Brewery Spring Art Walk Day One April 29, 2023

by Laura · Published September 25, 2023 · Updated September 25, 2023

This event happens twice a year at the Brewery in Downtown Los Angeles, an artist commune consisting of a huge compound where artists of verious mediums live and have their studios. The artwalk is so large it takes me more than one day to see everything. On the first day I managed to see most of the Northern Moultan avenue area and part of the Atrium.

It used to be a bit of a pain to get to the Brewery for me. I use public transportation. But here is a tip. There is a DASH bus from Union metro station that will take you directly to the Brewery and it is free.

The very first exhibit I saw this year unfortuntaely the artist would not let me take photos. It was Magda Audifred Studio. Her art can be seen on her facebook page, Magda Audifred Art. I like her intro on her page: “ART IS A BLESSING OF CONSCIOUSNESS…. IN WHICH IMAGINATION AND CONCEPTUALIZATIONS CREATE A BONDING.” She uses very bold warm colors in her work. She studied art at the University of Mexico and her work reflects that influence. She works in print making, sculpting, stoneware, caramics, painting, and mixed media.

The next person I met was Stacia Lang of Feather Studio. As you can see from the photos below she had worked wtih PRINCE, and on the film ERAGON and on SPIDER-MAN. At the time I as not aware of issues with Feather work in the industry. I do not like any kind of animal abuse and I hope that the industry will move toward synthetic feathers.

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Next door to Stacy was MONSTER MIKEY, and well as his name implies he creates art of monsters, but not just pretend ones. He likes to make are reflective of Monsters that have more of an urban legend flavor. He told me about making art about a vampire story in England. Some people were so convinced that a vampire lived in a garveyard, it caused a panic. I believe it was the Highgate Vampire. As you can see by the images below Mike’s work is inspired by comic books. He subject matter though wavers between folklore and real He had a series showing the “wildman” encounter, as in Bigfoot & Sasquatch.

Next artists I visited were Olivier Fourtouill, Dennis Larios, and Sue Ellen Zhang. I am not sure if the door was part of that exhibit or a different artist however. It is a rather cool entrance. Fourtouill works in bronze sculpture and painting, Larios does mixed media work and uses coffee grounds. Zhang does Sureal Automatism.

Photographers Andres Orozco and Fernando Ferero were next. I also took a photo of a motivational quote in their space.Orozco is a fine art architectural photographer from Colombia. Ferero is a graphic artist based in Germany and I assume just visiting. He is also from Colombia. For any WITCHER FANS out there, he apparently did some visual art work for the video game.

Joey Forsyte Artivist Interactive Instalations was my next stop. This was a combination of art and also potilcial activism. This exhibit was all about “A Band of Voters.” One objective of the group is to make October, Natoinal Civic and Voter Eudcatoin month. The other objective of the group is to get Governor Newsom of California to use $3 million of the 2023-24 buget to fund AB 963, the Student Civic and Voter Empowerment Act(Chapter 559, Statues of 2019, Petrie-Norris).

You were also given the opportunity to vote with FAVA beans on what issues mattered to you. I happen to know that FAVA beans are the only legume native to Europe. I made the following video of the voting options, and I kind of voted for all of them. The video I made is to large for my site. Here is a private link to it on YOUTUBE. The video is not great as the light was really bright, but you get the idea. Issues from Climate change to abortion were literally on the table. They had postcards to sign to send to BIDEN and GOVERNOR NEWSOM. If you want to participate and sign the petitiions just go to the A Band of Voters website. The Brewery typically has something like this every WALK.

Rob Silverman Photography is a familiar face. I have seen his work before. He is a photographer who takes pop culture images, like pez characters. He also created a photo book of images of people with and without masks, a visual record of the Covid Pandemic. It captures the faces of over 40 Angelinos and it is called “Breathe.” Silverman is also on Instagram.

Reduction Linocuts is the chosen media of Dave Lefner. His art is very Retro and Pop culture. He captures very iconic Southern Califmronia Images. Reduction Linocuts is a labor intensive form of Printmaking. More of his work and process can be found on Instagram.

St. Louis Jewler Sculptor and Mixed Media Artist Greg Orloff makes jewlery that are fashion pieces. He also teaches classes. His work has a steam punk feel to it. He can also make custom pieces. More inforamtion about Orloff can be found on his Instgram.

Chloe Allred, Sydney Krantz and Tayler Straziuso all shared a space. Chloe Allred is a dry and oil paint artist who is also an advocate. She is a member of the “Body Joy Project,” with the objective of changing how culture sees the body. She is one of the authors and artist for the book “We Believe you” about campus sexual assault. Syndey Krantz is a photographer from New Jersey originally. Her images look like paintings. In fact she refers to herself online as an artist and not a photographer. She is a member of women photograph. Tayler Stazius is Stray Ceramics. Some of her work involves the nude body. She grew up in Long Beach and her studio is in Woodvallye California. So she was a temporaty exhibit. Taylore uses the colors of the south west landscape and is insipired by bikers, vintage and the female body.

