So, what, exactly, is the LA Flower Market?

The Los Angeles Flower Market is located on Wall Street in downtown Los Angeles, California. It is a pleasant and fragrant marketplace where you can find a huge variety of flowers, available at wholesale prices.

Apart from being a usual flower market, it is a popular tourist site as well. People from far-and-wide come to visit this beautiful place which is nothing short of a flower paradise. The place is embellished with a barrage of attractive colors, and wonderful aromas which have an uplifting effect on people’s moods.

Interesting Features of the Flower Mart Downtown Los Angeles

There are several exciting features of the LA Flower Mart which make it special. For your benefit, these have been listed below.

1. Vast Flower Varieties of Superb Quality

Alstroemeria, Bouvardia, Gerbera Daisy, Tulip or Roses; you name it. The flower mart downtown LA has it all. Moreover, the quality is unmatched to any other flower shops in the area.

So, if you are looking for flowers and bouquets for someone’s wedding or searching for some flowers for your garden, then a visit to LA flower mart is definitely the best option for you.

2.  It Opens Really Early

The Los Angeles Flower Mart opens really early for the general public. Visitors are welcome to visit any time after 6 am (its opens at 8 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). However, you must know that as the day starts approaching noon, you start seeing the place getting much more crowded than it is in the wee hours of the morning.

Hence, you should always plan to go as early as possible. This will allow you to have the luxury of picking out the best flowers before anyone else. Moreover, you will get to truly enjoy the magnificence of this gorgeous place without having too many people spoiling the fun.

3. Affordable Pricing

The prices in the LA flower market are not unbelievably low or heavily discounted. However, these are wholesale prices which means you get to save some money at least. You will find common as well as exotic flowers for a better price than anywhere else in LA.

If you are someone traveling to these parts of LA, it is highly recommended that you visit Los Angeles Flower Market. You will have never seen such colors and scents as you will get to experience here. And, at the end of it all, you will surely have joyful and unforgettable memories of this place to take back home.

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This past weekend, the Mid-City Arthouse in Los Angeles honored animation luminary Hayao Miyazaki and his works with a Miyazaki Tribute Gallery for the ages. The show featured submitted works from an array of talented artists, working in multiple media. But they had one thing in common: a rabid devotion to one of the most inspiring individuals in contemporary popular art.

The sweltering heat didn’t deter crowds from cramming into the Mid-City Arthouse event space August 6-7th to celebrate a truly original voice in mainstream animation. The Miyazaki Tribute Gallery drew visitors old and young, rabid and casual. Miyzazaki-themed cocktails were on tap, prints sold like hotcakes, but the main draw was, of course, the art.

It was beautiful to see Miyazaki through the lens of those aspiring talents who adore him. The artists in attendance drew from the animator’s entire filmography, though favorites were clear, and to be expected. Predictably,  Studio Ghibi heavyweights like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro made up the majority of the works. Illustrators and painters adopted the telltale iconography from all three films, to produce a range of compositions. Of course there were more illustrative prints, but also present were design-like patterns, collage, mixed-media, and even a gorgeously crafted felt sculpture.

While more obscure works were a tad under-represented (why no love for my favored Porco Rosso?), the artists also featured side-character favorites like the susuwatari soot spirits, No Face (of course!), the Forest Spirit from Princess Mononoke, and even a Lupin-inspired piece!

Perhaps the most exciting moments happened when you could see Miyazaki’s works truly reimagined in another artist’s style. That’s when the creator’s influence and spirit are concretely reincarnated and immortalized. At that moment, you’re not just a Miyazaki fan, but someone who believes in the generations of works that will bear his imprint.

Disappointed that you’d missed it? Don’t sweat it! This is Los Angeles after all–there’s a gallery opening basically every evening, and we’ll try our best to keep you updated. Let us know if there’s anything we should check out, and support your local galleries!

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From now until June 11th, art installation Intrude is bringing massive, glowing inflatable rabbits into the heart of downtown LA. The sight is beautifully surreal. But hidden in plain sight is a dire message. 

