Fine Art Saturday X Copro Gallery and Lois Lambert Gallery Bergamot Station
Hey Guys,
Finally made it out to Copro Gallery, which I've been trying to make it to for a bit now. For those of you unfamiliar, this gallery is in Santa Monica at Bergamot Station. This is a rad little community full of galleries and artisan shops by the 10 Freeway. Took this tidbit from their website for a little history. "Bergamot Station is the historical name for the site on which the gallery complex is located, dating back to 1875 when it was a stop for the Red Line trolley running from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier. Bergamot is a flower of the mint family that once flourished in the area.
When the trolley cars stopped running in 1953, the site’s warehouse buildings housed a celery packing operation, then an ice-making plant, and finally a factory for the manufacture of water heaters. Thereafter, the City of Santa Monica purchased the property which then sat abandoned, with plans for it to once again serve as an eventual transit stop, this time for a proposed light rail line running from Los Angeles to Santa Monica." This little spot off Michigan Ave hosts many galleries like Copro Gallery, Lois Lambert, William Turner Gallery, Robert Berman Gallery, Andrew Weiss, and more. So many spaces, so little time!! So our focus for today was mainly Copro, but went into the Lois Lambert as well as it caught our eye.
Copro is currently hosting a "Salem" art show featuring menton3, Damien Echols, and David Stoupakis.
The Show is absolutely Stunning, the work that is up by David Stoupakis is absolutely gorgeous. The Gilded, and highly ornate frames only enhance the Oil Paintings that much more. A must see in person as the lighting from my phone does not do them justice. These depictions of magic practitioners look absolutely brilliant together and stand alone individually. Even the studies that are up are visually stunning. These images while so stunningly detailed still evoke a dreamlike wonder to the physics showcased in the supjects. They have weight, but appear weightless through the levitation of the orbs and objects. The whole running theme of "Salem" is about the history and tragedy of what happened in Salem, Massachusetts. In Damien Echols words about the show "Salem holds a deep meaning for us all as both historical facts and as a reminder it's possible for meaning to come from madness. That the tree of magick can take root and flourish even in the most hostile ground. With this project we paid tribute to all that was and all that is SALEM"
The Next portion of the work viewed was by menton3. These Ink and Airbrush pieces with their etherial figures showcase beautiful attention to detail while still maintaining a loose quality of foreground background relation. There is a complete dreamlike quality to them with the washed out and loose backgrounds, but intricately detailed figures. The use of light and shadow build such a beautiful aura around such dark and disturbing subject matter.
Also on display, not related to Salem, are remnants of previous shows like Conjoined 666 with kinetic sculpture by artists Ben Schwenk, Chet Zar ( the wonderful curator of the Conjoined shows), and Mark Setkarian.
These things were so super rad!
The Next gallery we went to was the Lois Lambert Gallery. On display were custom neons! If you listen to 99% invisible podcast there is an exceptional episode about neon making. Making them is super hard, has to be super fast, and incredibly accurate. So an extra level of appreciation is there. The majority of the ones I took appreciation was by Michael Flechtner.
As always, love looking at new art, and as I do this I will be sharing more with you guys! If you're by Santa Monica go by Bergamot Station as there is a ton of great artwork happening over there. Hope you enjoyed as there will be more coming soon.
-Blakebot
