Jessica Koslow

The idea for an art exhibition recognizing Noni Olabisi’s (1954 -2022) extraordinary career came to Karen Rapp, director and curator of Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery, 15 years ago. She was introduced to the artist and muralist’s work through a slide presentation.

“Noni had applied for a visual artist grant, and I was a reviewing panelist,” Rapp said. “When I came to her images, I was completely spellbound by her murals. I didn’t know about them at the time, and I went and looked at them in person. She ended up getting the award from the California Community Foundation, and I had a chance to meet her and tell her what an impact her work had made on me. I talked to her about having a show.” 

Olabisi’s works have become defining centerpieces in neighborhoods and communities in South Los Angeles. The exhibition, “Noni Olabisi: When Lightning Strikes,” which hosted an opening reception this past Saturday and runs through March 28, includes more than 40 works created from 1984 to 2022. Olabisi is best known for three murals in Los Angeles: “Freedom Won’t Wait” (1992), “To Protect and Serve” (1995) and “Troubled Island” (2003). . . .

Read the entire article in The Argonaut.

First Thursdays in DTLA might possibly be the liveliest night in all of L.A. It’s when galleries, vendors, exhibitions and street performers pop up throughout the Historic Core.

“It’s creativity. It’s community. It’s culture,” said Diana Barillas, the director of operations and creative strategy of DTLA ArtNight. “We highlight the creatives downtown and also the businesses. The more people we can bring down here through art, the more our community as a whole can expand and get better.”

The only exceptions are Fourth of July and New Year’s: “We will switch it out depending on how close it gets to the date,” she said. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Robert Berman Gallery is not just the oldest gallery at Bergamot Station; Robert Berman’s is the oldest art gallery in Santa Monica. He opened his first spot on Main Street in 1979, called B-1 Gallery.

“For my first show, we didn’t even have electricity,” he shared. “I drove my car into the space and lit up the wall with my headlights.”

“That’s actually where I brought Keith Haring from New York,” he added. “The only time Keith ever showed in LA was in my little gallery on Main Street. I did a lot of other historical shows with both international artists and a lot of the East Village New York artists, but I mixed it together with local artists.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Kathryn Pellman has four of her quilt-like pieces hanging in the gallery at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City. As the organizer of the current exhibit, “Free to Sp%@k!,” which runs through Jan. 7, she has the least number of works featured that take up the most real estate, as her pieces are large.

Pellman tapped two other SoCal artists, Kelly Hartigan Goldstein and MartyO, to show their work addressing the themes of censorship, free speech and democracy. Alarmed by the growing assault on free expression and the censorship taking root in the United States, they have joined forces to resist through art, according to Pellman, and they launched the exhibit on Oct. 3 to coincide with the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week (Oct. 4–11). 

One of Pellman’s pieces speaks directly to this issue because it ties together free speech and exhibiting at a bookstore. The quilt features Jennifer Caspar, the owner of Village Well, holding books with more books floating all around; most of the books were banned. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Alicia Gorecki wears many hats: She’s an artist, a teacher at Pasadena High School and most recently, she launched a nonprofit that aims to strengthen youth mental health through the arts in honor of her son, Reid, who died in 2023 of an accidental overdose at the age of 18.

“Sometimes I can barrel through talking about this, and sometimes I lose it,” Gorecki shared at the beginning of what would be a heartfelt 30-minute phone conversation. 

Reid died of fentanyl toxicity just three weeks before his high school graduation from California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley. He had sent in his college applications, received acceptance letters and scholarships, launched his clothing line on his website and had a production assistant gig lined up. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

In the five years that Ally Mathieu has owned and operated Paint:Lab in Santa Monica, she has experienced two catastrophic, life-upending events. The first was the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the year she decided to assume operations of the walk-in art studio from the previous owners who had opened its doors in 2009. 

“I was working at Paint:Lab as an instructor, and they were going to close,” Mathieu said. “So, I was like, ‘Sure,’ in the middle of a global pandemic. All my friends’ businesses are closing, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this will be so fun for me. I have nothing else going on.’ So, I bought it and turned it into an online school.”

Mathieu’s business move turned out to be not-so crazy. Her career history made her a perfect candidate to run the business. Before Paint:Lab, she worked for photography and movie studios doing set design and continued her own arts practice in private studios in Hollywood and DTLA. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

In the words of Michael Dawson, president of Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles (PAC LA), the nonprofit hosted probably its most important event ever in its 12-year history on September 13: a talk with internationally acclaimed documentary photographer and visual storyteller Susan Meiselas at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. The event was free with registration, made possible with the support of Eastman Museum Los Angeles and just one of many events in PAC LA’s “Year of the Woman” series.

Meiselas, known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America, was also promoting the 2025 rerelease of her book, “Nicaragua,” and a book signing followed the talk.

The Meiselas event falls in line with PAC LA’s plans for future growth: Make new and leverage existing partnerships to produce public-facing events. For this event, PAC LA partnered with Arcana: Books on the Arts in Culver City, which sold Meiselas’ book and also promoted the event.

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Her mother and grandmother loved art and often took her to museums. Her dad was creative, too, in music and big-picture thinking. Art has always been part of Rachel Woodbridge’s life, which is how her founding of ARTWELL happened so naturally.

“It’s just always been in the air around me,” Woodbridge said. “Even as a little girl, it was how I coped and found calm without even knowing it. I didn’t know it at the time, but making art was my way of processing big feelings. It was my happy place.”

Woodbridge never planned to start a business, but when she moved to Los Angeles and was unhappy with her daughter’s creative experiences in preschool, she offered to lead a weekly art class. The results were extremely positive.

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Venice Heritage Museum (VHM), the first-ever museum for Venice, will be celebrating its grand opening on Saturday, March 9 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. The event will take place at their new permanent location, Main Street Design Center, with its inaugural exhibition titled, “This is some place,” on display. The free event will feature music, food trucks, and other live entertainment. 

“This museum is for Venice, by Venice, and I cannot wait to open our doors,” says Justin Yoshimaru, Venice native and president of Venice Heritage Foundation (VHF), which raised over $300,000 after launching a capital campaign for a permanent space in 2021.

“Venice Heritage Museum has been a grassroots, community-driven effort,” Yoshimaru said. “Our team, which itself was entirely volunteer-led until our first hire last year, is incredibly grateful for all the support that we have received to bring the museum to life. We could not have done this without the Venice community. Whether they’ve come to a pop-up exhibition, shared their stories, provided family photos, hosted an event, or made a donation, our local supporters have made the opening of the Venice Heritage Museum possible.” . . .

Read the full article at The Argonaut.

Have you ever seen grunion run at midnight at the edge of the ocean? Or looked at sand from all over the world through a microscope under the white tent at the end of the Venice Pier on a Sunday? Or walked by a circle of people in November reading “Moby Dick” out loud, one at a time through a microphone, surrounded by a huge actual whalebone at the breakwater on Venice Beach?

Each one of these sea-centric activities is hosted by the Venice Oceanarium, a museum without walls since 1995, founded by Tim Rudnick.

In the late ’80s, when Rudnick was in his mid-40s, he decided to go back to school.

“One of my daughters, Pesha, gave me a book for my birthday with the inscription, ‘To dad, who knows everything.’ That made me want to find out more,” shares Rudnick. …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.