San Marino Gallery

Countdown to the LA Art Experience

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:04:13 +0000

Walk the RED CARPET, get your photo taken with the musical artists of 4942 Collective as they debut their single Supernatural Love w/ Mista Perkins, David Ruffin Jr, DJ EmPtY, Del Rio, RNS & Tre… hit-in-the making! Get UR tickets www.LaArtExperience 3 days of art, dance, music extravaganza!! San Marino Gallery Presents the LA Art Experience 2011 featuring 4942

Countdown to LA Art Experience 2011

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:22:08 +0000

We’re excited to announce that So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 finalist, Jeanine Mason, who received over 20 million votes, will be performing at the LA Art Experience 2011′s Red Carpet Premiere next Friday, October 14th. The evening will also include other SYTYCD contestants as we celebrate the Arts, Dance & Music at this 3 day extravaganza!! www.LaArtExperience.com Get your tickets now, limited tickets available!

hypnotized, awakened & startled

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:03:41 +0000

After having visited LACMA a plethora of times before, I pulled into the familiar parking lot and entered the unassuming modern and minimalist elevator. It almost seemed inevitable hearing incessantly of Ai Weiwei and his new exhibit of Zodiac Heads to make the pilgrimage there. The artist had been imprisoned in China, calling into question freedom of speech as well as freedom of art itself and the manner in which the artists can express themselves. After reading about the exhibit before hand, about their rooting in ancient sculpture of the Zodiac Heads once belonging in a royal palace garden, I went in with high expectations of a set of imperialist ornate Zodiac Heads set in an elaborate garden. What I found upon exiting the elevator was certainly not as grandiose. Completely overlooking the collection of bronze heads, I went straight to make the line for members to get a ticket for the exhibition. The ticket salesman who informed me I had completely bypassed the exhibit, which is not ticketed nor do they have any printed material on such exhibit, met me with a confused look. Looping back around to the collection of heads I found them absolutely mesmerizing. The heads are mounted on small branch like stems that attach them to a floral motif base, cast in beautiful bronze with exquisite detailing. Of particular mention are the cock, dragon and tiger heads which feature fine carving and handicraft of the artist. Formerly unimpressed, I immediately became mesmerized at the interplay of tradition, Chinese culture and the modern pieces that met my eye. Art historians often talk about sculpture as living and interacting with their environments, such as the sculpture pieces in the Piazzo Vecchio in Florence; it goes without saying that I was startled by the seemingly life-like animal busts. The large open courtyard transformed into a fantastical menagerie of animals from a long lost part of Chinese history. Yet the presentation still left something to be desired. The placement of the pieces around the elevator leaves the viewing of these pieces obstructed and partial at best. I had expected to be at the center of the ring, twirling around to catch the gaze of each head, shifting constantly, almost dizzyingly to engage each head, but instead I found myself walking around to each head to inspect them singularly. Though this method allowed for an in-depth inspection of each piece, as one would any other piece of art, by not being able to see them as a whole, something seemed to be missing- like an erased Adam from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The artist was unable to make the opening of the exhibit due to conditions of his sentencing in China. With this in mind, it is interesting to consider if the presentation would have been any different with greater input from the Ai Weiwei himself. However the pieces overall were stunning in their finesse, to the point it almost seems a tragedy that the artist has become so persecuted in his home country. It is easy to see why Yves Saint Laurent owned two of the original Zodiac heads, which gave birth to these equally fashionable pieces. Without a cost for entering the museum, and only ten dollars for parking, this exhibit is an absolute must see, providing a rare glimpse at an artist’s work who is undeniably hot in the current media. Take the risk and stare down the dragon, play with the monkey, become hypnotized by the snake, awakened and startled by the cock and give into the rest of the animals at Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac Heads.