An Unexpected Visitor

Art installation Intrude is the newest in a ripe season of great Los Angeles art openings. Imagine moving amongst the skyscrapers and marble plazas of downtown LA. What could be more shocking than seeing a 20-foot-tall rabbit just around the corner? By day, they stand fantastically in the midst of LA’s busy foot traffic. By night, their glow outshines the skyscraper lights that surround them. On my visit, Intrude drew crowds of visitors, and turned the heads of shocked joggers. In spite of their size, the inflatable bunnies are adorably sculpted. One cleans its ears at the glass entrance to the Bank of America Building. Several feet away, another reclines on its stomach. Behind the building, a third hibernates with its ears down. It’s a perfect example of the increasing popularity of accessible, public art installations penetrating into urban spaces.

Where to View It

From 12pm to 9am, from June 5th to 11th, these mysterious invaders will mystify DTLA residents with their enormous and luminous presence. Art installation Intrude, by Australian artist Amanda Parer, has come to Los Angeles as part of a four city tour that started in April in New York. These massive bunnies are located in three locations around downtown:

• Bank of America Plaza (333 South Hope Street),
• Wells Fargo Center (330 South Hope Street), and
• FIGat7th (735 South Figueroa Street).

While the piece’s visual experience is captivating enough, its meaning is even more fascinating. Most of the world perceives rabbits as innocent, playful, and cute creatures. But that isn’t the case in Parer’s native Australia. There, to call rabbits an ecological disaster is an understatement. Introduced in 1788 by white settlers, bunnies have proved incredibly destructive to the country’s native species. They’ve survived numerous attempts at eradication. And this continues even to the present day.

And so the meaning of the title becomes clear on all levels. As an art installation Intrude calls attention to this unwanted animal intruder and its impact. Beneath the fur and fluff lies a destructive and persistent by-product of globalization and colonialism. The fact that the Australian view of bunnies contrasts so much with their ‘cuteness’ lends Intrude its power. This is an expression of the ways that ecological disaster is masked by cultural perceptions. Hence, to misunderstand the installation (as most visitors will!) is to reflect the necessity of its message.

For more information and a list of tour dates, visit the Facebook page.

All photos taken with the Fujifilm XM-1 mirrorless camera, with a Konica Hexanon 28mm lens.

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The Museum of Broken Relationships LA has finally arrived. First opened in Croatia, the U.S. branch brings a starkly human touch to Los Angeles and delivers everything it promises: a display of human affection and disaffectation, spoken through the memorabilia of broken relationships.

LA’s art scene has been a’bustle lately, with public performances and spaces both fantastic and stoic. The Museum of Broken Relationships LA is a welcome addition to a city that gets stranger by the day. The premise is simple: donors worldwide send in personal artifacts and memorabilia of their broken relationships. Each artifact is plainly displayed with a placard, bearing a title and the item’s story, penned by the donor. These range from brief and amusing anecdotes, to deeply involved testimonials.

Some of these artifacts are to be expected, like diary pages, event tickets, and teddy bears. But also: silicon breast implants, and two separate sets of fake, wearable breasts, all accompanied by suitably morose stories of unwanted bodily modification. Under a glass display sat a vial of gnarled pubic hair. A heart-shaped display of photographs hung on the second level. All the photos are of the word ‘color’ seen in various signs, assembled for a lost love named Carla.

There was a wedding dress, de-ceremonialized and packed into a jar, and a mouldering dreadlock snipped from the scalp. One of the stranger things: a molten cellphone retrieved from an oven by a landlord, probably debris from his tenant-couple’s tumultuous relationship. And then there were the mundane things, transfigured by virtue of their human history: toothpase tubes, coffee mugs, torn jeans. Each is an untold life, encased in inanimate still life.

Museum of Broken Relationships LA sometimes felt more like visiting a website (man, does anyone remember Post Secret?) than a museum–to its credit. I think most of us think of museums in terms of boundaries and restrictive solemnity. You are here, and the piece is over there; don’t cross the line. That’s not quite the case at Broken ‘Ships. Here, there are no master creators from on high–the exhibitors are lovelorn fools like the rest of us. Neither are there priceless artifacts–just a heap of household items, intermixed with smut, trash, and the occasional DIY valentine. While there is definitely something under the glass, there’s nothing on the pedestal, except for the abstracted, collective melancholy of the donors and their untold stories.

