I am a huge fan of David Hockney's artwork. I've had the privilege of interviewing him three times, once in his L.A. studio and another time at his then-home on Mulholland Drive, famously featured in the catalog of his LACMA retrospective in 1988. It doesn't hurt that we share a birthday, though he's a decade and a half ahead of me.
Leslie Sacks Contemporary at Bergamot Station will exhibit what feels almost like a mini-retrospective, "David Hockney: Narrative and Imagination," featuring portrait and interior drawings and series of lithograph editions he made from 1963 to 1998.
Some of his most desired and iconic works include a series of portraits of his close friend Celia Birtwell, which will be on view here, along with the lithograph Rain, from his Weather series, influenced by traditional Japanese printmaking (Ukiyo-e) and which pre-date his famous swimming pool images.
These days Hockney divides his time between L.A. and his native Yorkshire in England. This show will be a visual stunner — don't miss it.
Leslie Sacks Contemporary is located at Bergamot Station; the works will be on view March 7 through April 18. For more information, call (310) 264-0640 or visit www.lesliesackscontemporary.com.
HATS OFF
A tiny arts oasis has sprung up in a very light industrial corridor just off Colorado Avenue at Stewart Street. The Braid Performance and Art Space is home to the popular Jewish Women's Theatre production "Not That Jewish," which has been extended (yet again) through March.
It's also a studio and gallery space that is about to debut a new mother-daughter art show, "Things We Pass Down." This is the second in a series that explores what we take willingly and unwillingly from our parents and what we may pass down to our children.
This event features both fine art and the art of hat-making, with renowned milliner and Santa Monica resident Louise Green and her artist daughter, Lucy Sharf, a Santa Monica native who makes her home and art in Israel.
Green creates vintage-inspired and cutting edge hats that have crowned stylish women and celebrities since 1987, selling at top fashion stores like Neiman-Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue and seen on TV shows including "Modern Family," "Scandal," and "Desperate Housewives." The exhibit showcases Louise's intricate hat-making process, plus provides an opportunity to purchase one of her fanciful creations.
Sharf, who has never exhibited before, will unveil her oil-on-paper paintings featuring dolls as her subjects, exploring the poetry of solitude. Scharf also actively promotes and engages in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue toward a peaceful Middle East future.
Sharf believes that "Art can be a bridge. Anything that people are passionate about can bring them together and give them something to relate to and bond over. Common interests can break through barriers to a place of humanity."
The Braid Performance and Art Space is located at 2912 Colorado Ave., Suite 102. For more information, visit www.atthebraid.org or call (310) 315-1400.
'POTTED POTTER'
Don't have endless hours to watch all the Harry Potter movies again? The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills offers you an alternative with the L.A. debut of "Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience — A Parody by Dan and Jeff" in the Bram Goldsmith Theatre.
Condensing all seven Potter books into 75 madcap minutes, two Olivier Award-winning former BBC actor/hosts, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, are aided by multiple costume changes, brilliant songs, ridiculous props and a generous helping of Hogwarts magic. They invite audiences to engage in a real-life game of Quidditch, played according to Clarkson and Turner's unique set of rules.
A Monty Python-esque extravaganza of silliness, it's been a hit everywhere. "Potted Potter" has sold out theatres in London, Edinburgh, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Dubai, performing off-Broadway and to record-breaking audiences in Toronto.
Performances are tonight through Sunday, March 1, and with early shows and multiple weekend matinees, it's the perfect entertainment for the whole family. The Wallis is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. For tickets, call (310) 746-4000 or go to www.thewallis.org.
BUT CAN YOU SIT ON IT?
Santa Monica College presents "Fondamenta: Future Furniture Formed in a Collective Memory," with works by Peter Shire, Matt Connors, Peter Harkawik, and Matt Paweski on exhibit through March 28 at the Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, part of the SMC Performing Arts Center.
Shire describes the exhibit as "a cross between a buddy movie and a visual portal into an extremely positive vision/version of the future." Paweski says they conceived of the exhibit through "our friendship and mutual interest in design objects. "The show presents a group of works that point to a future where function is blurred and things that seem to perform one task, actually do another."
Shire, Paweski and Harkawik will hold a free panel discussion at the gallery about "Interpreting the Value(s) of Art and Design" on Saturday, March 14, at 2 p.m.
Paweski, a Detroit native who grew up in Phoenix, is a sculptor and designer working in Los Angeles. His furniture-inspired pieces are influenced by two-dimensional drawing and his background as a carpenter, cabinetmaker, and welder.
Shire is an award-winning L.A. artist whose colorful sculptures, furniture, and ceramics mix elements of art, architecture, and pop culture. His imaginative creations have been shown in the United States, Italy, France, Japan, and Poland, and his public sculptures include the colorful North Hollywood Gateway.
Connors is a New York artist whose abstract works draw from the history of painting, as well as the fields of language, music, and design.
Harkawik is a Los Angeles sculptor and photographer who uses architecture and industrial design as inspiration.
For more information, call (310) 434-3434. While construction is ongoing, enter at 11th Street.
Sarah A. Spitz spent her career as a producer at public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica and produced freelance arts reports for NPR. She has also reviewed theatre for LAOpeningNights.com.
