is a recent UCLA graduate with a BA in English and Art History, making her a perfect candidate for an unrelated job as an administrative assistant. Still waiting for a job that requires her skills to read, write, paint, cook, talk, analyze, theorize, and hypothesize.
The West LA Farmers Market
Sundays, 9am - 2pm
11338 Santa Monica Boulevard at Corinth Avenue,
on the Court House/Civic Center Plaza
Conveniently located just two blocks from the 405 is the highly expansive West LA Farmers Market in Santa Monica. I read about it by chance on the internet, and surprisingly have come across no word-of-mouth recommendations for this noteworthy market. Not only did it have a great assortment of fresh produce, prepared food, crafts, and WiFi, the welcoming bandshell off of Corinth housed live jazz. This one is even open an hour later than most weekend markets, until 2pm instead of 1pm, giving you an extra hour to get there if you are not a morning person. The city really needs to learn how to publicize this stuff better.
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Tags: Local Happenings · Reviews
Between Earth and Heaven,
The Architecture of John Lautner
July 13 - October 12, 2008
The Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire
This week the Hammer Museum opened its exhibition of the modernist architecture of John Lautner, “Between Earth and Heaven.” The title of the show touches on the transcendental or otherworldly experience that Lautner intended with his architecture, which consists of unprecedented structures rooted in ideals of function and harmony with the surrounding environment. You might be thinking that you have no idea who Lautner is, in which case you are wrong. Any LA resident has probably caught at least one glimpse of one of Lautner’s stylized creations, from the Midtown School to the infamous Chemosphere in the Hollywood Hills.
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Tags: Upcoming events · art
The Pico Market in Santa Monica
Virginia Avenue Park at Pico and Cloverfield
Saturdays, 8am-1pm
If the notorious and therefore heavily foot-trafficked Saturday Santa Monica Farmers Market on 3rd Street is at all off-putting to you, you can head to Virginia Avenue Park on Pico for a less crowded Santa Monica installment of fresh produce. Hardly a destination except for local shoppers and families with young children, the market was smallish and intimate with hardly an inconvenient crowd in sight. Definitely lacking in the hustle and bustle department, and the first market in the series without some form of live music, the Pico market is ideal if you are in the area and want to make a quick stop.
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Tags: Local Happenings · Reviews
Hammer Projects: Sun Xun
July 11- October 12 2008
10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles
Eclectic Chinese artist with an enviable name, Sun Xun, will be beginning his stay at the Hammer Museum this weekend. His show transcends the normal boundaries of a simple exhibition, and is appropriately termed a “project” by the museum. Instead of preparing a work for the project, Sun Xun has incorporated the process into the project. According to the museum, Sun Xun will be “inhabiting” one of their galleries for over a week, creating a site-related installation, the creation of which will somehow be on view. Press releases and descriptions on the Hammer’s website are relatively vague about what they mean when they say the artist will be “inhabiting,” but considering the museum’s reputation for having an open and talent-oriented mind, consummate art-goers will not likely be disappointed.
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Tags: Upcoming events · art
Torrance Farmers Market
Charles H. Wilson Park, 2200 Crenshaw Blvd.
Tuesdays and Saturdays, 8am-1pm
I was recently told by someone, and very enthusiastically, that the Torrance farmers market on Crenshaw was the best they had ever been to. Until recently I had not even heard of it, let alone that it was worth taking the 405 and several minutes of driving surface streets to get to. In fear of sounding like a puff-piece author, it was indeed the best farmers market I have enjoyed to date, and I promise I didn’t take bribes from its coordinators to say so.
To start out with: abundant and entirely free parking directly adjacent to the event. I happened to visit on a Saturday, but this market is also open on Tuesdays, so if you are lunch-breaking in the vicinity, it would not take much effort in the parking department to stop in for lunch and groceries.
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Tags: Local Happenings · Reviews
Caia Koopman and Mark Gleason
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
Artists Reception Saturday July 5, 8-10pm
4633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles
For a dose of artifice-debunking figurative painting, if that is even possible, the La Luz de Jesus Gallery presents their July exhibit of Caia Koopman and Mark Gleason this weekend. The gallery exhibits a new show every month, always kicked-off by a reception that Details Magazine allegedly described as being “the biggest and best party in Los Angeles,” according to the gallery’s website.
