A Third of the Way Home

It's just a little over a week into THE COASTER SHOW exhibition, and already one third of the pieces have sold! As I walked a fellow curator through the show on his return trip to buy more coasters, we noticed how many incredible pieces are still available from artists whose work is generally very expensive. Some of the still-available coasters are priced far below the ceiling price we set of $250, making them incredible bargains for savvy collectors.

For those of you not in the know, I've highlighted the following pieces that popped up in conversation yesterday, with some others that I'm surprised didn't sell before the show opened:

Dennis Larkins is the official artist of the Grateful Dead.
Try and find a painting elsewhere for under $5,000!

3 of Lucasfilm & Disney artist Steven Daily's coasters are up for grabs.
Stellar draftsmanship that you'll never see at these prices again.

Dave Dexter's work confronts issues of race and stereotype head-on.
He's getting a career retrospective at IMOCA next summer.

Kaz is a true punk rock icon!
When's the last time you saw one available for purchase? 

Danni Shinya Luo's girls are rarely this affordable and always sell out.

Nathan Ota has two coasters available as I write this,
but they'll probably sell by the time this goes live.

At 4" tondo, these are the smallest pieces Christopher Ulrich has ever painted.
The last exhibition piece we sold was $10,000.

Simone Gad recently exhibited at the Hammer Museum
and was included in a Getty Catalog.

Japanese artist Teiji Hayama has beed in Juxtapoz & Hi Fructose
and rarely exhibits in Los Angeles.

Italian Zoe Lacchei is in the collections of Long Gone John & Crispin Glover.
Every piece we've ever shown of hers has sold.

Small work is nothing new for Jasmine Worth.
But at these prices? Forget about it!

Miroslav Pecho is a Slovakian student of the Giger tradition.
His work generally goes straight into prominent European collections.

It would be easy to list several hundred pieces that I am surprised are still available–especially after all the incredible coverage this show has been receiving. But truth be told, these only scratch the surface. There are still many pieces at or below $20, and several museum exhibited artists for between $50 and $150. And the pieces that are at the top of the pricing spectrum for this show are still listed way below those artists' usual retail pricing.


Do yourself a favor: click HERE and check out the online gallery. You are going to find some incredible work. Pricing and description of media is available for every piece. Depending on the size of your browser window, you may need to scroll down after clicking the preview image. It'll say if it's sold, too.

Call me with questions about purchasing and availability: (323)666-7667
Cheers!

Matt Kennedy, gallery director.
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

The Coaster Show au Go-Go!

We opened the second annual Coaster Show this past Friday night (September 5th), and it was a smashing success. Our partners, LA Beer Week, brought libations from Eagle Rock Brewery and at least three other craft brewers and I'd estimate that somewhere between four and five thousand people showed up to sample the art and the beer. Eric Minh Swenson took some amazing photos on opening night (like the one below) that help verify that estimate.

The exhibition features the work of over 300 artists, comprising over 1,050 unique pieces, which required about 4,000 pushpins to display on the walls. Additional works were pedestalled. We contacted our friends at Mondo Bizarro and Dorothy Circus in Rome, and other galleries in Paris, Tokyo, Melbourne, and elsewhere in order to assemble the most diverse presentation of international Post-Pop artists you are likely to see–at least until we do this again next year!

For those interested in just how long it takes to hang a show like, Lee Joseph of Reverberations Media has put together a neat gallery of installation progress photos on his Flickr page. Above is a shot taken by gallery assistant Misty Zhou of the final touch to this week-long install: director Matt Kennedy and LA Beer Week principal Brandon Bradford removing the backing of the wall vinyl.


Below is a wonderful start-to-finish video by Daisuke Okamoto of one of his pieces featured in The Coaster Show (still available as I type this). Other artists have made similar progress videos that offer a glimpse inside their artistic processes:



There are so many incredible and affordable pieces, that The Coaster Show (only in its second year!) has already established itself as the collector's starter kit unparalleled. Many artists' full sets of coasters were quick to sell out, including Jessicka Addams, Shaun Berke, Frank Forte, Renee French, Aaron Bo Heimlich, Alessia Iannetti, Dierdre Sullivan-Beeman, Christine Wu, and a lot of other well-known folks and first timers. Check out the preview online and, if at all possible, come to see the show in person, as it is a uniquely overwhelming experience; an embarrassment of riches, really!

And not least of all, congrats to Harold Fox for completely selling out his solo exhibition in the front room, On the Fringe of the Mundane. This is a not a very common occurrence, and we're proud to have accomplished this for him. Both exhibitions will be up all month long, until Sunday, September 28th. La Luz de Jesus gallery is opened 7 days a week. Call for info: (323)666-7667.