For Spring holidays, I spent most of the month of April in Los Angeles, California. In the past, when visiting LA, I did not get to see much of the art scene.. aside from visiting a pre-impressionist Gallery in Beverly Hills. So this time around I really wanted to visit some other local art galleries to get more of a feel for what Los Angeles’ taste in art really is.
I visited two galleries, both in between Melrose & West Hollywood, that featured paintings and two totally separate themes.
New Image Art is located on Santa Monica Blvd, and has been open since 1994. It describes itself as an “inclusive, artist-run venue whose mission is to provide a cultural platform for artists of all creeds” and this is the exact vibe I got. They were featuring a series called Magic Symbols by artist Emma Kohlman, from New York City. In the works displayed, she used acrylics, watercolors and sumi ink. Her work was my favorite out of the two galleries because it was more emotion invoking… it gave a sense of human connection and also at the same time, the ability for unique interpretation.
Here are some of her works from the gallery:
The second gallery I visited was called Matthew Marks Gallery on N Orange Grove, it was a little hard to find, so I almost gave up… hidden in the back of an alleyway, I was a bit nervous, but it ended up being a nicer venue than New Image. Matthew Marks also has another location in New York.
This gallery had a new exhibit up, starting just this April, of artist Charles Ray, which features 2 sculptures and a selection of drawings. Although, the main attraction for this exhibit was a 10 foot tall, 6 ton, granite relief of a horse- I did not see it present. I did see the drawings, which were ink drawn flowers.
My favorite piece at this gallery was an oil on canvas piece by Vija Celmins, titled ‘Night Sky #15’
Here are some other pieces from the exhibit I enjoyed.
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