In Memoriam of Albert Vitela Reposted from 2015 : Albert Vitela

Posted on by Diversions LA
Photo by Jack Burke
Photo by Jack Burke

This article is reposted in memory of Albert, who recently passed away. Albert’s work lives on.

Original posting date: August, 2015. At Chinatown’s Red Pipe Gallery Albert Vitela’s “New Works” exhibition revealed the Los Angeles native’s work as a sweeping panoply of color; abstract depictions of historical events, religious figures, and celebrities. Worlds expressed in fragments of motion-filled color, Vitela combines memories and history in a combination of pop art and abstract expressionism.

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All Photos by Jack Burke
All Photos by Jack Burke

Curated by art critic Mat Gleason, Vitela’s show is about history, anger, war, peace, resolution, and beauty. His belief is that beauty itself cannot exist without awareness, and that peace can become a natural outgrowth of this awareness. He seeks mystical, surreal moments from concrete events ranging from World War II to battles between Samurai, all of which exist for Vitela beyond conventional time constraints.

Vitela has a strong concept in mind when he paints. “My goal is to enrich humanity through my work. I want to create an environment that leads to world peace. You look at television news and you see warfare, you see crime, you see situations such as Watergate. I meditate on all these things. On warfare and peace, the beauty and the ugliness. And then I meld them together.” He finds himself inspired by both current and historical events, and views them as of one piece.

Vitela’s art uses an Impressionist’s color palette in his abstract approach. His samurai in “Kojiro Vs. Musashi, Ganryujima Japan” are cast in striking yellow and blue, his angels’ skin is salmon pink. “I’m looking to create in my art, in my meditation, a beautiful future for the human race. If we do what we say, if we want what we see, that’s emblematic of both war and peace. We can go either way. My paintings express that.”

A talented emerging artist, Vitela works from his own dreams to create vibrant dreamscapes of figures from history and modern life.

  • Genie Davis

Art Auction for an Arty Cause

Posted on by Diversions LA

Long Beach Museum of Art’s 75th Celebration & Art Auction is this weekend. We had the pleasure of attending an advance event last week, and the available works are truly stunning.

A wide variety of artists contributed to this beautiful collection, displayed as it should be, throughout the museum itself. From ocean view to a lovely curation and layout, this is a stellar event for art appreciation as well as a chance to meet many of the artists and add their work to your collection.

A VIP dinner and  both live and silent auction are tonight; tomorrow, Saturday, the silent auction continues along with music, dancing, and cocktails. Event proceeds supports the museum’s exhibitions, art education programs, and tours and workshops for Long Beach Unified School District’s 5th graders.

The work is jewel-perfect; the cause is great, too. Take a look at some of the auction offerings here, and via this link.

Saturday, September 20, be sure to celebrate art and community with live music, dancing, bites, drinks, and a silent auction.
Tickets available now at lbma.org with food and drinks included.
This year’s silent auction features 170+ works by 140+ artists – don’t miss your chance to collect!
  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

 

Scott Tansey Is Bursting With Images

Posted on by Diversions LA

There are two new photographic books soon to emerge packed with evocative images from artist Scott Tansey. Each are quite different but both represent a lush ethos of images that linger once viewed. Wet Point Lobos and Surfaces present very different topics, but both show astonishing grace.

In Wet Point Lobos, Tansey has captured the shape of vast sweeping landscapes and the intimate, sinuous, sensual closeness of sea and shore. He has truly made Point Lobos his own, giving us a personal and profound a look at a destination that is inherently meaningful for the artist, and for his viewers alike.

In these images of Point Lobos, Tansey gives us the stones, pebbles, sea creatures, tide lines, and sea foam of the Central California Coast as an intimate gift. Each image is a jewel, sparkling and wet: he gives us the visceral texture of sand grains, the roughness of rock layers, the eroded shapes of curving and linear tide pools, the glow of water and sunlight, of winter waters and spring tides.

California, Central California, Monterrey County, Point Lobos, Point Lobos State Reserve, Rocks, Water

As a photographic artist, Scott Tansey has captured the shape of vast sweeping landscapes and the intimate, sinuous, sensual closeness of sea and shore. He has truly made Point Lobos his own, giving us a personal and profound look at a destination that is inherently meaningful for the artist, and for his viewers alike.

The cross hatching of sedimentary rock reminds us of well-worn skin; foamy waves erupting through narrow cliff-side channels pulses like a clear, wild blood through our veins. Cerulean blue stone, caressed by calm reminds the viewer of an astronaut’s glimpse of our blue marble Earth from space.

California, California Coast Line, Central California, Monterrey County, Point Lobos, Point Lobos State Reserve, Rocks

This is Wet Point Lobos: a miracle of time, tide, and tenacity, a world in which the viewer can wade through images as cool and alluring as the sea itself.

Moving from sea to land, Tansey’s Surfaces vary, but color explodes in an utterly unique and mesmerizing series of images. As Tansey explains, “Photographs are created, not merely captured,” and his creation of surfaces makes the world around us vibrate in a wild explosion of color and force.

