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Jan Govaerts, a local San Pedran, has always been infatuated with the wonders of art. However, art often took a back seat while she raise a family and worked for the county for 22 years. After retiring, she immediately dove back into her true passion. Jan began making a name for herself as a painter who capture the beauty of the nature surrounding her. She then began to incorporating her long time love for music by making ceramic drums which began to pave her way to manly expressing herself mainly through the art of ceramics. Josef Woodard of the Los Angeles Times says,"the figurative presence almost instinctively seizes our eye and builds up energy and empathy that transcend the abstract element. Such is the power of a discernible ‘human presence’ in art. The act of ‘reading’ figures in paintings becomes a part of the art’s message.” At her 4 Street studio, The Loft, you can often find Govaerts with clay in her hand, conveying her spiritual interpretations of the majestic beauty of nature.

Pick of the Vine: Season 10 launches Little Fish Theatre's 2012 season with an eclectic and entertaining group of 9 one-act plays. Chosen from nearly 500 submissions from 40 states and 9 countries, the entire cluster of 5- to 15-minute plays are performed each Friday and Saturday night with additional performances on Sunday, February 5 and Thursday, February 16. Performances run from January 13 - February 18, 2012.

 

Over the years, the plays have featured men on crosses, a boy with wings, and even a group of bugs in a jar. This year's collection offers offers humor, passion, poignancy, and wish-fulfillment in settings as diverse as a spa, a church, the parking lot of Yankee stadium, and the edge of a bathtub.

 

According to the site "Theatre in LA," Pick of the Vine has a reputation among playwrights as the short play festival to be in, and among theatre-goers as a show not to be missed.

TransVagrant and Warschaw Gallery are pleased to present CLOSE AT HAND, COLLAGE by William Mahan. Mahan is primarily known for large scale works abstracted from real-life places and events and painted with Guston-like directness – sophisticated in color and drawing and blunt in facture. The collages comprising CLOSE AT HAND represent a departure from the conceptual calm and physical assertiveness of the paintings. Composed largely of billboard fragments scavenged over years from the studio roof and punctuated by images close at hand, they represent the harsh realities of postmodern existence. Mahan received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and his MFA from the University of Illinois and has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. His work can be found in many public and private collections including the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, California State University, Long Beach, Atlantic Richfield Corporation, and the Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles. Curated by Ron Linden, CLOSE AT HAND runs through December 31. For visuals or additional information please call 310-600-4873. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM. This exhibition funded in part by generous support from the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, CRA/LA.

 

 

Featured Show: DECADE+

Featured Show: THE WOMAN AND THE APPLE

The 4th annual exhibit entitled Redefining Femininity: The Woman and the Apple, is opening Thursday July 7 at The Loft Gallery. Curated by Gallery Azul, this year's tribute to women is to challenge the negative association and archetype of the Woman and the Apple. All pieces incorporate both the image of a woman and of an apple. The idea is to remove the association to Eve who tempts Adam with the apple from its negative view of the woman as temptress, destroyer of Eden, etc, and reframe this idea/concept into a more positive light. "...there has been little to describe the psychological lives and ways of gifted women, talented women, creative women. There is, on the other hand, much writ about the weakness and foibles of humans in general and women in particular." - Clarissa Pinkota Estes, PhD

 

"Ship in a Bottle," by Mark Dion

Celebrate the female form while helping to raise funds for breast cancer. "What A Pair," presented by Soroptimist International of the Los Angeles Harbor, encourages participants to design a wild, beautiful or quirky bra. The artistic creations will be auctioned off at the event. Proceeds from "What A Pair" benefit Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro Mammography Unit and other causes which improve the status of women and girls. The Soroptimist Mammography Fund at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro provides free screening mammograms and follow-up tests to women, 40 years and older, who are without insurance and unable to qualify for Medi-Cal.  "What A Pair" is in part, sponsored by the San Pedro Arts, Culture and Entertainment District. The event will be curated by Beate Kirmse of Gallery Neuartig.