Apologies for the late-ish notice, but heads up if your afternoon is free:  Designer Con 2009 is up and running until 5pm today at the Pasadena Convention Center.  Designer art, apparel, and slick toys will be on display and for sale.  Their attitude is to “expand the scope of ‘that which is design.’”  Artists defining and expanding the scope of design include Amanda Visell, Christopher Lee, Tim Biskup, and Buff Monster (!).  If you follow Buff Monster on Twitter, you’ll see he’s made an exclusive t-shirt for the event.  And, though it’s not nearly as kawaii as watching the shiba inu puppies grow, ToyBreak also is using Ustream to stream live from the floor of the show.

Admission price is $5 before 3pm; after 3pm, it’s free.  See you at 3.

click for a full view with map

The LAAA is having its annual Aurora Holiday Art Sale Saturday only 11/21.  There is a preview sale that includes complimentary champagne starting at 6pm that will cost you 25 bones.  Its free after 7PM but no free booze.   (Their flier does get bigger with a click for all the details you could ever want).

The best part of this show is that it is all about affordable art for collectors and exposing them to up-and-coming artists.  Artists like my friend Ginger Van Hook who was picked up after the jurists viewed her work at last weekends Inglewood Art Walk.

Seventeen art gallery’s and studios will be hosting the Inglewood Art Walk this weekend.   Courtesy the Parks and Recreation Department there will be free Trolley Tours taking you along the route.  The complete map of the route can be downloaded HERE.

Among the participants are two of my favorite artists Ginger Van Hook (photography) and Luke Van Hook (painting).  They will be hosting the closing reception 5-7Pm on Sunday 11/15 at their studio located at 703 E Hyde Park Blvd, Inglewood, CA.

More information on the artists and art can be found at the Inglewood Open Studio blog.

Photo “Hot Pink Peppers”  by Ginger Van Hook and used with permission.

My boy is back after a week away shooting music and art in Vegas, and boy are his arms tired! Um…sorry. Yes. Anyway, CuriousJosh is here with your to-do list of this week’s weird and wonderful underground events. -Lucinda.

Hello Los Angeles! I’m CuriousJosh, happily here on loan courtesy of LA Weekly. Read on for vampires, live art, Miss Jackson–if you’re nasty–Hello Kitty, underground DJs, and wig socialization opportunities.

Downtown Artwalk (Thursday)
Thousands converge for this culture crawl through Los Angeles’ downtown art district. Visit an array of galleries, speckled with live music, wine, craft sales, and more. FREE

I AM A LASER (Thursday)
When artwalk dies down, the culture continues. DJs and Live art highlight the new monthly I AM A LASER artwalk afterparty at Club Nokia. This month features DJ Take (Dublab/Alpha Pup/Los Angeles), R/D (The Designed Disorder), LC (Cannibal Flower/Think Space), live artwork by Hans Haveron, live painting by John Park, and roving photography by Curious Josh.  $10.

Wig Out! (Thursday)
Get your wig out, and join this offbeat crowds monthly themed wig party. This month DJ My Little Pony, DJ Spinny, and performance art troupe Art of Bleeding spearheads the medical themed health care night. Tonight’s a perfect opportunity to use that Halloween naughty nurse outfit you thought would stay in the closet until next year. $8 with wig/ $10 without. At Bordello. (Great parking and safe!) 901 E 1st St, 90012.

Click thru for vamps, tribal DJ parties, one spooky Kitty, and wardrobe malfunctions en masse.

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According to Skylight Books, Gay LA is its bestselling GLBT title since 1996.  And, really, LA was pretty gay at some point.  To remind us about gay LA, Roots of Equality organized LAvender Los Angeles, a two-week long celebration and analysis of LGBT history and culture in our city.  The exhibit currently is open at The Exchange which, conveniently, also will be open during tonight’s monthly (and free!) Downtown Artwalk.  Just off of 5th and Main, right next to the Must Bar, the exhibit highlights LA gay, bisexual, and transgender culture from the 1880s to the present.  And by “LA,” I don’t mean “West Hollywood” – I’m talking about Pershing Square, bars along Main, and Le Barcita, endpoint of last week’s protest and rally.  After you’re done taking in a little local pride color, join the other hipsters, yuppies, artists, “artists,” loft dwellers, and their lovely dogs as they roam the streets in search of other open galleries in the gentrified sections of the Historic Core.

If you miss the walk, the exhibit is open until November 20 and has fairly generous hours.  There are other LAvender Los Angeles events at the space, including a walking tour of prominent gay locales on Saturday.  The full schedule can be found here.

The LAvender Los Angeles exhibit is located at The Exchange, 114 W. 5th Street (between Spring and Main), and will be open today from 12pm-9:30pm. Other galleries on the Artwalk have their own operating hours, and, judging from past experience, the streets really crawl after 7ish.

Pretty nifty A R T photo taken by Sean_Yoda_Rouse via the Metblogs Flickr pool.

My work took me past Jeremy Swan’s Broken Art Tattoo shop on Hyperion today, to shoot some photos for our website. When I realized what a nice, cool guy he is, I decided I had to help however I could. You see, Friday is the day–that’s 24 hours, there–that Jeremy tattoos over 801 people.

