$2 Bill Show at I-5 July 12th

Mat Gleason has put together a big group show. In true conceptual and rebel fashion, all artists we given one piece of US currency in consecutive order: a $2 Bill.

Artists were instructed to do (sort of) whatever they wanted with the bill in these blunt terms:

So if you want to be in an art show here is the deal, I figure if you are reading my blog you are a great artist you can be in my $2 BILL ART SHOW – You send me a self-addressed stamped envelope. I send you a crisp real, legal tender $2 Bill. You make art on it. You send it back to me.

All artworks will be priced at $200 (50/50 split between gallery and artist) and when I send you the bill there will be display criteria so don’t pester me with “can I do this or that or the other” the answer is probably NO as I want to show the bills as close to the format as they are printed.

Are you worried about legal implications for defacing a $2 Bill? Then go away, I don’t want you in my show. If you are not afraid of exercising your free speech and talent on Thomas Jefferson’s face, send a self addressed, stamped (42-cents, by the way) envelope to:

Over 95 artists including some Gallery Revisited faves and fans!

Carol Es
Ya Ya Chou
Paige Wery
David Trulli
Leora Lutz (me)
Dale Dreiling

and many more!!

Join us at I-5 Gallery located at the Brewery compound.

$2 Bill Show.
All work priced at $200. each.
I-5 Gallery at the Brewery compound in Los Angeles.

July 5th - Joint Custody Project - 22 "Blind Date" artist collaborations

Here is an interesting show coming up this Saturday.
Curated by Shana Nys-Dambrot and Tad Beck.

22 artists, 11 pieces, 30 days, not a single word of communication. (kind of)

The Project kicked off on June 1, and
over the course of the following 4 weeks, 22 Los Angeles based
artists, from a variety of mediums, paired off to create 11 pieces of
art. The theme – "Double Up : Double Down".

You can read the curatorial notes/thoughts here.

The reception is the exciting conclusion of
the project -- see the art as it is revealed for the first time, and
watch the collaborators meet face-to-face.

That's right -- no one knows who they have been working with this whole time...
and you can read about the drama here. What is most interesting to me are the mean tricks and the emotional reaction everyone has had during the process.

In speaking with Brady Brim-Deforest at Found, the conclusion I have come to is that almost everyone seems to Not play well with others without communication.

Perhaps that is the rub. Here we go on about "It's all about the art"...and this project is a perfect example of how that could simply not be the case.

There was also video interviews done...so I am hoping you will be able to see that too. I am assuming that it got edited more like a documentary than a reality show, so we shall see.

So far, I like this one particular photo pairing, a suitcase and a scroll with drawings. All of these collaborations seemed to have been the most creatively compatible, if I may use that word.

The show is only up until July 13, so make sure not to miss out.

Browse the Joint Custody Blog and see what else has been going on during June - -- this project is also taking place in Berlin!!
I think the Berlin work is awesome...

Gallery Revisited Closing Update

The gallery is closing it's physical location, but Leora Lutz (that's still me) and Gallery Revisited as a working entity will not going be going away from the art scene.

Here is the new synopsis:

Leora Lutz via Gallery Revisited exhibits multi-discipline works in order to facilitate curatorial freedom and audience diversity while each artist's individual voice can be clearly heard.

We are a working entity that curates shows and provides critical and accessible art commentary and press writings.

Inspired by renegade and at once a respectful and acknowledging cause, the structure of the gallery was, and still is a bridge between uncommon vs. traditional gallery dynamics.

Hence the name, Revisited - a way to come back again and rethink, restructure, rework and literally revisit artists, art in general, exhibitions, education and collecting in new and different ways.

Read about our History.

See the great artists we have worked with and
will continue to do so on a case-by-case basis.

Read about me.

Upcoming Show in September.

Read the Blog...you're on it silly!!

Love,
Me - Gallery Revisited


Gallery Revisited: Content Driven Accessible Art since 2003!!!

Leora Lutz Go About: Skullphone at Riverside Art Museum

Skullphone urban installations are currently on view at Riverside Art Museum.

I approached the museum to see this:

is that a dumpster? Why, yes it is...seems out of place, but I was already aware that
Skullphone was showing there, so I figured it was part of the new installations...and I was right.
I do love the presented juxtaposition and the unnerving fact that a big dumpster is on the lawn of such a pretty museum.
It's not completely unheard of, but it is for Riverside. This is a new modern ripple for them, and I am positive that a ton of general passerby are curious about it, wondering why it is here and perhaps even saying, "That's Art?"

There are things we take for granted here only 50 miles across the county. We see dumpsters all the time and we also see dumpsters, cop cars, cardboard, trashcans and more in galleries and in museums. Not so much in Riverside - and I commend them for doing this new thing. I can't wait to hear how people are responding.

As noted by the RAM press release:
For Skullphone's installation at RAM, the artist has recreated his past street-level environments within Anytown, USA while referencing new frontiers in outdoor digital media.

"An embedded meme":
embedded:to fix into a surrounding mass
meme: a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

Most notably this icon:


Inside we see these installations embedded in the alcoves of the ground floor hallway, completely accessible and integrated in the existing architecture, yet somehow weirdly out of place in a good way.

