Daniel Rolnik Gallery: New Space, Same Cool Face

Posted on by Diversions LA

 

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“I call my crazy face my Semitic super hero,” gallery owner Daniel Rolnik says, of his self-created signage.

Owner Daniel Rolnick celebrates his gallery opening with his father, right.
Owner Daniel Rolnik celebrates his gallery opening with his father, right.

Rolnik is back. After moving from a previous space just across the street from Santa Monica pier, Rolnik has found a new home at 2675 S. La Cienega in Culver City. Located near galleries such as Blum & Poe, Rolnik offers a fresh and fun-loving approach to art that is also ultimately affordable.

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“We are the only gallery in the Culver City arts district where you can just go in and buy some art and walk out again casually. I wanted this place to be a roadside attraction,” Rolnik asserts.

He also describes his bright and cheerful place as part of an “epic war against white walls.”

Rolnick with artist Kat Philbin
Rolnik with artist Kat Philbin

Opening the new space are shows by Kat Philbin and Listen04. U.K. artist Listen04’s “Child’s Play,” below, is a colorful, nihilistic, and subversive riff on cartoon characters.

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Sharply satiric sculptural pieces from Listen04 are also on hand.

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Above, not your ordinary toy soldiers form “The New Terracotta Army” from Listen04.

Philbin’s “Codswallop,” below, creates illustrations for “a book that doesn’t exist,” according to the Missouri-born artist.

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“The story is of a girl who falls in a puddle and is transported to a wonderland under water. It’s drawn in ink and watercolors.”

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Philbin says she wanted to take her art in a lighter, brighter direction, and her carefully rendered, whimsical pieces offer a wry twist on fairy-tale fare.

Also on display:  cool and inexpensive ways to add to your art collection from Turtle Wayne, Tripper Dungan,

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Turtle Wayne and Catherine Kaleel at Daniel Rolnik Gallery

Posted on by Diversions LA
Daniel Rolnik with Turtle Wayne - all photos: Jack Burke
Daniel Rolnik with Turtle Wayne – all photos: Jack Burke

The Daniel Rolnik Gallery is something of an anomaly on Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica. It’s cutting edge, ever-changing catalog lets visitors browse art as they would records at Amoeba Music, and the small space showcases some mega talents.

Rolnik Gallery
Rolnik Gallery

Owner Rolnik has been at this beach-side location for a year. “I go on road trips and I find artists I love. From Portland to North Carolina to Dallas to Anaheim, I find great works and exhibit them,” he says. In his browsing bin of artists currently there’s Otis Parsons’ instructor J.T. Steiny working in water colors to memorialize a departed pet, Catherine Kaleel’s zany “Romantic Donuts” series, the block prints and paintings of Krossd, and the holographic images of Tripper Dungan. He features low-gram movement artist Jessika Adams and Jeremy Novy who works on wood.

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“I know what I like and I go for it,” Rolnik says. “I’ve written for thirty different art magazines, the L.A. Weekly, Jewish Journal. I was called the world’s most adorable art critic, but so much that I loved was unobtainable. I’m trying to change all that, walk out here and get something you can obtain.”

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Turtle Wayne, with 80,000 Instagram followers, is one such obtainable artist. He creates whimsical pieces centered on, yes, turtles. His solo show features originals, prints, sticker packs, shirts, and sketch books.

Turtles by Turtle Wayne
Turtles by Turtle Wayne

“I draw turtles. I draw anything or anyone turned into a turtle. It’s become my identity, it’s how I relate to the world. I put poetry and humor into my work,” Wayne attests.

Based in San Francisco’s East Bay, he was drawing turtles only as a warm-up for other commissions, and the concept started as a joke. “But now,” he notes, “I have close to 2000 turtle pieces posted on Instagram. And you can see thousands of turtle ideas that people can suggest. People like turtles – that’s the whole interaction.”

Rolnik with Catherine Kaleel and her romantic donuts
Rolnik with Catherine Kaleel and her romantic donuts

Catherine Kaleel says the point of her pieces, which include detailed images of nostalgia-infused cassettes is “good humor. Everyone can relate to my work. I’m pretty much laughing the whole time I’m making my pieces, it’s sort of my Prozac creating these paintings.” Currently in the masters program at the Laguna College of Art and Design, the SoCal native has crafted nostalagic images since 2011.

“I don’t feel like fine art and low brow have to be separated. My work is a combination of the two,” she explains.

Kaleel, Rolnik, and visitor Tyrone
Kaleel, Rolnik, and visitor Tyrone

It’s a combination that works for the Daniel Rolnik Gallery itself, where new works and exhibitions pop up with frequency and panache. Check out Turtle Wayne and other artists daily from 3-10 pm at 1431 Ocean Ave. Ste. 1800 in Santa Monica.

  • Genie Davis; all photos: Jack Burke