Music Connects Us: The Venice Art Crawl Fundraiser At The New Hal's- Playa Vista

Last night was a wonderful celebration of Art and Venice, when the Venice Art Crawl had its big art show fundraiser, held at the brand new Hal's in Playa Vista.

The show was titled "Music Connects Us", and featured works of art all based on music and the people that make it. Hal's Playa Vista is now not only a restaurant, but they have a huge event space next door, where this massive (75 Artists!) art show was held.

The place was already packed when I arrived, and musicians played outside on the sidewalk while people got checked in. It was very festive, and not just because it was 4/20. People were ready to party. The art show part was a sober party, however, as the big space is not zoned for alcohol use, I guess, so the bar in the space was only serving kombucha drinks. Some Venice folks had flasks for this rock and roll show. Bless.

VAC organizer Sunny Bak was there, and so were her excellent Beastie Boy photos ...

Co-organizer Neely Shearer from the wonderful Venice shop, In Heroes We Trust was there, looking great and making the rounds among all the artists she had helped compile for this extra-impressive show (here in front of Jules Muck works). John Hartman, pictured here with Neely, was responsible for the design of the space, which was great.

Today is the first anniversary of our beloved Prince's death, which I'm really still not ready to face, if I'm honest. The show last night seemed to agree with me, as several of the artists had pieces featuring our Minneapolis legend. I wish I could have bought them all. Like "Prince of Rock" by Todd Goodman ...

Or "Prince The Vegan Rebel" by Le Fou/Vegan Club (my favorite, I think) ...

 
Or this angelic Prince by Made Of Hagop ... I'd take any of them, for sure.

I also loved the rare, casual photo of another life-love of mine, Mr. Leonard Cohen, by Ivy Ney.

I loved the colorful music posters by another Minneapolis fellow, Kii Arens, who also did the poster for this show.

Fantastic, bright paintings by Oliana Afano lit the place up ...

Rock photographer Guy Webster's work was well represented ...

 Nat Fino had some great Bowie and Stones work on display, adding to the rock flavro ...

There were art installations set up around, like a big yurt with balloons and neon jellyfish by Shana Koenig inside and around it ...

There was a Plastic Jesus installation of a smashed piano that had a sign stating "Trump's Endowment for the Arts". Sad commentary on now ... but we were all there to fight exactly against that. Art is so important, and nights that brings everyone together to honor and celebrate it is what has to keep happening. Art is worth fighting for.

And so was a place at the bar at the new Hal's next door. There was a fancy VIP dinner for the event that I skipped, but the menu appeared to be the same good old Hal's fare. The Turkey burger is there, the Caesar is there ... the ART is there! Yes, the old familiar art from the original Abbot Kinney location is all there, the same staff is there, the jazz is there (last night played by Antonia Bennet - daughter of Tony) ... the only thing that isn't there is Venice. It's a little surreal to be honest, to have so much of the same feelings, but then look outside at a place that's kind of like The Grove. There's no chance of looking out the window and seeing a naked bike ride go by here, but then that's been happening less and less on Abbot Kinney too. This new Hal's is verrrry slick, with an open front with window tables, a big circular center bar, and even a state of the art screening room with the same fiber optics that the International Space Station has. Top shelf stuff.

It was fun to see so much of Venice together again inside a Hal's, and Hal himself was holding court all evening. The only thing weird was calling a car to go home, versus walking across the street. I'm not sure how often we'll make the trek to Playa Vista (Pleasantville), but it's nice to know that it's there. Congratulations to Don, Linda, Hal, and all the staff on a beautiful new venue that takes a little bit of Venice to the folks on Jefferson.

After all the art was seen, and the scene was made, it was time to head back to Venice for an after-party/420 jamboree at the Josa Tulum shop on the corner of Abbot Kinney an Venice Boulevard. There was more art, and more live music, and much more Venice. Lacey Kay Cowden had both her art and her music on display, as she played a live set there in the yard for the partiers.

Death By Politics were both our hosts and our headliners, as they played a spirited set for the crowd gathering. You could hear the music from blocks away, and it felt exactly how a Venice 4/20 should feel. Awesome.

Local legends Paul Chesne and Tom Freund tore it up together toward the end of the night, and all was well. Real well.

I walked the block home later, and could still hear the music from my bed for a while. That's a perfect way to fall asleep in Venice, California on April 20th ... on a night that was only about art, music, friends, and the Venice we all know and simply love.

Kudos to all involved on a completely wonderful event that will guarantee more nights dedicated to art for us all. The show was so dense it's nearly impossible to mention everyone, but everyone was more than worth mentioning and I loved it all. Everyone mark your calendars for the May 18th Venice Art Crawl! It's THE Venice jam.

Venice Art Crawl - St. Patrick's Day Eve Edition

Last night was the first Venice Art Crawl of 2017, and it was a complete blast. The theme this time was "This Is Venice", and everyone did their best to show what that was. REALLY was. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with it being St. Patrick's Day Eve, but people were in the mood to go OFF. And did.

