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29 JAN 07 - Downtown L.A. News — By Lea Lion
A recent visit to Pharmaka Art found director Shane Guffogg sitting behind a cluttered desk at his gallery on the corner of Fifth and Main streets. The space was in between exhibits: Its white walls were bare, its gray concrete floor was unswept and an empty bottle of wine sat on top of a folding table in the middle of the long, horizontal space.
Dozens of artists are contributing to the canvas that makes up the Pharmaka Art exhibit L.A. Ethos.
There were few, if any, clues to suggest the "grand experiment," as Guffogg called it, that was about to take place.
The experiment is L.A. Ethos, an exhibit that opened on Jan. 11, which transforms Pharmaka's walls into a de facto canvas, where dozens of Los Angeles artists have so far left their mark. The idea, Guffogg explained, is to ask (and answer) questions such as: Is there a definable L.A. style? Is there an underlying subject being explored by L.A. artists? What stylistic trends are apparent? The artists' answers, in the form of a gallery-size mural, are on view through Feb. 28 and can be glimpsed during the Downtown Artwalk on Feb. 8 from 12 to 9 p.m. The public can also watch the artists work during gallery hours on Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m.
Similar questions to those above are at the core of Pharmaka, a non-profit gallery space founded by a group of 14 painters in 2005, in part to tackle art's Big Issues.
"This space came about as a dialogue between a group of artists who were asking ourselves the questions: What is painting? What is art? Is art alive and well? Does it serve a social, a cultural, a spiritual function in our society anymore?" Guffogg said. "We came to this deep-founded realization that it does serve those functions still."
For L.A. Ethos, Pharmaka members are focusing on painting in Los Angeles - a trend, as it turns out, in and of itself.
In recent months, the Los Angeles art scene has cropped up in several high-profile venues. For example, the Centre Pompidou in Paris opened an exhibit last March titled Los Angeles 1955-1985: The Birth of an Art Capital, which attested to the growing importance of Los Angeles on the international art scene.
In L.A. Ethos, Pharmaka members expect to see countless examples of stellar work by contemporary painters, including Fumiko Amano, Laura Hipke, Doro Hoffman, Michael Rosenfeld, Robert Rossoff, John Scane, Vonn Sumner, David Trulli and many more.
But, if L.A. Ethos goes off as planned, the giant canvas will document what Guffogg called "L.A. style," which would be the art world equivalent of catching lighting in a bottle. In fact, Pharmaka members hope to donate the project to an institution for archival and historical purposes after the exhibit ends.
During a second visit to Pharmaka Art a week later, the scene had drastically changed. The bare walls were now swathed in thick off-white canvas partially covered in collage-like designs. Abstract red circles float like bubbles across one wall. A portrait of a homeless woman adorns another wall. Graffiti-style characters pop up on several walls.
"It started out very abstract and now it's going figurative," said Pharmaka member Rosenfeld, who is touching up his addition to the mural: A realistic-looking blimp emerging from an explosion of color and smoke.
When Rosenfeld arrived at the gallery this afternoon for a second session of work on his painting, he discovered that another artist had added an image of a naked woman to the canvas behind his blimp.
"At first it's like, oh great," he said after seeing the addition, "but you have to chuckle. If not, you're taking it too seriously."
The participating artists understand that they must relinquish control over their contributions to L.A. Ethos, Rosenfeld said, and in some cases, the collaborative nature of the project actually lends a deeper meaning to individual paintings.
On an opposing wall, Hipke is making last-minute changes to her painting of a homeless woman in a misshapen overcoat. She intentionally chose a spot next to an image of a glamorous young woman pictured against a faceted diamond-like background.
"That is the dream," Hipke said, pointing to the idealized woman, and then to her own work, "and that is the reality."
Undoubtedly, there will be many more changes to L.A. Ethos before the exhibit closes. But when asked if a definable L.A. style has already emerged, Guffogg thought for a moment before responding.
"If there is one predominant style, it's pluralism."
L.A. Ethos is on view through Feb. 28 at Pharmaka Art, 101 W. Fifth St., (213) 689-7799
or pharmaka-art.org.
Contact Lea Lion at lea@downtownnews.com Ref: Page 19, 1/29/2007
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2007/01/29/entertainment/entertainment02.txt
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