I enjoyed the humor in this public bathroom alcove because

it is situated across from the entrance of the beautiful cafe that is nestled in the center of the museum.


uhh...I have more I would like to say about urban art in general, but Blogger is going dark for a few hours soon and I am still trying to close up the gallery location.....talk later.

Leora Lutz Go-About: another year in la with Robert A. Nelson

Friday June 6th I went to my one of my favorite buildings on the East Side that happens to house some really great galleries...including the one on this evening's art excursion, another year in la, owned and curated by David E. and Cathy Stone.


This night was the solo exhibition for conceptual film maker Robert A. Nelson:

We got to see a really great never before seen glimpse of a rough-cut film that was in the archives since the late 60's...here is the set up in the gallery building main lobby:

The film evolves around a game of pool executed by mustached men in lounge suits and distinctive pointy-toed patent leather slip-ons.
The piece is a beautifully edited assortment of actions, portrait shots and still-lifes surrounding this said pool game in an unknown place but within a simple room. We see again and again the balls being hit, the shoes being pointed, the cue tips rubbed with blue chalk, knowing nods and glances, brushing gestures and pegged mod-esque pants akimbo the pool cues on a short pile carpet...and then some again and again.
This being set to an excellent score by contemporary composer Steve Reich.

In the gallery were an ethereal collection of simple landscape photographs taken by Nelson.

I found these to be subtle in their immediacy, yet quite beautiful and soft renditions of landscapes that evoked something darker.

I was lost in them for a while, and really appreciated the abstractions of what I knew was something more defined.


Here's what Ashley Tibbits of Flavorpill mentions:
In Robert A. Nelson's exhibition Common Ground, viewers are treated to a new side of the '60s experimental filmmaker. Nelson's offbeat, conceptual, and often humorous shorts (including collaborations with Bruce Nauman, the Grateful Dead, and William Wiley) are shown tonight alongside a collection of manipulated photos from his 35mm camera. The abstract works, shot near the artist's cabin in Laytonville, California, capture nature both conceptually and realistically, as Nelson admires his subjects' innate spirituality.

In attendance at the opening was Paige Wery, publisher of Artillery Magazine pictured here with David Stone.

and Ezhra Jean Black, author and blogger for Artillery...here with friend Mitch.

Steven Cioffi was there too...

filmographer for a recent project hosted by Artillery Magazine entitled "The Chocolate Santa Butt Plug Round Table"...centering around a serious discussion regarding Paul McCarthy's chocolate sculpture...includes a panel discussion with Dave Stone, Steven Cohen, Tulsa Linney, Mary Woronov, Carole Caroompas and Ezhra Jean Black.

The Truth? You can't handle the truth! The closed gallery : Plight of the bourgeoise?

As you know, we are about to close our physical location by the end of June.

Please stop by, say hello, see the new work and some favorites ++
be sure to ask about our generous collectors incentives...that's right...

Dare I say BLOW OUT SALE. (A collector asked me if I was having a blow-out sale...I thought this was kind of funny -read on.)

SALE!!??? WHA’??

It’s a nasty, bourgeois practically taboo thing to say in the gallery world -
it's just not done.
But hey, it’s the truth in a way....

If I were a non-profit I could call it a "fund raiser to support artists".
But since I am neither non-profit NOR all about money,
I guess I’ll just call it "selling art".
As usual, as in 99.9% of galleries, non profit status or otherwise, the work is for sale.

Selling art is not a bad thing, it just is.

All art organizations and galleries and artists
need money to survive in this current cosmopolitan society -
where it comes from is what differentiates all of us.

It is a truly perplexing phenomenon and at once a sobering reality that we are
dependent and simultaneously judged by our social status based upon our income and
our ability to achieve success through the accumulation of funds.

I don't think many of us go into the business of art "to make money". But it certainly is gratifying when the money comes in *.
I for one, have been living in the romantic notion that one should make a living doing the thing that they love...how that "living" and to what extent it is defined is another thing. One thing is for sure - you can't do an art business alone no matter how you look at it.

And I think it is important to say that
galleries ARE all about supporting artists and the artist community....meaning,
that is why we who open galleries - open galleries.

We like art, we love art, we can’t live without art and we want
as many people as possible to do the same.
Because art is a love-able thing and who can’t do without a little love?

This is what galleries do to support artists:

Engage audiences and foster relationships through education, discussion and academic references to their work in the exhibit environment.
Boost their careers through promotion of them and the work they are doing.
Curate their best work into a show.
Provide an exhibition space, facilitating artists intent with
professional, interesting and engaging presentations or installations.
Glean press recognition that furthers artists exposure and informs and teaches
mass and/or academic audiences about the artists.
Educate about the importance of supporting the arts through collecting.
Nurture or sustain their careers through guidance, support and even life-long friendships.

These above mentioned supersede the "Blow Out Sale" stuff in importance and pleasure.

But on the other hand, there is nothing like writing a big fat check to an artist
that you have been supporting with the above mentioned
and whose work you love and
who may just well be a friend of yours at this point...

and that my friend, makes selling art really worth it.

*NY Times and NPR recently noted affluent art buyers not effected whatsoever by the "recession"...calling them "Recession Proof".