Paintings by Kristine Schomaker – contemporary mixed media- Photo: Jack Burke
MLA Gallery at Brewery Art Walk – a focus on fine art from Latin America – Photo by Jack Burke
Just east of downtown Los Angeles is the Brewery Art Complex, created in 1982 in what was once the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery. Hoist a glass in honor of the artist-in-residence code which allowed artists to rent both living and working space in buildings formerly zoned industrial. Renting only to artists, the Brewery is among the world’s largest complexes. The public gets to explore the sprawling spot and enjoy the opened studios of many artist residences twice a year – in spring and fall.
There’s a real steam punk feel to the cavernous space, where the Brewery smoke stack still towers over loading docks and gardens. The complex has evolved into eighteen acres of working artists perched in the northeast corner of the city. Not only is the area huge, so is it’s creative scope – painters, sculptors, photographers, performance artists, multi-media creators, and fashion designers all reside here.
Why should you visit? To experience the diversity and excitement of the art. Over a hundred residents participate, speaking with browsers and buyers about their work. Like no other art walk, the Brewery gives strollers a glimpse into what it means to be an artist, and the space the artists create in, eat, sleep, and dream in. And as an extra bonus, many beautiful, unique pieces are available for purchase, some well under $100. From plastic purses showcasing colorful neon strands to enormous paper mache drumsticks, perfectly crafted landscapes, textured portraits, and brilliant contemporary photography, there’s a wide range of talent.
This fall’s art walk took place Oct. 3rd and 4th. Each year, we have the pleasure of meeting new and unique artists, and visiting with those whose work we’ve come to admire. Here’s a mix of some of the works on view this fall – artists you should definitely check out when the spring open house commences, or visit their websites, follow their Twitter feeds, see their shows now.
Kati V. Milano‘s archival pigment prints capture natural elements both animal and mineral from a recent trek to Iceland. Her photography has a visceral, tangible quality that makes you feel the rough wool on the sheep, the delicate trajectory of a feather, the sharp edges of ice and stone.
In shared studio space with Milano, artist Ryan McIntosh exhibited his photos from the same recent Icelandic trip. Voluptuous ocean waves with the texture of lace, velvet, and satin are alive with motion in pieces such as “Ocean Variants 2014.” McIntosh is also the founder and master-printer of Miscellaneous Press.
Jane Szabo‘s photographs of dresses are beautifully evocative. The dresses themselves are crafted by Szabo from everyday objects like road maps and coffee filters. “They suggest a persona and become a stand-in for myself, who I am, am not, and who I wish to be.” Her conceptual photography is alive with light, filled with metaphor, playful in its mix of fashion, photography, and the human form as sculpture. Szabo’s photographic work is both vividly representational and otherworldly.
Victoria Sebanz is an artist who creates exciting mixed media including evocative, poetic photography – images that evoke another of her art forms: dance. The motion of dance, the subtle and curved shapes that are human forms, flowers, neon curves, the limbs of trees, the torsos of women – all captured in her work. Sebanz says “Movement, texture, shape and shadow are the bones for my work…”
Kristine Schomaker‘s rainbow colors draw the eye, while the provocative social commentary of her collections engage the mind and illuminate the heart. Below, “A Young Girl’s Vanity.”
Schomaker not only creates her own art, she supports other artists in the Los Angeles community through her company, Shoebox PR.
“The painted mannequins are inspired by my Avatar in Second Life. In that virtual world, I used one of my paintings as a skin on my Avatar and it became a brand for me and my work. It was a natural progression to bring her into the real world. Painting a mannequin was the best way at the time to make it happen,” Schomaker says.
Some of Schomaker’s paintings evoke calligraphy. Below: geometric shapes, feathered patterns, and a richness that evokes flight and music notes – a peacock in a painting.
Below, artist Yvonne Beatty with a beautiful fall-colors piece, that is both realistic and as imaginative and detailed as a fairy-tale. “In my drawings and paintings I apply traditional and contemporary media using unconventional techniques. The challenge is to create works that, while static, gain movement in the viewer’s mind.”
Below, Cynthia Friedlob once incarnated art aurally as a jazz singer. You can feel the jazzy rhythm in her pieces here. Her works are both brilliantly hued and meditative, and she says she would like to live in an Edward Hopper painting “with Bill Evans music playing softly in the background.”
Below, Chuka Susan Chesney exhibits at FRESH, a contemporary art exhibition at Lamperouge Gallery, jurored by Jane Szabo, and assembled by the Pasadena Society of Artists. Chesney’s piece “Sister Cancer” proclaims that the disease will not defeat when smothered with love.
Fine art photographer Lissa Hahn, below.
Hahn’s images are created with no digital manipulation. The electric feel of her photography unfolds like a spin-art take on the world. She captures her subjects with one exposure, stretching out depth and colors into a complex visual pattern that illuminates and intrigues. Below, she shows off a beautiful creation of an entirely different nature.
Below, artist Chenhung Chen, with pieces in a variety of different media.
Chen focuses her art on the formation of line in drawings, sculptures, and 3D installations. Regardless of medium, her pieces are vibrating with motion, whether wire and metal sculptures, pristine line drawings, or hand-crocheted copper wire. Her work evokes the sea, the ceaseless rhythm of water, air, and life itself.
Chen’s work exudes motion and life. Can inanimate objects be this animate?
Want to walk for yourself? The Brewery art walk will be back in full bloom, come spring.
- Genie Davis; all photos by Jack Burke
