The May Venice Art Crawl - Shredtastic!

The Spring (and Norwegian National Day! - I care) edition of the Venice Art Crawl was held last night, and was as excellent of an evening as it always is. I'm working on a show that gave me a late start to crawling, but I put on my race-walking shoes and got to see as much art as I possibly could. This time around the VAC was focused on our "Cultural Corridor", as I like to call it, of Venice Boulevard. I started at Beyond Baroque, but it looked like an AA meeting was happening (as it has been on VAC nights before), so I kept on trucking to the Venice Library to get a map. It was there that I found out it WAS a stop on the Crawl, and not an AA meeting at all. Oops. Well, good turnout, Beyond Baroque, I'm sorry I missed it!

The library art part was over by the time I got there, but I understand little kids were painting outside. Dang it, that would have been adorable.  Friends were texting that they were over at Hama Sushi, enjoying sake and the fantastic Venice photographs from Todd Van Hoffman.

It was jam packed inside Hama (sorry, waiters!), so the shindig soon expanded to outside, where The Jewpanese Brothers (Masao Miyashiro and Jeremy Parker) were ripping it up outside under the portable Venice sign that accompanies our various event parades. People were singing and dancing in the street in Windward Circle - exactly as they should be.

My friends wanted me to sit and have some sushi and sake, but I protested, as there was still so much ground to cover and art to see. A man sitting there said, "You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Part of the Art Crawl is to see your friends and neighbors and enjoy yourself. It's ok if you don't see everything." That was nice of him ... and I should have listened, because I ended the night starving with no kitchens still open - but I DID get to see a whole lot of art.

The next stop was Surfside, where we were going to see the excellent photos from Ray Rae Goldman, but we got there and were told that he had cancelled due to an injury (hope you're ok, Ray!). There WAS, however, more super cool AR stuff from Cody Nowak and the app ReBlink, who had impressed us at the last Crawl. This time out, he truly blew minds. Classic style paintings hung on the wall, but when viewed through the Ipad (or the app on your phone), they came to life in striking and spectacular fashion. Like, WOW. Suzy Williams had never seen any AR, and I think her face below sums it up.

There were also paintings by Deborah Medina at Surfside that greeted you as you walked in, and that's what I love about the Crawl. So many Venice businesses open up to include art and art lovers, recognizing that ART is a major reason why Venice ever became Venice. They know that over at Small World Books (best book store on the West Side!), where they had the work of Alex Crist AND free guacamole! Win win.

Next door at The Sidewalk Café they were showing the watercolors of Elizabeth Covington and the photos of Dan Kacvinski, with live Japanese classical guitar music on the patio from Ashun that was simply lovely.

With no time to waste and the clock ticking, we sped down Speedway to North Venice Boulevard, where a collective of 10 women were showing their art and jewelry in an apartment so packed with friends and neighbors we could barely squeeze inside, even though there was wine. Leila Jean Levi, Michele Pelletier, Aly Farrow Wilkins, Mildred Rivera, Karen Gladstone, Joanne Silver, Susan Ryza, and Sage Ryza all showed their cool stuff, making friends and sales along the way. We could have stayed and chatted the rest of the night, but, again, time was of the essence.

Moving right along, we hit up James Beach to see work from Lori Petty, but were told that one was also cancelled. Ok, off to Canal Club across the street. Patrick Marston was showing his Venice inspired art in the front of the restaurant ...

... And Todd Goodman was showing his Venice inspired art in the back room. I pretty much wanted every piece, and was happy to see that Goodman was selling his colorful, beachy prints left and right (and I was happy they were prints, because otherwise he'd priced them far too low - get one!). From the pier to the sunsets, Venice is beautifully represented in his work (which was also the poster for this Crawl).

The most fun part of the Crawl is always running into the locals that you know and love. This happened non-stop last night, which was so heart-filling, but also slowed down the racing a bit ... maybe a good thing? A whole crew of us formed and headed over to Sunny Bak's pad, where there was a "Broken Heart Repair Shop" set up.

