Review of LA Art Show 2018, California, United States
The LA Art Show, the most comprehensive international contemporary art show in America, officially kick-off the city’s 2018 art season at the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 10, 2018. LA Art show is the unparalleled international art experience with more than 100 galleries from over 18 countries exhibiting painting, sculpture, works on paper, installation, photography, design, video & performance.
Building on last year’s excitement, DIVERSEartLA dedicates over 60,000 square feet in the LA Art Show to performance art, installations, exhibits and programs curated by major museums and arts organizations such as LACMA, MOLAA, The AUTRY and MUSA Museum of the art Guadalajara. The DIVERSEartLA section is devoted to nurturing the creative energy of collectors, artists, curators and institutions by providing a contemporary art platform that helps empower. cpmmect amd emgage LA’s dynamic communty and diverse audiences with the world.
Enjoy the LA Art Show’s more conceptual and abstract installations, such as Antuan Rodriguez’s “Left or Right” punching bags and Bunnie Reiss’s “Space Boat” in Littletopia. Adrienne Stein’s work was of particular note, with her ethereal figures intertwined with flora and fauna, and was a realist light in the contemporary Littletopia section. Works from across the globe were on view, weaving together art from 18 countries, including the National Exhibition from China.
A new section of the show, titled “DESIGN LA ART,” brought interior and architectural design to the show. With this new section we are honoring the city’s already rich history in the realms of design and architecture, as well as presenting forward-looking programming about the growing fusion of these two disciplines.
The fair focus on Latin America and the Pacific Rim. The event feature an array of art from contemporary and modern, to classical, and other specialized art scenes that often command their own dedicated shows. Radiant presentations are brought to life by a variety of galleries molding the Los Angeles artistic sphere as a completely accessible space for expression. The tradition and prestige of LA Art Show are already fully consolidated in the city and its surroundings, , makes it one of the main American contemporary art fairs.
Los Angeles has emerged as a global epicenter of art & culture, with a distinct, interwoven multi-cultural influence unique to the city. Diversity is our strength and art is most impactful when it includes or transcends all borders. As LA rises as the world-class destination for art, the LA Art Show continues to lead the way with innovative programming and one-of-a-kind experiences for an expanding collecting audience.
The LA Art Show creates one of the largest international art fairs in the United States, providing an exciting, immersive, insider art experience to sponsors, their select guests and VIP clients. The show attracts an elite roster of national and international galleries, acclaimed artists, highly regarded curators, architects, design professionals, along with discerning collectors.
The LA Art Show is also known for a robust schedule of special events during the weekend; in past years topics have ranged from fine art to fashion to film. This year’s programming highlights important themes related to the contemporary art world, including the trending topic, as it pertains to original, collectible digital files in the fine-art sector.
More than 200,000 square feet of exhibition space is committed to today’s prominent galleries. These domestic and international galleries, beyond their booths, curate special exhibits that are at the forefront of the burgeoning contemporary art movement. The fair offers an extraordinary array of works and experiences in specialized sections.
LA Art Show 2018
The LA Art Show 2018 creates one of the largest international art fairs in the United States, providing an exciting, immersive, insider art experience to sponsors, their select guests and VIP clients. The show attracts an elite roster of national and international galleries, acclaimed artists, highly regarded curators, architects, design professionals, along with discerning collectors.
This innovative, exceptional cultural environment attracts executives and board members of Southern California businesses, state, county, and municipal government representatives, as well as leaders of the region’s cultural institutions. Attendees are trendsetters, influencers and alpha consumers, who seek and demand the newest and the best in all areas of their lives—art, design, food, technology and travel being specific passion points.
For its 23rd edition, the showcase is continuing its expansion into the global art market with a new partnership with The Museum of the Arts of Guadalajara, as well as exhibitors from more than 18 countries. Returning exhibitors include heavyweights Patrick Painter, Timothy Yarger, SM Fine Art and more. ROOTS, a section devoted to historical works, returns for the second year in a row with exhibitors such as MS Rau Antiques, Rehs Gallery and Maxwell Alexander, to name a few. Littletopia return with the rising galleries of the contemporary lowbrow art scene. DESIGN LA was a new addition to the show, focusing on functional art, modern furniture, accent decor, architectural objects, jewelry and more.
