i was invited by zara of black maria gallery (again for this year…thanks zara!), and gary of copranason gallery to attend the vip preview night for “beyond eden” art fair last friday, oct 9. the vip event started at 5-8pm but we didn’t get there until almost 7pm due to traffic (you know how it is in LA :p). crowds were pretty consistent and i love that it wasn’t overcrowded as expected for the following two days when they opened the event to the public. apart from black maria gallery, copranason gallery, gallery nucleus, crewest, carmichael gallery, thinkspace gallery, gallery 1988, la luz de jesus, lebasse projects, billy shire fine arts, subliminal projects, synchoronicity space, and of course the los angeles municipal art gallery participated in this huge event. it was really very nice to see familiar faces again, and to finally meet with wonderful people i’ve talked to over the years, but never gotten a chance to meet in person until that evening. :) there were so many amazingly beautiful and awesome pieces in the art fair, and i’m humbly happy that i got to pick up another painting by one of my favorite artists that evening. :)
i was also particularly excited to see some photography exhibitions there as well. one such corner that caught my attention was the “heroes & villains” exhibition by tatiana wills and roman cho. they did an exhibition hosted by one of my favorite galleries in LA…corey helford gallery some time last year. this series of work was a three-year project and showcased so many of the great talents of contemporary artists who influenced our culture and current art movement, such as mark ryden, gary baseman, chris anthony, tim biskup, audrey kawasaki, simone legno, seonna hong, saelee oh, ron english, rober williams, etc., etc… i spotted roman and had to chitchat abit with this great photographer. :) roman is very nice, down to earth, and a very talented photographer who specializes in portraiture. you gotta check out his website and all the beautiful work he does. i really love his style and how he got his subject to engage into powerful moments of drama and attitude…i just love it! :) roman was so nice and kind enough to entertain an amateur like myself to take a photo of the master standing between some of his beautiful work using my little coolpix p&s. :) (thanks, roman! ^^)
if you couldn’t make it to this art fair last weekend, i made a little photo collage below of some of the many amazing pieces from “beyond eden” that i took with my p&s and iphone. (sorry for some of the poorer quality pics) enjoy! :) oh, and i also wanted to thank gary from copranason gallery for giving me this copra/nason fine art – a catalogue raisonne book. :) it is filled with 267 pages of photos and illustrations documenting the journey of copranason through the exhibitions they’ve had throughout the years. a really beautiful collection (makes a great conversation piece/coffee book, too!) if you’re interested to pick one up for yourself or for any art lover. :) (thanks again gary!) xoxo ^^