By: Brian Evans

tulle, feathers, lace & tartan

admin — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:39:56 +0000

As I sit currently wearing a pair of Alexander McQueen pants, the notion of a retrospective exhibit on my favorite clothing designer to date left me speechless and giddy with excitement. The space was crowded, explaining why this exhibit quickly grew to be the eight most visited exhibit in the history of the Met and the most visited costume exhibit to date. The space was cavernous and dark, with the pieces being displayed like the masterpieces they truly are. Couture runways, perfected by the imagination of McQueen, represent an artistic form far removed from the common life of most consumers. The music, costumes, models, films, art and designs all represent a full sensory experience moving beyond the scopophiliac pleasures of cinema. Yet the recent exhibit at the Met, with the clothing set on frozen plastic mannequins, the aura of a museum, and the loss of the production aspect of the show, has completely robbed McQueen’s costumes of their impressions. The mannequins still wear their runway hats and masks, though the human quality underneath the accoutrements is completely absent. With the addition of a pane of glass to separate the mannequin from the viewer, these once artistic innovations would be wholly demeaned to prêt-a-porter in a store window. This exhibit represents an entire movement within the fashion industry, which began with the rise of Aristide Boucicaut’s department store in 1852 and has continued through today with modern storefronts. The artistic creations become both elevated and alienated in a sense by being placed within the museum. The stripping of the couture gown off its wearer has the same effect of removing Duchamp’s ready-mades from his apartment and placing them in a museum. The post-modern drive for constantly changing arts is equally seen in the fashion world with the constant drive for the next piece or shows to shock or bring a new untested art form. Focusing now on the pieces and McQueen, vestiges of the dandy can be seen taking form in tulle, feathers, lace and tartan. His men’s collections produced classic suits with fitted silhouettes, while his women’s collections represent a wholly different realm of expression. His goal through his designs was that this century should be characterized by his designs and therefore his complete aestheticism. As his career continued, McQueen became more comfortable with the runway, building his designs into even bigger productions, which leads to the importance of his last show before his death, Women’s Spring/Summer 2010. This apex, which would have probably been outdone by his fall collection, represented the next leap in his artistic progress into perfecting the art of the runway. Some of the most notable pieces are the razor clam shell dress from the VOSS collection, the bodysuits from It’s a Jungle Out There and of course the Jellyfish ensemble from Plato’s Atlantis. The exhibit overall was indescribably beautiful, and surely a perfect homage to one of the brightest, yet short burning, flames within the fashion industry.

Written by: Brian Evans

Perplexed. but deep admiration.

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:21:49 +0000

After visiting the new Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA, I was left perplexed- somewhere between deep admiration and equally potent outrage. The entryway consisting of black and white checkerboard marble with a red carpet leading to the mouth of a strange quintessentially Burton contorted face, immediately places the visitor in a remote and uncomfortable place to the say the least, which is undoubtedly Burton’s own psyche. The retrospective exhibit gives innumerable examples of the breadth of his work, in a multimedia presentation of sculpture, drawings and video. Beginning in his childhood in Burbank, CA, a short skip away from the location of the San Marino Gallery, it was comforting- or rather perhaps alarming to know such creativity was the result of the small neighboring suburban neighborhood.

From childhood he was obsessed with the rare, fantastical and for lack of better of a better word unpalatable. By far my favorite attribute to the exhibit were his class notes from Art History, before losing attention in the Cubism and Realism with doodles plaguing the page, he seemed interested in Romanticism. Where he wrote about Goya’s Third of May 1808, he writes a description and begins it with “unlike Fragonard.” It is almost comical in retrospect to compare the delicate and overly garish rococo with a life’s body of work that seeks to combat in every sense such movement, taking form at such a young age. His work and training at Disney is visible throughout the exhibit. His films are countless: Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd, Batman, Catwoman, When Mars Attacks, etc. The props and small sculptural pieces from the film reveal the intricacies of a mind able to create entirely fictional and dark worlds. Of course with obvious references to Edgar Allen Poe being prevalent through the exhibit, the exhibit overall seemed darker, more like a modern Baudelaire. The sketches are graphic and assaulting, but at the same time playful in a pure Burton manner. One arresting image was that of a couple, locked in love, being equally impaled by Cupid’s arrow, with the triumphant putto standing at the side.

On the LACMA website, an article compares it to the McQueen exhibit at the Met in NYC. To mention McQueen and Burton similarities, in my opinion, stops at the mere fact they are both featured in museums currently. While they were both creative and fantastical, they were so in completely disparate manners. The Burton exhibit space was large and I often found myself finding the need to double back to look at some pieces I had missed. Perhaps, it was meant to be like the famed Palace of Knossos with a large Minotaur waiting to pop out and devour the visitor. Burton’s creativity goes without mentioning, but judging by the large number of visitors, curious for I arrived promptly at noon exactly when the exhibit opened, Tim Burton has become much more than the art. It begged the question- Is America getting its artwork and seeing the importance of that art through modern media? I doubt the Vermeer on loan from the Met currently on display at the Norton Simon in Pasadena has the same draw.