Using post-production techniques that could have been utilized more than a decade earlier, he has shaped a vision that is nonetheless absolutely of this moment, as transforming and dazzling as if the viewer looked through a prismatic screen, exploring compelling kaleidoscopes of color, and a rainbow of resonance.

Altering the color space of simple surfaces alters the mundane, transforming it into something visionary. Whether it is a wall observed outside a restaurant or simply the ground Tansey walks on, these images appear brave and incendiary. Textures are colors, colors are surfaces, color seeps through the pores of every substance revealed in this collection. The artist creates the auras around landscapes, the auroras of opalescent light that make the prosaic into the profound and spiritual.

Seattle

As a viewer, ask yourself if you can imagine animate life leaving behind a resonant glow, a fresh color field. Tansey certainly provides that here, shaping a new spectrum of light and vision. As he notes, “Hundreds of thousands walk over the surface of [these] image[s] each year…” without seeing within them.

Exotic as many of the artist’s images appear at first glance, this abstract and vivid series of works are based on locations captured less than four miles from where he lives. It is a fascinating change for an artist who has traveled the world’s glaciers, explored cities, cathedrals, and distant seas.  What Tansey has done in these collections is a revelation of what lies within the core of the earth itself.

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

 

Here Comes the Shark – Jaws Celebrates 50th Anniversary at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

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With warm remarks by filmmaker Steven Speilberg, exhilerating soundtrack excerpts performed symphonically live and set to movie stills, dun-dun dun-dun dun– Jaws has arrived at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in mid-city.

It was a thrilling introduction to a well done exhibition at the museum, one that any movie lover should brave the waters filled with LA traffic sharks to experience.

The live musical experience of the Hollywood Studio Symphony – who performed the iconic John Williams score for the film originally, added to the enthusiasm of the audience before we even got a look at the beautifully realized multi-gallery experience.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary year of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures first large-scale exhibition dedicated to a single film is also the largest exhibition to have showcased Universal Pictures’ landmark summer blockbuster, which earned three Academy Awards® and was nominated for Best Picture.

Running September 14, 2025, through July 26, 2026 in the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery, Jaws: The Exhibition breaks down famous scenes, offers interactive experiences, behind-the-scenes stories, and some 200 original objects on display.

Interactive experiences include the ability to pose as the arm buried in the sand dune on the beach; create your own dolly shot on your smart phone, operate a facsimile of Bruce the shark (the real deal hangs outside the gallery, spanning massive ceiling space over the escalator), or sit in the galley of the boat where the intrepid team of shark hunters bonded in the film.

Props and notes and even a camera are on display among many objects never previously shown to the public, some from the personal collections of Steven Spielberg and the Amblin Hearth Archive, the NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, and the Academy Collection.

 

According to Academy Museum Director and President Amy Homma, who gave her remarks at the press opening, “The Academy Museum celebrates film history and with this exhibition we can bring never-before-seen movie experiences to a public audience…[and] create a space where the worldwide community of Jaws fans can gather and relive the movie while giving new audiences the joy of discovery.”

Senior Exhibitions Curator Jenny He, who also spoke at the opening noted that “It has been absolutely rewarding to engage with so many outstanding collaborators to tell the story of Jaws through an exhibition, which is as thoughtful and revelatory as it is immersive and thrilling. All of us at the Academy Museum are deeply grateful for the invaluable support and insight we have received, working with Steven Spielberg’s personal archive at Amblin, the collection at Universal Pictures, numerous private collectors, and many of the Jaws filmmakers.”

The exhibition leads museum visitors through the structure of the film in six sections: “The Unseen Danger,” “Amity Island Welcomes You,” “Sunday at the Beach,” “The Shark’s Rampage,” “Adventure Ahead,” and “Into the Deep.” The final gallery of Jaws: The Exhibition explores the enduring impact of the film.

From scene set ups to learning about the team behind the film, location scouting, and the film’s famous dolly zoom effect, visitors will uncover terrific information amid a visually resonant series of original set decorations and props, production designs, a Moviola used by editor Verna Fields, and even have a chance to play the musical notes that signal the approach of the shark.

The delightfully immersive and experiential exhibition highlights the impact of the film on motion picture industry itself and pop culture, and brings viewers into the world of movie making as well as drawing them into the enduring allure of the film itself, from the dangerous great white shark to the efforts of the town’s chief of police (Roy Scheider), a young marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) to destroy the terrifying creature before it kills again.

As a thrilling adventure and as a remarkable feat of filmmaking – Speilberg remarked with wit about the great difficulties faced while filming on location, from rough seas to regattas showing up in his framing; and to the stress of being 110 days past the original shooting schedule. But what a reward for suffering the unexpected indignities of shooting at sea.

The Academy Museum is the largest museum in the world dedicated to global cinema and the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking. While you visit the brand new Jaws exhibition, be sure to also take a look the other stellar exhibits on display, from the world of Cyberpunk to the set designs of Barbie and Beauty & the Beast, the filmmaking of Bong Joon Ho, a glowing room of golden Oscars, and an astonishing collection of well known props and costumes from Captain America’s shield to Spiderman’s disguise.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis