This week: discuss the changing East Side; (re)experience the birth of punk in Los Angeles through the photos that preserve it; consider the possibilities of art integrated with environment; see Robert Rauschenberg works from his time in L.A.; view a collection of paper jewelry that inspired an artist and saved a town.
1) Talk Box: Shift | A Conversation on the Changing Landscape of the East Side
Much has been written about the gentrification of Los Angeles’ Eastside. From Silver Lake, through Downtown, to Boyle Heights, neighborhoods have been undergoing fast and furious – as in some people are very furious – changes. The rapid development has brought new populations to these areas, new businesses and lots of money, but not everyone is winning and communities are fighting to preserve and protect their own.
For this conversation, Saul Gonzalez, co-host of KCRW’s There Goes the Neighborhood: LA, discusses the new normal for these neighborhoods with stakeholders from differing perspectives. Panelists include: Lindsey Villarreal, television writer and producer who focuses on female-driven and Latinx-influenced content; Dr. Max Baumgarten, Los Angeles historian with an emphasis on Jewish politics and gentrification; Samanta Helou-Hernandez, multi-media journalist and creator of the This Side of Hoover project; and Anselm Clinard, top-producing Eastside real estate agent.
When: Wednesday, August 8, 7 – 9 pm
Where: The Box @ SIJCC | 1110 Bates Ave, LA 90029
Tickets: $10. You can get tickets here or pay at the door.
2) Photographer Gary Leonard conversation w/ Josh Kun | Clubs & Halls 1978-1981
Photographer Gary Leonard has been capturing images of Los Angeles — the streets, the people, the clubs — since the mid-1970s when he found himself at the birth of the punk scene. Leonard recorded the history of the movement by following bands like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, X, the Sex Pistols, and the Germs at venues like the Starwood, Al’s Bar, Club Lingerie, Madame Wongs, the Zero Zero and Exene’s You’ve Got Bad Taste memorabilia shop.
His work memorializes not just the bands, but also the fans and the clubs where they played. The photographer discusses his exhibit Clubs & Halls 1978-1991 with USC professor and writer Josh Kun.
Leonard continues his documentation of Los Angeles, the mundane to the magnificent, in his weekly photo column Take My Picture Gary Leonard in LA Observed.
When: Thursday, August 9, 7 – 11 pm
Where: il caffè, 855 S Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014
Tickets: Free
3) A Global Perspective: Art in the Landscape
Does a gallery need walls? Must a museum house a collection? In sites around the world artists and curators are experimenting with outdoor installation, intervening in structures and working in nature: pastoral, denigrated or wild. This unboxed, open-air art practice is supported by a less formal notion of museum or gallery, a dispersed version where environment is central, where old and new can cohabitate and art can engage with the existing space.
Looking beyond Los Angeles, Raymund Ryan, Curator at the Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh will moderate a discussion of cultural figures in this evolving paradigm. Panelists include architect Edwin Chan; independent curator Ruth Estévez, and others.
Consider bringing a picnic to the event or pre-ordering a box lunch from Spoke Bicycle Cafe.
When: Saturday, August 11, 12- 2 pm.
Where: Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park, 2944 Gleneden Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Tickets: Free. More information here.
4) Rauschenberg: In and About L.A.
Although born in Texas and primarily a resident of New York and Florida, artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) found inspiration in Los Angeles, where he experimented with various mediums and printing techniques with famed workshops Gemini G.E.L. and Styria Studio in the late ’60s and early ’70s. In 1981, Rauschenberg extensively photographed L.A. for his In + Out City Limits project, and 17 years later he pictured the metropolis again in his LA Uncovered screenprints. Featuring a selection of works that Rauschenberg made in and about L.A., this exhibition highlights the city’s indelible impact on his creative output.
When: Opening Saturday, August 11. Exhibition runs through February 10.
Where: LACMA, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tickets: Museum Admission $20 | Members, Youth and after 3pm Monday through Friday free. More information here.
5) Kiff Slemmons: Collective Presence Artist Talk & Opening Reception
Put a jewelry artist who doesn’t know paper in an artist residency at a paper-making cooperative that doesn’t make jewelry and what do you get? Answer: striking and visually arresting works of beauty that have invigorated a local economy.
In 2000, Kiff Slemmons, widely acclaimed for her metal-based jewelry practice, accepted an invitation from pioneering Mexican artist and advocate Francisco Toledo to collaborate with Taller Arte Papel of Oaxaca, the paper-making cooperative he founded in 1998 to help stimulate the local economy via artistic practices. Slemmons transferred her decades-long experience and understanding of jewelry to paper, her dedication to texture and line allowing for constant ingenuity. Eighteen years later Slemmons is still working with the cooperative and has activated local artisans to generate new, wearable works of creative capital that are sustainable as well.
Collective Presence displays individual pieces crafted by the artist, forming one conceptual whole in their totality. You can watch this 2017 PBS piece on Mexican and American craft artists, which includes a segment on the collaboration of Slemmons and Toledo at the Taller Arte Papel of Oaxaca
When: Opening Saturday, August 11, 4 pm talk / 5 pm reception. Exhibition runs through October 6.
Where: Craft in America, 8415 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Tickets: Free. More information here.