5 design things to do this week

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Celebrate the New Year with Japanese crafts and performances, tour the Mosaic Tile House in Venice, watch an improvised dance performance in Silver Lake, see the work of female contemporary photographers, and explore the darker side of the human condition.

Mosaic Tile House. Photo via Detour L.A.
Mosaic Tile House. Photo via Detour L.A. (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

1) Tour the Mosaic Tile House

Join Atlas Obscura on a guided tour of a rainbow-hued local gem in Venice. “Since 1994, artists Cheri Pann and Gonzalo have been transforming their once bland, stucco home into a kaleidoscope of color — nearly every square inch of their home has been covered in mosaic tile. Not well known to the public, this local masterpiece is truly a hidden gem of Los Angeles.”

When: Sat., Jan. 7 from 11 am to noon

Where: The Mosaic Tile House, 1116 Palms Blvd, Venice CA, 90291 (between Lincoln Blvd & Penmar Ave).

Tickets: $25. Advance ticket sales only. All sales are final. Buy tickets here.

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2) All Women Are Dangerous

Building Bridges Art Exchange (BBAX) and Fabrik magazine welcome All Women Are Dangerous, an exhibition featuring the work by seventeen women photographers and explores and highlights the rise of female contemporary artists. Through stunning imagery, each work sheds light on some of the most pressing issues facing each artist in hopes of starting a dialog around the question: are all women dangerous?

When: Opening Reception on Sat., Jan. 7 at 6 pm

Where: Building Bridges Art Exchange, Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Unit F2, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Tickets: RSVP: buildingbridgesax@gmail.com. More information here.

Edward Kienholz's The Secret House of Eddie Critch, 1961. Courtesy Norton Simon Museum
Edward Kienholz’s The Secret House of Eddie Critch, 1961. Courtesy Norton Simon Museum (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

3) Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre

The Norton Simon Museum’s latest exhibit, Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre, explores the darker side of the human condition. The show features 14 works from the 1920s to the 1970s by such artists as Joseph Cornell, George Herms and Edward Kienholz. The collection of paintings, lithographs and assemblage address death, violence and horror – whether its Kienholz’s wood-veneered writing desk, which contains plastic doll parts and animal fur, or Jack Edward Stuck’s portrait of a man strapped to a chair in a gas chamber. See the exhibition before it closes on Jan. 16.

When: Through Jan. 16, 2017

Where: Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105

Tickets: $12 for adults, $9 for seniors, free for students and children. More information here.

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Photo courtesy Japanese American National Museum (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

4) Oshogatsu Family Festival

The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) holds its annual Oshogatsu Family Festival this Sunday. The free new year celebration that helps ring in the Year of the Rooster will also feature crafts, performances by Taikoproject and others, and cultural activities for all ages. Highlights include demonstrations of the ancient art of candy sculpting, sample bowls of lucky zaru soba for kids and a mochitsuki (rice pounding) demonstration.

When: Sunday, Jan. 8 from 11 am to 5 pm

Where: Japanese American National Museum, 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Tickets: Admission to JANM’s exhibitions and displays are free during Oshogatsu Festival. More information here.

5) From Above | Looking Down (Performance)

The good folks at non-profit Materials & Applications in Silver Lake present From Above | Looking Down, which they describe as “a series of improvised scores that explore how to move with and through comfort. Drawing upon the performers’ personal histories with their dance and movement practices and our political present, the piece shifts between the kinetic and the metaphoric, the individual and the collective, searching for ways to offer and receive comfort, care, and support.”

When: Saturday, Jan. 7 at 4 pm

Where: Materials & Applications, 1619 Silver Lake Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90026

Tickets: Free. More information here.