Hopefully it isn’t too hammy to use the phrase ‘anti-museum’ here; rarely have I been to a museum where so little feels forbidden. That simply isn’t the point of Broken Relationships LA. Like they said on the website, the point is to offer a closure ritual to the lovelorn, something not easy to achieve in bustling urban spaces. Like coming-of-age rituals, comfort for the romantically frustrated simply isn’t a service that modernity offers. The Museum of Broken Relationships LA, however, is a place to bring the private into the public space, to externalize the indigestible heaps of emotional detritus that many of us can’t process alone.

It has the solemn air of a museum, but it’s a naturally meditative, rather than repressive one. Oddly enough, it reminded me of what museums are supposed to be: places where you put things under glass so that you can inspect them more clearly. And love is a very bizarre thing to see, naked and objectively. It’s a damned unique experience, especially considering where Broken ‘Ships is. Surely it was by design that the Museum of Broken Relationships LA roosted itself in the busiest portion of Hollywood Boulevard. It stands a stone’s throw from celebrity wax museums and Guinness sideshows. Outside its doors, droves of tourists hunch fixated on the hollow hieroglyphics of the Walk of Fame. Yet in the middle of Tinseltown, the godhead of an industry built on happy-ending dreams, there’s the Museum. Like a monastery of catharsis, dedicated to helping us process the breaking of those same dreams.

All photos taken with a Fujifilm XM1 mirrorless camera, and Konica Hexanon AR 28mm lens.

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Oh I’m well aware that everyday is ‘some food day,’ and I don’t care. Craft donuts have hit the Los Angeles desserts scene in a very big way, and nothing is coming between me and my nutella banana cronut. What are you picking up this Friday?

Yes, June 3rd is the real and very official National Donut Day, which means it’s time to hit some Los Angeles donuts around the city. Of which there are plenty. From California Donuts in Koreatown, to The Donut Man in Glendora, LA has definitely got you covered (yeah, Glendora’s not really LA, but c’mon, it’s The Donut Man). Grab your favorite craft soda / coffee / beer pairing, and get fatty with us!

The Berry Best, from Donut Snob

Cinnamon glazed and topped with fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. This is a Los Angeles donut that actually tastes as good as it looks–and it looks good enough to be framed on your wall

Salted Caramel Donut, from Donut Snob

While more plain-looking than our other Donut Snob pick, it is undoubtedly a crowd favorite. Their salted caramel donut is the best example of what a ‘salty sweet’ dessert can be.

The Lemon Weapon, from Donut Friend

Blueberry compote, lemon glaze, topped with fresh mint. The tang of the lemon glaze complements the sweetness of the donut like you wouldn’t believe.

S’Morrisey, from Donut Friend

Yep, Donut Friend is the Los Angeles donuts shop where everything’s named after an alt-rock band. But more to love than the theme is the flavor chops. This is the greatest iteration of the s’more donut, period. A chocolate cake donut, glazed with additional chocolate, topped with toasted marshmallow and graham cracker.

Matcha Green Tea Donut, from California Donuts

A warm, fluffy donut coated in a perfectly sweet, very matcha-aromatic chocolate glaze. Remember, this is a 24/7 joint (thank god this place is in the Los Angeles donuts scene), ready to serve late into the night.

Chocolate Pretzel Cronuts from California Donuts

This one is really a placeholder for all of California Donuts’ amazing cronuts. This place was on every foodie feed the second cronuts became a craze, and for good reason. This Koreatown spot boasts impressive variations like banana nutella and blueberry cream cheese

Strawberry Donuts, from The Donut Man

A bun-like donut filled with fresh glazed strawberries. Emphasis on fresh–these have never tasted canned from the times I’ve tried them. It’s a miracle that these don’t get soggy at all. Also, Donut Man is about 40 minutes out of LA, so it’s only polite to ask friends if they want anything while you’re there. The Donut Man Run is a burden we must shoulder together.

