Laemmle’s Art in the Arthouse presents The Local Seen, featuring the compelling works of three Santa Monica artists, Paula Goldman, Gwen Samuels, and Michal Story. Please join us for our opening reception Wednesday, June 5 at the Monica Film Center. Check out our bonus show, Paula Goldman’s Monuments, upstairs in our Mezzanine. Meet Paula, Gwen and Michal and enjoy the wine, cheese, and conversation Art in the Arthouse is known for. A portion of the sales benefits the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles.
About the Exhibit
Artists often see things differently than others, and have a way of revealing new vistas of places that we think we know well. In The Local Seen, three artists—each of whom employs photography in distinctive ways—share their singular visions of Santa Monica’s local landscape.
Paula Goldman collected trash on Santa Monica State Beach between lifeguard towers 1 and 2 and composed the detritus into still lifes. Her intriguing photographs hint at the diverse lives and activities of beachgoers, and also evoke concerns for the environment. Gwen Samuels takes pictures of iconic Santa Monica landmarks and common flora and transforms them into patterns for sculptural dresses and panels, while Michal Story reworks her images of nearby buildings into portrayals of fantastical structures that are at once familiar and surprising. Together, these works offer an unusual, insiders’ take on our local scene—a far cry from stereotypical postcard-perfect shots of the coast or the pier—insights that come from living and working here everyday.
Paula Goldman’s Monuments is a separate show featured on our Mezzanine. Photographer Paula has long been interested in collecting and the role of photography in memorializing artifacts. In Monuments she plays with scale, juxtaposition, and modes of presentation to challenge commonly held ideas about the things she photographs, and to create new interpretations. Small porcelain figurines fill the frame taking on seemingly grand proportions, a “portrait” of a plucked head of lettuce brings new meaning to the term “headshot,” and everyday objects like plastic cups are photographed reverentially. The size of these images—20” x 24”—is a reference to the Polaroid 20×24 camera, Goldman’s personal monument to the vanished medium.
–Stacey Ravel Abarbanel, Curator
Artist Reception
RSVP HERE
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
7:00-8:30 PM
Monica Film Center
1332 Second Street
Santa Monica
Refreshments Served
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