March 2011 Map! It’s Green!

The Downtown Art Walk Map is prominently featured in both
in this issue (2nd issue each month) and LA Canvas PAGE 21 this issue.

Download the PDF version & print (as landscape):
March MAP Donated by FLUXbiz, a downtown Historic Core business.
Printing donated by City National Bank, California’s premiere private and business bank.

Use your mobile device or print your own, but if you forget, maps can also be picked up during the entire Downtown Art Walk (until they run out) at the Art Walk Lounge and…

Cotrutza Gallery 446 S. Main St.
Gary Leonard / Take My Picture: 860 S. Broadway
The Hive Gallery: 729 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles Center For Digital Art (LACDA): 107 West Fifth St.
Raw Materials 436 South Main St.
(sub)Urban 101 West 5th St.

LACDA Presents: Wally Gilbert Geometric Series: Squares and Triangles

LACDA Presents: Wally Gilbert Geometric Series: Squares and Triangles
In conjunction with Downtown Art Walk February 10, 12-9pm, Reception: 7-9pm
107 W. 5th St. (near 5th & Main)

Show runs January 6-February 26, 2011

Wally Gilbert’s is a restless mind, and nowadays it drives an equally restless eye – and hand. Having innovated in molecular biology to the point of winning a Nobel Prize, Gilbert has since turned to the realm of visual art, although here, too, he keeps pushing at the limits of both his own imagination and the abilities of his tools. Moving from straight photography into the digital apparatus behind the modern-day camera, Gilbert has been riding the transformative abilities of the computer with increasing verve, coming up with formulations that bring forth the pictures behind the pictures, that amplify the pictures within the pictures, and that double these pictures back onto themselves in an increasingly kaleidoscopic embrace of optical transcendence.

In the “Squares and Triangles” series, as the name implies, Gilbert takes basic geometric forms, enmeshes them in digital halls of mirrors, and systematically unfolds entirely unassuming shapes into elaborate scintillations. Rhythmic pulsations echo into endless patterns, intricate structures unfurl and implode into gem-like apparitions, colors swell and fade into one another, all tickling the eye into a vibrant thrill. The structures begin simply, but quickly diversify; where Gilbert could have followed an orthodox minimalist formula, working out a particular schema into all its iterations, he takes a discretionary path determined more by taste – a taste for beauty and for optical fascination. This seems to prompt a yet greater adventurousness with regard to composition and even color: sometimes Gilbert examines a particular formation in several different hues, other times he seems to examine a particular hue, or range of hues, in several different formations.

Are these paintings or drawings? No, they are not painted or drawn. Are they photographs? No, they are not photographed – although they are produced with photographic materials. Gilbert may have an extensive background in photography, but he has found his way out of the camera and into the computer. These are the first works of his to rely entirely on what the computer can generate. Even the series immediately preceding, in which Gilbert investigated many of the same effects, turned as its core imagery to the human head – an organic formation whose initial capture, at least, took place outside the desktop, and which insists on a reference point outside both software and hardware. Not here. Gilbert’s sole tool in these series is the computer, which he appositely describes as a “digital workspace.” What he’s making here may or may not be photography, but it has nothing to do with the camera.

The computer, in its burgeoning infinitude, is opening up a whole new realm of artistic expression. Wally Gilbert is not the first to step through the portal into this still-uncharted – and perhaps unchartable – realm. But, by concentrating on what he can form rather than simply on what tricks he can get his machine to perform, Gilbert makes that realm that much lovelier and more inviting.

Peter Frank, Los Angeles, December 2010

Peter Frank is art critic for the Huffington Post and Adjunct Senior Curator for the Riverside Art Museum.

Artist Photographer Wally Gilbert had a career as a Molecular Biologist. Awarded a Nobel Prize in 1980 for discovering a rapid DNA sequencing method, he is now following a new passion in creating visual art. He has had twenty-seven solo-exhibits, including an exhibit at the Massachusetts College of Art in 2004 and a major installation in both Warsaw and Lodz in 2007.

Design Create Innovate @ HCBID Outreach Center! (5th & Main)