Core – Core is a curated space for gallerises recognized around the globe as leading the way in contemporary art. The galleries showcased here continually educate, inspire, and enthrall the world’s avid collectors with the most sought-after voices in the market.
Modern + Contemporary – The largest section of programming at the LA Art Show, Modern + Contemporary exhibits the vast spectrum of contemporary painting, illustration, sculpture and more from galleries in Los Angeles, the Pacific Rim, and countries all around the world.
Roots – Honoring the voices and movements that came before, ROOTS is a dedicated exhibition space for galleries that showcase historical works and contemporary artists following in those traditions.
Design LA Art – Design LA Art serves as a curated space to showcase prominent international design galleries. Design LA Art provide an art market for collectible contemporary design and functional art, showcasing the best in objects of design, art, jewelry, architecture and furnishings presented adjacent to today’s leading global modern and contemporary galleries.
Works On Paper – Works on Paper is a dedicated exhibition space for showcasing photographs and other works not on traditional canvas.
Project Space – Hailing from around the world, the exhibitors in Project Space showcase a broad array of ideas and talents in the form of solo exhibitions, presented by participating galleries.
JEWEL – JEWEL is a dedicated space for exhibitors who specialize in luxury items, including jewelry and other accesories that surround the world of fine art.
DIVERSEartLA – Capitalizing on the city’s position on the Pacific Rim, DIVERSEartLA is a special programming section devoted to nurturing the creative energy of international collectors, artists, curators, museums and non-profits by connecting them directly with audiences in Los Angeles. Diversity and inclusion continue to be our key mandates as we reflect and rejoice. Capitalizing on the city’s position on the Pacific Rim, DIVERSEartLA is a special programming section dedicating over 35,000 sqft devoted to nurturing the creative energy of international collectors, artists, curators, museums and non-profits by connectiong them directly with audiences in Los angeles.
Featured Exhibitions – Expanding beyond the confines of booth spaces, Featured Exhibitions create immersive experiences to engage audiences through thought-provoking artworks, performances and other exhibitions offered by participating galleries, highlighting works that was talked about for years to come.
Exhibitions
Dansaekhwa IV: Internal Rhythm – Kim Tae-Ho
Development of Kim Tae-Ho’s most recent works coincided with the turning of the millennium, about the year 2000. Focusing on brush strokes and the application of color, for the most part, these works appear to be vastly different from his previous works. Above all, concerning the changing of appearance, thick layers of paint form bulky masses, which clearly diverge from his previous two-dimensional illusionary pieces. Simultaneously there are differences in physicality, and they differ uniquely from the full compositions of his paper works.
Regarding the process, he first draws interwoven lines. He creates a fixed rhythm, and after building up twenty layers of paint, he then scrapes away the dense accumulation of paint. Color that is hidden beneath rhythmically comes alive within the structure. Countless visual spaces are constructed within the overlapping grid formation; each cell is comparable to a beehive, producing its own life in the realm of painting.
Cristobal Valecillos // YARE: One More Dance
Yare, One More Dance is a contemporary multi-disciplinary representation of Los diablos de Yare – declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. To celebrate the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, the artist invokes the annual, Los Diablos de Yare festival by creating a collection of handcrafted masks. Valecillos created a series of stunning photographs set against a backdrop of iconic Los Angeles landmarks. These provocative and compelling images incorporate the joys and challenges of the contemporary human spirit.
The Dogma that enables our darkest times, the Propaganda that seduces us into complicity, the Basura that feeds us, the Matasano to whom we trust our greatest love, the Solo our technological refuge, “El Dulce”, leader of the gang that ridicules our thirst, the Asfixia we are inflicting upon Mother Earth and the Sangre that we so irresponsibly shed.
Director’s Chair: Matthew Modine
On the 30th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, Matthew Modine’s “Full Metal Diary” offers an incredibly rare and vibrant portrait of one of cinema’s most iconic war films – by one of the industry’s most enigmatic directors. The exhibition is a study of a young actor under the apprenticeship of a legend.
A combination of rarely seen, medium-format photographs taken on set are displayed alongside poetic, intimate excerpts from the actor’s personal diary. This glance behind-the-curtain reveals unique insights into Kubrick’s methodology as well as the complicated process of an actor struggling to come to terms with his craft. “Full Metal Diary” is an extraordinary example of art imitating life.
