Niceness in the 90s - This Saturday!

Niceness In The '90s: An Indie Music Memoir by Jim Miller will be released on March 23, 2011. La Luz De Jesus will host a book release event four days early on March 19th (this Saturday!) from 6-9 PM. Jim Miller will be available to sign books, reminisce and answer questions. Anyone attending who is mentioned in the book by name will receive a complimentary copy. Event is free and open to the public.

At its core, Niceness In The '90s is a behind the scenes, club level look at the rise and fall of grunge from the touring guitarist and songwriter of Black Angel’s Death Song and Trash Can School. This very personal memoir chronicles Miller’s life in and around bands during the late eighties and early nineties as he transitioned from musician to manager and became one of the most influential promoters in rock as the live music booker at legendary downtown L.A. dive, Al’s Bar. Although the book spans 1985 to 1996, most of the action takes place from 1989 to 1992: the years Punk broke.

Fellow musicians and L.A. denizens come to life in chapters dedicated to Jane's Addiction, L7, Hole, Tad and Nirvana. "Anyone interested in the early days of grunge music should find this book a quick read, chock full of grunge action," Miller explains. He adds "2011 marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nirvana's Nevermind. It's a good time for older hipsters to look back and for younger hipsters to discover what all the fuss was about."

You can call the book manager to reserve your copy: (323) 663-0122.
And I almost forgot to mention that we got PICK OF THE WEEK in the LA WEEKLY –AGAIN!

Japanese Disaster Relief: Buy Art & Save Lives!

"The events of this past weekend in Japan have been devastating, and I couldn't sit idly by and watch the alarming coverage without doing something about it. As a compassionate human being, I don't know how anyone could. I've decided to donate 100% of my proceeds from my upcoming show to the relief effort."

So began the email I received from Daniel Lim that accompanied the images of his new body of work, "Sweet Imperfections," debuting at La Luz de Jesus on April 1st. He'll be showing as part of two separate two-
person exhibitions that also feature Mark Gleason, Danni Shinya Luo and Heather Watts.


The Hi-Fructose & Juxtapoz Blogs have each posted pictures from our gala opening for Everything But the Kitschen Sync vol. 14. There were some really impressive pieces this year, and we singled out 11 people for feature exhibitions in July and August, 2011.




Mark Melchior, whose cigarbox guitars are currently on display in the Everything But the Kitschen Sync show, was profiled by the Los Angeles Times in this past Sunday's Calendar section The article also references long-time La Luz patron Johnny Depp, who poses with a wine box guitar purchased from another local artisan. From Randy Lewis' Article:

Melchior has recently built his 50th cigar box guitar out of his residence in Highland Park, and sells the instruments mostly by word of mouth. Several are on display at La Luz de Jesus in Los Feliz as part of the gallery's annual Everything But the Kitschen Sync group exhibition that opened Friday and runs through March 27.

"I've left a footprint in a lot of areas, but this seemed like fertile ground, something with which I could get neck deep into American folk art," said Melchior, who is also a singer and songwriter. "It's taken me a lot farther than anything else I've done. This is very pure [craftsmanship] in an old world way," which is how Melchior was trained in Wisconsin, working as an apprentice to Italian-born accordion builder Alfonso Baldoni.
"Guitar technology is moving into things like self-tuning bridges. But if you can't tune your own guitar…." he said, letting the thought finish itself. "I've got to grab the reins and do my thing. I feel like a frontiersman, and this is a lot more exciting."

Tonight the Unveiling: 250 Works in our 14th Annual Everything But the Kitschen Sync Show

Sometimes a picture really does paint a thousand words. Below is a mere sampling of what's on display tonight -and available for purchase at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. These new works from John Brosio, JAW Cooper, Matthew Couper, Dimitri Drjuchin, Jeff Gillette, Mark Gleason, Max Grundy, Derek Harrison, Brett Hess, Jeremy Hush, Damara Kaminecki, Da Hae Kim, Dennis Larkins, Monika Malewska, Nathan Ota, Simon Sotelo, Edith Waddell, Mel Weiner, and Kim Zsebe are only a handful of highlights from the 125+ artists who have rendered over 250 artworks to make this year's Everything But the Kitschen Sync show one of the strongest ever:

Cakeland –Louisiana Style!

If you're anywhere near Shreveport, Louisiana you absolutely owe it to yourself to check out Scott Hove's Cakeland exhibition at ARTSPACE, co-curated by yours truly & La Luz de Jesus Gallery. It opened on February 25th and runs through May 7th, 2011 in the Marcy G. & Jack T. Everett mainspace.


From the show catalog:
"Cakeland is a series of sculptures resembling perfect delicious cakes. The sculptures, with their display of beauty, lure the viewer into a sens of anticipation."

Artspace is funded by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council. They've arranged to include a giant cake designed and decorated by Tanya Clark and Sydney Bell-Foster with a frosted beverages cash bar and Think Pink bites. Located on Texas St., Cakeland is currently the epicenter of the Downtown Shreveport redevelopment project.


We're up to some pretty special events ourselves right now, too.

The 14th Annual Everything But the Kitschen Sync exhibition opens tomorrow night at 8PM. We're having all the artists stop by tonight to make sure everything is priced and labeled correctly for the big unveiling on Friday. The show is about 80% presented as I write this, and should be completely hung, poised and pedestaled by 6PM.

There are a lot of functional pieces this time around that are hard-conveyed via the website, so come on down to see these works of art in person. The piece at left is Nicole Moan's life-size, three-dimensional ceramic torso which lights up. It could be yours! Don't hesitate, as I've been selling pieces all day long and updating the website as often as possible. Edward Robin Coronel, Walter Hall, José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros, Jasmine Worth, and many others have already sold all of their juried pieces, but there are incredible paintings, sculptures, drawings, craftworks, functional art and more still available.

Big congrats to Myron Dyal & Jennifer Logan for landing a Huffington Post review for their collaborative work, Charon's Pantheon! Columnist Lisa Derrick included many pictures and links to several YouTube videos. Art critic Peter Frank also had occasion to visit the exhibition on its final day and I wouldn't be surprised if he were to put some words together for the L.A. Weekly about it.