Pussy Riot speaks, food meets design, get lost in a cake maze, books new and old get the fair treatment, a tour through California tile — that’s all this week in design events.
1) Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina talks “Art, Sex & Disobedience” with KCRW’s Edward Goldman
Russian feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot became a worldwide cause célèbre in 2012 after three members were arrested for staging an anti-Putin protest performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Two of them — Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — served almost two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”
Alyokhina sits down with Edward Goldman, the Russian-born host of KCRW’s Art Talk, for a conversation about art, gender, politics and civil disobedience.
When: Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 8 PM
Where: UCLA’s Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, LA 90095
Tickets: $19 – $39, here. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, offered at $15 one hour before showtime to all students with valid ID.
2) Taste: A Symposium on Food and Visual Culture
Design Observer hosts this one-day symposium on the relationship between design and food. “Speakers from across the United States and Europe,” including Mark Bittman, Ron Finley and Dr. Ricardo Salvador, “will consider the visual evolution of artificial flavor; the historical artistry of mid-century menus; the future of permaculture, the promises of packaging, and the vicissitudes of waste.
“We’ll look at marketing tactics and distribution platforms; climate change and culinary excess; new economies of scale; old expressions of culture — and everything in between.”
A morning panel features DnA host Frances Anderton and Good Food host Evan Kleiman, talking about how food plays a growing role in urban design. Think of it as a visit to the basement here at KCRW, but with more comfortable seating.
When: Friday, February 12, 2016, all day. Doors open at 8:30 AM; opening remarks at 9:35 AM.
Where: Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St, LA 90013
Tickets: $200 (general admission), $75 (students) here. (But! You can use promo code FRIENDSFAMILY for 50% off.) Includes lunch and a closing party at Pirch.
3) Break Bread art exhibition and festival
Dismaland artist Scott Hove and painter Baker’s Son present Break Bread, a month-long exhibition and programming series at Think Tank Gallery downtown. “This gallery-wide immersive installation is made up of a tour through six cake chambers filled with floor-to-ceiling cake sculptures, tech-based mirror mazes, a watercolor ice cream truck, a Zumanity lounge, and a coffee shop.” Nothing here about free hallucinogens, but it sounds like you may not need them.
When: February 13 – March 13, 2016, 11 AM – 5 PM daily, closed Wednesdays. Opening night event on Saturday, February 13, includes tastings by Challah Hub and Sugarfina.
Other events scheduled throughout the month — including a pricey Valentine’s Day performance of “sexually charged acrobatics” by Cirque de Soleil — are listed here.
Where: Think Tank Art Gallery, 939 Maple Avenue, LA 90015
Tickets: Free for daily general admission to the gallery, various prices for dining and performance “experiences” throughout the month. RSVPs strongly suggested for entry.
4) Book Fair Bonanza! LA Art Book Fair and California International Antiquarian Book Fair
It’s a busy weekend for local aficionados of rare books and small-press art books, as two book fairs roll into town.
At the Geffen Contemporary, New York nonprofit Printed Matter‘s LA Art Book Fair holds its annual three-day “event for artists’ books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines presented by over 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers.” The fair drew almost 35,000 visitors last year. A preview on Thursday night features music from Moon Uterus (Mel Shimkovitz, Devendra Barnhart and Amy von Harrington) and Christeene.
When: Friday, February 12, 2016 1 PM – 6 PM; Saturday, February 13 11 AM – 7 PM; Sunday, February 14, 11 AM – 6 PM. (Preview Thursday, February 11, 6 PM – 9 PM)
Where: Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 North Central Avenue, LA 90012
Tickets: FREE
Meanwhile, at the Pasadena Convention Center, the 49th California International Antiquarian Book Fair hosts more than 200 booksellers from around the world. “[O]ne of the largest and most prestigious exhibitions of antiquarian books…gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about and purchase the finest in rare and valuable books, manuscripts, autographs, graphics, photographs and more.”
When: Friday, February 12, 2016, 3 PM – 8 PM; Saturday, February 13, 11 AM – 7 PM; Sunday, February 14, 11 AM – 5 PM
Where: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St, Pasadena CA 91101
Tickets: $10 – $25 in advance or at the door.
5) California Faience walkthough with Kirby Brown
Curator Kirby Brown leads an after-hours tour of this exhibition dedicated to the legacy of the tile-making and ceramics company California Faience, which was established in Berkeley in 1913.
“Of Cottages and Castles: The Art of California Faience presents the full range of the company’s decorative tiles, vessels, and sculptures, with the noteworthy inclusion of tiles from the company’s most prestigious project, the commission by architect Julia Morgan for a complete environment of tiles for William Randolph Hearst’s palatial home and grounds in San Simeon.”
When: Saturday February 13, 2016, 5 PM – 6 PM
Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 East Union Street, Pasadena 91101
Tickets: Free. Doors open at 4 PM. No RSVP required.