Walking for Art on Thursday

The second Thursday of the month is the time when Angeleno art mavens venture forth in search of the elusive high art. I went to the Downtown Art Walk this evening, braving the huddled cheese mice seeking shelter from the frigid SoCal winter to join in on the search. My reason for art trekking in nearly 50 degree weather was to ease my guilt in not visiting any galleries in almost a month, make that several months for tonight's neighborhood. My plan was to hit every show space guerrilla style up one avenue and down the other. The crush of dawdlers and party people was too bothersome to deal with so after a quickie in Crewest (dull, as too many other shows were) I popped into the sadly entertaining community spaces on Main before trying to enter Pharmaka.

Pharmaka held the promise of a thoughtful installation based upon an interesting observation by the director of a new visual vocabulary that a current generation of artists share. Any hopes of weighing in on that thought were squashed in the throng of gray noggins rooted in the center of the gallery intent on relating the latest news on Lost and their pets. So on to next space... 

Bert Green was also infested but fortunately the good artist of the three displaying work was installed toward the front of the space. Doug Cox- handles paint nicely, dense but not heavy, dark but the figures are still demarked with a soft edge. It would have been nice to spend more than a few moments on these pieces.

A couple of odd spaces later I climbed up the stairs to the Spring Arts Collective Gallery. This space usually has a mishmash of artists of varying abilities and tonight proved no different. But... the Daniel Mercadante video wing was nicely arranged and fit the odd shaped vault room well. I usually avoid darkened rooms with video installations like Watchtower peddlers but this time it didn't hurt to take a peek. So far tonight this was the most authentic proposition of the night- almost worth a second visit during daylight hours. The rest of the show was uneven and the computer squeezins' being pawned off as original print unfortunately kill the good feelings.

Morono Kiang Gallery was my cultural redemption of the evening. The ink paintings of Xie Xiaoze (no, I cannot pronounce that for you) were witty comments on historical and cultural memories. Craftsmanship- 3 stars, content- 3 stars, political commentary- 3 stars, need I go on? Plus, the animated dedication of Karon Morono satisfied the cultural craving that propelled me on this evening's sojourn.