May 22-28, 2008
By Alfred Lee
In the Buff
Saturday promises to be just another evening for Santa Monica’s arts community, complete with Malaysian food, cocktails, live music – and, of course, naked people.
At Santa Monica’s DCA Fine Art, eight artists, including Alejandro Gehry and Katina Zinner, will each draw and paint three nude models in front of a live audience. The event – dubbed Live Draw! – will also feature music by DJ S.I.M.O., and benefits the Santa Monica Alternative Schoolhouse, a local alternative school led by working artists.
DCA Fine Art founder Delia Cabral explains the creation of the event was inspired by a desire to re-incorporate the general public into the artistic community.
“Some people think that if they can’t draw, they aren’t creative,” she says. “I believe that everyone is creative. I really want Live Draw! to be an invitation back into the creative process.”
For Zinner, Live Draw! will mark the first time she has ever painted models in front of a live audience.
“I think that it’s a very original way to present art to people who are not as familiar with it,” she says. “And it’s an opportunity to bring it in an environment that is very eclectic.”
But Zinner also expects the experience of drawing with people and music in the background to be something of a pressure cooker.
“You already have to be really focused when drawing a model,” she says. “Now it’s magnified by all the people and the music. I think it’s a very intense realm in which to create.”
Cabral adds that she hopes to foster an atmosphere of immediacy.
“People are going to be buying these sketches right off the pad,” she says. “Everyone is really going to be a part of this art.”
What really prompted Zinner’s participation in the event was its cause, SMASH.
“This [school] gets kids away from the video games,” Zinner says. “It gets them outside into nature and gives them an opportunity to create.”
According to Cabral, 15 percent of
the proceeds will be donated to SMASH, the K-8 school that her youngest child
attends.
“It really places the responsibility of the curriculum back onto the child,” she enthuses. “They aren’t studying archaic, fossilized history. It’s about what’s going on today.”
–Alexander Comisar
“Live Draw!” Sat., 7-10 p.m. $45 pre-sale, $55 at door. DCA Fine Art, 3107 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 770-2525. Dcafineart.com.
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THIS WEEK IN THE CITY
THURSDAY 22
SHOWTIME
The El Rey’s marquee tonight should include a “Not for Casual Fans” disclaimer. First off, headliner El-P is as close as hip-hop has gotten to some kind of sci-fi apocalypse, having made a storied career out of remolding the genre into dense, unfriendly assaults full of kitchen-sink atmospherics and robot stepfathers. Bill-sharer Dizzee Rascal has leaned more and more mainstream ever since debuting with grime classic Boy in da Corner, but that doesn’t mean it’s gotten easier to understand a word the frenetic East London rapper is saying. Doors at 8 p.m. $21.50. El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (323) 936-6400. Theelrey.com.
FRIDAY 23
STRINGS ATTACHED
The Puppet Show is an art exhibit and not marionette-acted theatre, an exhibition of 28 contemporary artists exploring the imagery of puppets in sculpture, film, video, animation, and 2D work. So, if I understand correctly, it’s more of a show about puppet shows, which are pretty meta in the first place. In addition to the works of participants, a collection of historic puppets is housed “backstage,” and there’ll be a workshop at tonight’s opening reception where the little ’uns can create their own. 7-9 p.m. Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2525 Michigan Ave., G-1, Santa Monica, (310) 586-6488. Smmoa.org.
SATURDAY 24
BLOWIN’ UP
No one at the Aero tonight cares about your home theatre system, not when they have the sweet glory of 70-mm to sink into. After last weekend’s stint at the Egyptian, the American Cinematheque’s “Seeing the Big Picture” series comes out to the Westside, with a rare 70-mil print of Apocalypse Now in tow. The real gem might be tomorrow, in the smile-inducing form of Jacques Tati’s massive, exquisite Playtime. That film was transferred to 35-mm for U.S. release, before being restored to the larger format it was originally shot in some 30 years later. 7:30 p.m. $9. Aero
Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. Info: (323) 466-3456 or
Americancinematheque.com.
SUNDAY 25
IN C(ONCERT)
Decades after capturing hearts, blowing minds, and helping usher in that, um, little thing called the minimalist movement,
Terry Riley is still writing music. He’ll premiere latest composition Universal Bridge at Disney Hall, having created it especially for the hall’s pride-and-joy of an organ. Riley may no longer be spry enough to throw his once-infamous all-night concerts – but it’s still Terry freakin’ Riley on organ, which I think we all can live with. 7:30 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., (323) 850-2000. Laphil.com.
MONDAY 26
HEY, BIG SPENDER
Bob Fosse brought more than sex into the movie musical – even his earliest films reveal him jumping headfirst into the medium’s possibilities, all stark lighting and dynamo angles. Relive the
choreographer and director’s first two bold strokes at the New Beverly, which hosts a Fosse double feature (for the price of one, per the New Bev norm) of Cabaret, perhaps his best known work, and 1969 debut Sweet Charity. 7:30 & 9:55 p.m. $7; $6 students. New Beverly
Cinema, 7165 W. Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 938-4038. Newbevcinema.com.
TUESDAY 27
GONE BOWLING
Nothing like opening up your brand-spanking new summer season with a bunch of old rockers. The Hollywood Bowl says hello to ’08 starting tonight with two evenings of the Police, fresh off a tour celebrating their 30th anniversary, and Elvis Costello. Is it a good thing or a bad thing at this point that half the Bowl’s lineup looks like possible Coachella headliners? I’m not sure either. Tues.-Wed. at 7:30 p.m. $54.50 and up. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, (323) 850-2000. Hollywoodbowl.com.
WEDNESDAY 28
IMITATION OF LIFE
Speaking of old rockers at the Bowl – still-kicking R.E.M. is next in line on Thursday, May 29 (followed by the Cure and whatever’s left of Robert Smith and his possibly already-decomposing body). But a night before serenading Hollywood with new material from Accelerate, Michael Stipe makes an in-store appearance at Book Soup to sign R.E.M. Hello: Photographs along with photographer David Belisle. The book is largely a collection of photographs by Belisle, who’s traveled with the band for the past seven years. 7 p.m. $29.95 for book. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 659-3110. Booksoup.com.
Published: 05/21/2008
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