Tiger Tails, from The Donut Man

Why is a simple tiger tail on a list of exotic and beautiful donuts? It’s not wildly original. It isn’t crowned with a tiara of fruit. It isn’t filled with some holier-than-thou honeywhiskey extract. It’s here because it’s the best of its kind I’ve ever had. The consistency is a pleasant chewiness that disintegrates into a rich finish that must be tasted

Blueberry Donut, from SK Donuts and Croissant

Another example of a classic so good, it deserves to hang with its more flashy brethren. SK Donuts’ blueberry donut is basically just a round, blueberry cake with glaze all over it. Even if you’ve had a blueberry donut before, this will be your first time tasting the real thing.

Apple Pie Cronut, from SK Donuts and Croissant

Rounding out our list is a second cronut entry, SK Donuts’ Apple Pie Cronut. This baby’s sweetness is reined in, which is surprising from the looks of that glaze. Fluffy, moist, fresh, and as compliant as SK’s wonderfully polite staff. A true LA standard.

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The second Petal Drop LA was a low-key public art installation featuring a downtown Los Angeles industrial building and street, festooned with purple flowers. It was a surreal collision of the natural and the industrial, art and commerce. And it was exactly what inner-city Angelenos needed on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Numerous plans have been made to beautify the polarizing industrial landscape of Los Angeles. We’re going to carve out the concrete-plastered LA river into recreation space (at some point)! Smorgasburg LA is coming in June, a permanent outdoor weekly market! There’s a, uh, ‘temporary pop-up park’ somewhere in Hollywood, with umbrellas mimicking real trees!

Don’t get me wrong–all of these sound like well-meaning, much-needed facelifts in a city that feels increasingly difficult to enjoy. But at present, they also sound like drops in the bucket, little cosmetic fixers that fall just short of injecting true life and beauty into the urban sprawl of LA. While these plans struggle to excite me, Petal Drop LA was an unexpectedly immersive, beautiful experience that encapsulated what all these attempts are groping for: a living Los Angeles. A city for people rather than cars. A place where beauty isn’t segregated into city blocks for admission’s price, but commonplace. A community with all the liquid smog scrubbed out, replaced with living blood and flowers in its veins.

On May 29th, the group behind Petal Drop LA transformed an industrial block on Main & Lamar into something quietly different. The street corner is a typical downtown LA sight: traffic signs more numerous than ads, scattered e-waste, powerlines crisscrossing the sky, just as lane dividers graph the streets below. But on this morning, closer inspection revealed purple flowers carefully packed into sidewalk cracks, plumbing, everywhere. You would’ve seen littered cups, cracked computer monitors, and the carcasses  of defunct automobiles similarly bursting with loose purple leaves. The street signs and bus stop benches too, filled in with little bloom fields.

When I arrived, there was a gentle trickle of visitors turning out for the event. Precious little info was available. The location was kept undisclosed until dawn. Even then, you had to either call their hotline or check the twitter. The hush-hush wasn’t for pretension, but to foster a certain ‘business as usual’ attitude. This wasn’t a grandiose LA makeover, a dramatic reimagining. The organizers wanted to depict LA as it was, but with just an ounce of the whimsical injected. No gasping crowds–rather, passersby and their curiosity. Most Los Angeles art functions have ‘scene’ written all over them, with Instagrammers swarming like LED flies. But at Petal Drop LA, I saw mostly couples, an acceptable amount of selfie sticks, and a refreshing number of children. Almost everyone had small flowers in their hair, pockets,and bags.

On the way down to the main installation area, I was offered flowers twice. The first time was from a hard-hatted girl on the corner, dressed exactly like a factory worker, except for the lavender motifs on her uniform. There were several such installation ’employees’ sauntering around, directing visitors. The second was from an old Asian woman, happily handing out blossoms from an ice cream cart.

At the main installation was a chain divider and a smiling factory woman at an office desk, serenely stamping miscellaneous papers. Behind her, the industrial apparatuses bore tons upon tons of purple flowers. The jacaranda blossoms piled in enormous mounds between the crumbling grey walls. Above, another worker manned a loudspeaker. Intermittent messages were broadcast in a grocery-store PA voice: “Los Angeles is my mother.” “The city is still beautiful.”

