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ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: DANCING WITH COLORS in Pasadena

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Swing, samba or shimmy on over to Art in the Arthouse’s newest exhibit in Pasadena, DANCING WITH COLORS. This bold festival of color from artists Nancy R. Wise and Raymond Logan runs till June, 2019.  Sales benefit the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in the Los Angeles region.

About the Exhibit
NANCY R. WISE: Oil painter Nancy R. Wise is enchanted by color. She views her art as daily reality transformed by color and texture, woven on the loom of light. She states, “I love the vibrancy of bright colors, thick impasto-like textures against thin washes and strong forms to communicate an experience of a subject’s essence. It is my way to abstract and transform our ordinary experiences and reawaken life’s vibrant aesthetic.”

RAYMOND LOGAN: Don’t call Raymond Logan a “realistic artist.” While his work depicts real-life subject matter, it is grounded in abstraction and intuition. His true goal is to create a dialogue with you, the viewer, where a mutual discovery and re-imagining of “the self” can take place. Logan uses deft strokes of thick paint in surprising colors extrapolated from what he sees in the object – enhanced by how he wants those colors expressed. Get close up and you’ll find that his representational art becomes fully abstract.

Logan and Wise are connected through their mutual love of color and the ways they apply that color to their artwork. Logan spares nothing as he lavishly slaps thick globs of paint onto the canvas, while Wise contrasts impasto with thinner areas to create dynamic separation. From the first moment I saw their vibrant artwork, I knew their pieces would dance well together.

– Tish Laemmle, curator

 

Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS 60th Anniversary Screenings March 20th in Encino, Pasadena, and West LA

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present this month’s installment of our Anniversary Classics Abroad program. In keeping with the start of spring, we commemorate Francois Truffaut’s evergreen feature film debut, THE 400 BLOWS, which earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Original Screenplay of 1959.

Truffaut’s autobiographical picture, drawn from events in his own childhood, helped to introduce American audiences to the French New Wave. Truffaut had started as a critic for Cahiers du Cinema along with fellow aspiring directors Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. When he unveiled his first feature, he dedicated it to pioneering French critic Andre Bazin.

Critics around the world hailed the arrival of a major new talent. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther declared, “Not since the 1952 arrival of Rene Clement’s Forbidden Games…have we had from France a cinema that so brilliantly and strikingly reveals the explosion of a fresh creative talent in the directorial field.” Indeed Truffaut won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959.

Jean-Pierre Leaud starred as the director’s alter ego, Antoine Doinel, and the character re-appeared in four more films over the course of Truffaut’s career. Albert Remy and Claire Maurier co-star. Another of Truffaut’s frequent collaborators, Henri Decae, provided the lustrous black-and-white cinematography.

The screenplay by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy follows the exploits of Antoine as he battles with his parents, teachers, police, and administrators of the reformatory where he is sent. The director employed an arsenal of fresh cinematic techniques to capture the hero’s irreverent spirit and journey toward liberation. The final freeze frame became one of the most imitated shots in cinema history.

Almost all critics endorsed the film. As Roger Ebert wrote, “The 400 Blows, with all its simplicity and feeling, is in a class by itself.” Directors around the world, including Akira Kurosawa, Luis Bunuel, and Jean Cocteau, also praised Truffaut’s audacious vision. Writing many years later, The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane said, “time has fortified this sharp, slender account of a misbegotten boyhood into one of the unassailable monuments of French cinema.”

THE 400 BLOWS (1959) screens Wednesday, March 20 at 7PM at the Royal, Town Center, and Playhouse. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: JEFFREY SKLAN: ELEGY in Glendale

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ART IN THE ARTHOUSE  proudly presents a timely and important exhibit, JEFFREY SKLAN: ELEGY in Glendale. The art is for sale and on display till June 2019. Sales benefit the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles. Stop by our gallery –  no need to buy a movie ticket to view.

About the exhibit
A seasoned photographer, JEFFREY SKLAN understands the essence of his subjects, allowing them to reveal themselves and honoring their light. Born in Miami in 1954, Sklan is self-taught. From the moment he absconded with his father’s camera to photograph Hurricane Betsy (1965) at age 10, Sklan has been drawn to dramatic, moving incidents. Now with 45 years behind the lens, Sklan has created a significant body of work. Each image is deeply concentrated and form-driven, with his still-life and portraiture especially resonant. This powerful series entitled ELEGY is part of larger traveling exhibition. Calla lily flowers are developed into bruised, poetic, and stunningly beautiful imagery and then juxtaposed against the idea of brutal tragedy. According to the artist: “It pays homage and respect to those who have been taken from us by unjustifiable acts of violence – starting with the Pulse Nightclub/Orlando shooting in June, 2016 and ending with the local Thousand Oaks murders in late 2018.”

“The show came to life through an amazing series of synchronicities. I knew two of the victims of homicides. This project is meant to be a teaching aide, a catalyst for dialogue and civil discourse, and a call to action.”

Sklan’s recent exhibitions include a show at PhotoLA and solo exhibits at The Icon and Gabba Gallery. He is currently working on a book project called Brush Off featuring 200 artist portraits that will coincide with a solo exhibition in 2020. He works daily at his studio in downtown, Los Angeles.

