Category: Museum

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GENTLE MONSTER EYEWEAR PLANT SEEDS FOR A SUCCESSFUL HARVEST

From the outside looking in, it is hard to believe Gentle Monster in Los Angeles, California is a place that sale luxury eyewear.

Gentle Monster was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 2011 and it is expanding globally with flagship stores in some of the hottest locations around the globe Los Angeles, New York, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and more to come due to the swift trending of the brand.

The theme of the art on display inside Gentle Monster represent Harvest season. I felt like I was walking through an art gallery.

Scarecrows on a mother of pearl greet visitors at the entrance…

Metallic rods symbolizing grain stalks…

Handwoven rugs by Misu A Barbe the knit maker…

Kinetic installation by artist Jung Uk Yang

Millennial branding seeds were planted by Gentle Monster to produce a successful harvest of online purchases from around the world.

Gentle Monster creates Instagrammable moments by encouraging visitors and potential customers to try on fashionable frames and take pictures to share on social media.

Sometimes all you need is a new pair of eyewear, to plant positive seeds and to harvest a crop of vision for the future.

 

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38th Annual Black Doll Show: Double Dutch – A Celebration of Black Girlhood

It was truly a pleasure to visit a Black Doll Show to recognize the uniqueness of Black Girls and the nuances of Black Girlhood at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles, California.

In the 1940s, husband and wife psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a doll test due to social stigmas showing black children preferred white dolls over black dolls.

The black doll test results conducted by Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clarks was used as evidence in civil rights lawsuits.

In 1964, Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark were expert witnesses in the Brown vs. Board of Education and several other cases to desegregate school in the United States of America.

In 1980, Cecil Fergerson, Artist/Curator started the Black Doll show to change the negative self-image by bringing together artist from around the country to produce handmade black dolls with a variety of themes over the years to educate for example From the Cotton Fields to the New Millennium (2004), The Politics of Imagery (2011) and The War Against HIV/AIDS – Women of the African Diaspora In the Trenches (2015).

In 2006, a 17-year-old filmmaker Kiri Davis conducted the same black doll test Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark did in the 1940s and the results were unfortunately the same.

We were proud to see a Black Doll on display by our loved one Doll Artist Sharon Pittman, a retired high school art teacher and current university instructor. Sharon is also a member of the selective Los Angeles Art Association. She was born and raised in San Francisco and completed her undergraduate degree at California College of the Arts in Oakland. Sharon holds a PhD in Cultural/Museum Studies from Claremont Graduate University.

Additional handmade Black Dolls and quilts by other artists…

The handmade Black Dolls in the exhibit also touched on sensitive issues such as the hypersexualization of black girls.

Black Dolls reading a book about Assata Shakur…

Black Dolls representing the Black Lives Matter movement…

Video of a variety of Black Dolls on display…

The exhibit brought back childhood memories of me playing double dutch with my friends. Since the Black Dolls were busy playing double dutch, I took the opportunity to play hopscotch until it was my turn to jump in between the ropes.

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THE BROAD MUSEUM

Motorcycle Ride to the Broad Museum was worth splitting lanes through downtown Los Angeles rush hour traffic.

The Broad Museum is one of the most popular FREE museums in Los Angeles. That’s right it’s FREE to enter the Broad Museum so make sure to request tickets in advance because sometimes there is a long line wrapped around the corner to get in. It’s the perfect place to capture an Instagram moment in every gallery thanks to self-made billionaire Eli Broad.

On August 23, 2010, Eli Broad announced he will build a museum in downtown Los Angeles to house contemporary art he and his wife Edythe collected over the years. The amount financed for the Broad Museum was $140 million.

The Broad Museum is home to more than 2,000 pieces of art inside a three-story building surrounded by a unique honeycomb square that allows natural sunlight to shine throughout the gallery. The contemporary art consists of pictures and paintings coveted by other museums. The goal of the Broad Museum is to make contemporary art accessible to visitors. There is a thick viewing glass window for visitors to get a sneak peak of the warehouse full of art not on display in the art gallery showrooms, which I hope to see in the near future.

My favorite piece of art at the Broad Museum was the Seated Woman by Ron Mueck because the detail made the miniature woman look real. I was stuck. I did not want to move my feet. I could not stop staring at this amazing sculpture.

Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away by Yayoi Kusama is very popular among visitors. Each visitor is given 45 seconds behind a closed door to spend time inside the Infinity Mirrored Room. Have your camera ready to strike a pose and take a selfie!

Under the Table by Robert Therrien – Grab a seat and let’s enjoy a very small bite to eat in the Giant’s den…

The eyes are creepy on the porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee Bubbles by Jeff Koons…

Roe v. Wade 1973 Supreme Court decision was addressed in a powerful and political art statement (Untitled) Your Body is a Battleground by artist, activist and feminist Barbara Kruger.

It was really cool to see Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings on display. This one is titled Melting Point of Ice. Unfortunately, Jean-Michel Basquiat committed suicide at the young age of 27.
If you decide to visit the Broad Museum, download the Broad mobile app available for iPhone and Android to serve as an audio guide.

A huge thank you to Rick Mitchell for a private tour of the Broad Museum.