This week: spend the weekend at the Los Angeles Design Festival, dress in your vintage finest for a day at LACMA, party at an interactive design slam, watch a film about what it means to be an Angeleno, and learn about the family legacy of Saar ceramics.
1) L.A. Design Festival
Now in its eighth year, the L.A. Design Festival honors the city’s rich and diverse design culture with more than 50 events citywide. From architecture and interiors, to costume and set design, fashion, graphics, experiential installations and more, the scope reflects the broad talents and creativity of Los Angeles’ design economy and community, and talents from overseas.
LADF will include a World Design Gallery in which you can find an installation that created a lot of buzz, by 17-year-old Achilleas Souras. It’s an igloo-shaped tent made of life jackets, an artwork he created to draw attention to the plight of Europe’s refugees.
Here are our top choices for scheduled events:
LA Design Festival Opening Night Fundraiser and Awards Night: This event is 21 and over. Pre-sale tickets are $40 online. Day-of tickets will be $50. Thursday, June 7 from 7 – 10 pm. ROW DTLA, 777 Alameda Street. More information here.
2×8: Interlaced – AIA|LA Student Exhibition: Join AIA|LA’s 2018 2×8 scholarship winners for a conversation with the jurors on Thursday, June 7 from 6-8pm. Helms Bakery District, 8745 Washington Blvd. Studio E, Culver City. The 2×8: Interlaced student exhibition will also be on display to the public at Helms Walk (3231 Helms Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034) at Helms Bakery District from May 22 through June 19. More information here.
ARCHINECT x Johnston Marklee: Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, founding partners of the architecture firm Johnston Marklee, speak with ARCHINECT founder and editor Paul Petrunia. Friday, June 8 from 2-3 pm. ROW DTLA, 777 Alameda Street. More information here.
Christopher Hawthorne, LA’s new chief design officer will talk about Housing in LA with architects Barbara Bestor, Julie Eizenberg, and Jimenez Lai.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the LA River: Hear about the changes coming to the LA River with the City of LA’s Deborah Weintraub, landscape architect Mia Lehrer, LA-Más’ Helen Leung, Mark Motonaga of Rios Clementi Hale Studios, and developer Yuval Bar-Zemer. Friday, June 8 from 6-9:30 pm. SPF:a Gallery, 8609 Washington Boulevard, Culver City. More information here.
Aspiration by Design: The Concorde and the Voyager Golden Record with Grammy award winning, Los Angeles–based graphic designer and creative director Lawrence Azerrad. Saturday, June 9 from 3-4 pm. ROW DTLA – American Apparel Theater, 777 Alameda Street. More information here.
KCRW’s Design and Architecture x Peter Shire: Sculptor and ceramicist Peter Shire is enjoying a resurgence of interest in his colorful and playful work. Following on the heels of a retrospective at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Shire sits down with DnA’s Frances Anderton and Avishay Artsy to discuss his career and interests. Saturday, June 9 from 5-6 pm. ROW DTLA – The End, 777 Alameda Street. More information here.
Sustainable Design for the 99%: Hunker’s Eve Epstein in conversation with landscape architect Mia Lehrer. Sunday, June 10 from 2-3 pm. ROW DTLA – American Apparel Theater, 777 Alameda Street. More information here.
When: Festival runs June 7-10. See schedule here
Where: Various locations.
Tickets: Opening night fundraiser $40-50. All other events are free.
2) DAPPER DAY + LACMA Celebrate David Hockney
Have you seen “David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life” at LACMA yet? The LA-based British expat shaped the world’s perception of Los Angeles in the 1960s, and this new series presents a range of people from Hockney’s life, lovingly depicted in his signature style. LACMA is inviting the public to arrive in style with DAPPER DAY, a day and night full of art, fashion, film, music, and dancing.
Among the events are a film screening of MONDO Hollywood from 3-5 pm, a cult classic about the wild side of LA circa 1964, when David Hockney first made California his home. (FREE with reservation). Stick around for a Latin Sounds concert featuring Lily Hernandez & Orquesta from 5-7 pm, and tunes by DJ Professor Watson in front of Urban Light from 7-9 pm.
When: Saturday, June 9 from 10 am to 9 pm
Where: LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tickets: Free for members, $20-25 adults, $16-21 seniors and students, free for those 17 & under. More information here.
3) Design Slam 2018: Prototyping the Future
Part performance art, part party, this rooftop exhibition presents a mash up of interactive installations and flash talks to the beat of a poetry slam. An end of year project like no other, ArtCenter students will present their versions of the future with the rhythms of the next generation. Part of L.A. Design Festival.
When: Saturday, June 9, 7-10 pm
Where: ArtCenter College of Design, 1700 Lida St, Pasadena, CA 91103
Tickets: Free. More information here.
4) Reception & Screening: Paul Pescador | Going West, or 15 Years in Los Angeles
What does it mean to be a resident of Los Angeles? Long described as a ‘city without a center‘, does the very nature of the city’s neighborhood diversity preclude a ‘Los Angeles Identity’ – and now more than ever as the neighborhoods themselves undergo such rapid changes? Artist Lab Resident Paul Pescador’s feature length film reflects on his experiences of various neighborhoods where he has lived since moving here and considers what it means to be a resident of Los Angeles. Pescador features Santa Monica, and in particular the Pico District surrounding the 18th Street Arts Center, to explore themes of image versus reality and the impacts of wealth gaps, gentrification and displacement. The exhibition includes a gallery of photographs and collages of the neighborhoods featured in the film. Visitors will have the opportunity to share written and audio experiences of living in Los Angeles and how they see their own neighborhood changing.
When: Saturday, June 9, 5-8 pm
Where: 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Tickets: Free. More information here.
Interested in stories about people moving to L.A.? Check out KCRW’s newest podcast Welcome to LA, which you can download here.
5) Alison Saar: The Saar Legacy
The sculptor Alison Saar was born to an artistic family. Her mother is the well-known artist Bettye Saar and her late father Richard Saar was the conservator and ceramicist who co-founded Saar Ceramics. This Saturday she will talk about her father’s ceramics, produced with his brother from 1949 to 1962 and rooted for a while in the El Segundo cluster of artists that included ceramicist Malcolm Leland. The two occupied neighboring Quonset huts in El Segundo’s Smokey Hollow district, named for its proximity to the Chevron refinery.
This lecture is part of the programming for AMOCA’s Discovering Saar Ceramics exhibition, curated by California design historian Jo Lauria.
When: Saturday, June 9, 7 pm
Where: American Museum of Ceramic Art, 399 N Garey Ave, Pomona, CA 91767
Tickets: Free and open to the public. More information here.