The West Coast’s most comprehensive art experience, LA Art Show, is commemorating its 20th Anniversary at the LA Convention Center from January 14-18, 2015 and a handful of recent alumni from Art Center’s Illustration Department will be there to help celebrate.
Building on the success of last year’s partnership, Red Truck Gallery owner Noah Antieau again invited Associate Chair Aaron Smith to assemble a collection of work by Art Center’s Illustration alumni to showcase in “Littletopia,” a curated selection of galleries that are “bucking convention” in the art world. Smith has tapped emerging artists Zander Bice, Ranee Henderson, Ariel Lee, Valerie Pobjoy, Chris Youssef, Cassie Zhang to display their work under the “New Eye” banner, a term borrowed from the diverse tracks of study available within Art Center’s Illustration program. To add to the spectacle, upper-term students Addison Eaton and Erica Buttenschen will be presenting large, site specific sculptural installations at the fair.
“We really want to help Noah create a destination for people within the show,” Smith said, himself an Art Center alumnus with a successful fine art career. “Last year, there was a lot of curiosity about our booth. Visitors were kind of amazed that Art Center was consciously immersing our Illustration alums into an environment of art collectors and patrons.”
The set-up seems to have worked very well. Countless attendees expressed enthusiasm over the New Eye concept and outcomes last year. A curator from Gana Art Gallery in Seoul, Korea asked for a studio visit with three of the exhibiting artists and one of the artists was asked to exhibit in “The Life Cycle” at the Fullerton College Art Gallery.
“Not only do sales at LA Art Show directly benefit the artist, but a percentage is also donated back to scholarships for our students,” Smith added. “And of course the exposure is incredible.”
What’s different this year? “Typically a gallery owner or agent represents a collection of artists in a given space but our alums are making it a point to be in the booth for part of the show,” Smith said. “I think visitors and collectors will love hearing directly from the artists about their personal journey and how that has inspired their artwork.”
