Thursday, June 10, 2010
6pm – 9pm

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
(Soap Plant / Wacko )
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

Los Angeles might be the capital of conspicuous consumption, but the other cliché about “La La Land”—that it’s a cultural wasteland—couldn’t be further from the truth. For every “Extreme Makeover—Club Edition” (in which would-be impresarios continually swankify their establishments in a relentless quest to be “the” hot spot du jour), there is a well-worn drinking hole full of history, serving up a far more elusive and seductive mix of stiff drinks, loose atmosphere and keep-it-real regulars.

In Los Angeles’ Best Dive Bars, you’ll get the scoop and the poop on the city’s liveliest, lowlife n’ liquor-soaked landmarks. This essential booze bible has the lowdown on which bars serve free food, which have great—and not so great—karaoke, bars that appear in your favorite movies and much, much more. Whether you’re looking for a friendly spot where “everybody knows your name,” a filthy blackened cave where nobody ever will, a gently-gentrified hole specked with dive-obsessed hipsters or a dusty relic full of hip-replacements, you’re sure to find a spot to soak up—and get soaked in—here in these pages.

LINA LECARO is the nightlife columnist for the LA Weekly. She has been patrolling Los Angeles’ most decadent after dark dens and its grungiest grottos with equal aplomb for over twenty years (i.e. before she could actually drink legally). A born and bred Angeleno, she’s no angel when it comes to digging deep into LA’s most harrowing drunkard-approved hovels . She might prefer her cocktails sweet, but her favorite bars (and barflys) have always been anything but.

Lina will be at the event to sign her book. There will be free Sino Tequila along with other liquor and food. All dive-bar hoppers, nightlife fans and lovers of Los Angeles are welcome.

June 4 – 27, 2010
Reception for the artists, June 4th  8 – 11 PM

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

Rick Araluce makes miniature constructions. That means he makes everything himself by hand, including the boxes that contain the collections. He’s spent years inventing methods to fashion (from scratch) a turned table leg, door hardware,  a light bulb, a clock case, elaborate trim moulding, and whatever else is required to complete the illusions. Rick has created flutes less than an eighth of an inch in length, functioning miniature clocks measuring less than a quarter inch in diameter, and light switches that illuminate rooms seventeen miniature floors beneath them. No detail is sacrificed by the diminutive scale -even if those flourishes go largely unnoticed by the casual observer; however is nothing casual about the art of Rick Araluce, who makes his return to La Luz de Jesus after more than a decade abroad.

Rick Araluce website

________

JAW Cooper’s series “Tarnished” explores the allure of imperfection. “I’ve created a world inhabited by the deformed, tainted, injured, and alien, where external imperfections are echos of internal struggle,  and beauty is undeniably in the eye of the beholder. Behind every flaw is a story waiting to be discovered,” states the artist. Cooper was born in England and grew up in Africa, Sweden, Ireland, various other locations throughout Europe, and California. She has always cultivated a deep curiosity for the natural world and is inspired by forms found in nature, curio cabinets, fashion photography, and nipples in general. Cooper currently lives and works as an illustrator and gallery artist in Los Angeles, California. The artist will be in attendance.

JAW Cooper website

________

Jessica Dalva’s new series of sculptures and oil paintings is only her second featured exhibition at La Luz de Jesus, but marks one of the most anxiously awaited series of new work from an emerging artist in recent memory. The centerpiece of “Tie Strings Into Knots” is an eerie, hanging chandelier that instills a sense of wandering for home, while illuminating a lost sense of virtue. Sometimes a lamp is just a lamp. But this is not one of those times. Dalva’s marionettes and mobiles inject their surroundings with instant nostalgia via a modern craft-esthetic rooted deeply in antiquity. The artist will be in attendance.

Jessica Dalva website

“Gone West” was an expression used in the air force during wartime to describe a brother-in-arms who was shot down and killed in combat. When pilots gather, they often open meetings with a toast to those who have “gone west”. They face the west and drink to those who have died. West, in this case, refers to the place the sun sets and extinguishes; the metaphor is clear. This somehow softens the reality of death in a line of work rife with mortality. Bonni Reid has co-opted this expression ion titling her most recent body of paintings. Representing transformation, passage, and change, the title takes on an added, metaphysical tone, not unlike the Death card in a tarot deck. this exhibition features all new, never-before-seen work. Bonni Reid lives in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia. When not brewing her own visual concoctions, she freelances as a color designer for animation productions including six seasons of Cartoon Network’s “Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy”.

Bonni Reid website

________

Krystopher Sapp  “Exoskeletal Engine”

Krystopher Sapp’s mixed media assemblage is a sculptural study in discarded ephemery. His workshop is a literal hereafter for broken toys, liberated fixtures, and kippered insects. Rich dioramas of recontextualized doodads transform into a steampunk nirvana of Victorian futurism, both resplendant and refined, but with a secret tinge of horror within each dark dimension. La Luz de Jesus is proud to welcome back Krystopher Sapp for his third featured exhibition, for which he’s dialed back volume but escalated detail to produce a collection of ambitious perfection. The artist will be in attendance.

Krystopher Sapp website