A couple of confessions here. 356 Mission is one of my favorite galleries in LA. It’s huge at around 12,000 square feet, the work is cutting edge without having the least little bit of attitude around it; last year at this time I got to see “Another Cats Show” there which featured 300 plus artists all depicting my favorite creatures: cats.
So I knew I would love the current exhibits, and I did. I also loved the buffet of vegan food, keg of craft beer, coca-cola, and d.j. tracks in the courtyard strung with white lights and filled with the happiest party you’ve seen in a long time – all art lovers.
Well, you might’ve missed the great hummus, but you won’t miss the fantastic art. Last Friday’s opening was for Rebecca Morris: “Rose Cut.” Running through November 1 in the main gallery space, these are large, lovely, geometric paintings that rush at the viewer with images that feel like modern tapestries. Morris titled the show after “the big salmon-pink-red colored painting (Untitled #04-15) that is included and some of the paintings that led to it. A rose cut is a particular cut of diamond, a round half circle divided into equally shaped triangular facets.” Rose colors and rose scent also played a part in her choice of title, and in the delicate quality of these rich and wonderful patterns. “I also love the scent of a rose and am really drawn to perfumes that are rose based…perhaps the lightness/ thinness of the paint handling I use, could communicate an aspect of scent as much as the color relationships might create an attitude.”
In the downstairs gallery, The Seth Bogart Show holds forth, a fantastic spread of color, sound, media – like an art amusement park gone wonderfully mad.
Musician and artist Bogart says “It’s based around this new album I’m recording, so I wanted to create a whole world to present it in. So there’s music videos projected with songs that I’m making, and I wanted it to be more special than seeing a touring band – I wanted to have someone step into a world I created… kind of like beauty school meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse and very plastic…I like the way it looks and feels, like a safe place to hang out.” The contained, magical, funky, fabulous world of Bogart runs through Oct. 2nd.
Head just east of DTLA’s arts district and check out both of these shows. Trust us. Go, go, go.
356 S. Mission Road
Los Angeles
- Genie Davis; Photos Genie Davis/Jack Burke