As the exhibit continued, the exit was of course through the gift shop where merchandise was overflowing splashed with Tim Burton’s name. The name or rather now the brand, the media attention and the public access to this exhibit in my view created the buzz surrounding it. Strip him of his Hollywood presence and merely view the art in a purely artistic light and the images become more obscure than Goya’s Dark Series. The exhibit overall left me wondering about the current state of art museum patrons and exactly what they seek out in attending these exhibits. The retrospective exhibit left a conundrum- it left me seeking a fantastical world to escape to, a world equally visited and completely created by Burton himself.

written by: Brian Evans

As Real as it gets.

admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:49:41 +0000

Trompe l’oeil in French means literally to mislead or deceive the eye. This term has come to characterize a very specific art form or especially realistic painted two-dimensional images that seem three-dimensional. These images achieve such a life-like quality through the artist’s methods of shadowing, foreshortening, and linear perspective. Though the term dates from the Baroque period, the style is as old as the statement: “I have deceived the birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis.” This statement dates to the fifth century BCE, to the artistic competition to paint the most realistic imagery between Zeuxis and Parrhasius as recorded by Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia. The story goes that Zeuxis lifted the curtains on his piece to reveal a still life of fruit that was so realistic that birds flew down and pecked at the fictive grapes on the canvas. Afterwards, Zeuxis full of hubris challenges Parrhasius to lift the curtains and reveal his piece, but Parrhasius reveals that the curtains were not actual curtains but in fact the painting itself. Zeuxis admits defeat and Parrhasius is forever known as the master of realistic renderings of images.

The earliest examples however do not date from the aforementioned contest for they have been long lost, but date to the second style of frescoes at Pompeii and Herculaneum of 40 BCE. These frescoes show fictive views out of windows and doors onto gardens or other buildings, allowing the small rooms to expand beyond the confining walls. (Img 1) The practice fell away during the Middle Ages and did not resurface until the Renaissance era, but reached a dramatic popularity during the Baroque era. Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi of 1473 at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua serves as a prime Italian Renaissance example of trompe l’oeil (img 2). It is during this period as well that the term “di sotto in su” (from below, upwards) to describe the fantastic illusionistic ceiling paintings. The Baroque period features the most dramatic and awe-inspiring trompe l’oeil ceilings, which open the domes or flat roofs of churches into fantastic golden skies often showing the transfiguration or assumption and often filled with putti and swirling clouds, most notably with Giulio Romano’s Sala dei Giganti of 1532-1535 (img 3, 4).

The practice continued through the centuries mainly painted on walls and ceilings, into the modern era. However, as painting on canvas developed with linear perspective, sfumato and chiaroscuro, trompe l’oeil quickly moved onto canvases as well (img 5). These images were often used in older film studios in order to create a larger backdrop for the scenes. Often incorrectly associated with photorealism which began in the late 1960s, trompe l’oeil seeks as its goal to deceive the eye into believing the image is three-dimensional. Yet when viewing photorealism, though extremely realistic, the viewer is constantly aware that the image is in fact merely a painting.

Art on Luxury Truck

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:38:07 +0000

San Marino Gallery owns and operates a mobile gallery, a twenty-four foot trailer which houses artworks for public display, equipped with multi-media capabilities. The SMG Mobile Art Gallery is a unique and highly successful attraction. On display currently are two artists, with some of the most stunning pieces. One artist, world-renowned Belgian artist Georges Monfils’ oeuvre to-date: one well known classic masterpieces after Vermeer made entirely out of colored pencils in an innovative three dimensional mixed media technique. Another masterpiece by Georges, ‘King of Pop’ made up of 33 original Michael Jackson LP Vinyl records. Living Master, Anthony Waichulis paintings are compelling while conveying a sharp and wery sense of humor. Working with a focused discipline and a steady hand, he achieves perfection. Currency, cards, photographs, Ephemera and memorabilia make up the subject matter and the results are unbelievable.

San Marino Gallery will take it’s first school exhibition stop at the Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts The Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts (LFCSA) is a parent-initiated, non-profit, public elementary school with an emphasis in project-based learning in and through the arts. The school is located on 2709 Media Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA on Friday, April 8th from 8am – 5pm.

Ani Art Academies Anguilla

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:34:45 +0000

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Anthony Waichulis

We are extremely pleased to announce that construction has just begun on the second Ani Art Academy. This one will be on the beautiful island of Anguilla!

