Thank you!

We had a great time at Alias Books East with Michael Blasi.  Thank you to everyone who came out that day and a special thanks to our supporters who've visited us and expressed encouragement and excitement for our project.  We could not have done this without gifted artists and businesses who generously offered their spaces to us this year.  It's been a special 4 months and we look forward to seeing you in 2012 for the second half of our inaugural season. 

 



Look for us in February for our first group show entitled Swerve, curated by our very own Sophia Allison.  

Michael Blasi: Soundsystem

ShoeboxLA Presents

Michael Blasi: Soundsystem

Saturday, December 10, 2011 from 4-7pm

Alias Books East– Atwater

3163 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90039

ShoeboxLA is pleased to present Los Angeles artist Michael Blasi. Blasi's Soundsystem playfully explores the relationship between audio and visual, the concrete and abstract, where hard wiring and electric pulses meet soft metaphor and symbolic form. Blasi employs a variety of music including Somali funk, Egyptian jazz, and Jamaican dub over a recycled computer speaker contraption within the gallery, thus making it an acoustic chamber. His mountain-like forms and colorful spheres act as reservoirs of potential musical energy, physical manifestations of the signals that travel to speakers through wires and circuitry, across an array of forms that resemble a circuit board.
 

Originally from Los Angeles, Michael Blasi received his BFA from Purchase College, New York; he returned here in the late ‘90s, where he has been teaching and making art.

ShoeboxLA gives Los Angeles artists an opportunity to do one-day, site-specific exhibitions outside the traditional gallery setting. Founders Sophia Allison and Paul W. Evans provide an intimate space that challenges artists' and viewers' expectations of size and scale. Locations change for each show but the space remains the same.

(Alias Books East is a curated, general used bookstore located in the heart of Atwater Village. They carry a wide selection of used and out of print titles with an emphasis on literature, film and the arts. www.aliasbookseast.com )

Michael Blasi - Saturday, December 10, 2011

Anita Bunn, Thank You & Next

What a great night we had with Anita Bunn.  Thanks to all who came (and you were many) and to Paradis for hosting. 

Anita's work is available here for immediate purchase.  Feel free to email us with any questions.  We always love hearing from you.

Next up is Michael Blasi at Alias Books in Atwater Village on December 10 from 4-7pm.  See you there!

A Question for Anita

Anita Bunn: An Ordinary Spectacle - November 12, 2011

Anita Bunn: An Ordinary Spectacle

Saturday, November 12, 2011 from 4-7pm

Paradis Ice Cream – Los Feliz

1726 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

ShoeboxLA is pleased to present Anita Bunn: An Ordinary Spectacle.  For this exhibition Bunn combines traditional photographic techniques with contemporary digital technologies while referencing Nicéphore Niépce’s 1826 work “View from my Window at Gras,” which is considered to be the earliest photo-process image. Using the gallery itself as a pinhole camera, Bunn produces seemingly still and silent photographic prints alongside digital works that romantically embrace the urban environment of Los Angeles while gently prodding the viewer to take a closer look by turning away from spectacle.

Originally from Houston, Texas, Anita Bunn has lived in Los Angeles for nearly 25 years. She received an MFA in Photography from Claremont Graduate University in 2007 and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her work is in many public and private collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

(Paradis ice cream is located at 1726 N. Vermont Ave. in Los Feliz, just north of Hollywood Blvd. Ice cream is made fresh daily using fresh fruit, high-quality ingredients and no additives. www.paradis-icecream.com )

KCRW: Art in Town - Kim Tucker & ShoeboxLA

By KCRW’s Laura Shumate

Kim Tucker is a ceramic artist you really should know about. She has a gallery event this weekend with ShoeboxLA and if you blink, you just might miss it! Read on to find out why you should go…

Your first impression of Kim Tucker’s ceramic figures is one of whimsy. They come in the size of small children or as smaller miniatures participating in what appear to be regular people activities. They are innocent and dressed in coveralls or what may be cotton skirts or maybe a frock. In a flash of a millisecond, you’re moved to tears. They are human and fantasy. They are vulnerable. You notice their fragility as if co-opting on their clay make-up, a material that easily breaks when not handled delicately. You see their shapes are awkward, their expressions are often somber and some are adorned in strange bumps or smiley face blemishes. There’s a desire to protect them like your own children or a friend, while acknowledging their familiar sorrow within yourself. It cannot be ignored. Using a medium traditionally built for decorative arts of elaborate shapes and vases, Kim’s twist in creating her menagerie is even sweeter. You must experience her work for yourself.

Kim recently exhibited a show with ShoeboxLA, a unique monthly pop-up gallery that creates installations in creative spaces. This event was a 3-hour show at All Star Lanes, a bowling alley in Eagle Rock. I missed it. I was crestfallen. The idea of her ceramic breakables in an All Star Lane gallery seems like the ideal setting for the emotional twist she infuses into her figures. The great news is ShoeboxLA will return this Sunday, October 30th from 2:00 – 4:00pm with a second show for Kim at Vlad the Retailer on Heliotrope in Los Angeles (a couple doors down from Scoops and Cafecito Organico Coffee near LA City College). This is a wonderful chance to enjoy Kim’s work for yourself and one of ShoeboxLA’s intelligent installations -  and some yummy Scoops salted caramel ice cream, to boot! See you there.

• Kim Tucker @ Vlad the Retailer
  704 N. Heliotrope, 90029
  Sunday, October 30th

• What is ShoeboxLA?