Bergamot Station Reorganizing, and one Gallery re-opens in New Space
Bergamot Station is or was a large collection of warehouse buildings converted into multiple art galleries. The group hosts multiple events and openings a year open to the public. However, one of the buildings has been sold to developers diminishing the offerings. In fact the actual creator of the space has cut ties and left taking the name with him. However, the Bergamot Station is not closing, but just reorganizing probably under a new name. The current statement on the Bergamot Station website of farewell signifies not the end, but a hopeful new beginning.
The founder has left, and as this article indicates, the galleries leaving are relocating. One of the galleries that has left, Shoshana Wayne Gallery has not publicized their promised new openings. The main property is publicly owned and is working on reinventing itself.
One of the departed galleries, BG Gallery has moved to 3009 Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica to a creative space with a large front room and small back room for its varied artists who work in hanging wall art, statues, and multi mediums.
The opening show was held on April 28th with art inspired by “strange but true events.” I believe the statues in the window are by Linda Smith. Her work is inspired by Picasso and Matisse. Unfortunately I did not get the true stories behind these pieces.
One of the most intriguing artists in the show is Mike Saijo. He takes pages of a book and layers them under an image of a person. I was informed that the gallery hopes to have Saijo in to demonstrate this technique and offer a kind of workshop where participants can bring in pages and have an image done with his process. This is an image of a convicted drug dealer in front of pages about his life.
This next image is called Cypress Tree with images from the works of Charles Darwin.
In addition the yellow image is a photograph created by a different artist.
Another artist who is inspired by works is Carlos Ste-Marie. This piece done in oil and marker on wood called “The Moose/L’Original” has as its hidden muse a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, The Moose (1977).
An unusual piece with in the show is this bronze statue that hides a mechanical secret, a hidden camera and display that plays scenes from the film “Metropolis,” however much to the surprise of the observer at a point the film ends and is replaced by an image from a camera placed within the statue so the viewer becomes part of the work. The statue is the work of Ted Gall who works primarily in metal and on the human form. “Metropolis” is a 1927 German film directed by Fritz Lang and is considered the first full length feature science fiction film.
There is also this mixed media piece by Britney Penouilh called “The Altar of Alice Eastwood.” Eastwood during the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco took it upon herself as curator of the botany department for the California Academy of Sciences to save as many plant specimens as she could. Eastwood managed to save 1497 rare specimens that would have ceased to exist except for her efforts. Thus this work attempts to pay tribute to a hero of ecology.
The gallery also had on display some pieces that did not appear to be a part of the main exhibit, such as these oils on canvas by Gay Summer Rick.