News Update: Lardner Opts for Art

She says she pulled a “Robert Townsend.”

Lonnie Lardner helped finance the creation of Artik, a Beverly Hills art gallery, with credit cards, just as Townsend financed the movie satire “Hollywood Shuffle” with his plastic. Lardner, a former KCAL-TV Channel 9 news anchor who descends from a long line of journalists, hopes her new gallery, which she opened in September with the help of two partners, will gain the word-of-mouth success enjoyed by Townsend’s underdog film.

The gallery already boasts of Hollywood notables as customers and of avant-garde artists as its fare. Artik’s first exhibit last month saw the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose and Lou Reed.

Actually, it was their likenesses that graced the Beverly Hilton lounge Lardner transformed into Artik. Painter Philip Burke and fellow caricaturist David Cowles headlined the exhibit, dubbed “Icon, Iconograph, Iconoclasm.”

Lardner, who left journalism last year, conceived the idea for the gallery while in an unemployment line. She says Artik will mix bold, contemporary art--which reflects her own taste as a part-time artist and full-time art aficionado--with a casual atmosphere.

“Some galleries you go to are haughty, cold and passive,” she said. “Artik is active.”