Arts & Entertainment
Venice Art Walk and Auctions Kicks off Friday Night
The annual charity event runs through the weekend.
The Venice Art Walk is a yearly charity event which includes some of the most talented, established and emerging artists.
Artists not only donate their work, but also their time and space as they open up their studios and private homes and offer an up-close look at how and where they create. Events occur all weekend with various admission prices as well as some free events which are open to the public.
As it has for the past 30 years, the Venice Art Walk and Auctions will benefit the Venice Family Clinic.
The Venice Family Clinic’s mission is to provide free, quality health care to people in need. Established in 1970 by Phillip Rossman, and Mayer B. Davidson, the clinic has grown from a small storefront operation into the largest free clinic in the country.
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Venice has long been an artist community, so this yearly benefit is a natural fit. Over 400 artists donate work for the silent auction, and bidders know that they are supporting a worthy cause.
With the help of more than 2,000 volunteers, including over 500 physicians, Venice Family Clinic provides a medical home for close to 25,000 patients through nine sites in Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Inglewood, and Culver City.
Get into the spirit early, by attending the free Art Walk kick off event on Friday May 20th from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. This skate and surfboard opening and auction will be held at Track 16 at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., and is open to the public. More than 50 artists have donated work, including Venice’s own Dogtown and Z-Boys alumni; pro skaters Lacey Baker and Daniel Espinoza; graffiti and street masters RISK, Smog City, plus Bleek and Skeg from California’s Bomb Squad; artists from the Human Pyramids Art Collective; as well as Alex Chiu, Haunted Euth, Steve Bankhead, Shplinton; Napalm Records’ Brant Bjork, and many more. This inventive exhibition is curated by Mark Farina and features reused, recycled, and recreated skate decks and boards.
This year the Venice Art Walk has included three new architectural tours. For an additional charge, ticket holders have the chance to explore important architectural gems in Venice and the Westside of Los Angeles. Admission includes privileged access to private residences and gardens designed by some of the city’s most renowned architects and landscape designers.
Then on Saturday, if you love Venice and architecture, make sure to buy a ticket ($125) for the Art + Architecture Tour in Venice, which runs from noon to 4 p.m. In the past five years some incredible homes have popped up on Appleton Way in Venice. Five of these homes, designed by Brooks + Scarpa, du Architects, Santiago Ortiz, Thomas Carson, and homeowners Sylvia Aroth and Jeff Cook will be on this self-guided tour, along with gardens designed by Suzanne McKevitt and Z Freedman Landscape Design.
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A few blocks away, you’ll want to stop into the Cor-Ten clad Walnut Residence designed by Modal Design around an 80-year-old umbrella pine. Ticket price includes entrance to Sunday’s Venice Art Walk & Auctions.
Or consider taking the West LA Tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $175, which includes a box lunch and admission to the Sunday Art Walk & Auctions. Led by architecture experts, this tour explores West LA and includes the recently completed Shoshana/Müller residence, a home for a gallerist and an artist, a serene contemporary house by architect William Hefner and a spectacular steel house by architect Barton Myers, which he calls an “elegant warehouse” in the tradition of the postwar Case Study Houses.
Sunday is the biggest day of the event, when the studio tours happen. The ticket price is $50, and studio tours run from noon till 4:00 p.m. More than 40 of Venice’s most distinguished artists open their studios to let the public get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes. This year 15 new artists have joined the Art Walk, including sculptors Alex Andre and Stephen Glassman, painters Judy Nimtz and Michael Webber, and glass blower John Mooney. In addition to all the great studios, there will be some exciting new special exhibits along the route.
Also on Sunday, enjoy the Community Fair (free and open to the public) at Westminster Avenue Elementar School. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., there will be food and drink from local restaurants and music. New this year is the Art Within Reach Limited Edition Print Store, which offers original archival digital ink jet prints in a signed and numbered editions of 20. Purchase a signed print at an exceptional price by internationally known artists such as Delia Brown, Erin Cosgrove, Todd Gray, Dion Johnson, Mara Lonner, Renee Petropoulos, Fay Ray, Eddie Ruscha, Analia Saban, Kim Schoenstadt, Samantha Thomas, Mungo Thomson, Kerry Tribe, and Jennifer Wolf.
And for the true art collector, don’t miss the chance to bid on an original piece of art from an established or emerging artist at the Auction on Sunday. Westminster Avenue Elementary School will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the art on display. A preview showing is Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.