gem benefit by Los Angeles Art Association
Los Angeles Art Association will host its annual gem benefit on April 11, 2009 at Gallery 825.
The event, widely embraced by the art community and leading collectors as a showcase of emerging art trends, will feature the art of over 100 emerging, mid-career and established artists including Meeson Pae Yang, Dan Monteavaro, Julia Strickler and Steven Fujimoto.
With over 200 original artworks beginning at $100 – everyone can be an art collector at gem! The event also showcases a special silent auction with works by celebrated luminaries, including artists Richard Artschwager, Lisa Adams, Alex Couwenberg, Roland Reiss, Cole Sternberg, actor and artist Jason Lee and more.
Hundreds of LA’s most influential movers and shakers are expected to attend the exclusive VIP preview featuring food by Café 14, champagne, and spirits provided by Patron. Getty Museum Director Michael Brand and wife Tina Brand are serving as the Benefit Co-Chairs and the Benefit Committee comprises many renowned cultural figures including Harry Chandler, Howard N. Fox and Cheech Marin.
Gena Genis, of The Photographers Exchange, has an accepted a piece of work for the auction. It’s an accordion book, written in her own alphabet (Geniset) and illustrated with the story of the Origin Of Music-an Aztec legend. She states that she made the price dirt cheap for the auction. nice.
By Doug Stockdale
Updated Note: The artists accepted into GEM are not being auctioned. It is a first come-first-served opportunity for the art. People show up and take what they want right off the wall, so get there early! The silent auction is for the big name artists who are donating pieces.
Gina Genis at Cypress College
The Night Life of Seniors – The Pack Rat photograph copyright of Gina Genis
Gina Genis has two solo exhibitions in progress at Cypress College’s Photographic Gallery, one series is titled Night Lives of Seniors, the other is Kala-Man’s Place in Time and Nature.
The Gallery is located at Cypress College, in the technical building, photography department, from March 9-April 18th. The address is 9200 Valley View Street in Cypress. The artist reception was March 12, at 7-9 p.m., and Gina had provided an artist’s talk. The gallery hours are M-Th 8am-10pm, Fri-Sat 9am-2pm.
Update: Gina Genis Artist’s Statement:
The common bond between all of my work is the passage of Time. No matter what subject matter I choose, Time’s long shadow is ever present.
The series “Night Lives of Seniors” was born when I had to move into my mother’s house in a retirement community to provide care as her dementia progressed. To get some peace of mind, I began taking walks at night.
Open windows displayed lives in cubicles of warped time. I became a fascinated voyeur of how these senior citizens spend their evenings. In many cases, you can actually see where time has stopped. Their homes are decorated in the style of the 1960’s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Their TV’s are tuned in to game shows. Some still have rotary dial phones.
The most glaring factor was that they are so alone. In a large community of duplexes, three story apartments, and shared-wall condos, only once did I see more than one person living in a home. Questions arise. How will I end up? What can I do now to make someone else’s life more pleasant? How will I be remembered, if I am remembered at all?
In the series “Kala – Man’s Place In Time And Nature”, an anonymous man contemplates the encroachment of the city on the last fragments of wilderness.
On one level the series is an exploration of technical challenges. Combining ambient and artificial lighting, a live model at the mercy of the elements through the seasons, wild animals, and long exposures with low ISOs that maintain image clarity. Long seconds and a few flashlights on a series of nights portray man as dwarfed by the turning of the seasons and the slowly moving hour hand of time.
On a second level the series is a statement of concern. The serenity of the images belies the imbalance of our situation within nature. We have turned our backs on the environment in our comfortable trespass on this planet. Wilderness is consumed and the stars submit to street lamps that spread into the horizon. The questions here are of control and responsibility.
Do we control nature, or does nature control us? We have built cities that can last thousands of years, but nature has the weapons of tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, or volcano blasts to claim her land back instantly. What is our responsibility in keeping a respectable balance between human needs and the needs of the animals and the land we share?
Kala – Man’s Place and Time in Nature
by Doug Stockdale
Evening with 4 LA Photographers Series
Copyright Hiroshi Watanabe
The following announcement comes from Aline Smithson, who also writes the wonderful blog Lenscratch (and not just because she wrote a nice article about my work):
In an attempt to unify our disparate photographic community, last year I hosted a series of lectures by fine art photographers. The only requirements were that they had to live in LA, and I wanted a cross section of speakers from various photo communities. We had wonderful lectures by Melanie Pullen, Eileen Cowin, Stephen Berkman, Gil Garcetti, Ann Elliott Cutting, and David Newsom.
