Your week in design events from DnA.
1. Carla Fernandez: The Future is Handmade! Exhibition & Vintage Mexican Clothing and Booksigning at Decades
An exhibition of couture and ready to wear clothing, as well as textiles and housewares by Carla Fernández, an evangelist for harnessing the handcrafting skills of her native Mexico with contemporary form, opens this weekend in downtown LA.
Curated by Renee Zellweger (not the actress) of San Francisco’s Summerschool, “The Future is Handmade!” includes work by other Mexican artists and, in Fernández’ words, “presents the realm of possibilities, by shifting the historical boundaries between craft, design, folk art and contemporary art. What’s old is new again.”
In addition to the exhibition, Cameron Silver will display “Carla’s personal curated collection of Mexican vintage handcrafted clothing” at his Melrose store Decades and Fernandez will sign copies of her book “The Barefoot Designer: A Handbook.”
‘The Future is Handmade!’ Exhibition in Downtown LA
When: September 12 — Opening Event 4-7PM; Sunday September 13– 10AM to 6PM. The exhibition continues: September 14 – 28th. Mondays closed. Tuesday-Friday 11AM to 6PM. Saturdays/Sundays By Appointment
Where: Red Desert, 850 S Broadway, Ste. #600; LA, CA 90014; (213) 438-0676
Vintage Clothing and Booksigning at Decades
When: Friday September 11, 4-7PM Book Signing.The vintage collection is available until September 28: Monday-Saturday 11AM to 6PM; Sunday 12 to 5PM
Where: DECADES, 8214 Melrose Avenue, LA, CA 90046; (323) 655 1960
Tickets: Free and Open to the Public
Click here for more information.
2. Opulent Mobility
How you ever gone to a medical devices store and been struck by just how grim, grey and clinical all the products look? That was how artist A. Laura Brody felt when her partner had a stroke and she was thrown into the world of assisted mobility.
Her belief that dependency shouldn’t mean loss of beauty has lead to ‘Opulent Mobility,’ an exhibition of art, designs and inventions by 19 artists including Brody, dealing with, and reflecting on, disability and mobility. Read DnA’s interview with Laura here and check out more of the amazing exhibits.
When: September 9 – September 19, 2015; Mon-Sat 12-4 pm., Thursdays 12-8 pm. Artist Reception: Saturday, September 12 4-8 pm.
Where: West Gallery, Art and Design Center, Cal State University, Northridge
Tickets: Free and open to the public.
Click here for more information.
Retrospective of the prolific and hugely transformative LA-based architect comes to LACMA after a first outing at the Pompidou Center Paris.
Entitled, simply, Frank Gehry, the exhibition of models, drawings and interviews spans his work from the early 1960s in Paris through to Gehry’s newest project in LA, the development on Sunset Boulevard. But don’t expect any master plans for the LA River! Listen up to this DnA for an interview with Christopher Hawthorne about the exhibition.
When: September 13, 2015–March 20, 2016
Where: Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Tickets: Free for LACMA members and for youth (17 and under); $25 for all other visitors. General museum admission is included. Click here for tickets.
Click here for more information.
4. The Princes of Kings Road/R.M. Schindler: The Prequel
The Princes of Kings Road
Austrian-born Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler were contemporaries with a profound influence on the development of LA’s early Modernism. They were also friends and business partners who became bitterly estranged in 1953. . . until 23 years later, when they found themselves by chance in the same hospital room in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.
What might have transpired between the two ailing men in that hospital room? That’s the fascinating subject of “The Princes of Kings Road,” a new play for Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA by writer/director Tom Lazarus. Starring John Nielsen, Heather Robinson and Ray Xifo and produced by Stevie Stern Lazarus, the play will be performed in the Neutra-designed offices that are now Dion Neutra‘s Neutra Institute and Museum of Silver Lake.
Read DnA’s interview with the playwright, Tom Lazarus, here.
When: Preview: Sept. 11; Performances: Sept. 12-Oct. 4; Fridays at 8 p.m.: Sept. 11 (preview), 18, 25; Oct. 2; Saturdays at 8 p.m.: Sept. 12 (opening), 19, 26; Oct. 3; Sundays at 5 p.m.: Sept. 13, 20, 27; Oct. 4
Where: Neutra Institute and Museum of Silver Lake; 2379 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles
Tickets: $25; Call (323) 641-7747 or click here for tickets.
Click here for more information.
R.M. Schindler: The Prequel; Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann and the Modernist Debates of Early 20th Century Vienna
And speaking of Rudolf Schindler, architecture history buffs shouldn’t miss this exhibition at the MAK Center at the Schindler-designed Kings Road House in West Hollywood. Curated by Christian Witt-Dörring of MAK Vienna, designed by Andrea Lenardin, R.M. Schindler: The Prequel “explores the intellectual climate in Vienna at the time of R.M. Schindler‘s architectural training” and contextualizing “the landmark 1922 Kings Road House as a direct result of the debates playing out in Vienna Modernist circles from 1890-1914, when Schindlerwas a student and young practitioner.”
When: September 11 – December 7, 2015; Wednesday through Sunday 11:00 am – 6:00 pm; Opening Reception: September 10, 7-9PM.
Where: 835 Kings Road West Hollywood 90069
Tickets: Click here for ticket information.
Click here for more information.
5. Ode to 6th Street Bridge
Before it meets the wrecking ball, the beloved 6th Street will be celebrated in “Ode to the Bridge,” an exhibition of renditions of the landmark structure that has to be demolished due to structural erosion. The exhibit, co-curated by Dale Youngman and Tanner Blackman, will feature interpretations of the bridge by over 30 local artists, including Arts District-based Tom Garner, Jim Stern, Fred Hoerr, Qathryn Brehm, and Andre Miripolsky.
Art Share L.A. will also discuss the future of the bridge at a panel discussion Wednesday, September 16, with Tim Williams, Managing Principal from Michael Maltzan Architecture (designers of the replacement bridge); Vic Martinez, Vice President of HNTB; Glenn Kaino, conceptual artist designing art installations and more.
When: September 9 – September 19th, Wednesday – Saturday, 1-6 PM.
Where: 801 E. 4th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free and open to the public.
Click here for more information.
And While in Downtown. . .
Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament opens at MOCA, SCI-Arc holds its public thesis reviews and student graduation, featuring a commencement address from former director Eric Owen Moss, and ARTBOOK | D.A.P. and Siglio Press’ book offers deep discounts on its books on books on art, photography, design, architecture, theory and culture, at it sale this Saturday.
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