Through The Looking Glass – Harmonia Rosales and Aldis Hodge
Through The Looking Glass was birthed from the notion of introspective cultural perception. It questions the viewer’s engagement with cultures not recognized as his or her own, as well as the educational conduits to said cultures, and finally, it questions the viewer’s responsibility to pursue these inquiries. Created in the spirit of social experimentation, Through The Looking Glass aims for the audience to engage in an internal conversation, allowing themselves to reveal their innermost workings.
Cartoon-folding screen LED TV: Lee Nam Lee
A traditional Asian five-folding screen is reproduced in digital form where the still images of the classical masterpieces come alive as they travel through time. The interaction between the cartoon characters and the various images iconic of art, war, and our society speaks of the many faces of modern civilization. Moreover, a sense of healing and restoration is offered through the seasonal transformation of the landscape in the classical paintings.
Pandemonia
Created by an anonymous London artist, Pandemonia is a multi-media conceptual Art project centred around a female character constructed from symbols and archetypes. Her plastic exterior takes the form of a three-dimensional drawing halfway between the real and the imagined. Pandemonia engage the public, and entice art show visitors to interact with her, to participate and create their own unique art work captured as a Polaroid selfie.
In her special performance, Pandemonia pose and perform with various objects & eye candy from her perfectly ideal, surreal world. The objects comprise Trompe l’oeil commodities, handbags, pets, vacuum cleaners, irons, household objects & personal belongings like jewelry, glasses – all echoing her Pop Feminist vocabulary. She was in costume, characterized by phenomenal hair pieces and dresses made of latex.
I’m Not A Trophy: Arno Elias
Established in 2016, I’m Not A Trophy is a global initiative to create greater awareness in the malicious acts of trophy hunting and poaching of endangered species. Founded by French artist Arno Elias, the campaign utilizes powerful females figures, like internationally celebrated supermodel and actress, Cara Delevingne, to represent the program’s commitment to bringing increased attention to trophy hunting while empowering women to fight back against sexist stereotypes.
Connect the Dots: Logan Maxwell Hagege
Contemporary American Artist, Logan Maxwell Hagege, in collaboration with Maxwell Alexander Gallery, is proud to present Connect the Dots. An installation that brings us back to our childhood and turns us all into artists. Each attendee have five minutes to connect the dots and reveal an original work of art. Connect the Dots with us and take home a free piece of art with the modern vision of Hagege’s Western landscapes.
Girasoles: Claudio Castillo
Claudio Castillo’s “Girasoles” is a generative clock that plays 24 one minute animations at the top of each hour, and also tracks the moon and tidal phases in real time. The images endlessly evolve in a random progression in which no single composition ever be precisely repeated, at least not for thousands of years.
Reconstructing Memory Portraits: Mike Saijo
This workshop explores the effects of current and recent cultural and technological changes in the media on shaping the self. Mike Saijo take a photograph of each participant, which he then print directly onto a section of newspaper chosen by the participant. The guest has the option to take the portrait home with them. The booth feature large scale portraits of influencers in current technological and cultural shifts.
The Infinity Boxes: Matt Elson
Artist Matt Elson presents a series of boxes that allow intimate groups of people to interact via elaborately constructed infinity mirrors set up inside.. Aesthetically they are objects that draw the viewer in from a distance with the box’s odd beauty and become progressively less comprehensible during interaction.
Typically two people walk up, look in from each side, put their heads in the box, and then are surprised by the world that opens up inside. The works truly become active only when someone else is looking in the box from the other direction creating a social connection in a perceptually-created other world.
Songs and Poems II: Erika Harrsch
After hearing Philip Glass’s metamorphosis in a concert, Harrsch got inspired and was commissioned to illustrate the CD of this great composer. Harrsh’s work, thematically aligned with the butterfly, share content based on migration and the surrounding circumstances that define identity, nationality and global mobility. Departing from these projects, she has further elaborated on the complexity of the migratory experience, to approach immigration reforms and the recontextualization of the physical borders.
Erika creates wall installations with cut-out butterflies incorporating images of international currency. The circular patterns and waves created by currency butterflies and drawings represent the countries from which people are moving, reflecting on how these mass influxes shape economic markets.
