Ai Honda’s winning piece inspired by one of six paintings from the the National Gallery of Denmark’s collection (Photo – gallery30south.com).
Artists Ai Honda and Matt Kennedy, co-owners of recently opened Gallery 30 South of Pasadena, are excited to visit Copenhagen for the first time this coming October. Yes! Ai Honda is one of the winners in a competition held by the National Gallery of Denmark (aka Copenhagen’s most important Museum) where her art will be exhibited.
By Toti O’Brien
The selected work is a bracelet, still in view at the Gallery—a welcoming and luminous space that doubles as the artist’s atelier. The Danish competition challenged fine jewelry makers to create a piece inspired by one of six paintings from the Museum’s collection.
Ai chose “Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor” (1901) by Vilhelm Hammershøi. As many of Hammershøi’s canvases, it portrays a white wall occupied by a door and by a curtained window, through which the sun enters. The interplay of architectural elements, light, and shadow, is both peaceful and haunting. In a corner, a woman in black—elegantly yet simply silhouetted—sits at a small table, head bent, quietly absorbed by something we cannot see. Two small frames hung, neat and symmetrical, from the wall above her.
Ai, who graduated in architectural design from prestigious SCI-Arc, has abstracted from the painting the main geometrical patterns. She has elaborated then translated them in 3D, coiling them in the oval shape of a bracelet. The warm color of brass captures the energy of the sun. The piece is strikingly beautiful.
It will stay in your eyes, but so will the consonance of the painting with the impression you get as you first step into the Gallery—ivy covered, magic little building of Green Street Village, separated from the street by a miniature porch. The space cuts straight across, almost undivided, certainly uncluttered—the back wall a large double door through which luscious greenery peers. It’s a channel of light. In the back corner, a small desk is pushed against the wall—compact, orderly, clean—where the artist works. Thus, between Ai’s source of inspiration and the world in which she creates, degrees of separation are very, very few.
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Vilhelm Hammershoi – Interior from Strandgade with Sunlight on the Floor, at the National Gallery of Denmark.
Gallery 30 South comes to fill a gap in the local scene as far as contemporary art is represented. While Museums and Institutions are wonderfully on task (think PMCA, Norton Simon, Art Center, or Armory), private galleries consistently featuring the contemporary art world are sporadic, short-lived experiments.
This will not be the case for the Kennedys’ new venture. As the exhibiting space is also Ai’s workshop, its practical function will grant its stability. It will be there independently from art sales, which therefore aren’t absolutely crucial—a condition also allowing the owners ample freedom of following their taste, inclinations, and vision.
The intent of bringing to the city a missing resource is intentional and clearly expressed. Matt directs an art gallery in Silverlake, “La Luz de Jesus”—well-known, and uniquely specialized in narrative/figurative work. The new space, thus, is meant to be the natural outlet of all that ‘La Luz’ doesn’t host. The abstract—of course—the multimedia and the hybrid. The avant-garde and the controversial. Work that doesn’t necessarily speak for itself in a traditional way. Work that might ask for some reflection, or else ‘education’—which just means repeated, thoughtful exposure.
“People have the taste they have until they see something else,” says Matt Kennedy. How true. The statement could be elaborated as follow—what you see and understand, you learn how to appreciate and love. How you see it is also part of the deal—Ai and Matt are certainly conscious of this factor. Crowded galleries—where a quantity of work on permanent display competes with temporary exhibitions—are fun and have their own charm. But in order to appreciate something unusual, clearer settings (more professional or just visually deliberate) are needed. Gallery 30 South cares about highlighting a show in the best possible way, for optimal enjoyment.
Logistics and display aren’t all. Behind the choice of each exhibit lies, we said, a distinct philosophy, ample knowledge and a life-long passion. Come in, look, ask, listen for the answers. You will not be disappointed.
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Gallery 30 South (Photo – Adam Kent, @adamkentphotography).
For example, the Gallery’s second show—featuring Shigeru Idei and Margo Taylor— combined the work of an artist whose figurative painting morphs into abstract patterns, with another artist’s abstract painting, rich in figurative suggestions. A great way, says Matt, to introduce new viewers to abstraction, through relating ‘neutral’ shapes, colors, patterns, to the shapes, colors, patterns underlying realistic representation. Quite a brilliant take off.
Similarly, the Gallery’s opening show—Dancing About Architecture—displayed abstract painting inspired by the covers of famous albums from the last few decades. In this case the link with pop music and icons, together with the call of nostalgia, helped the viewers bridging into the nonfigurative realm.
Clearly, Ai and Matt’s empathize with art which trespasses boundaries, juxtaposing medias, even disciplines, connecting apparently distant domains. Interesting personalities and currents, giving birth to complex, layered expression. Their next show, opening November 1st, will feature poet, musician, journalist, painter, filmmaker, performer and athlete Torben Ulrich. Since the seventies, the internationally renowned Danish figure combines movement, icon and text in a quite unique synthesis. A performance of his will take place on November 11th, in collaboration with composer/violinist Chrysanthe Song Tan. One not to be missed.
Artist talks are of course held in combination with shows. During the Pasadena’s Art Night, last March, a dialogue on formalism went on in a quasi-continuous loop. “Sparkling conversation is one of our main goals, as we wish to create and foster community.” Interesting debate, of course, does it. “Art does it,” says Ai. Embedded into the Green Street Village district, the Gallery definitely feels a part of it. Relationships with the neighborhood are warm, events are mindfully coordinated.
Some shows have attracted a younger-than-usual crowd. For instance, the one featuring Frances Bean Cobain, Kurt Cobain’s and Courtney Love’s daughter. If notoriety or the Nirvana connection sparked momentum, having a new and wider audience exposed to Cobain’s striking visuals was worth it. Also the current show, displaying the complete illustrations for a comic novel, might call in younger generations. Which is, of course, great.
The owners say:
We like seeing young people but we also would like to connect with people who have spent their entire lives in Pasadena, craving a type of show mostly taking place in Los Angeles. Pasadena, though, is more than a suburb of L.A. It has a rich art history. It is a cultural center of its own. We would love to reach those locals who have starved for contemporary art they could actually purchase.
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Artists Ai Honda and Matt Kennedy, co-owners of Gallery 30 South of Pasadena.
Some of Ai Honda Kennedy’s jewelry is displayed in the Gallery in a discrete manner, varied as it dialogues with different exhibits. Her design is very personal, as it stretches organic shapes, into abstract symbols, elegant and simultaneously powerful.
Having grown up on an artificial island—an extremely industrial environment—nature for her is a source of both fear and fascination. The ambiguity of feeling permeates her work, making it more intriguing and appealing.
How does working in the gallery space feels?
“Making jewelry,” she says “might lead to isolation (small size of the pieces, intimacy of scope, meticulous making, concentrated focus) wrapping the artist in a sort of bubble. The art on the walls, with its energy, the events, stratifying experiences and memories, reverberate even during the quiet hours. They create a richness she absorbs, expanding the span of her inspiration.
This is true for those artists who possess openness, receptivity, curiosity and attention in great store. Those who can react and respond, as Ai Honda reinterpreted Hammershøi’s interior view (so similar to her workshop/gallery) in an arching swirl of metal. Melting space into emotion—emotion, again, into shape.
[This article has been updated to include a correct performance date – Oct. 15, 2017 1:30 p.m.]
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