Taken from The Anguillian: The breath-taking Little Bay area, on the north coast of Anguilla, home to the luxury Ani Villas, is to have another project, starting at the end of this month, as 2011 unfolds. It is an Art Academy, brainchild of Tim Reynolds of New Jersey and owner of the Ani Villas. The art school for Anguilla was announced at a cocktail reception on December 30, hosted by Mr. Reynolds and his wife, Caroline. It is to be the first of three Art Academies in the region, the other two being in the Dominican Republic and St. Marteen. He said that the aim of his Reynolds Foundation was to build Academies around the world. Villa developer, Ira Bloom, said in his introductory remarks that the two-story Art Academy would be located along the road to Ani Villas and that it should be in operation in January 2012, within one year of its construction. Enrollment of Anguillian students should commence in mid to late 2011. Speaking as he showed an artist impression of the Academy, Tim Reynolds said he was very excited to start the project. He was grateful that Anthony Waichulis, who developed an art methodology and curriculum and was a teacher, was on aboard with him in the project. He said he loved Anguilla and thought it would be a good idea to provide an Academy for the island. “The wonderful thing about Anguilla is that you have a number of very wealthy tourists coming here,” he observed. “They would be happy to spend 5,000 dollars on a painting to take home and someone attending the school can offer something like that in three or four weeks. You can’t ask more than being able to help people to find something that they are going to be passionate about and then seeing them get through the program. The more I thought about it, the more I said I just have to do this.” Reynolds told listeners that up to 25 art apprentices would be enrolled in the Art Academy. It is planned for some of the artwork to be exhibited within the Ani Villas and all the sales will go to the students. The teachers will be Anthony Waichulis and graduates from the Ani Art Academy Waichulis in Pennsylvania who will be accommodated in an apartment attached to the school. “I am very confident that this will work,” he went on. “The school will be 100 percent free for the students and all supplies are going to be paid for by the Foundation. We are not accepting any donations. We are going to help our students sell their art anywhere they want to…” Reynolds, who showed some of the art done by the Ani Art Academy Waichulis Apprentices in Pennsylvania, said the art program would take between two and three years to complete. He pointed out that it was hard work, time consuming, but very rewarding. The reception was attended by Ministers and officials of Government, members of the Opposition and other members of the community. To see the original article: http://www.anguillian.com/article/articleview/9172/1/140/

Bound for America

admin — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:24:18 +0000

2 Million Passengers, 2 Million Stories

The new Red Star Line | People on the Move museum collects and tells the stories of the people who for various reasons took a passage on the Red Star Line bound for America. Among the emigrants were a large number of Jews who were fleeing the Nazi regime in Germany in the thirties. One of these moving stories is that of the Pressman family.

Zysia Pressman, his wife Hinda and their two children, Hermann and Shulamit (Sonia) lived in Germany. Zysia and Hinda originally came from Poland and had built up a successful clothing business in Berlin. When Hitler rose to power, the eighteen-year-old Hermann Pressman decided to flee the regime. On May 9, 1933, he traveled to Antwerp where he was able to stay with one of his cousins who had a shoemaker’s store in Deurne, near Antwerp. After quite some effort he eventually convinced his parents to join him in Antwerp. The family settled in Antwerp and the five-year-old Sonia went to pre-school kindergarten.

Unfortunately, setting up a new business in Antwerp came to nothing. Moreover, the Belgian authorities were anything but pleased with the arrival of Jewish refugees in the country. German refugees were still allowed in, but Jews of Polish origin were neither granted residence nor work permits. Hermann’s repeated attempts to get hold of a permanent residence permit for the family were unsuccessful and even the intercession of Mayor Camille Huysmans was of no avail. The Department of Belgian National Security then deported the Pressmans.

Since the family still had sufficient funds, they were able to secure a visa for the United States. On April 20, 1934, they embarked on the Red Star Line ship SS Westernland bound for New York.

Sonia Pressman Fuentes studied law in the United States and became an attorney and well-known feminist. Together with Betty Friedan and others, she founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). In 1999 she published a moving memoir, which naturally covered her family’s emigration (Eat First — You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter). She was able to draw on the diary that her brother Hermann had kept during his stay in Antwerp. Besides being an interesting account of the day-to-day life of a young Jewish man in Antwerp, the friends he had and the evenings out with them, it also covers the seemingly never-ending attempts to secure a residence permit. He describes the unpleasant medical exams he had to undergo before being allowed to leave on the Red Star Line and the constant fear of being rejected at the last moment.

The fact that Sonia gave us this diary led us to the idea of looking into the archives of the Aliens Police. In the Public Records Office in Brussels we found a comprehensive dossier on the Pressman family that the Belgian Security Service had put together: the visa applications, the intercession of the mayor of Antwerp and the eventual deportation by the Department of Belgian National Security. The fact that the dossier contains numerous passport photos has allowed us to reconstruct and document the life of the Pressman family in Belgium. Moreover, Sonia still has photos in her possession from the Berlin years as well as from their time in Antwerp, which includes the kindergarten years and, last but not least, photos of the family on deck on the Westernland. We hope to be able to interview Sonia Pressman Fuentes in the near future to round off what is a wonderful story about how dramatic events in world history and personal experiences can merge together through a Red Star Line story.

