Santa Monica Galleries: More Bad News

The bad news keeps coming for the Santa Monica gallery scene. The latest casualty is Robert Berman’s B-1 Gallery, which will close in February.

“I’ve been losing money, and I’m just not in a situation to continue both,” Berman said, referring to Main Street’s B-1 and the larger gallery on Broadway that bears his name. “So I have a choice, and I decided to stick with the bigger venue.” Berman said the current exhibition by Bill Barminski will be B-1’s last, after which he will hold a sale of works from the gallery’s back room. B-1’s director, Pattee Stayrook, will move to Berman’s Broadway space.

The news is brighter over in the Wilshire Center area, however, where Studio Raid has moved three doors down to 7378 Beverly Blvd., doubling its size to almost 2,000 square feet. “I was at the point where I just had to expand if I was going to continue,” said gallery owner Claudette Lucier. “And right now is probably the best chance--even though the market still seems a bit slow--because space is affordable.” Ironically, it was just a few months ago that Lucier was about to close for financial reasons and held an “S.O.S.” show to save her gallery. The show was a success, and coupled with a great deal on the new space, it enabled her to expand.

In other gallery news, Stuart Regen has an address for his new venture, Stuart Regen Projects. He will move just down the street to 629 N. Almont Drive. Information: (310) 276-5424.

WORKER BEES: Muralist and activist Judy Baca, Highways co-director Linda Burnham, LAPD theater group founder John Malpede and public artist Daniel J. Martinez are among the first 50 members of the country’s “Cultural Working Class,” a list compiled by the Baltimore-based advocacy group Artists for a Better Image, known as Art FBI.

The list was culled from nationwide nominations, in response to Dan Quayle’s well-publicized criticism of the “cultural elite” and Newsweek’s October list of the Top 100 cultural elitists in America.

Other Southern California recipients are artist Carolyn Applegate, who developed the Art Smart program for Los Angeles’ inner-city elementary students; Seal Beach-based artist Moira Hahn, who fought for open access to archeological information in connection with a development proposed for a burial ground sacred to the Gabrieleno Indians, and the San Diego public art group of Deborah Small, Elizabeth Sisco, Carla Kirkwood, Scott Kessler, Louis Hock and David Avalos.

MURALS: Los Angeles artists Elliott Pinkney, Yreina Cervantez and Paul Botello are among those chosen for 10 mural commissions for SPARC’s 1993 “Great Walls Unlimited” program.

Receiving $10,000 commissions are Pinkney, Illinois-based artist John Weber, David Fichter of Massachusetts and the teams of Cervantez and Michael Schnorr of San Diego and Botello and San Francisco’s Johanna Poethig. Receiving $5,000 commissions (the amount is based on the artist’s past mural experience) are L.A.’s Michael Amescua and Daryl Elaine Wells, Kuk Chol Han of Chino and Arizona-based artists Cristina Cardenas and To Ree’Nee’ Keiser. The murals will be completed over the course of the year.

Meanwhile, one of the final murals in the ’92 “Great Walls Unlimited” program, Jill Ansell’s “Immaculate Perception,” was dedicated on Friday. The 16-by-18-foot mural, at the headquarters of Planned Parenthood at 1920 Marengo St., depicts women from four different ethnic backgrounds and the words “The Right to Choose.”

HOLIDAY SALE: Thirty-six local artists are selling works through Jan. 3 at the new 7,500-square-foot exhibition space Culture Factory, in the One Colorado complex in Old Pasadena. The space is run by the Pasadena-based nonprofit arts group the Light-Bringer Project and is open daily from noon to 9 p.m. (6 p.m. on Sundays). Proceeds from the holiday sale will go toward maintaining the space as a permanent arts facility. Information: (818) 449-3689.

CRITICISM COURSE: This spring Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design will begin offering a master’s program in art theory and criticism designed to prepare students to become curators, writers, critics and theorists. The program’s advisers will include artist Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, writer Amy Gerstler and critics Colin Gardner and Susan Kandel. Information: (818) 584-5152.

HOLIDAY HOURS: The L.A. County Museum of Art, normally closed on Mondays, will open on Dec. 28 for holiday crowds. In addition, all exhibitions will be open for the entire week, instead of the rotated schedule forced by county budget cuts. The museum will be closed, however, on Christmas and New Year’s days.

AWARDS: L.A. County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Barron has received the annual Theo Wormland Art Prize from Munich’s Theo Wormland Foundation. Barron received a prize of 10,000 deutsche marks (about $6,300) for her research and curating of LACMA’s exhibition “Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany.”

Venice-based glass artist Dale Chihuly has been named the United States’ first “National Living Treasure,” an honor judged from a list of nominees submitted by the nation’s governors. Chihuly was nominated by Washington Gov. Booth Gardner. . . . Robert Shapazin, director of Sam Francis’ Venice-based Lapis Press, has been named Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by Jack Lang, French minister of culture. . . . New York-based artist Daniel Barrett, who shows locally at the Herbert Palmer Gallery, won the bronze prize at the Osaka Triennale ‘92, making him the only American to win a medal at the prestigious international sculpture competition.

WANTED: The 18th Street Arts Complex is seeking proposals from artists wanting to lease the complex’s 1,000-square-foot New Gallery. A subsidy is available for low-income-artists groups and nonprofit organizations. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 1. Information: (310) 315-9633.

Also at the 18th Street Arts Complex, Karen Atkinson and Joe Luttrell have begun the Side Street Workshop, a nonprofit workshop space for artists to use drills, wood, welding and other heavy modes of production. The new organization, which hires artists to complete all projects, is seeking donations of tools and shop equipment and hopes to begin a tool checkout service. Information: (310) 828-0620.

Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery is seeking privately collected Hungarian artworks from 1890 to 1939, including photography, graphic design, drawing and painting, for an exhibition next summer. Information: (310) 338-2880.

Artspace Gallery, Finegood Art Gallery and the Pierce College Art Gallery are seeking local poets for programs being planned in conjunction with three upcoming exhibitions dealing with cultural differences, political issues and the aftermath of the L.A. riots. Information: (310) 474-6364.

The Venice Art Walk is accepting applications for participation in next year’s event. For consideration, artists’ studios must be located within the boundaries of North Venice Boulevard, Rose Avenue, 6th Avenue and Ocean Front Walk. Artists with studios outside those perimeters will be considered for docent tours. Interested artists should submit a resume and slides of their work to the Art Walk ’93 search committee by January. Information: (310) 392-8630.

The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission is calling for exhibition proposals from individual artists and groups for shows at the county’s Betteravia Gallery. Information: (805) 568-3430.