A nurse (Candy Frost) sat at a little table and listened intently to the lovelorn people lucky enough to snag a time slot, and offered prescriptions for their heart's recovery. Though deeply needed, I was not among those to get an appointment, and the guy that had just finished his own diagnosis had his lips sealed (though with a look of serenity on his face), so I can't really report as to what really went down. And my heart still needs fixing ... but I digress.

Onward! An evening stroll back up Venice Boulevard led us to the Wallspace pop-up happening in the yard at Sea You Are Free space on the corner of Venice and Abbot Kinney. It's always a good time there on the corner, and last night was no different. Wallspace represents several artists, and there were about 10 different ones showing there last night. I think my favorite of the bunch were the street signs repurposed with cooler words from Scott Froschauer ...with more uplifting messages than the typical "Stop" and "Yield" and "No Parking".

Once we realized there was only ten minutes left in most of the VAC stops, we sat down on a bench in the yard and finally took a breather. My friend's son, Declan, was with us much of the Crawl, and after spending the whole evening looking at art and meeting up with O.G. Venice folks, he said, "I'm so happy we live in Venice." This kid was born and raised here, so that made it even more special. He doesn't take if for granted, and every day feels fortunate to be brought up in such an original place that cares about our art and our community. I feel exactly the same way every day, but it's nice to hear it from a kid.

Now starving, we set out to find food only to find that almost every place on Abbot Kinney now closes their dang kitchens at 10:00 p.m. That is lame. Drinks were no problem (and there was even art at The Brig and Wabi Sabi, by Nicole Hoffman and Debbie Zeitman, respectively), but that's never a good idea on a completely empty stomach.

We did an entire lap around Venice - for real - and found that now back on Pacific,  even Mao's was closed! Where is an Art Crawler supposed to eat AND see all the art?! A real conundrum ... with the answer ending up being In and Out. Sigh. No real matter ... it was another fantastic event that we are lucky to have going down in our town. And now the annual Art WALK is this Sunday, so it truly is almost an embarrassment of artistic riches down here. Come see, won't you?

Hooray for the V.A.C.!!

The Venice Art Crawl Turns 7!

The Venice Art Crawl turned 7 years old last night with a party at Canal Club to celebrate! The back room was jam packed with artists and the people who love them and their work. The entire mission of the VAC is to keep ART alive in Venice, and these are the folks that are making sure of that.

The VAC was the vision of Danny Samakow, Edizen Stowell, and Mike Newhouse, who came together to ensure that Venice as an art destination would remain so. They, along with tireless board member, Sunny Bak, were honored last night with a well-deserved certificate from the Venice Chamber of Commerce, and a big old 7th birthday chocolate cake.

A raffle was held all night, with winners claiming art by local artists, among other great loot prizes. Danny Samakow was sporting the bright pink VAC shirt from when the event was a monthly deal, and shared with me how happy he was to see how far it's all come.

Fun and familiar faces of Venice enjoyed themselves all night (and do be sure to check out the watermelon margarita across the street at James Beach while it's in season - delish!), and all looked forward to the next installment of the VAC in September for the Venice Afterburn - always a highlight of the year!

Happiest Birthday to the Venice Art Crawl, and endless thanks for all of your hard work to keep the art world in Venice not just alive, but thriving! Much, much love!

Next Venice Art Crawl - September 21st! 

 

The Spring Venice Art Crawl - Mini Edition

The Venice Art Crawl went down last night, and this time was centered up and down Venice Boulevard, in what I like to call "The Cultural Corridor". This time out was a lot smaller (with the annual Art Walk also happening this weekend, it's a lot), and I'm not mad at that. There's always so much ground to cover that you can never see it all anyway, so this more bite size version was actually pretty user-friendly. I had woken up to the news that the world lost Chris Cornell, so was feeling a bit melancholy, but also very eager to get out and live myself.