SABER: Painting Live
SABER, also known as Ryan Weston Shook, is an American fine artist who originated as a graffiti artist. Described as one of “the best and most respected artists in his field” by the Washington Post, SABER joins the the LA Art Show on Opening Night to create an original work which was on display throughout the run of the show.
Rising to international fame at the age of 21, SABER created the world’s largest graffiti piece on the bank of the LA River, which was visible and documented by satellites in space. Over years of dedicated and often dangerous painting, he helped bring public awareness to the true art form of graffiti. His work has influenced a generation of artists and graphic designers, and has become an influential part of modern entertainment, social media, and art for social reform. He continues to make his vibrant, mesmerizing and often political paintings from his home in Los Angeles. His art can be found in galleries and private collections around the world. Meanwhile, he continues to create public conversation about, and push the boundaries of, what art should (or shouldn’t) be confined to.
Jung-Gi Kim’s Drawing World
Jung-Gi Kim is a Korean drawing artist as well as comic artist. There is nothing in the world he cannot draw. Everything he has experienced or never experienced can be depicted by him perfectly. His teacher is nature itself. His work can be explained only by the laws of nature. The subjects of his drawing are as infinite as the universe that resulted from the big bang.
His work is realistic – and even unrealistic subjects look very realistic. We are persuaded by his explanation wordlessly, his lines breaking free. This can be viewed as the perfect ‘drawing’ that everyone can imagine and dream. His world has been perfect since his teens, and he persists in his efforts to maintain it, he is always creating with his hand, evolving constantly.
L.A.: Ley Lines
Artists from different communities around Los Angeles have been carefully selected to showcase the very distinct aesthetics of the areas each individual artist personifies. Having deep roots in the early Los Angeles graffiti movement, these artists also have backgrounds in California staples, such as skateboarding, punk rock, gangs, tattooing and various other disciplines that are vital to L.A.’s rich artistic culture and history.
Experience the works of these artists that have emerged from the incessant hardships of the Los Angeles streets, elegantly displayed as if the viewer were welcomed into the home of a private collector in a classic turn of the century setting. They’ve established themselves in the raw environment of the L.A. streetscape and in recent years have moved into some of the most prestigious galleries and museums in the world.
Programs
DIVERSEartLA
DIVERSEartLA is dedicated to bringing together some of the most important local and international art institutions, museums and non-profit organizations for an elevated and thoughtful dialogue. DIVERSEartLA was expanded to embrace and celebrate those art institutions and art collectors who support LA’s newest and largest iteration of art community, as well as to create a strong conversation around a variety of events and programs. Thus serving as a platform and resource for diversity best practices and leadership, including ALL of Los Angeles’s communities.
The communities of Los Angeles reflect an impressive variety of ethnic backgrounds, and it’s iconic natural environs are equally varied and vast. To honor this unique biodiversity we are focusing on the representation of contemporary artists from around the world as a part of each institution. The importance of this year’s curatorial focus should remain committed to fostering and learning about the organizations supporting inclusion and diversity. DIVERSEartLA as an essential part of making museums and cultural institutions models for pluralistic communities. There is nothing more important than inclusion in a moment where social culture is defined by division.
Metaphysical Orozco: José Clemente Orozco
The Museum of the Arts of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico (MUSA) presents Metaphysical Orozco, shown for the first time ever in the United States. The images, projected by a multi-layer mapping, belong to the murals made by the artist between 1935 and 1937 at the auditorium known as Paraninfo, inside the building in which is located the Museum of the Arts.
The installation involves the public in an exploration of the fields of thought found within Orozco’s murals, as well as the history and themes that inspired them. The projection of the master works was accompanied by a musical soundtrack, giving visitors a comprehensive sensory experience that was complemented by informative graphic material.
Especular (Threshold): Leyla Cárdenas
The Colombian writer Manuel Hernández B. defines his nation’s capital, Bogotá, as a permanent threshold that announces the promise of a place that never arrives. Leyla Cárdenas’s Especular provides a real-world yet ghost-like image of this insight with her set of photographic prints of Bogota’s neoclassical train station façade. These discontinuous panels are cut to match the different track gauges used in Colombia that made a unified national transportation infrastructure impossible. Especular is part of a series in which the artist documents the architectural remnants of the urban fabric.
