Paula Scher wows at PDC

Works by the celebrated graphic designer and artist, Paula Scher, arrived at the PDC on September 19 during Fall Market, as a part of Design Loves Art.

Here are some photos from the opening night gallery reception where guests marveled at her work. Also, take a look back at our interview with Helen Varola, Design Loves Art Curator who chose Scher's exhibit, here.

Charles Cohen and Paula Scher

Scher's Maps Exhibit will run through November 10 at the PDC in space B231. For more information on the exhibit, click here.

Photos Courtesy of Melissa Manning

Paula Scher: Maps, Prints & Drawings

Works by the celebrated graphic designer and artist, Paula Scher, will arrive at the PDC as a part of Design Loves Art, an arts program launched in late 2009 with the aim of providing a platform to explore art and design. Maps, Prints & Drawings opens on September 19 along with 14 other new gallery exhibits.

Since the early 1990’s, Scher has been re-imaging society’s approach to data and our visual representation of the world through map making. Her maps are like nothing ever seen in an atlas, they are composed of typography and vibrating colors looming large at an outrageous scale.

Design Loves Art Curator, Helen Varola, explains that she chose Scher for this exhibit based on the way she links the world of art with the world of design through her work.

“Our arts program focuses on artists who extend their normal practice towards various media, including design,” said Varola. “Paula Scher, a critically recognized graphic designer, is also a painter who fuses her design DNA onto canvas to forge limitless boundaries for her art.”

Scher’s hand-pulled screen-prints are exquisite renditions of her massive map paintings. Made in collaboration with Andy Warhol’s master printer Alexander Heinrici, each print is realized with the same hand-drawn elegance of her painted maps.

“She is involved in every step of the printing process, redrawing new plates in the same style as the master printmakers of the 20th century,” said Varola. “Her Paris map is particularly stunning!”

There will be an opening night reception on September 19 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. in Suite B231, and a talk with Scher on September 20 at 2:00 p.m. in the Blue Conference Center, Suite B259. The exhibit will run through November 10 in space B231.

For more information on the exhibit visit the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery website. And for more information about the PDC or Design Loves Art click here.

Design Loves Art: Performance & Public Art Festival at PDC (Part 1 of 3)

Design Loves Art provides a platform to explore art and design issues, addressing the design center’s unique context of interior design spanning a variety of disciplines and media. Exhibition space as well as site-specific commissioned work is provided for artists and curators upon invitation. Design Loves Art is directed by New York-based curator Helen Varola and made possible by the generous support of Charles S. Cohen, art collector and museum trustee at MOCA, which is on site at the PDC. For further program information, please visit the PDC online.

Design Loves Art at the Pacific Design Center has recently announced new exhibitions with Annie Wharton Los Angles, Another Year in LA, The Prospectus, den contemporary, Freeway Studios, Gemini G.E.L., Here is Elsewhere, Industry Gallery, See Line Gallery, Mary Younakof, and Young Projects.

Design Loves Art runs at the PDC through March 23. For more information, visit the PDC online—and stay tuned next week for a few highlights from Design Loves Art.

In the News: DDB Presents an Exhibition of Digital Prints by Pratt Alumni (Part 2)

Last week, designers and Pratt alumni celebrated an exhibition featuring 60 digital prints from Pratt Institute's digital arts, photography and illustration programs. Charles S. Cohen, President and Owner of the Decoration & Design Building, along with co-collaborator and Pratt Institute President, Dr. Thomas Schutte, welcomed visitors to the two-year exhibition of the prints at a public reception in the DDB’s Astra Café.

The exhibition was curated by Jen Osborne, assistant director of Exhibitions at Pratt Institute, along with Helen Varola, Cohen Design Center Curatorial Advisor, and exhibits the work from 15 Pratt alumni artists.

"I've been working on this exhibit for over a year now and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see it in the finished stage," said Jen. "All of the artists are now alumni, but some were still students when the process started last Spring. Working with them one-on-one with their art was such an honor. I'm really proud of them and of their art!"

Helen wandered around the 18 floors of artwork with us and told us about her role in the process and what she loved most about seeing the finished product.

"When you start something this big with something as basic as redesigning the stairwell, it really is amazing to see how fantastic it all looks now," said Helen. "Working with Charles to pick the paint colors and design in the stairwells was a fun process. We had a fantastic team headed by Daniel Faust, who we were really happy to work with."

"We had some very clear things in mind when we went over the layout and design of the exhibit, as well. The text on the walls was one of my favorite aspects of the exhibit because I wanted it to be reminiscent of what you see and experience at museums such as the MoMA."

We ran into one of the young artists’ proud family members. "This isn't the first time that we've seen Tory's [Novika] work on display, but this is the biggest venue we've seen her in,”
 said the couple.  ”We can't explain how thrilled and proud we are to see her living out her passion and pursuing it so successfully."

Originally from Moscow, Tory has grown up in Manhattan and has always been dedicated to creating art. "It's been no surprise to us that she is still making art and pursuing a career in it. Now if we could just find her to congratulate her!"

The prints will be on display in the common space between the DDB's 120 showrooms. Editioned, signed and archival copies of the displayed works will be made available for purchase by Pratt Institute's Department of Exhibitions. The work will be on display Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through June 2013.

Event Spotlight: PDC's Design Loves Art Reception

If you're on the West Coast this week, don't miss the PDC's opening reception for Design Loves Art, featuring over 15 new projects and exhibitions by artists, curators, filmmakers and emerging architects.

Led by curator Helen Varola, Design Loves Art series has been recognized in Artforum's Critic Picks for 2010, Interview, Flash Art, The Art Newspaper and the LA Times.

The reception will be held this Thursday, May 26 from 5:00 - 8:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Blue Building. For further program information visit www.pacificdesigncenter.com or contact Helen Varola at www.helenvarola.com.

Artillery Magazine

Last September, almost immediately after the inaugural reception of the Pacific Design Center's Design Loves Art program, director/curator Helen Varola received a flood of proposals from gallerists and artists asking how to sign on. To add to this frenzy, a new contemporary art fair was in the works, also to be held at the iconic Blue Building in West Hollywood. At DLA's subsequent opening, the excitement was so palpable I wondered how the Design Center could have so transformed, seemingly overnight, into LA's latest mecca of cultural currency and hipness.

As DLA marks its first anniversary, last fall's initial buzz has subsided. The fair, held in January, will re-emerge at a new venue next year. Ironically, many LA natives, including a sizable number in the art community, remain unaware or confused about the residency program of 12 to 15 participants - gallerists, artists, collectives and independent curators - on the building's second floor. The fact that DLA is so far under the radar is truly unfortunate, because the programming is fantastic. There is also the real potential, with so many art venues in one place, for the PDC to position itself as the next big art community in Los Angeles. But that can only happen if CEO Charles S. Cohen is willing to reinvent the complex's puzzling, quasi-public identity.

As an art destination, the PDC is a surreal departure from the gritty, open-air experience of walking gallery to gallery in downtown, Chinatown or Culver City. The atmosphere feels quite the opposite - clean and fluorescent-lit - as a shopping mall catering to the luxury interior design trade. Amid the polished surfaces of marble and glass, there are dozens of chic chairs, Oriental carpets and cascading chandeliers - and now, next to the stores in identical windowed showrooms, the eclectic and unpredictable offerings of art. But when the art spaces come alive during openings, you can feel an invigorating sensory overload just by walking the halls and taking in those juxtapositions.

http://www.artillerymag.com/