This year I am very excited to host another series, through the Julia Dean Photo workshops, featuring four wonderful photographers that live among us! The series starts next Thursday, March 26th, with Hiroshi Watanabe. Hiroshi won the Santa Fe Center’s Project Competition last year, and the coveted Critical Mass Book Award resulting in his monograph, Findings (Editorial NOTE: I recently acquired this book and will be reviewing it soon on The Photo Book), and was the Aperture Portfolio Pick in 2006. His work is sold through a myriad of galleries, and Hiroshi continues his travels capturing the humanity, beauty, and poignancy of the world around us. http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com/
On Thursday, April 30th, Mona Kuhn, will share her unique vision. She is currently on the faculty at Art Center, is an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and exhibits throughout the world. She is about to add a third monograph, Native, to be published this Fall. http://www.monakuhn.com
On Thursday, May 28th, Whitney Hubbs will present her work. Whitney is an MFA candidate at UCLA and BFA graduate of Cal Arts. Her work has been exhibited and published widely and she was one of the 5 artists who created the Art of Obama campaign. She has created a strong presence in the fine art world, most recently published in Lay Flat Magazine. http://whitneyhubbs.com/
And finally, on Thursday June 25th, iconic Los Angeles photographer Douglas McCulloh will share his vision and work. Douglas has been exhibited worldwide in museums and galleries, often chronicling our own city in system-based photographic explorations. Douglas was also one of the creators of The Great Picture Project, where along with hundreds of volunteers, he helped create the largest photograph in history. Don’t miss this charismatic speaker. http://www.douglasmcculloh.com, http://www.legacyphotoproject.com/
The lectures will take place upstairs at the A&I offices (1550 17th St, at 17th and Colorado) in Santa Monica, CA. It’s an intimate space, so reservations are recommended (even though the brochure says otherwise). The lectures begin around 7pm and run about an hour with questions afterwards.
by Doug Stockdale
Pirkle Jones, California photographer, dies at 95
Prikle Jones copyright Eric Luse / San Francisco Chronicle
Pirkle Jones, a California photographer admired for his stirring images of migrant workers, endangered landscapes and social movements, including a controversial series on the Black Panthers at the height of their activism in the late 1960s, died March 15 (2009) in San Rafael. He was 95.
Thanks to Ellen Butler and the full orbit by the LA Times is here.
by Doug Stockdale
Larry Vogel / Last Saturdays Photoshop Seminar
Just A Reminder
Next Photoshop seminar March 28th
I have a few seats open contact vogelart@cox.net to reserve a space.
For more information visit
Print Exchange Meeting
Once per year in March at the monthly Photographers Exchange meeting, prints do get exchanged. The process is fairly straight forward, you bring a print to the meeting, and you take home a different print. And this usually brings out some really wonderful photographs.
Now the process is been pretty well defined over the last nineteen years. Everybody gets to vote for their favorite three prints, the scores are tallied and the person who’s print gets the most votes gets to be the first person to choose a print. The person whose print is chosen, now gets to chose a print, etc, etc. But even this process goes sideways, but Larry Vogel, the master of ceremonies usually has some way to get the process restarted, such as the person with the second most or third most votes getting to choose a print. Until they are all gone.
If you have to chose early, it can be aganizing to figure out which print to select, but some prints just seem to jump in your hands when given your turn.
This annual event is well attended and enjoyed for all of the right reasons.
By Doug Stockdale
Call for entries – Redondo Beach Art Group
The Redondo Beach Art Group has a call for entries for a show titled “Through the Ages” which is about the cycles of life. It is open to all artists in Southern California.
The entry deadline is March 31st with the Exhibition: May 16 to July 12, 2009.
By Doug Stockdale
Jim McKinniss juried into Pine Ave Photo Project
“Rochelle” photograph copyright of Jim McKinniss
Jim Mckinniss was recently juried into the Pine Ave Photo Project.
“Arts and culture play a significant role in shaping communities and strengthen our values and create pride of citizenship. The Pine Ave Photo Project is a series of enlarged black & white portraits taken by several Long Beach and Los Angeles area fine art photographers. The selected works will be digitally enhanced and enlarged to 4’ x 6’ or 22” x 28”. The works will be displayed in selected sites along Long Beach’s Pine Ave corridor in exciting empty store fronts transforming the interior spaces to vibrant art galleries.”
by Doug Stockdale
Gina Genis at Gallery 825
Gina Genis, a member of The Photo Exchange, was recently juried into the LAAA exhibition at their Gallery 825, Los Angeles, called Venus-Goddess of Love, juried by Andi Campognone, Executive Director of Arkspace. This show is a celebration of everything lustful, beautiful, magical and practical about women.
Her photography, titled “Call Me A Thief” is a self portrait in the bathtub. The opening reception is this Saturday,
March 7th from 6-9 p.m. The show will run through April 3rd.
By Doug Stockdale
Fresh Look
In conjunction with MOPLA are the fresh programs, one is the fresh Look, which is basicly an opportunity for a porftolio review and fresh Fair, a chance to sell directly to collectors.
So check it out, there may be an opportunity for you…
by Doug Stockdale
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