                                                                                                  *this piece by Jennifer Verge

We started the evening in the window seats at Wabi Sabi as the sun went down, and it was like looking at art just watching all the people walk by ... and all the girls taking selfies out in front. Wabi Sabi was also a stop on the Art Crawl, so we hit two birds with one stone (and a few glasses of wine got hit as well, if I'm honest). Barbara Lavery had her show Before They Go up on the walls, a series of photos of Venice artists working in their studios - while they still have them. It was poignant, and great, and shone a light on the fact that Venice is really nothing without its artists ... and that's what the Art Crawl is all about.

As the daylight waned, we headed over to the Beyond Baroque and SPARC complex to see what was happening, but it appeared to be a big crowd for an AA meeting. We probably could have done with staying and listening, but there was still a lot of art to see. We walked over to the home studio of Flavio Bisciotti, which was nearly totally ruined in a fire last year. Fellow artists came together to do a show comprised of all works done on charred remains of things from the studio.

The "Art From The Ashes" show was a great success, and also incredibly inspiring. Artists coming together to make something new out of the old, and supporting each other through it all. It's a beautiful thing, as are the objects that were created out of it. My favorite was the chandelier made from bits and pieces of wreckage, that came together to be more beautiful than any of it had been before. There's a good lesson in there ...

Bisciotti has a wonderful attitude about it all, and appears to be even more inspired himself. He has made chairs that are see through and contain more wreckage, that were very cool, and again, wouldn't have happened without that awful fire. This man has truly become the phoenix.

There were drinks and good conversation there, but there was also a whole bunch more art to see, and we'd already killed a lot of time. We had more Crawlers join us as we aimed for the beach down Venice Boulevard. It didn't seem like much was happening at the Venice Library, so we went on over to Sunny Bak's place to see her, and the silent auction going on there to benefit the Art Crawl Afterburn in the fall.

Sunny does SO much for this Art Crawl, and one of the reasons this Crawl was small, is that she does most of it herself, it seems like. She needs help, volunteers, artists, venues, money ... HELP. It takes a whole community to pull these things off, and we need to all be in it together. One of the best ways to combat gentrification and tech company take-overs is to PARTICIPATE in events. Be SEEN in your Community. Many people I talked to yesterday weren't even aware the Art Crawl was being held last night, though there are banners up all over town, and promotions all over social media. C'mon, Venice. Time to re-boot the school spirit. Thanks!

There was live painting happening outside at Sunny's by Ana Escobar, and the bright colorful pieces brought some fun and vibrancy to the night - plus it's always fun to watch people work.

Time was ticking, so we raced over to the C.A.V.E. to see the beautiful show Sixth Extinction by Louis Masai. It features colorful animals that are endangered or extinct, and is centered by a bee hovering over some flowers. I love Masai's work, and first saw it as a mural behind the G2 Gallery on Abbot Kinney. It's up through May, I believe, and well worth your time to check out on your way to the beach.

We were too late to see Deb Louck's new work at Small World Books, as we found the doors locked. Bummer. It's all still up though, so I'll still go see it and so should you. I love her stuff. We didn't make it into Sidewalk Café either, as now we ran into friends that were on their way to the Canal Club. There was a ton of fun art in the back room there, in a show called "ARTravenous" by James Berkowitz, with various artists showing. There was a big crowd there, and everyone was clearly having a good time.

This was a fun Crawl, as I rolled around with Venice lady legends, Greta Cobar and Suzy Williams - two of my all time favorite Venetians. Laughs were had.

It was vital that we cross the street to James Beach with Danny Samakow, both to see all of his beautiful paintings that were featured on the dining room walls ... and to do shots of some crazy rum together. Why not? (I poured a little out for Chris Cornell. Respect.)

There was still a lot going on all over town, but now it was getting late and people had to work today. It was great to see all the people out and about, on foot and bike, enjoying the sort of holiday feeling that comes with an event like the Venice Art Crawl. We are lucky people. We are alive and creating and sharing and celebrating art and each other in Venice, California.

Amen.

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!