– Joshua Elias, curator

 

UPDATED! NEVER LOOK AWAY Q&A’s with Filmmaker at the Playhouse and NoHo.

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https://youtu.be/gCEYXnDNcrg

 

NEVER LOOK AWAY director/screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck will participate in a Q&A after the 7:40 pm show on Saturday, 3/16 and at the NoHo following the 4:50 pm show on Sunday, 3/17.

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ now in NoHo

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Art in the Arthouse’s exhibit, ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ: WHO IS SHE, has moved to NoHo! Explore the bold, dynamic works of Kelly-Ramirez on display until the end of June. All of the art is for sale and a portion of the proceeds benefits the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles.

About the Exhibit

Isabella Kelly-Ramirez creates paintings and collages that introduce a host of fascinating females. Modern-day saints and superheroes, champions of the avant-garde, and fashionable figures to be reckoned with; these are icons of a new mythology from the imagination of the artist. Her arresting collages are playful acts of defiance. Kelly-Ramirez coopts images from fashion and art magazines, repurposing them to create surreal urban legends and ironic emblems of commercialism.

The works address the unattainable standards of beauty in fashion and life by reconstituting mainstream imagery into something quirkier and more humane. Kelly-Ramirez’s visual world continues in the striking paintings framed in soft sculpture. Bright, colorful portraits of humanoid figures appear in whimsical, unearthly settings. Somehow this creative, alternative place is more human, more generous, and more authentic than our curated “reality.”

Isabella Kelly-Ramirez lives and works in Los Angeles. Born in Santa Barbara, she has been involved in the art and theatre communities since she was a child. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 and works primarily in painting, collage, soft sculpture, and assemblage—with a pop surrealist flair.

– Stacey Ravel Abarbanel, Curator

  

 

JOSEPH PULITZER: VOICE OF THE PEOPLE Q&A’s with Filmmaker Opening Weekend.

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JOSEPH PULITZER: VOICE OF THE PEOPLE filmmaker Oren Rudavsky will participate in Q&A’s following the 7:40 pm show Friday, 3/8 and Saturday, 3/9 at the Music Hall, after the 4:20 pm show on Saturday, 3/9 and Sunday, 3/10 at the Playhouse and after the 7:30 pm show on Sunday, 3/10 at the Town Center.

https://vimeo.com/311732579

LAEMMLE LIVE presents PASADENA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC in Pasadena March 24

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Laemmle Theatres proudly presents the launch of LAEMMLE LIVE PASADENA, inspired by Laemmle’s popular concert series in Santa Monica. Laemmle Live showcases emerging musicians and professional performers from local schools and organizations, celebrating our diverse community with live performance. Laemmle Live Pasadena’s free Sunday morning concerts will take place in the courtyard between Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 and Vroman’s Bookstore from 11am to 12pm. A light reception will follow the program. The inaugural concert will feature musicians from the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. The Pasadena Conservatory of Music provides opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds to study, perform, and enjoy music. The March 24 program will feature the Los Angeles Youth Guitar Orchestra  (LAYGO) from the Conservatory. LAYGO is a dynamic group composed of fifteen of PCM’s top guitar students, ages 12-17. The ensemble is led by faculty member Felix Bullock, coaches Brian Barany and Adam Pettit, who are proud to give the emerging musicians the opportunity to practice and perform around the world.

LAYGO has performed at SOKA University, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and Loyola Marymount University, and have collaborated with guitarists Scott Tennant, Andrew York, and pipa virtuoso, Wu Man. LAYGO has also embarked on several tours with the German group Guitarreando in a musical and cultural exchange. While on tour, they have performed in Switzerland, Prague, Germany, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Additionally, they have premiered new works for guitar orchestra including Concerto in E minor by Alexander Mansour, Bleu by Alfonso Montes, and Tribal Youngers by Andrew York. The program will include Huapango by Moncayo, Kyrie from Requiem by W.A. Mozart, Heart & Passion by Patrick Roux, Tantra by Carlos Rafael Rivera.

MUSICIANS
Charlie Beroud, Caleb Bowne, Sean Browne, Jadon Elliott, Grayson Gooden, Maggie Grether, Ethan Kim, Hameed Majid, Jazzbird, Molina, Momo Moran, Evelyn Nguyen, Cooper Norman, Neel Sadda, Lyric Woo, Brandon Wong

This is a Free Event!
RSVP via Eventbrite

Sunday, March 24, 2019
Playhouse 7 Courtyard
673 East Colorado
Pasadena, CA 91101
11am – 12pm

THE COMPETITION Q&A’s with Filmmaker at Ahrya Fine Arts and the Playhouse 7.

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THE COMPETITION filmmaker Claire Simon will participate in a Q&A moderated by Akiva Gottlieb, writer for Variety, Los Angeles Times after the 7:30 pm show on Monday, 3/4 at the Ahrya Fine Arts. Kate Wolf, Los Angeles Review Of Books editor will moderate a Q&A with Claire following the 7:00 pm show on Tuesday, 3/5 at the Playhouse 7.