Well, that’s the plan, at least (info). Here’s the man in his own words: “November, Friday the 13th, I will attempt to beat the world record of ‘most tattoos done in 24 hours.’  I have learned that the actual number to beat is 801 tattoos set on Nov. 17, 2008 by Hollis Cantrell.  That is an incredible amount of tattoos to do in 24 hours. I began to wonder if I should still do this…This is twice the amount of tattooing I had anticipated.”

But he’s got a lot in his favor: he’s a great artist, as you can see by the photos, and he’s offering four designs to keep the process streamlined: one, a cute little bat; two, the classic “LA”; third, a heart with wings; and fourth, lucky number 13–since it’ll be Friday the 13th when he does this. And you can’t argue with the price: $20 for the first, $10 for each additional one. You can check out Jeremy’s blog here.

Stop by even if you’re an indecisive wuss like me and not gonna get ink done: they’re gonna have live music, tasty food, booze, t-shirts with a custom design you can see in this photoset I just made, and a raffle for cool stuff.

MOCA is celebrating their collection of Post War art in Collection: Thirty Years of MOCA by offering free Museum admission November 15th through the 20th.

The installation will showcase art work from over 200 artists with the years 1940 – 1980 displayed at MOCA Grand Avenue and 1980 to the present at The Geffen Contemporary gallery.

On November 19th, you can hear Two Artists Perspectives of Los Angeles in the 70s.

Join William Leavitt and Allen Ruppersberg, both of whom are featured in Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, for a conversation with independent curator Carole Ann Klonarides about the experience of making and presenting work in the 1970s. This event is hosted by X-TRA, Los Angeles’s longest running contemporary art journal.

The talk is free to attend.

I finally got over to the Hello Kitty celebration, Three Apples, that I told you about a few weeks ago. I really had a great time and recommend it for any fans. Even those of you who don’t care so much about the little cartoon cat, may want to check out the art exhibit featuring very creative, and in some cases downright disturbing, homages to Miss Kitty by over 80 artists. Fantastic stuff. I also got a kick out of seeing the variety of products available in Japan, from toys to elaborate tea sets emblazaned with her image.  Other showcases include everything from kitchen appliances to school supplies to an entire Hello Kitty bathroom. The vintage items featured are sure to stir some childhood memories.

I met up with a group of friends and we waited in line for about an hour for brunch in the café. It gave us time to look at some of the surrounding displays. While you could order from the regular menu, there was also a special Hello Kitty menu, of course, featuring a high tea and character shaped pancakes and waffles. Guess what we chose to order. There was no way we could pass up a combo of yummy and cute!

This is the last week of the event and I predict that it will be quite crowded this coming weekend as folks realize it’s their last chance. I’ve heard that it’s not so bad during the week, so that may be the way to go if your schedule allows. I plan to go back just for the store as the line to get in yesterday was incredibly long.

Three Apples runs through Sunday, November 15th at Royal/T in Culver City, 10am-10pm. There is no admission fee, but you might have to wait to get into the shop or be seated in the café.

I can’t believe I missed the opening of WK Interact’s new exhibition How To Blow Yourself Up. I had it on my calendar and then I simply forgot to look and missed it. I was really looking forward to this because while I’ve seen his works previously at earlier Subliminal Projects exhibitions I was tipped off that this one takes a whole new direction and blows the older works out of the water. Since I really like the older works, that sounds exciting.

Luckily the show runs all month (until Dec 5th) so I’m going to make sure to see it. If anyone else made it to the opening or saw it this weekend I’d love to hear what you thought!

Photo by Annie Liebovitz

The inimitable Rachel Rosenthal has been an icon of performance art for decades, equal parts priestess, goddess, shaman and oracle. The gal’s been honored by the City of Los Angeles as “a Living Cultural Treasure of Los Angeles” and has recently been the subject of several monographs on her performance pieces and life. Not a whole lot of people are well-versed with the panopoly of major names in contemporary art–I myself am certainly not–but if you can add Rachel to your list of cocktail party conversation topics, everyone will know you’ve got your basics down.

In honor of the grand dame of experiential performance art’s 83rd birthday (83rd!), Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station will be hosting a birthday bash on Saturday night, with artworks contributed by luminaries of the art world: Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Eleanor Antin, Lita Albuquerque, Judy Baca, John Baldessari, Llyn Foulkes, George Herms, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Ed Moses, Lee Mullican, Betye Saar, Masami Teraoka, Patssi Valdez, and June Wayne. The pieces are to be auctioned off to raise funds for Rosenthal’s dance company, the TOHUBOHU! Extreme Theatre Ensemble, funding student scholarships and visiting artist stipends. Nice.

I know I won’t be able to afford any of these pieces, but I want to go just to take in the assemblage of the 20th century’s great West Coast artists all in one place–a Broad Collection-esque justaposition, cherrypicking the biggest names of the past century. Thank you Rachel. (There’ll also be cake by Cake Divas and “Bitch”-brand wine & bubbly, so, there’s that too.)