What was most impressive was that there was no rejection of LA’s industrial or commercial appearance. They didn’t pick up the litter, paint the trucks, or costume the organizers. Then it wouldn’t be LA, right? Instead, they simply infused them all, with a small spray of flowers. Petal Drop isn’t here to destroy ugliness, but to marry it with the beautiful. You don’t transform a city by erasing its identity, even the unsavory parts. You accept and beautify it as a whole.

The anonymous group had done this once before in February. In the alley between the Arcade and Cameo theaters on Broadway, they sprinkled flowers for hours. They were also behind the Griffith Park Teahouse in June of last year. When I asked one of the tight-lipped but smiling employees if there will be more Petal Drops in the future, she shrugged. “We’ll see!” Though the group has been charmingly mum about its activities, you can follow them on twitter @petaldropLA. Or, you know, just happen upon their work in the street. That’s probably preferable.

All photos taken with a Fujifilm XM-1 mirrorless camera, and Konica Hexanon 50mm lens.

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Belladonna of Sadness is a 70s Japanese adult animation gem formerly forgotten, but recently restored for current limited release; the film combines psychedelic and erotic imagery in a boldly experimental re-imagining of the idea of the ‘witch’. 

From now til next week, the Los Angeles art and cinema scene will be treated to screenings of Belladonna of Sadness, the newest conduit for our current obsession with all things witch-y and goth, which all stated with the release of a staid yet hypnotic horror flick from last year. The political and social moment seemed so ripe for the arrival of 2015’s The Witch, the indie horror/thriller that turned the traditional conception of the witch on its head. Aside from its masterful control of atmosphere and tension, The Witch enchanted modern audiences with subtly feminist (and explosively anti-establishment) themes, subverting the witch into a modern symbol of female empowerment.

Serendipitously, this year sees the limited release of Belladonna of Sadness, a Japanese adult animated feature that, like The Witch, features a female protagonist mistreated and maligned until the arms of Satan are the only logical recourse. Belladonna packs the same progressive thrust as The Witch, but for a few differences. One: obviously, one is animated, the other is not. Two: Belladonna came 40 years earlier. Three: The Witch is all Puritan doom and gloom, while Belladonna is all Yellow Submarine-style psychedelia, Japanese pinku erotica, with a dash of Schoolhouse Rock.

Belladonna of Sadness tells the story of a beautiful commoner named Jeanne, who is brutally raped on her wedding night by the local ruling Lord with his corrupt court spectating. Over the course of the film, Jeanne’s awakening sexuality manifests as a phallic anthropomorphization. Persecution and exile eventually compel her to enter a Satanic pact, empowering her at last to combat her foes. Belladonna was made back in 1973 by Mushi Production (a studio established by the god of manga himself, Osamu Tezuka) which was famous for putting their money and efforts in technically ambitious (and overtly erotic) animated releases, a trio of flicks called collectively Animerama.

The film series was essentially the animated counterpart to the then-popular erotic/exploitation genre known as Pink Cinema. Towards that end, Animerama was a success by its own standards. The first ambitious first title, Thousand and One Nights, clocked in at a whopping 130 minutes and set the trend of experimental and ambitious animation, continued by the bafflingly avant-garde Cleopatra. While the former at least was a success in Japan commercially and critically, neither gained traction abroad: the rest of the world simply wasn’t ready to accept ‘adult’ animation, much less erotic animation. In spite of all that, Mushi Production cleaved to their philosophy of bringing liberated animation to the big screen, and went ahead with Belladonna of Sadness, whose commercial failure would go on to bankrupt the company

This public aversion to erotic animation only lends Belladonna of Sadness greater cultural gravitas as an act of transgression on multiple levels. Not only did it tell a story of unpent sexual energies, its artistic style reached for a liberated freeform style. Director Eiichi Yamamoto and artist Kuni Fukai looked to erotic-symbolist painter Gustav Klimt for stylistic cues, and incorporated experimental animation techniques such as live action sequences, and still panoramic paintings with narration. Just the simple fact of its ethos and existence flew in the face of sexually repressive cultural norms, an ethos that can be seen clearly in the the text that Yamamoto and Fukai called their main inspiration: Satanism and Witchcraft by Jules Michelet.

