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."