In the spirit of JR’s work and in an unusual move, this typically exclusive TED experience will embrace the general public and invite everyone in for a visit. You can help JR launch his wish by visiting the JR @ TED gallery

JR @ TED

Hours
Noon to 7pm on Thursday, March 3, 2011
10am to 7pm Friday, March 4, 2011

Location
JR @ TED at Phantom Galleries LA
170 N Promenade, Long Beach, CA 90802
Sign up to watch the prize wish live here Spread the word!

Phantom Galleries LA meets  TED

The art world has been changing for sometime now. Within the larger themes that have emerged, certain artists or movements have changed the way the public interacts with art. Specifically, street artists have given birth to an entire new thinking of where art can function. Keeping good company with street art, a recent trend has manifested that I have a personal stake in: the pop-up, temporary public art organized in vacant spaces. The pop-up gallery redefines what it means to have an otherwise unused space and transform it, hopefully, into a culturally enriching environment for all to enjoy. In Los Angeles, a magnet and spawning ground for creative types with uniquely rich imaginations, the pop-up and street art both naturally thrive. Both put contemporary fine art into accessible locations, pushing art into everyday life while creating unexpected art experiences. This inspires an environment that is rich and deep with possibility where anything can happen. Where a vacant storefront can host a    Bill Viola exhibition in his hometown or a George Herms Jazz Opera Workshop can occur surrounded by a Farmlab social sculpture next to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Where someone like me, out of sheer will with less than one bootstrap to her name, can launch a program like Phantom Galleries LA and 6 years and over 450 exhibitions later end up hosting and inviting all of you to a TED Conference event.

Phantom Galleries LA first became a TED Prize partner for James Nachtwey’s prize wish www.XDRTB.org. For me, TED.com was a love at first lecture. Since the first talk, I embarked on a natural weekly migration to the site. When I read through Nachtwey’s TED Prize wish, I noticed that it had mentioned that TED was looking for exhibition locations and then stated, “anyone can help.” I identified with the anyone, in “anyone can help.”  I reached out and offered what I had, and I was welcomed by the amazing people who help produce the incredible things the TED Prize accomplishes. Phantom Galleries LA hosted screenings for Nachtwey’s TEDprize, bringing the wish to the streets for the public to see all over Los Angeles. It was a simple wish: spread the story, stop the disease. Our faint PGLA logo still holds its place as a TED Prize partner next to Nokia, TIME, and Adobe on the TEDPrize.org site.

TED continues to remind me that we all have a TED Prize wish inside of us, and we don’t have to wait to be given a TED Prize to make our wishes come true,  that the best of who we are and what we have is what we give to each other.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”                                                           
-Theodore Roosevelt.

Liza Simone  
                                                                                                                                     Founder Director Phantom Galleries LA.

NEW WORKS BY PAINTER STEVEN JANSSEN AND PHOTOGRAPHER DESEREE LYON. OPENING RECEPTION: MARCH 12TH 2011 6-10PM AT THE ARTDEN. 122 e 3RD STREET AT PINE, DOWNTOWN LONG BEACH.  In Steven Janssen’s new series, “Windows To The Soul”, he revels in a surreal world of darkness and light. The hypnotic stare of his creations draw the viewer in leaving one to reflect, contemplate or perhaps even elevate. Deseree Lyon’s photographic series, “Wanderlust”, is in black and white and was started in 1997 and continues through today. Taken both in the U.S. and abroad, she captures images that allow the viewer to feel as if they are on the journey she has taken. Her intentions is to explore and capture what she sees through the lens and to not alter it in any way. ON VIEW THRU APRIL 6TH. For more visit www.stevenjanssen.com

Long Beach, California has a long history of video art, highlighted by the Long Beach Museum of Art that formerly housed one of the largest video art collections in the world. Historically, FAR (Foundation for Art Resources) often collaborated with the museum to contribute to the presentation and creation of video art in Long Beach. FAR would support video art programs such as the “Video Night Series” and other video and film based events. The exhibition Video: Recycled is continues FAR’s tradition of presenting contemporary and experimental video art.

Participating artists include: Sara Ching-Yu Sun, Ben Coonley, Bill Domonkos, Bryan Konesky, Ryan Lamb, Elizabeth Leister, Kelly Sears, Angie Waller, and Animal Charm.

More Info.
info@dblockprojects.com | dblockprojects.com

Media Contacts:
info@farsited.org | farsited.org | (949) 290-1035

“Video: Recycled” is made possible by FAR (Foundation for Art Resources), Arts Council Long Beach, Mexicali Biennial, D-Block Projects, and Phantom Galleries.

RVW (Renee Van Winkle)
is a Long Beach, California based artist that specializes in Pop Culture Collage Art. She has used mediums ranging from Canvas, Cigar Boxes, Furniture (Tables, Chairs, Stools, Desks, etc), Hand Bags to even Surf Boards. She has had multiple artist showcases throughout Southern California. And has had her artwork featured in print media publications throughout California. RVW is steadily establishing herself in the ever growing LA art scene. Look for upcoming art showings and a line of Collage Hand Bags soon to be released.
RVW is part of Smash Famous, a multi media art collective, specializing in
Film, Music, Art and Apparel.

www.SmashFamous.com
www.RVWArtwork.com

EFREN LUNA
is an Artist, Art Curator, Art-and-Music show organizer, writer, and philosopher. He studied Art at the schools of art at LBCC (AA Degree in Art) and CSULB (BFA in Drawing and Painting). He has been actively creating and promoting the arts. His curatorial work combines group exhibition which include site-specific installation and live music.
EFREN LUNA founded the Organization AMC
Art Music & Culture:  www.efrenluna.webs.com

