Art Walk Preview for May, 2008

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008, at 10:38AM
Life as a poet Ed Fuentes

Richard McDowell will fill the air with words at this weeks Downtown Art Walk.

The spoken word of Downtown Poets joins the visual display of art, video and comedy. It's Downtown Art Walk for May, 2008, and the streets are ready for you. Reminders are the same: Art Walk DASH is free, refrain from taking alcohol out of the galleries, and don't be afraid to buy art.

“Life as a Poet”: Metropolis Books (440 S. Main) will host Downtown Los Angeles Poets at 7pm. Downtown Poets include Mike "the Poet" Sonksen, Richard McDowell, Blackbird, and Downtown LA Life Poet Lauriat Wendy Arimah.

"Jeff Gillette": Although stunning to see, photorealism can be banal. However, Gillette’s paintings (dubbed interventions) of desert landscape take a off-road spin by applying cultural markers and framing them in barren isolation. It's the pick of the walk. Bert Green Fine Art (5th and Main).

"Persons of Interest": Jen Heaslip and Sandy Rodriguez are two of 20 artists––with a range of styles––that will open at Art Slave Gallery (216 S Spring). During Art Walk, they will hold an opening reception for the artists from 8pm until whenever people lose interest.

"Fotograff": Crewest (110 Winston) continues its photo journalism exhibition of urban art curated by VYAL ONE. They will also be closing Winston for the afternoon and into the night so artists can paint away. “Come watch the process as it happens,” says the PR.

"Under The Bridge": LAMP (452 S. Main) will show a collection of artwork created by local artists, and the gallery's commitment to raise awareness about homelessness and community advocacy has created its own following and become a popular art stop.

“Adam Bota”: EVFA & Junglerush Gallery will present a solo show by Adam Bota at the Continental Gallery (408 S. Spring).

“Miguel Osuna”: Traveling on the freeways of Los Angeles, images of overpasses blurred by speed and traveling too much on freeways, becomes abstraction by Miguel Osuna. Painted from memory, they find a different beauty in concrete. They hang at Taller 410 (410 S. Spring).

“Ed Martin”: I’m willing to follow along with the PR that says Martin's photography evolves the natural world further with darkroom work, making strong intimate imagery with an enlarger, organic materials and found objects. The YARGER|STRAUSS Downtown Annex (460 S. Spring) is the newly named space in the ground floor of the Rowan.

The Rowan Lofts' blog says that "The Rowan was once again the epicenter of the Downtown Art Walk" in April. While the building's contribution to the corner is easy to see, the statement is a bit of a stretch. 5th and Spring has certainly come along, with the Spring Arts Collective, M.J. Higgins and the Comedy Walk (and Weeneez) giving some great street life. Even with all that, 5th and Main keeps its crown as the Art Walk's heart.


Comments

1
tornadoes28 writes:

Related to art, the mural that was painted over on the YWCA building, a settlement was reached to pay the artist for the destroyed mural. My question is, what would have happened if the adjacent parking lot had been developed hiding the mural? Would that lot never have been allowed to be developed had the mural remained there?

Nice that the sides of buildings have nice art work like that but they should never be considered permanent as what it seems the artist thinks.

# on May.07.2008 AT 10:58 AM
2
Eric Richardson writes:

tornadoes: I would imagine a similar case would be when the Gas Company Tower was built, hiding the mural on the side of the SBC (now AT&T) Central Office next door. I don't think that mural protections can really extend into saying that you can't develop next door, but I would imagine they would need to leave some spacing or make some other form of accomodation.

# on May.07.2008 AT 11:06 AM
3
Bert Green writes:

The Rowan was not even on the Art Walk map last month. That's real estate speak for you, taking credit for other people's work. Yarger Strauss is on the map this month, because they are a real gallery.

# on May.07.2008 AT 12:30 PM
4
Ed Fuentes writes:

Then again, if someone tried to build something next to The Hotel Figueroa where large scale work are composed as "murals" but with the clear intent to sell product––you could imagine a lot of litigation would take place.

# on May.07.2008 AT 05:25 PM
5
Christian Martinez writes:

Downtown LA Life Magazine is sponsoring Life as a Poet @ Metropolis Books, On the Art Walk. We invite everyone to stop by, have some refreshments, and hear the heart of Downtown in poetry. And also visit Poetry Connection @ our magazine, where many of this cities poets sound off. Catch DHN, hard hitting indeed.

See you on the Art Walk!

Christian Martinez, Publisher Downtown LA Life Magazine

# on May.08.2008 AT 11:06 AM
6
Metro Local writes:

With regards to artwork incorporated into a structure, there is no legal requirement for it to remain visible if adjacent property is developed.

The Moral Rights for Visual Artist law was signed by President George H.W. Bush and allows artists to prevent, or seek damages when, original works of visual art (including prints limited to 200 editions or less) from destruction -- regardless of physical ownership.

If memory serves, it was an expansion of the law passed earlier in the 20th Century after a Diego Rivera mural in New York City was destroyed by an unhappy patron (Rockfeller?). The Moral Rights law can be found in U.S. copyright law and, again if memory serves, it was inspired by French law.

# on May.08.2008 AT 11:34 AM
7
tornadoes28 writes:

The Hotel Fig murals are more advertisements it seems to me. Either way, they should never be used to prevent development on open lots. The only reason many of these murals in DT are so prominent is due to the fact that DT LA has or used to have so many surface parking lots. An odd thing for what should be a dense DT where the only open lots should be parks.

# on May.09.2008 AT 09:57 AM
8
Don Noyes-More writes:

Our thanks to Richard McDowell for his presentation of the Poets of Downtown on The Art Walk. Thanks to all the great poets for their moving presentations. Also a BIG thanks to Metropolis Books for their support of this event. Downtown LA Life Magazine will continue to sponsor these kinds of important events in our community.

  • Richard McDowell http://www.lifeasapoet.com

  • Wendy Arimah Wendy Arimah is the Downtown LA Life Magazine "Poet Laureate" 2007-2008 and is the host of Poetry Connection at http://downtownlalife.com

  • Blackbird

  • Mike the Poet http://www.myspace.com/mikethepoet

Thanks again,

Don Noyes-More, Editor in Chief DTLAL Magazine

**

# on May.09.2008 AT 10:55 AM

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