The seminal 19th century treatise was remarkable in its sympathy towards the historically persecuted figure known as the witch. Far from being a condemnation,  Satanism and Witchcraft was an examination of the witch’s philosophies and motivations, in the context of repressive Christian and masculine forces. It unambiguously painted witchcraft as an anti-establishment practice meant to combat feudalism and the iniquities of the Roman Catholic Church. According to the text, the sorceress’s mantra is that “nothing is impure and nothing unclean,” in direct challenge to modern and traditional taboos on feminine identity and biology

Michelet’s proto-feminist ideas and allegory of the witch were revived in Belladonna, which is now currently seeing its own revival at an exceedingly timely cultural moment. The technical restoration of Belladonna of Sadness was initiated by Hadrian Belove, cofounder of Cinefamily, a nonprofit revival cinematheque located in Los Angeles, CA. Distribution company Cinelicious Pics undertook 1000 hours of painstaking touch-ups and edits to restore the original reels to glory. Most exciting is the addition of eight minutes of cut footage, fortuitously discovered in the possession of Belgian cinema archive Cinematek. According to lead restoration artist Craig Rogers, the footage was probably cut both to reduce the running time, and also probably for the sexually explicit content therein.

The exceeding visual beauty of Belladonna of Sadness is reason enough to catch one of the numerous screenings happening now until mid-June. But in consideration of the film’s tumultuous history and bold spirit of artistic/sexual release, Belladonna should prove a landmark event for anyone interested in nontraditional animation, cinematic history, and foreign film.

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If I were to move away from Los Angeles forever, abandon its surreal night life and oddball attractions, I’d have to take a slice of its culinary delights with me. I’d have a hell of a time choosing, but somewhere on that list would be a little local gem called Galco’s Soda Pop Stop. This unassuming brown building in Highland Park boasts 700 flavors of craft soda, and as an avid customer, I can tell you that’s a conservative estimate.

Soda enthusiasts very well might die of happiness right there, first step through the door. On the right is a wall of commerce awards and community appreciation plaques. Past the register is a sight out of Costco: little forts of cardboard boxes filled with wares, arranged in rows. Except these are filled to the brim with craft soda, and only craft soda. Lemon sodas, cherry, strawberry, all the fruits are of course represented. Of course they have root beer, but sasparilla beer? Maple beer? Birch beer? Ginger beers too, but not the syrupy brand-name concoctions; I’m talking the Jamaican brands that sear like forest fires. Make a Moscow Mule out of that and never look back.

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It’s not often that the sweet tooth bites back, but that’s the premise behind the LA art installation Break Bread. Until mid-March, the Think Tank gallery space will host the installation’s fanged cake sculptures, urban memorial shrines, and more. Collectively, the pieces speak barbed volumes regarding consumerism, artifice, and the primitive urges that drive them.

Sweetness and Predation at a Provoking LA Art Installation

Los Angeles has no shortage of art galleries and creative events, but Break Bread still manages to stand above. Like any respectable LA art installation, it’s housed in a nondescript building in a similarly quotidian area of downtown. Past the entrance, the landing room houses a distantly erotic scene: a four-poster bed crowned with flowers, bathed in the pink neon of the Break Bread Logo. The room thoughtfully breaks the installation into two halves: the lavishly decorated cake galleries and installations through the doorways on the right, and the shadowy mirror maze through the left.

Getting Lost in the Thought

The first gallery is suffused in an incense-like blue hue,  with the solemn air of a child’s mausoleum. In one corner is a life-sized ice cream truck with a painstakingly illustrated menu of rocket pops, ice cream bars, etc. In the other corner stands a basketball hoop before a chainlink fence, with plush animals and stark portraits of pop culture icons festooning it. You’re reminded of an urban shrine for the deceased, the kind you see on neighborhood sidewalks, resplendent with candles and offerings. In that respect, this LA art installation shows off a distinctly Angeleno aesthetic in this memorial to childhood.

