Art Walk May 2009

After work Thursday I boarded the familiar red line to Pershing Square to meet Sam and check out the art walk for the first time in five months. Some things changed, some things stayed the same.

We checked out the Hive first as that place usually has the best work. Here are some of the standouts:

Tom Beirce by Lance Richlin.

Damnation by Janae Corrado.

Unknown artist at the Hive.

Next we walked over to Infusion Gallery. They had some okay stuff, but nothing outstanding. They had one outstanding piece of crap though:

This is “eye” by Gabriel Fiscale.

There were a lot more musicians and street bands this time. Here are some people dancing outside of marisco’s:

and another street corner band:

Next we went into the infamous Phyllis Stein gallery. Once again it was filled with mostly crap (like Molly Schiot pieces) including this leftover piece of trash from S. Lee Robinson’s studio:

Next up was the gallery across the street, which was full of small mediocre pieces. The centerpiece was a “poetry slam/reading” going on in the front. The mic was turned down kind of low (thank goodness).

Yes, teenage white girl from LA with a red braid in your hair, rap to us about your terrible life on the streets growing up in Sherman Oaks….

Across the street and upstairs (those of you familiar with the Art Walk know what I mean) we found Michael Pukac doing some in-gallery paintings and selling them for $80. Here is one of his finished pieces (going for considerably more):

We walked down 4th street to Lost Souls Cafe. This is the cafe that is hidden down that little alleyway next to Rocket Pizza. In the alley this time was a 3-piece band that was not quite steampunk. There was a steampunk/cosplay girl blowing bubbles puttering around them.

We went back down main, going down 5th (?) first to find a nude woman getting painted and pushed against a wall. Now before anyone gets all agasp about how stunning/pornographic/etc. this is, let’s not forget Yves Klein who famously did this sort of thing sixty years ago…

Back up on Main street proper we walked past the usual places and came to the Regent. In art walks last year we watched this space go from a loose conglomeration of art on the walls and performers on stage – to “professional” crafts booths along the walls, a good band on stage and a bar at the back. When we went in this time we discovered that it would now cost $5 to get into the bar. We turned around and headed outside. The parking lot adjacent to the building had been cleared of cars and many “street artists” were displaying their goods:

I think these guys used to play music across the street in front of “Phartika” or whatever that gallery is called.