We kicked off the night at In Heroes We Trust with a little music and pre-party, as you do. This Crawl focused on the Venice Boulevard corridor (I've always called it the "Cultural Corridor", and in fact, this is the zone that Danny Samakow is talking about making our Venice Arts District. Solid.), from the beach to Beyond Baroque. With so much ground to cover, I had to kick in the spurs and wrangle everyone to go, and after zooming past the gorgeous Paris photos at Le Pop Up Gallery on Abbot Kinney, we traipsed through the walk streets to Beyond Baroque, who were hosting the Inaugural L.A. Punk Film Festival. How cool. The only thing was that we had no time to sit and watch films when there were still miles to walk. They might want to think about having it be its own event next time, so everyone can attend. Just a thought. It was fun just walking around last night, almost like Halloween for adults, with crowds of people walking the streets in clusters, letting everyone know which house/venue not to miss.

One not to be missed was  at the corner of Venice and Abbot Kinney, where the front yard of the new Josa store from Tulum was having a bootleg event, off the map, in true Venice style. Jules Muck was there doing a live painting of a big, beautiful flower on the building, and Death Of Politics played out on the front lawn, pretty much stopping traffic at that intersection. The Electric Bike Parade going by received an enormous ovation as they lit up the foggy night on their colorful cycles.

I heard a lot of friends saying this Art Crawl felt like the old days, and they were right. That's what I love about the VAC too, it always feels like it's about the Community, and you always see people you know. Oh, and basically everywhere is serving up drinks, so it feels like the old First Fridays when you could drink and have music in the stores. No one was feeling any pain last night (though we all are today).

As the clock was ticking, we headed off down Venice to the Library parking lot, where more live painting was happening.

The Boys and Girls Club had a community canvas going, where any and everyone was invited to pick up a brush and add to the masterpiece. We used to do this at Abbot's Habit back when my brother was the manager there. They'd put up big canvases and someone would do a sketch and then divide it into squares. Each person chose a square to fill in, showing how all our different styles made up the creative whole. They always turned out beautifully, and I could kick myself that the one I bid on was lost in one of my moves. Boo. We should do it again before Abbot's closes! O.K.

There was an interactive game set up where you could toss a bean bag and win a book. The books were all gone by the time I got there, which was fine because I was awful at it. But good times. The night only got crazier as it went, so I lost all my cards and map with notes and names on it, etc, but shout out to this stop where we had a lot of fun. Thanks!

Off we went to Sunny Bak's place, our tireless Art Crawl leader. She was showing her incredible Beastie Boys photos and her venue was stuffed with appreciators of the arts (on a day when the NEA is being de-funded, this Venice experience is more important than ever!)

They were also showing Harold Cleworth's fantastic car paintings at this stop, and I loved the Lowrider one that said, "Bless The Lowered".  Fresh.

I knew we could not miss the first time the Paper, Scissors, Rock salon was on the Art Crawl, and I was totally right. You could tell from a block away in the fog that this joint was going off. People were partying out on Pacific Avenue, in the street, like the good old days.

You could hear the music of Jeremy Parker and Masao Miyashiro setting the good vibes, and when we rolled up it was so tight inside you could barely move.

Great photos from Ray Rae and Josh "Bagel" Klassman were on display, and Bart Saric and Jeff Ho were showing their paintings, but the best part of this location was all of the extra fun people who came out. It was like a big house party in there, and this stop was a unanimous favorite.

We could have stayed at any one of the stops for the whole evening, as each of them were so fun this time. This is always a problem when you want to see everything, and having such a good time everywhere we went meant that there were some good venues I missed, and I'm sorry. By this hour, we had to hightail it over to Gotta Have It, where our friend's awesome band, Restavrant, was going to be exploding the place into smithereens, as they're known to do.

Gotta Have It was also jam-packed, again with solid wall to wall friends. Restavrant does not mess around, and they had the room going crazy the whole set. Like, there was a mosh pit in a vintage store last night in Venice. Super, all-star fun.

The fog outside only grew thicker, but no one cared and the party spilled out on to the sidewalk out front, as it should. People were making liquor store runs, and passing out beers to friends and strangers alike. It was a good, old fashioned, sweaty, proper rock and roll jamboree, and every single person in there was stoked. It didn't appear that anyone minded that it was now officially St. Patrick's Day, a day on which you're kind of expected to party pretty hard. Again. No problem.

The walk home was thick with mist, letting you pretend you might be sort of Ireland-adjacent. All I know is that I was smiling, and today's text messages were all about how much of a grand old time everyone had. A humble and true thank you to all the participants, from artists to musicians, to planners to players. I love you all an awful lot.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, O'Venice!

On The Scene At L.A. Art Show 2017!