Koopman has experienced some commercial success already with her works that explore the fundamentality of femininity and nature. Koopman endeavors for her acrylic on wood and canvas creations to didactically assert the importance of nature and the feminine on the environment and humanity. Her works feature women depicted in an amalgamation of mother earth allegory and contemporary pop-art exaggeration. The result is graceful though cartoon-like, but in a good way, with lush textile-esque surfaces and bold colors. Koopman also designs for companies ranging from Roxy to AT&T, and creates original snowboard graphics, stemming from her love of the sport.
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Tags: Upcoming events · art
Downtown Long Beach Farmers Market
Fridays, 10-4
Between 4th and 5th streets, East of Pine
The first installment of my weekly farmers market adventure was the surprisingly eclectic one held in downtown Long Beach. Though I am a Long Beach native, I had not yet visited the market near the recently built up and gentrified Pine area, and I was pleasantly surprised at how expansive it was both in size and offerings.
The market is held smack in the middle of a Friday, so the area was heavy with car and pedestrian traffic, but there is a wealth of metered parking around so one can easily stop in for lunch. The two block long event was quite jovial with its balloons and bannered light posts, not to mention the flutist playing Simon and Garfunkel tunes on the corner. Of course this market had the usual fresh produce options at prices and qualities that make us into farmer’s market patrons in the first place. The pluots were juicy, the apples crisp, the kettle corn irresistible. One vendor boldly claimed he was selling the best tasting apples on earth, and they turned out to be pretty good, as far as apples go.
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Tags: Local Happenings · Reviews
Marlene Dumas, “Measuring Your Own Grave” at MOCA, Grand Avenue
June 22 - September 22, 2008
The work of Marlene Dumas fetched the highest price of any living female artist recently at a Christie’s auction, baring witness to her commanding presence in the art world, as well as the resurgence of painting over the last decade. MOCA is lucky enough, as are its patrons, to host the first “mid-career” retrospective of the South African-born painter’s dark though expressive works, open this week until September 22.
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Tags: Uncategorized
Marlene Dumas, “Measuring Your Own Grave” at MOCA, Grand Avenue
June 22 - September 22, 2008
The work of Marlene Dumas fetched the highest price of any living female artist recently at a Christie’s auction, baring witness to her commanding presence in the art world, as well as the resurgence of painting over the last decade. MOCA is lucky enough, as are its patrons, to host the first “mid-career” retrospective of the South African-born painter’s dark though expressive works, open this week until September 22.
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Tags: Uncategorized
A new and improved Art Walk
offers opportunities for local artists in Hermosa Beach
The Hermosa Beach Art Walk is definitely evolving. This year, the fifth annual Art Walk had a different location, a different schedule, all in service of the same goal: a venue for local artists, and a means of facilitating arts education.
On the bustling corner of Pier Avenue and PCH, the Art Walk was a refreshing and eclectic haven of creativity. While this past weekend was scorchingly hot, artists lovingly assembled their booths with paintings, sculpture, photography, and crafts like original furniture and jewelry. The participation contract for the event requires that all the work shown be original, as the event aspires to be not only a marketplace, but a means of exhibition for local artists trying to make their work their passion.
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Tags: Reviews · art
The Hermosa Beach Art Walk
Saturday, June 21,
10am - 6pm
The Community Center Lawn,
at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Pier Avenue
The annual Hermosa Beach Art Walk promises a combination of arts, crafts, food, live music, and people-watching this Saturday in its new location. And what could be better; there is bound to be gorgeous weather this Saturday, making the consumption of art outside, instead of in the “white cube” of a gallery a perfectly suited change of scenery. Boasting 100 local artists, the fifth installment of the Art Walk is accommodating its growth by moving to the lawn of the Community Center at Pacific Coast Highway and Pier Avenue. The result: more art, crafts, food, and live music than ever before.
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Tags: Upcoming events · art