San Marino Gallery and Georges Monfils will be donating a painting of the ‘Who’s that girl’ portrait painting to the Red Star Museum this June 7^th, 2011 at the Red Star Auction in New York.

HongNian Zhang

admin — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:43:27 +0000

An art collector I know, Lee Wind, asked me to do a painting about the Nanjing Massacre. His interest was understandable: most of his extended family perished in the German concentration camps of World War II, and those who survived did so by escaping to Shanghai. Given this personal connection to the Chinese people, he thinks the world should know and not forget the horrors of Nanjing.

At first I resisted. It is such a tragic subject: I didn’t think I could bear looking at the images, much less painting them. Also, I was born in Nanjing after the war, so that spectral subject almost seemed too close to me. However, when he suggested my painting be about the American, Minnie Vautrin, I changed my mind.

Most Americans have never heard of her. They don’t know what a courageous person she was. But in China, Minnie Vautrin’s heroism is widely known. She is beloved and respected; there’s even a statue of her in Nanjing’s museum. She saved so many at great cost to herself.

Japan invaded China in 1937, and in December they took Nanjing. Most foreigners had left, but Minnie Vautrin chose to stay. As the head of Ginling College for Women in Nanjing, she made Ginling part of the International Safety Zone. She gave refuge to and ultimately saved the lives of 10,000 Chinese civilians. Unarmed, she bravely rescued girls and stood up to marauding soldiers by brandishing the American flag. You see, Japan was not yet at war with America, so our flag served as a deterrent.

She stayed there for 2 more years, risking her life repeatedly to protect her Chinese refugees. The stress was unbearable yet she bore it. The daily challenges of providing safety and provisions took their toll. It cost her her sanity, and after returning to America with what must have been post-traumatic stress disorder, she took her own life.

I was willing to do a painting about this beautiful brave soul, rather than one about the terrible bloody darkness.

2. What were your earliest aspirations? Have you always been interested in art?

I’ve been interested in art since I was no taller than a table. Probably about 3. I had scribbled on the side of a drawer that was pulled open. To my surprise, my scribble looked like a hammer. I tried drawing it again and again. I was delighted that I could duplicate it, and felt my first excitement about this magic we call art.

Growing up in very poor circumstances, with no chance to travel and no TV, I used my imagination to draw places I wanted to see, such as the ocean. I’d put my drawings up on the wall – sometimes we didn’t have money for paper so I would draw directly on the wall! That always got me in trouble.

3. Where did you first get your art training?

First, when I was 9 in Beijing’s Children Center. My teacher was a wonderful young man who loved art. His attitude was infectious, and a surprising number of his students are successful artists today. He gave all his love and energy in teaching art to us, and the reward was that several of us were able to get into the highly selective Central Art Academy. It was at this prestigious school that I really developed my skills.

4. How would you describe your style?

For me, my art is the way I communicate with people. I want my art to show my most romantic, dramatic or heroic feelings, and inspire my viewers to feel them too. To do this effectively takes more than simply realism. Four things must be together: the correct drawing, beautiful and emotional color, an arresting composition, and lively brushwork.

5. What have been among the most challenging experiences for you as an artist?

When I was not allowed to paint.

During the Cultural Revolution, I was sent with my classmates to “Re-education” in the countryside. Four years in a forced labor camp. We were not allowed to paint because it was “Western” and we needed to “clean our souls”.

This prohibition helped me realize how important painting is to me. My urge to paint can’t be stopped, so it went underground. Some of us found a way to paint on the sly, on small scraps of cardboard that fit in our pockets. (Even prisoners have some down time.) I felt so much joy painting these little paintings! These experiences formed me: I developed a strong mind that nobody can take away my right to paint.

6. Twenty years from now, where do you think you will be with your work?

I hope I’ll be in both America and China, creating epic paintings. With subject matter showing the history or the current life of both cultures.

7. Other than likeness, what are the specific qualities that you strive to create in a portrait that is also a good painting?

For me, a good portrait reveals the history: the life and times behind the person. Those 4 qualities I listed above – correct drawing, sensitive color, arresting composition, and lively brushwork are imperative. Beyond that I need the freedom to create it as I see fit, and let my style show. I expect my collectors to trust me as an artist; I need that freedom for my style and interpretation.

Hongnian Zhang