Nicole Renalli is Lakookala, mixed media artist and music producer. She is originally from Pittsburgh and has a punk fsminist street style. She uses recycled material and canvases, and works with paint, spray paint, house paint and markers. She is apparently as diverse with her music as with her art, and play all the instrauments on her recordings. Her music is very antagonistic and abrasive.

Christopher Ulrich is a painter wish a bit or whit. He has taken some familiar subjects and revamped them with a different flavor. His work involves monsters and horror and is very gothic in nature. Skulls, bodies of men with the head of a bunny or a shark. His color choices are rather bright despite the unusaul subject matter. he also had this elaborate board game on display.

The final gallery I visited in the first building I explored at the Brewery were three artists I had seen before. It was called the Arrowsmith gallery and included the paintings of three artists, Dawn Arrowsmith, Jorin Bossen, and the Roland Reiss estate. Dawn Arrowsmith‘s work already is in major museums in Los Angles and abroad. Arrowsmith was born in San Francisco and holds a BFA and MFA. She is also a sculptor, instalationist and performance artist. Jorin Bossen I have met before. On our first meeting he was creating images with a wild west flair and has since moved on to more pop culture icons in pastels. I really love his images of Bowie. Roland Reiss was born in Chicago during the Depression but moved to California at 13. passed away in 2020 and is know for his work with minatures and paintings. He is actually in Wiki.

This is a walk way in the Brewery. It kind of scares me a bit to walk across it.

Next area I decided to explore was the area called the Atrium. Though this section is considered part of Mouton Ave. The first artist were a pair named Alan Amato and Dinka Xix. There work consists of books and tarot cards. Alan Amato does the photographery and composite work and Dinka Xix is the writer. Many of the books also contain art work by other contrbutors. See their site for mor information.

Next was potter Lisa Simone Ceramics. Her work has been called functional art and durable. She is influenced by modern minamlism and asian culture.

Scott Yeskel fine art and (M)Arts Collective Gallery with the art of Vern Evans and Joyce Aysta. Yeskal is a contemporary and abstract painter. He teaches paint classes on Zoom. Yeskel moved from New Jersey as a child to California, and studied Art in San Francisco. He has been in numerous shows here in California and Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami and New York.

Vern Evens is a phorographer who captures stories. On display were a series of images from trips to Cuba. Evans has travelled extensively and also worked with celebrites and every day people to create unique portraits.

Joyce Ayasta is a member of the Anerican Craft Council, and the Oragami Resource Center. Due to health issues she no longer lives in the Brewery but she had some of her work on display for sale. She creates incredible cards and sculptures with Paper. For years she created what she describes as Architecture Oragami Greeting Cards. Her latest projects are called “Curved Creases.” The pieces look like they are made from wood but it is paper. If you love oragami she also wrote a book called “THE PAPER ARCHITECT.”

Treasure Chest Gallery and Dance Film Visual Arts was a combination of wall art and pole dancers. The gallery was very crowded and out of respect of the dancers I did not photograph them. Artist at the gallery included Dempsey Thomas, film production company Planet Froth, french cuban painter Yacnoy Abreu Dutor, and pole dancer Maelys Renaud.

Mary Doodles was next. Her work fits her moniquer. She has videos on how to draw on youtube. Also you can see more of her work on Instgram. She grew up in Minnesota. She has been a costumer and is also a performer.

The next exhibit I saw was a group multi media project called Aquaverse. It was under the umbrella of Form-u.la. Aquaverse.la is a 3D underwater imersive art exhibit with a digital app component. Artistis included @debicable3d, @andremiripolskyart, @ravin_dave, @doublerealitygallery, @superdopestreetwear, @holotopiaxr, and @sharkstalesart. There was an APP one could download to get hidden digital art with Artivive viewer. Zero10.inc also had a display explaining the waste of plastic and promoting their line of sustainable clothing. The idea of the company is to show people what clothes will look like on them before purchase to reduce the impact of shipping on the environment. The entire exhibit was meant to encourage discussion of art and conservation.

The next room I visited was J&A Gallery. It consisted of oil paintings, water colors, charcoal, and sculpture. The artists are @Julia_Montgomery and Alerbert Valdez. I love Alberts space images and Julia’s horse images.

Next was sound, painting and photography by Wild Don Lewis. Wild Don Lewis has played punk rock in bands and likes to shoot photos of artists in their natural settings. More of his work can be found here.

“Life is Studios” or #oneworldonepeople. The artists include street painter @honor719 whose portraits look far from graffitti, and @nicksawyers.

Molly Conn makes small and large sculptures and objects and sells jewlery in the form of necklaces. The egg chair is her work. Gloss//Fray makes ceramics including plates, cups, sides, vases, and bowls. The ceramic artists include Debbbie Crow, Carol Binion, Ayame, Joe Ramirez, and Molly Conn.