AMC ART MUSIC & CULTREAMC INTENTIONS AND PURPOSES: To serve as a forum for Art & Music and Art & Community shows/events. AMC also intended to serve as an artists’ social network.  Here you can meet fellow artists and new friends. Stay posted for UPCOMING ART/MUSIC SHOWS!!!
AMC is based from Long Beach/Los Angeles area but its aims are to reach artists and communities locally and worldwide. We intend to serve as an organizational tool for ART, MUSIC & CULTURE (AMC) shows and events. We also intended to serve as an information center for art, music or cultural events. AMC website is www.efrenluna.webs.com  here you can learn about the AMC movement, read about its history or past and future events. You can join as a member too. As a member you can share your thoughts in our blogs and forums. We are welcoming every artist at every level as the goal is to serve the maximum number of artists in our universe and our metropolis in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Members to this site can place information about themselves too. In this, AMC also serves as a networking tool for artist. AMCs’ main focus is the collaborative efforts of artists working together. Our shows thus far have been very successful in bringing people together. The shows combine live music and art shows. Art-shows often come in the form of alternative galleries with site-specific installation by our friends at APHIDoIDEA.com among others. AMC uses any available venue, be it gallery, studio, open space, coffee shop, bars, nightclubs, warehouses, or empty retail stores. In this sense, AMC is in constant motion bringing spaces to life through our collaborative efforts and perhaps transforming such spaces and in the process bringing the cultural arts to diverse audiences.

EFREN LUNA
(562)756-3428
LUNAEFREN@YAHOO.COM
www.efrenluna.webs.com
www.myspace.com/efren_luna
www.twitter.com/efrenluna

AMC Art, Music & Culture http://efrenluna.webs.com/
Phantom Galleries LB http://www.phantomgalleriesla.org/

“Open Storage” is an invitation for artists to use D-Block Projects as storage facility and exhibition space for artworks that were being stored in their studios and out of view of the public’s eye. This exhibition draws upon the “open storage” trend found in several museums where storage facilities are opened to the public to see the otherwise private existence of stored art. The open storage experience removes the historical context of works and instead displays work based on the size, logistics of storage and the availability of space.

The exhibition “Open Storage” aims to create a heterogeneous display of artworks that have an intended random association to each other and require the viewer to create a narrative or framework outside of the traditional method of viewing art.

“Open Storage” will be D-Block’s inaugural exhibition and a transitional organization of art works as D-Block begins it’s 2011 programming at 218 The Promenade in Downtown Long Beach, CA.

Sixpack Projects is proud to present CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS, an exhibition of painting and sculpture curated by Jeff Rau, highlighting recent bodies of work by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Though differing somewhat in their choice of subject matter and conceptual approach, the work from these independent projects reveals overlapping concerns with the nature of language, representation, and memory.

About the Artists:

JONATHAN ANDERSON produces oil paintings and is actively exhibiting, both locally and nationwide. He holds an M.F.A. from California State University Long Beach, receiving the Distinguished Achievement Award in Drawing & Painting. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Art at Biola University, where he has been teaching since 2006. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.

NATHAN HUFF produces oil paintings, drawings, and sculpture that create freewheeling narratives: personal stories of suspending gravity, traversing emotional vertigo, and sorting reservoirs of memories. He earned an MFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2010, a degree in art education from Azusa Pacific University and has also studied art in Italy, France, the UK, and Spain. His work has been collected throughout the west by universities, churches, and private collectors. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.

About the Gallery:

Sixpack Projects is a collective of six artist/curators organizing innovative contemporary art exhibitions and events throughout Southern California. We are: Alyssa Cordova, Jennifer Frias, Lilia Lamas, Jillian Nakornthap, Jeff Rau, and Heather Richards. The Sixpack Projects gallery at Phantom Galleries Long Beach features special curatorial projects by the members of our collective and is intended to be a forum for engaging the community in important and relevant cultural discussions through the exhibition of contemporary art. For more information please visit www.SixpackProjects.com or Facebook.com/SixpackProjects

This project is made possible through a partnership with Phantom Galleries Long Beach and The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency is proud to partner with Phantom Galleries LA/Long Beach in the revival of empty storefronts along our major corridors, while also showcasing the arts and helping to build a sense of community and culture in Downtown Long Beach.

Curator’s Statement:

CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS highlights recent series of paintings and sculptures by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Though differing somewhat in their choice of subject matter and conceptual approach, the work from these independent projects reveals overlapping concerns with the nature of language, representation, and memory.

Anderson’s bodies of work entitled “Constructions” and “Impasse” establish a consistent conceptual framework that uses the flat surfaces of painting to investigate tensions that exist in our understanding of both image and word. It is no small mystery that a flat panel should appear to occupy a deep space–the flat abstract arrangement of paint on a surface evoking an experience of the sensible world–or likewise that written language which exists only in flat, abstract letter-forms should express emotion or speak to the infinite. Yet simultaneously, the painting and the text never forsake their flatness. Rather than propose solutions to this tension, Anderson constructs carefully rendered spaces with both physical and represented obstacles that prevent the viewer from ever fully entering the work, thus forcing the viewer to wrestle with these opposing forces of invitation and obstruction.

By contrast, Huff offers no impediment but invites us down the rabbit hole to revel in realized impossibilities. His series of “Absurd Excavations” fully invites the viewer to enter a new reality where objects and memories are transformed and re-imagined through paint and sculpture. Mining his own personal history and family folklore, Huff begins his work from a very real grounding and then embarks on a wholly original journey. This new narrative lacks a linear path, but proceeds in a series of intersecting tangents that refer back to both real and newly manufactured histories. This complex and playful process continues to inspire new revelations in the work while simultaneously challenging the veracity of the memories on which we ground them.