The other room houses the installation’s gorgeous cake sculptures and other pieces. The most eye-catching are the wall-mounted cakes exaggerated to resemble big game trophies. Beneath the ornamental icing and fruit fringes, the cakes boast toothy taxidermy maws poised to strike. The detail makes the viewer feel simultaneously endangered by the lurking beast, and fascinated by the beautiful confections adorning it.

The installation’s other half is drastically different; the entrance is marked by a single cake sculpture of a darkened mansion. This is the entrance to the underbelly of animalistic intent lurking beneath the glitzy plumage of the installation’s first part. Past the cake mansion, you’ll find yourself in a small prison cell decorated with bleached white bones and the sound of radio static.

And beyond that lies a mirror maze with tropical details throughout. Here, reflections and notions of identity and intent rebound and entangle with one another. One exit leads to a cubical space where two opposing mirrors reflect the viewer into infinity. The third wall projects scenes of rainfall and fire in contradictory alternation. The other exit leads you through a dimly lit boutique with ceiling disco balls and cake-and-foliage chandeliers.

The mirror maze and boutique exit back into the landing room with the four-poster bed. Yes, the two halves of the installation coincide in the bedroom, suggesting that the diammetrically opposed forces of artifice and natural savagery find simultaneous expression in sexuality and intimacy.

Much Thanks to Think Tank

Break Bread occupies the Think Tank gallery space in downtown LA. The artists behind Break Bread are Banksy collaborator Scott Hove and CalArts illustration graduate Keith Magruder, aka Baker’s Son. Hove is currently continuing his Cakeland project, challenging “society’s notions of comfort, pleasure, celebration and their dark counterparts.” Magruder’s works in turn offer “an artistic commentary on the socio-political aspects of food and the relationship that people and cultures around the world share with it.”

Break Bread is accessible, and free to visit daily from 11am to 5pm, except Wednesdays (and with RSVP). In the evenings, the space hosts special ticketed events. These range from culinary experiences, to poetry readings, and theatrical performances. It’s certainly one of the more engrossing LA art installations in recent memory, and at the price of absolutely free, it’s an experience that can’t be beat.

All photos taken with the Fujifilm XM1.

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It’s hard to believe that a city as flooded with distractions as LA can pay attention to anything for three days straight, but regardless, the Los Angeles Art Book Fair managed to stay packed and bustling for the whole weekend.It’s a beautiful season for art-lovers and gallery-goers in Los Angeles, the culmination of which might be the Los Angeles Art Book Fair. The Fair was an enormous book showcase occupying the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in downtown, right next to Little Tokyo. At LAABF, ‘book’ meant about a dozen different things: art perdiocals, handmade zines, signed antique pieces, art catalogs. The event opened its doors to basically everyone and anyone who did art and happened to showcase it on paper.

The Los Angeles Art Book Fair Believes in Art for, and by, All

After the paid preview night on Thursday, February 11, the Los Angeles Art Book Fair was free to the public for the rest of its residency. The sheer democracy of the event was chaotic, beautiful to see, and palpable in its festivity. I loved that the books on display proved as diverse as attendees. Established contemporary artists shared hallspace with DIY zinesters; you could buy signed Warhol photobooks from a dealer in one stall, nab a 3D printed pipe from the installation next door, and pick up handmade children’s clothing from the colorful booth at the end of the aisle. It was mad, confusing, and thoroughly engrossing.

Outside the Los Angeles Art Book Fair, a fleet of food trucks kept attendees hydrated and gorged on fare ranging from vegan tacos to street dogs to craft coffee. The small outdoors stage hosted DJs and bands throughout the day, culminating in a performance from none other than Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. Ms. Gordon had her own incendiary piece on display at the Fair.

This was the fourth year running strong for the Los Angeles Art Book Fair. The event comes courtesy of Printed Matter Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to being the most well-stocked, egalitarian dispenser of art books around. Though they’re based in the Chelsea Arts District in New York, I appreciate them making the cross-country trip, and can’t wait to return next year.

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