“For the Love of the Arroyo”, an art exhibit co-curated by Raoul De La Sota and Roderick Smith, will be in view at the Autry Southwest Museum until June 18th.
Shadows Upper Arroyo by Raoul De la Sota.
This small and not-enough-known Museum is worth a visit, among other reasons, because of its magnificent collections of Native American arts, and because of the spectacular views of the Arroyo enjoyable from its upper parking lot.
By Toti O’Brien
From its northern beginnings at the Devil’s Gate Dam to its Downtown confluence with the Los Angeles River, the Arroyo shapes the landscape of communities such as Highland Park, Glassell Park, Montecito Highs, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, South Pasadena and Pasadena.
Fifteen artists, all residents of these communities, are featured in the show. Thirty-eight works in 2-d encompass a variety of traditional and less traditional media—from oil to charcoal, from dry point, to photography, to collage.
The wide pallet of artistic practices and approaches mirrors the many facets of the river—the wilderness of its inception, the urban developments stratified around its course, the peculiar flora and fauna thriving in its vicinity.
Rivers have always been a favorite of landscape artists for several reasons—one of them the richness of lights, shades, chiaroscuros and reflections produced by the peculiar interplay of water and dry land. Such nuanced gamut of visual beauty is fully realized in the exhibit, and a delight to behold.
Rivers are also fascinating as they materialize the connected flow of space and time, linking disparate segments of land and different eras, represented by the traces of many civilizations overlapped by the water.
The show includes well-known sights such as the Colorado Bridge, less known landmarks such as Debb’s Park or the Judson Studios, and of course intimate, personal views of unnamed corners. It includes reconstruction of the past in cut-linoleum, symbolic translation in mosaic tiles, abstract black and white overview, as well as fragments of nature magnified through the lens of a camera or the magic of fabric assemblage.
Each twist and bend of the Arroyo allows a different angle of interpretation.
More about the artists and their process can be learned at the meeting events planned throughout the duration of the show.
Schedule of events
“Parkway” by Katsu Yokoyama
The Southwest Museum of Mount Washington will open weekends on the days listed below from 10 to 4. Free and open to the public.
Sunday, May 21 – 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.. Opening Reception. All artists in attendance.
Sunday, May 28 – Meet the Artists. Roderick Smith and Bonnie Lambert, 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 3 – Meet the Artists: Diane Behrens, Michael Egede-Nissen, Roderick Smith and Richard Willson, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 4 – Meet the Artists: Gwen Freeman, Cidne Hart and Kevin Hass, 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 10 – Meet the Artists: Judith Amdur, Raoul De la Sota and Katsu Yokoyama, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 11 – Meet the Artists: Peter Hess and Gail Werner (Luiseño- Cupeño),1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 13 – Visit of LA Metro Docents. Meet the Artists Manny Cosentino, Raoul De la Sota and Ramon Ramirez, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, June 14 – Visit of the Docents from LACMA. Meet the Artists Gwen Freeman, Raoul De la Sota and Roderick Smith, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Saturday, June 17 – Richard Bugbee, of the Payoomkawichum culture will speak on his people’s history in the region and then Dr. Jeremiah Axelrod, Director of the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles, Occidental College will discuss the artistic history of the Arroyo Seco region. 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 18 – Closing of Exhibit. 4:00. Distribution of sold artwork.
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