Gordon Chandler, The “Game” Show
The Lois Lambert Gallery of Functional Art
Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
September 13 - November 9

Many of the galleries at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica are going through a mid-year change of exhibitions. One notable new show opening this Saturday at the Lois Lambert Gallery at the station is The “Game” Show by Gordon Chandler, named for Chandler’s oversized game boards made of society’s cast-off goods. The gallery hosts functional art, perfect for Chandler’s work, which is function in form as well as message.

Chandler has been challenging the value of objects and materials via sculpture for over three decades. By exaggerating size and abandoning orthodox materials for, say, scrap metal and auto parts, his works become critical of the use-value paradigm. Chandler achieves a similar effect when he makes a giant crossword puzzle out of steel, elevating the mundane not only by increasing its size, but also by considering it as an art subject.

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This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs
The Huntington Library
Ends September 15

The Huntington Library’s photography exhibit, This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs, ends this week, timed perfectly with the close of another L.A. summer. In the show’s last week, you can go to the secluded botanical paradise of the many gardens at the Huntington before getting all thoughtful about the depiction of your complicated hometown in film over the last hundred and forty odd years.

Since 1860, both the physical landscape of the region, as well as the physical nature and awareness of the people living there, has been captured in celluloid. This photography attends to the complexities of the South Land, a place that any Los Angelino must feel bittersweet about. One must learn quickly in LA the difference between appearances and reality, an aphorism that the show’s photography points to. True, L.A. is the nation’s capital for fame, success, leisure, and glamour, but is also home to racial tensions, merciless traffic, and unfulfilled dreams. The photographs in the show represent the physicality of this binary that makes Los Angeles so alluring, yet somehow treacherous.

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“Fridays Off the 405″ featuring Monsters Are Waiting
and Justin Warfield & DJ Adam 12
The Getty Center
6 - 9pm

Start your weekend on top of the world, or at least atop LA, at the Getty’s “Fridays Off the 405” series. This weekly installment of FREE music at Los Angeles’s most monolithic museum couples twilight views of everything south of Mullholand as an alternative to the grinding gridlock of the 405. Tonight is the last Friday performance at the Getty, as the end of summer will end the program until the spring when it will be moved to Saturdays, the day when everyone is free to crowd up the galleries and gardens and ruin the vibes.

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Ed Ruscha: A Selection of Prints
The Greenfield Sacks Gallery
Bergmot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica

Hey cool post-modern art kids, you have just one week left to enjoy the Pop Art prints of Ed Ruscha at the Greenfield Sacks Gallery in Santa Monica’s haven for contemporary art, Bergamot Station. Ruscha’s textual “word paintings” are credited for the birth of the Pop Art movement, along with Warhol’s silk screened multiples and Lichtenstein’s comic reproductions.

Ruscha’s stark prints gain much of their notorious and sardonic satire from their simplicity. His works span multiple mediums, from photography and painting to print making as in the show, frequently featuring single words, phrases, or repetitions. This plurality of mediums and influences, however, ironically echoes the banality of LA life and the onslaught of text created by mass media, instead of the city’s rumored energy and potential. If his works seem at all dull or familiar, that is sort of the point.

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This Saturday, August 16th, BOXeight Studios is proud to announce the opening of the largest art gallery in Downtown LA. For the last couple years, BOXeight has been exhibiting the freshest talent LA has to offer. Now, they have a permanent gallery space in addition to our current studio and event space and so they’re throwing a party to celebrate local artists. They will have band performances by Chester French, Crooked Cowboys & The Fresh Water Indians, Nite Jewel with DJ’s Keith 2.0, DJ (N), and Cam Francisco and a LONG list of amazing artists that can be seen below.

WHEN: Saturday, August 16, 2008
7:00pm to 3:00am

WHERE: BOXeight Gallery
1446 East Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90021 [ Read The Full Story -> ]

Giant Robot is proud to present The Wild Life, an art show featuring the work of Susie Ghahremani.

Susie Ghahremani is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her artwork has appeared in The New York Times, Nickelodeon Magazine, and Martha Stewart Kids. Most recently, she has created work for Chronicle Books, Bank of America, and Target Corporation, as well as the highly acclaimed nature book I Love Dirt.

In addition to painting, Ghahremani crafts her own line of products incorporating her original illustrations onto stationery, apparel, jewelry, and other goodies. She has received awards from American Illustration, The Alternative Pick, and Giant Robot.

