The 2012 Los Angeles Art Show is your opportunity to feel the heart and soul of countries represented throughout the world.
America. China. South Korea. France. England. Russia. Spain. Argentina.
Photo above is Lia Skidmore working with Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, holding a Jim Dine collector's painting called Random Sewing. Lia and I have been like family for over thirty years. Our parents an item drawn together by art and dance.
I love beauty, and I gravitate to beautiful art with no sense of a collectors value or anything else really. But this time I gravitated toward pictures with meaning that weren't necessarily beautiful.
My favorite gallery turned out to be from Beijing.
ME Photo Art Gallery.
ME stands for husband and wife owners, Mary and Edward Chung.
Originally from Hong Kong, they live under the gray smog skies of Beijing where clouds peek through twice a year, and according to Edward, "I don't choose work without a message."
"What's this about?" I asked, pointing to staid ordinary buildings.
"The artist Yang Tif Yun traveled all over China and took photos of new buildings patterned after America's Congress and White House. Symbols of American power. People in China are letting their culture go.
Until locals protested they'd put a Starbucks in the Forbidden City. A 600 year old city! This artist is documenting the transformation of Chinese buildings that look American."
"What's that I asked?" pointing to what looked like snowmen in a field.
"Artist Jiang Peng Yi created White Pills, a beautiful photo in Mongolia by putting little statues in the forest and waiting for snow to fall. There are no footprints in the snow. It's called White Pills because you look at this picture and it's good medicine, good for your soul."
The ME Photo Art Gallery exhibit was good for my understanding of China, a rapidly growing country in more ways than one. The most profound change from communism where everyone is equal to capitalism.
"Everything people are striving for is money now," Edward continued. "Not dignity. Not loyalty. Not honesty. There's nothing left besides money. Today you measure a man by money. Not in Mao's day. Today to be respected you must have money. People don't really laugh deeply like the old days; it's more an expression for making money. We have cars instead of bicycles. Bikes are better. What's the point of a fast life?" Edward asks.
The young artists Edward and Mary support by selling their work, tell the cultural change story. To see and learn more go to Booth C168 at LA Convention Center through Sunday Jan. 21, 2012. If you miss it, check out their web site.
And here are paintings that caught my eye.
My favorite photo to own if I owned a big house (I don't) is the whimsical highly digitized with amazing Photoshop skills photograph by Shanghai, China resident, Zhang Xianyong. It's called Urban Fantasy. Soooo much better looking in person. I didn't bring my big fancy camera, so you really must see the colors and details in person. Booth E235
Trivia. Shanghai is my mom's favorite city. She is a major world traveler and member of The Traveler's Century Club.
How do you say pretty? Lee Hae-Kyung's work from Seoul, South Korea hangs in the presidential house.
You can purchase her work from Galerie Gaia.
Here's the gallery owner, Richard, standing in front of artist YOO Sun-Tai painting.
Another South Korea gallery, Chungjark represented "Happy Together" by Hye-Rim Ahn.
How about we visit Russia now.
This painting by Petr Kizunow called Empire Earth: The World We Haven't Known just might win most ornate at show. My photo is just a sliver of it.
There are many works of major artists available for sale including Rembrandt, Gaugin, Monet, Van Gogh, Elsle and Antoine Blanchard, and Edouard Leon Cortes.
Check out the Rehs Galleries.
Oh, and before I head back to the show, my favorite Barcelona, Spain gallery, is Villa del Arte Galleries. Last year I fell in love with an artist they represent called Yves Krief.
The 2012 Los Angeles Art show is running through the end of this weekend at LA Convention Center.
A word about collectors and artists. No one knows who will hit, it's up to the collectors. So I encourage you, especially if you're part of the 1% that can afford to buy expensive art, to remember the up-and-comers, and one day they may be collectibles, too.
Love to travel?
Get to know the heart and soul of countries through art, and you'll get to know your heart and soul, too.
Beauty meet works of meaning and a message.
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