"On The Scene In '17" is my motto for this new year, but I haven't been able to really execute because I've had this dreadful cold for pretty much the whole year so far. The show must go on though, so I headed down to the always great opening night of the 2017 L.A. Art Show at the Convention Center downtown, Kleenex in hand.

The line to get inside the hall was so long it was like we were trying to get into a Bernie Sanders rally last Summer (ahem). It went pretty fast, and there was good people watching while waiting, like this lady with a dress made entirely out of forks (who made it much easier for my friends to find me with her as a landmark - thank you!).

It's fun to attend this event with my brother, Paul, because he's deep in the L.A. art world and has a lot of great insight - but he also gets stopped every two feet to chat, so he needs to be abandoned at times if I was going to see any of the art in an already super-densely filled massive space crowded with art aficionados.

Aside from the intense line to get in at the beginning, the Art Show has figured out some things to make it go more smoothly, starting with several little bars throughout so you don't end up wasting all your art looking time in line for a drink. The whole thing seemed more spread out and manageable, even if I never figure out how to get to the food area before they close down. Oh, well.

I think I saw my favorite pieces right out of the gate when Paul showed me the sculpture works by Larry Kagan, where he bends wires in such a way that their shadow on the wall is the real image. How cool! It always intrigues me how artists come up with their art, and this one takes the cake. Like, "I bet if I bend this wire just so, it will look like a chair in the shadow on the wall." What?! Smartie.

... Or "What if I make sculptures entirely out of screws?" How do they come up with these things?! I'm actually always more interested in art like this than the classic landscape in a gold frame, but if that's your thing, there's plenty of that too.

I've always been fond of the quote from Bertolt Brecht when he said, " Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." - because it's so true, and this show was no different. There was a ton of art that reflected our times and current events ... and the reporters from all over the world to cover it.

Much of art is derivative, of course, and there are many exhibitors who clearly have been majorly influenced by Warhol and Basquiat - like almost straight knock-offs - but then you get those bent wires and screws and the performance artists, and the relief that there is still some original thought and creativity left in the world.

The performance art was all at one end this year, and though we missed a lot of the action/performance of it by the time we got to that side, it was still cool to see what people are up to. An inflatable amoeba type thing with painted dancers cavorting around it was interesting ...

An invitation to destroy a couch had viewers sitting and watching the destruction while "Pennies From Heaven" played and pennies DID fall occasionally from the Heavens (ceiling).

There was a bloody forest where limbs were dismembered that we missed (and I'm fine with that), but we very much dug the pink carwash thing buffing out silver "LA." letters, that so perfectly matched my friend Deb's arty get-up that people thought she was part of the installation and asking her for photos. Awesome.

I very much enjoyed the live painting that featured street artists like bumblebeelovesyou (who I also love) creating one of his whimsical, happy childhood pieces ...

... and Venice's own Jules Muck there doing a self-portrait, showing this art world that she has indeed arrived.

My favorite section of the L.A. Art Show is always the Littletopia area, full of the latest, coolest stuff from artists who always seem to be the most up my alley.

Littletopia is curated by my favorite gallery at the L.A. Art Show, the Red Truck Gallery, from New Orleans. I love me some folk art, and Red Truck is probably the very best place in the country to feature that wonderful genre.

They had a bunch of new art this year, of which I think the one I most coveted was this piece that warns against the dangers of mixing Pop Rocks with Coke. Don't do it.

I loved the "Artist's Room" by the duo Dosshaus, where a couple hangs out and talks to you in an entirely monochromatic, colorless room where all of the items, including their clothes, were made from recycled cardboard. Deb also looked especially great here in her pink.

There was a surreal installation of stretched out, super-realistic people from Yi Hwan Kwon, that was also very popular with the Instagrammers in the house. To stand in front of them was to question your own reality - or sobriety - as so trippy were they. 

Another really great installation was the big portrayal "Cut-Outs" by Ramiro Gomez of a Los Angeles home. It uses negative space very effectively when the housekeepers and gardeners are cut out of the piece and erected in front of it, proving their importance. It reminded me of the great and important documentary, A Day Without A Mexican from Sergio Arau. Crucial viewing, both. 

Coagula Projects brought an installation from Fred Tieken that would be very Venice-appropriate as it portrayed birds and skateboards and said, "No birds on skateboards allowed on this beach".  Only we would never stand for that. 

There was so much to see and do at this year's L.A. Art Show that it insists upon a return visit, when it's not so full of opening night crowds and people to catch up with. For every piece I saw, there were probably 100 that I didn't - or more. It's always so gratifying to attend events that are all about the art and the people that make it, and that recognize the beauty and importance of art in our lives. The show runs through January 15th, so you have until then to be "On The Scene in '17" yourselves. No excuses. 

Thank you to all involved for another wonderful showcase of the world's art and artists, indeed helping to shape our reality. Hooray for Art!