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It’s a bar and grill slash art gallery and jazz club. Hal’s, located in the trendy 1300-block of Abbot Kinney, brings together the best of Venice’s funk and L.A.’s chic. Outside, it’s simple: wood-framing, lots of windows. Inside, it’s dim and sleek: bar on the right, dining on the left, original artwork on all walls.

The pieces are interesting—nothing quite the same, no established theme or artist, all just effortlessly cool. Hal’s trademark? A multi-dimensional portrait of a man leaning on a bar (or table?), hand posed around a wine (or water?) glass. Take a look and decide for yourself.

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Happy Hour

• Happy Hour at East 46 | Thursday, August 14th | Free! | 21+| 46 East Colorado Blvd. Pasadena (Map) | Starting this Thursday and then continuing every Thursday is East 46, fine Asian dining ($3 appetizer’s and $5 drinks) with comfortable sofas and lives DJ’s spinning the latest house, trance and world music for your pleasure. The Grand opening will feature Hosts: Loriann Valencia, Herick Hell, Ken Black, Dino, Chunkeebutt & “B”, Katrine Nygard, and music and “ambiance” by Herick Hell.

Music/Art

• Sunset Series: The Love Hangover Art Showing | Thursday, August 14th | 6-10 p.m. | Free! | Barker Block - 513 Molino St., Los Angeles (Map) | Come and enjoy some good music and ever better art. Must RSVP for entrance: barkerblock@filtermmm.com. Artwork by The Love Hangover, Sounds by Castaneda, The Kiss Off and Pants Off.

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Film

• Vicky Cristina Barcelona | Wednesday August 13th | 7:30pm | Cost: FREE! | The Areo Theater - 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica (Map) | Come see Woody Allen’s latest sexy, quirky love story, starring Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Barden, and Penelope Cruz for free at the Aero tonight before it is even releases!

Clubs

• Club Sandwich | Wednesday August 13th | Cost: FREE! (With RSVP) | Must be 21+ | Free booze from 9:30-10:30 | The Standard Purple Lounge - 8300 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood (Map) | They’ve got free booze, free entry, live music, and a clever name. What more could you want?

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Film

• Eraserhead: Peter Ivers Memorial | Tuesday August 12th | 7:30pm | $12 | Egyptian Theater  - 6712 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood  (Map) | Come see the film that made Lynch the creepy, artistic genius that we all know him as today. At 6:30 there will also be a book signing to celebrate the release of the Peter Ivar biography In Heaven Everything Is Fine, with author Josh Frank.

Comedy

• Comedy Death Ray - Maria Bamford and Patton Oswald, and SPECIAL GUESTS | Tuesday, August 12th | 8:30pm | Tickets $5 | Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater (Map) | This is a great place to go for amazing and CHEAP comedy. Tonight they will have Maria Bamford, with special host Patton Oswald, and other secret “special featured” guests they have yet to name. Sounds exciting!

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Comedy

• Eddie Izzard: Stripped | Wednesday August 6th | 8pm | $35-$65 - Buy Now | 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood (Map) | In my mind, one of the best stand up comedian’s of our time. Izzard is sharp, witty, and is great for a good history lesson. This is the last week to see him in LA, so don’t miss out catch him while you can! Izzard will have you rolling in your seat with wave of finely manicured hand.

Music

• Peanut Butter Wolf vs. LA: 888 Tour | Wednesday August 6th | 7pm | 21+ | The Echoplex - Map | Price Varies | “888″ is the third in a yearly series by Peanut Butter Wolf: he did a heavy metal set  on6-6-06, and a 7-day gospel-themed set for the number of the savior,  7-7-07. We’re not sure what the theme is for 8-8-8, except it’s the year of AWESOME. Tonight he will be doing Reggae videos at the Dub Club at The Echoplex. Check out the rest of the week here.

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Now normally I would write about an actual upcoming exhibit or maybe even a gallery I recently visited. This time, however, it’s about a party. The LACMA will be hosting a cocktail party on August 16th, from 8:15 PM until midnight.

The event celebrates Los Angeleno/Chicano culture with an after hours viewing of Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A.: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection. In addition to the viewing there will also be a musical performance by East L.A. Chicano music legends Quetzal, live muralists and graffiti artists by Unification Theory, and complimentary cocktails and appetizers.

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