Category: Art & Design

November 12 2015

Inside The Broad, LA’s Newest Contemporary Art Museum

Back in September, I attended the press preview of The Broad, the new contemporary art museum in downtown Los Angeles. It was a pop art lover’s dream! Works by Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Takashi Murakami were all on display.

The show stopper, however, was The Infinity Mirrored Room by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. (See above.) I’m still daydreaming about it. Imagine being able to step into space and be surrounded by an endless array of stars. You walk into a room that’s lined with mirrors and strung with thousands of LED lights. The ground is covered in water, save for a platform you walk on. You have 30 seconds to fully immerse yourself in the experience. I’m sure I was not alone in thinking, “Is this what heaven feels like?”

Dynamically changing LA’s urban landscape, The Broad’s architecture is, in and of itself, a beauty to behold. Design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s (DS+R) concept was “a veil and a vault.” As you walk down the stairs, you can look through large glass windows to see art pieces hung on racks and shelves, it’s the storage area around which the museum was built. (The Broad is showing just 250 of their more than 2,000 works.) This is referred to as the vault. The outermost structure is a lattice-like veil that lets light shine into the building in a beautifully natural way. I was surprised that the third-floor skylights could bring in such perfect indirect, diffused light.

The Broad is named after the billionaire businessman and avid art collector Eli Broad and his wife Edythe. (Yes, that’s Broad of homebuilding company Kaufman & Broad.) Their mission is to make art accessible to everyone, that’s why general admission is free!

Make sure you visit this new art institution in LA. It’ll be well worth your time.

Balloon Dog (Blue) by Jeff Koons. This larger than life piece is 12 feet high and is made of mirror-polished stainless steel.

Tulips by Jeff Koons

Rabbit by Jeff Koons

Single Elvis by Andy Warhol

Two Marilyns by Andy Warhol

I…I’m Sorry by Roy Lichtenstein

Away from the Flock by Damien Hirst

Under the Table by Robert Therrien

No title by Robert Therrien

Norms La Cienega on Fire by Edward Ruscha

Red Block by El Anatsui. Those are woven red liquor labels!

Of Chinese Lions, Peonies, Skulls and Foundations by Takashi Murakami

DOB in the Strange Forest (Blue DOB) by Takashi Murakami

Art & Design

November 11 2015

Top 15 Art Prints at 20×200

There’s lots of places where you can find affordable art online, like at Minted, Society6, Art.com, Yellowkorner, Saatchi Art, and even our store My Modern Shop. (See Emily Henderson’s list for more.) One of my go-to places, however, is a site called 20×200. Started back in 2007 by Jen Bekman, 20×200 is a great place to find beautiful art prints from both established and emerging artists. Their limited edition prints are exclusive to the site, which means you get a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity with your purchase.

Recently, they put out their 2015 gift guide which divides up their works into 18 different categories like Animal Lovers, City Slickers, Foodies, Nature Lovers and Space Cases. I, personally, went through each of the gift guides to pick out 15 of my favorite pieces. From Paul Octavious’ serene scene called Kite Hill to a fun, roller skating Weimaraner, you won’t be disappointed by this collection. I promise! In fact, I want to hang each of these pieces inside my house.

Here’s Octavious on Kite Hill:

For the past two years I have visited a beautiful mound of earth that I have come to call “the hill.” Each time I come to the hill, a new story is told to me as if the hill is my stage and the locals are the actors in this daily play. On this particular day, over two-hundred people gathered on the hill and flew kites of all different kinds. Seeing this for the first time was a moment I won’t soon forget.

Above: Kite Hill by Paul Octavious

Baby Monkey No. 6 by Sharon Montrose

White Breasted Nut Hatch by Carrie Marill

Roller Rover by William Wegman

Praia Piquinia 14/08/12 14h00 by Christian Chaize

Bob’s Giant Donut by April Walters

Modern Art by Craig Damrauer

Hugo (Library) by Joseph O. Holmes

Mountaineer in an Ice Cave of Paradise Glacier, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, 1925 by Vintage Editions

Cemetery Rd, 3169-3327, Viewmont, NY by Pete Mauney

Untitled (I told my therapist about you) by Mike Monteiro

After the Rain by Chikara Umihara

City Lights United States of America by Space Editions

jsc2012e052681 by Donald Pettit

We Are So Good Together (blue) by Dylan Fareed

Art & Design

November 10 2015

Family Outing: San Diego Model Railroad Museum

This past weekend, we visited one of the boys’ favorite destinations, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. Located inside Balboa Park, the museum houses miniature models of actual California railroads. Parker and Logan excitingly ran around from display to display, taking each one in. Look closely and you’ll find mini dioramas of real life – semi-trucks filling up on gas, folks lined up at a movie theater, and even people lounging around a McDonald’s.

The boys love one room in particular, the toy train gallery. Here you’ll find Thomas the Train, minions, and Disney character filled cars, it’s a children’s paradise. There’s even a few buttons you can push to make some of the trains go round and round.

The museum is run by more than 300 volunteers which includes model builders who make sure every detail is painstakingly in place. The institution calls itself the largest and only accredited model railroad museum in North America and one of the top model railroad museums in the world.

For us, the trip is only about an hour from our house but for those driving in from Los Angeles, it can take up to two. You won’t be disappointed, however, because aside from this museum you’ll find sixteen more inside the park. Balboa Park is a breathtakingly beautiful cultural park that has gardens, restaurants and a koi pond as well. Bring food and you can enjoy a picnic under the sun, or you can be like us, and pick up noodles and curry at the small Japanese restaurant.

For those visiting southern California, Balboa Park is a must-visit destination. Though we have a few different annual passes for some of the museums, I think that next year we’ll probably end up buying the annual family pass for the whole park, which gets us into any of the 17 participating museums. Yes, that’s how much we love this place!

Me and the boys in front of Balboa Park’s large water fountain.

This last photo was shot at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center which is only a hop, skip and a jump away from the railroad museum. It’s another great place to take the kids.

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