How DOES she do it?

To call J.A.W. Cooper multi-talented is to belittle the term. Daniel Rolnik recently caught up with Miss Cooper and captured the artist building the armature for her three-dimensional Mourn sculpture, included in her Laid Bare exhibition which opens this Friday.
Below is the finished piece.

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:

All the small things...

On Friday night Rick Araluce debuted his latest collection of painstakingly crafted miniatures -his first area exhibition in over a decade and a half. There hasn't been an art event this important in a good long time, and the names that come to mind by way of comparison are Koons, Hirst, Murakami and Ruscha.

If you haven't visited the New La Luz de Jesus, you really need to get in here!

Rick's miniature masterpieces are crafted with a level of detail that would drive lesser (ie. most) men mad. Handwritten letters are rendered in nano script. Wallpaper, tiles and bricks are each designed by hand to maintain the illusion achieved in these micro-scale decors. Araluce has built working light switches, bulbs and clocks that wouldn't dwarf an insect, and designed end pages for books stacked 42 high, barely thick as a thumbnail. He makes everything -including the boxes that house the pieces, by hand. Inside the opened doorway of the piece pictured is a microscopic painting, that can only be seen from the extreme left side. Rest assured that tiny is the next big thing!

Also on display are works by Bonni Reid, JAW Cooper, Jessica Dalva, and Krystopher Sapp (who also has a piece in the 100 Artists See Satan fundraiser at Grand Central Art

Center).

On Thursday, from 6-9PM we'll be hosting a book signing for L.A. Weekly "Night Ranger" columnist Lina Lecaro's Los Angeles's Best Dive Bars, a testimonial to this city's best watering holes. This event will feature special guests and special cocktail concoctions courtesy of Sino Tequila.

In Los Angeles’ Best Dive Bars, you’ll get the scoop and the poop on the city’s liveliest, lowlife n’ liquor-soaked landmarks. This essential booze bible has the lowdown on which bars serve free food, which have great—and not so great—karaoke, bars that appear in your favorite movies and much, much more. Whether you’re looking for a friendly spot where “everybody knows your name,” a filthy blackened cave where nobody ever will, a gently-gentrified hole specked with dive-obsessed hipsters or a dusty relic full of hip-replacements, you’re sure to find a spot to soak up—and get soaked in—here in these pages.

And we know how to party! Check out these shots from Friday night's opening. The steely-eyed among you may notice (in addition to the artists whose work was on display) Billy Shire, Robert Williams, Nathan Ota, Andrew Hem, Jon Beinart, Daniel Lim, Misato Otake, and a few other La Luz de Jesus Alumni.

Photo credit: Isabele Craik

Just locking up for the night!
Here's a preview of tomorrow night's opening. That chandelier is about mid-way installed. Jessica Dalva will be coming in tomorrow to put the finishing touches on everything. We've got all of JAW Cooper's paintings on the walls, and we'll be positioning the Beast Rug under Dalva's chandelier. Krys Sapp has got the west wall to himself. His stuff is up, but we'll be tweaking the positioning a bit in the AM.

The front gallery is completely hung, but I know that photos won't really capture the essence of Rick Araluce's dynamite display. So you'll have to come in and see it in person. Bonni Reid's paintings face Rick's boxes, and we've sold a third of her show already. Rick's got more volume, but his red dots are stacking, too. This is going to be a blast!

Kitsch 'N Sync Coverage

Congrats to La Luz de Jesus' own JAW Cooper, who has three great paintings in the Kitsch 'N Sync show, the same week that her art graces the cover of the LA Weekly! Cooper's got a featured exhibition here in June, too, so be sure to sign up for her preview list on our constant contact sign up box. She's been dropping hints about what we can expect, and I'm feverishly anticipating another faux-fur rug, because I know some hard-wood floors that need a stylish companion.

We expected a great turn-out on Friday, but we could never have expected over 2000 people!

The folks from SinoTequila were working overtime to blend enough margaritas for the ravenous crowd, and several artists had complete sellouts of multiple pieces. Brandon Steen, Frijol Boy, Jasmine Worth, Tennessee Loveless and Walt Hall all sold three or more paintings each, and many of our newbies experienced the very first gallery sales of their artwork. That list is far too extensive to list, but you can check out what's sold and what's available by clicking on the Current Exhibition link.

The following evening, we said goodbye to Billy Shire Fine Arts.

The live, musical performance by Unextraordinary Gentlemen was off the chain, and we were able to give away some mementos from the past five years' exhibitions. The aesthetic that was established at BSFA will be incorporated into the new La Luz de Jesus, which will soon have a second enclosed space behind the current main gallery. Take a look at the upcoming shows and you'll see what I mean.

Next month, Scott Hove will be taking over the new, second gallery space at La Luz de Jesus with his installation of surreal, anthropomorphized cakes. The exhibition, called Iced Out has already received coverage from Hi-Fructose, Boing Boing, Planet Oddity and The Food Network. Ace of Cakes -eat your heart out, as the centerpiece of this show is a gigantic cake chandelier that will hang suspended from the center of the ceiling in gallery II. We'll be coordinating some other special events around this opening on April 2nd, which will likely involve some edible sweets to accompany visual ones, so check back for updates.

The front gallery will host Dennis Larkins and Max Grundy.

Dennis' work is 3D relief sculpted paintings in acrylic on canvas and paper. He was just covered by the New York Times as part of the New York Historical Society Grateful Dead Exhibition, which coincides with the release of his book, Startling Art: Revealing the Art of Dennis Larkins, which he'll be signing at La Luz de Jesus on Saturday, April 3rd from 6-9PM. Max Grundy's paranoid propaganda paintings of enamel on metal are a hellacious futurama meets constructivism. Larkins & Grundy are La Luz veterans, and their work will juxtapose nicely with Scott Hove. You've never seen anything quite like this, I promise you!