First built in the late 1880s – concurrent with the formation of the Republic of Colombia – the station is a once-hopeful symbol of the nation that then became a long abandoned modern ruin. Cárdenas represents the façade with two printed scrims suspended back-to-back from the ceiling, over twenty feet up, and running a similar distance along the floor. Cárdenas reflects on these artworks as illustrating “History repeating itself: vicious circles and accumulation of thresholds that lead nowhere.”
If you drink hemlock, I shall drink it with you or a beautiful death; player to player, pimp to pimp.
Daniel Joseph Martinez’s immersive environment references Jacques-Louis David’s seminal portrait The Death of Marat (1793), painted and also reproduced shortly after Marat’s assassination during the French Revolution. Whereas David’s painting represents a single moment, both sanitized and accurate in its details, Martinez creates a mise en scène using three life-like sculptures modeled after the artist’s own body. These depict Marat in his bath as well as assassin Charlotte Corday and Martinez himself both standing behind Marat (each with a bloodied dagger in hand).
Martinez stages Marat’s assassination as a public spectacle surrounded by bleachers, although viewers can also immerse themselves within the scene, no doubt taking selfies. In this way, Martinez connects David’s painting with our present moment, giving a historical dimension for modern politics as a form of theater, sport, and business. But Martinez pushes even further. The Death of Marat quickly became iconic of the French Revolution, not because it depicted a public spectacle, but rather because it circulated a political image that focused attention on the personal and private. Once that happened, politics-as-spectacle was no longer dependent on public space, it was in our minds.
Aporías Moviles: Nuna Mangiante
Aporías Moviles, an installation by Argentinian artist Nuna Mangiante, is a multi-media installation featuring portraits with obscured faces on display with various construction and building materials. It speaks of urban transformation as an emerging social reality in Latin America. Mangiante elaborate the photos of the objects and the urban landscapes, Mangiante subject them to what Mangiante want to express, Mangiante enclose the meaning with geometric forms in order to help decipher the riddles of Mangiante’s work, transforming them into drawings.
By isolating objects from their environment, they become symbols of themselves, and when Mangiante apply to them a flat graphite cover, a distortion occurs. A distortion always implies a comparison between what is and what is should be. The distortion creates the controversies in the resulting image.
Live Mural: Mateo Romero
The work of renown Pueblo/Cochiti artist Mateo Romero explores the intersection between post-modern figuration, Native imagery and art historical myths, and the role of self-representation in a post-colonial art world. In a performance that combines cultural commentary and a dynamic working method, Romero create a live, immersive mural painting destined for the collection of the Autry Museum of the American West.
Brainstorming: Empathy
Octopus Brainstorming:Synesthesia is a performance/experience work created by Victoria Vesna in close collaboration with neuroscientist Mark Cohen. The work utilizes real-time EEG, brain waves, video, color, sound. They are exploring the possibilities of brain to brain communication. These are part of the larger area of research into the physical associates of mental processes such as emotions and feeling. It has evolved since to include the idea of embodied intelligence in the form of an octopus crown worn by participants.
Synaesthesia: What is the taste of color Blue?
Synaesthesia is an inherited trait, like red hair or brown eyes, and is found in less than 3.75 percent of the world’s population. It is defined as a cross-firing of any one of the five senses in which one sensory experience triggers additional sensory experiences in one or more of the other four senses. Synaesthesia does not replace one sensory mode with another; it adds perceptions from another sensory modality to the initial “normal” perceptions. There are at least 60 forms of synaesthesia.
Plantigrade, an experiential installation by Marcos Lutyens, presents patrons with a psycho-synthetic terrain they are invited to walk across barefoot, paying special attention to the sensations of color and texture coming through their feet. This is a sensibility developed by Surrealist writer René Daumal, called paroptic vision, and by extension para-tactile sensing. The project has been enhanced with the collaboration of celebrated author and neurologist, Richard E. Cytowic.
Space Palette by Tim Thompson and Paul Sable is a musical and graphical instrument invented by Tim Thompson that lets you music and paint visuals simultaneously by waving your hands in the holes of a wood frame. No pre-recorded media, sequences or loops are used, everything is generated in real time by your hands.
“Left” or “Right”/Punching Bags:Antuan Rodriguez
Left or Right is a healing project curated by Marisa Caichiolo. The interactive installation depicts different world leaders and tyrants, and allow the spectator, through the punching of the bags, to release anger, hatred and resentment. This release of negative emotions transform these objects into tools of detoxification and mental healing.
