Culver City Arts District: The Galleries To Watch This Art Season
Ever since the New York Times declared Culver City a “nascent Chelsea,” we’ve wondered if the area’s revival truly warrants all the hype. So we set out to investigate the neighborhood for ourselves, and ended up spending an entire breezy summer afternoon in the trenches, exploring the rich base of galleries who call Culver City home.
Cherry and Martin
Cherry and Martin was founded in 2006 in Mar Vista, and moved to Culver City in April of 2009. When asked why he chose to move his gallery to Culver City, co-director Philip Martin says, “It’s the place to be if you want to be a gallery in L.A. It’s the main street where the majority of our peers are.”
One of the younger galleries in the area, Cherry and Martin represents artists in all stages of their careers, across a wide range of mediums. For their next exhibition Cherry and Martin are remounting Peter Bunnell’s landmark 1970 MoMA exhibition “Photography Into Sculpture.” The exhibition will open on September 10th in conjunction with the art season.
The original exhibition was praised for bringing together artists from all over the world and was ‘the first comprehensive survey of photographically formed images used in a sculptural or fully dimensional manner.’
Cherry and Martin will be exhibiting over 70 percent of the artworks that were in the original exhibition. Predicted to be quite the show, we can expect to see monumental pieces from the likes of Robert Heinecken, Richard Jackson and Jerry McMillan, as well as a number of other influential artists from the time period.
2712 South La Cienega Blvd., 310.559.0100, Open Wed-Sat 11am-6pm
Walter Maciel Gallery
Walter Maciel Gallery opened its doors in 2006 and represents primarily emerging to mid-career artists. Maciel worked in San Francisco galleries for 13 years before moving to Los Angeles and establishing his own gallery in the heart of the burgeoning Culver City Arts District.
Maciel is currently looking forward to his September 10th opening of an important show by Margarita Cabrera, which will comment on the relationship between the US and Mexico. A combined effort, students, professionals and artists who believe in the message volunteered to create the inventory for the show using traditional Mexican craft techniques.
One of the most interesting components of this upcoming show is the swarm of copper butterflies that will be mounted to the walls of the gallery. The migration of Monarch butterflies across the U.S./Mexican borders at certain times throughout the year is symbolic of the journey thousands of Mexican immigrants experience crossing that same border, and the swarm represents the manic transformation of the Mexican economy. Furthermore, the perseverance of the butterflies draws on a direct parallel to the determination individuals must build in order to make the journey across the border.
Visitors can expect to be moved by the commentary on the plight of Mexican immigrants, and the state of Mexican affairs as they relate to the US.
2642 South La Cienega Blvd., 310.839.1840, Open Tue-Sat 11am-6pm
François Ghebaly Gallery
François Ghebaly Gallery was founded in China Town in 2009 and moved to Culver City in September of 2010, making it one of the newer galleries on the block. It is a contemporary gallery specializing in emerging and mid-career international artists, in a wide variety of mediums.
They are currently showing “The New Verisimilitude,” a two-part group exhibition that explores new approaches to realism in the contemporary practices of ten artists working in different mediums, including sculpture, video and performance. Verisimilitude is defined as the appearance of truth, and each work in this exhibition strives to manifest a different approach to the term.
The gallery is currently looking forward to its September exhibition by Los Angeles- based artist Joel Kyack. It opens September 10th, 2011, and Art Director Karisa Morante assures us it’s going to be “insane.”
2600 South La Cienega Blvd., 310.280.0777, Open Tue-Sat 11am-6pm
