Alt Art Auction
Divas de los Muertos haunt Lawndale Art Center gala
Over 245 eight-by-10 inch pieces of decorated tin served as the basis for Lawndale Art Center's 23rd annual Día de los Muertos retablo silent auction and gala. The art organization invited artists to create a retablo or ex-voto inspired work for the auction, all of which were bid upon by the party's discerning viewers.
The retablos decking the walls of the Grace Cavnar Gallery included first-time artists as well as local heavyweights the likes of Al Souza, Joan Laughlin and John Runnels. The selection was in every sense diverse, from Carlos Pozo's hard-edge sketching and Clark Kellogg's woodcraft wizardry to Myke Venable's mod Ellsworth Kelly tribute and Kendall Gremillion's oil spill abstractions.
Installations by local schools filled the lobby and migrated upwards into the building's mezzanine, where the band Mr. Bristle and friends lured bidders with Latin grooves. Guests sipped St. Arnold brewskies and cocktail interpretations of Vitamin Water and Cabo Wabo Tequila.
In the maraca mix were event chairs Miri Wilkins and Penelope Gonzalez Marks along with Diana Hudson, Lawndale chair of the board of directors and Día de los Muertos underwriter. Also spotted in the circulating swarm were architect James Glassman spying on his Etch-a-Sketch retablo, Big Show guest curator Paul Middendorf and Lawndale director-cum-emcee Christine West.
The exhibition of retablos is on view through Nov. 6.