Current global politics has created an environment of disrespect for humanity and our planet. Lack of harmony, senseless war, violence, racism, ignorance, loss of values and principles, lack of consciousness, super egos and demagoguery, corruption, disrespect of women, false promises, and outright lies.
Eyes Forward
The artwork on display includes both two and three-dimensional works, and ranges from figurative depictions to highly abstracted forms, from acrylic on canvas paintings to mixed-media collage, and clay sculptures to assemblage with found objects.
Selected works by ten contemporary artists of color living and working in Los Angeles: April Bey, Chukes, June Edmonds, Loren Holland, Duane Paul, Miles Regis, Ana Rodrigues, Nano Rubio, Holly Tempo, and Tim Washington. Despite their diverse backgrounds, interests, and life experiences, all these artists share an urgency to be heard when addressing contemporary issues of race, class, and gender while expressing disenchantment with the current political and social establishment.
PING PONG
Los Angeles Art Association is proud to present PING PONG, a multi-destination, cross-cultural collaboration featuring artists from Los Angeles, Miami and Basel. PING PONG is an independent exhibition project for contemporary art founded in 2007 to cultivate artistic exchange between Basel, Miami and Los Angeles. This allows collaboration between the Artists, as well as the realization of site specific works in the actual location.
The project documents, explores and stimulates the artistic endeavors of the cities. PING PONG showcase artists Chung-Ping Cheng, Sharon Hardy, Sue Irion, Gershon Kreimer, Samuelle Richardson, Mette Tommerup and more. This iteration of PING PONG launch at the LA Art Show and travel to Basel during Art Basel in June and later to Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Connection Is The Solution: The Art Of Dan Eldon
In a time of immense separation and isolation, artists have a crucial role – to connect. Dan Eldon was a great connector. Artist, adventurer, journalist and activist – Eldon used his remarkable creativity as a power for good, a glue to bind a disjointed world.
Through the transcendent nature of Eldon’s work, titled “Connection Is The Solution: The Art of Dan Eldon,” we explore the need to join together from one of our time’s great creative activists. Eldon’s art has inspired countless and is in many prestigious private collections, including those of Diana Rockefeller, Bruce Weber, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Christiane Amanpour, Rodie O’Donnell, among many others.
Aiseborn: Purity
The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk is pleased to present Aiseborn: Purity, an immersive mural sponsored in part by ArtsBrookfield which was completed in a live painting performance by the artist during the Opening Night Premiere of the LA Art Show. The oversized piece honors the remarkable, resilient, diverse, and eclectic culture present in the City of Los Angeles. Combining figurative elements, crystalline structures, and mandala-inspired patterns, Los Angeles artist Aiseborn explore mathematical constructs, energetic mysteries, as well as the potential for purification and, ultimately, transformation.
Nomad Sculpture: Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios
The Nomad Sculpture’s project is the excuse to insist in the thesis of the Object as a thought modeling. The scale of the objects is used as a necessary seduction to catch the attention of the urban and busy viewer, to turn his attention to the arts and nature surrounding him. Each object is around 26 ft. high, their inflatable nature gives them an ease in transportation – for that reason it is possible to change locations and play with their presence in different public spaces. The sculptures become desired objects to the viewers, full of life and sexual forms.
Unsound
The Los Angeles Center of Photography is proud to present Unsound, a multi artist exhibition featuring photographers from Los Angeles and around the country. Unsound speaks to the splendor and fragility of our planet, our human psyche and to the current treatment of women and minorities around the world. The project features the work of multiple artists, some of whom have traversed the globe and some who have captured their neighborhoods. All are using their lenses to depict the delicate nature of their environment and the tenuous nature of human existence.
Venue
The LA Art Show is strategically situated at the city’s dynamic epicenter, The LA Convention Center is Southern California’s most technologically advanced green venue, featuring soaring ceilings and ample space. With convenient access to world-renowned LA LIVE!, the Grammy Awards, The Grammy Museum, and an impressive entertainment complex that includes the Nokia Theatre, the Staples Center Arena, top restaurants, and The Ritz Carlton Hotel and Residences. Patrons of the arts gladly drive to Downtown L.A. for the best in Classical Music (Disney Hall), Theater (Mark Taper and Ahmanson), and Contemporary Art (MOCA, Art District).