Art happenings, creative celebrations, surreal spectaculars, and unlikely gatherings of the mind, heart, and spirit aren’t destined to occupy a single type of space, and most definitely not in Los Angeles, an art-strong city with storied spaces and places of every stripe and type.
Gallery-inspired events have long moved passed traditional interiors and into cinemas, parks, rooftops, and other locations around Southern California, but what is happening on Wilshire Boulevard through the final days of February, and the first day of March, may be something of a stand-out.
Look to the former 99 Cents Only Store, the one in the near several Miracle Mile museums on Wilshire Boulevard, for a limited-time exhibition featuring artist Barry McGee, Gary Baseman, Tom Franco, and a host of exuberant, offbeat, and otherworldly painters, illustrators, and sculptors.
Street art, outsider art, the art of dreams, and the art of tomorrow are among the fanciful focuses of the feast for the eyes. And yes: The works filling the defunct store sit where household goods, paper products, and popular snacks, the items that filled shoppers’ baskets just a few years ago.
The address of the “artists flea” is 6121 Wilshire Boulevard, and you’ll want to stop by the show from noon to 6 p.m. through March 1.
Mr. Baseman, the art icon and legendary champion of the SoCal cultural scene, shares that the “MADHOUSE of a show” has some heavy hitters helping out: The Hole Contemporary Art and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery.
“One block from LACMA, come discover an artist-driven installation that celebrates the outsider and the overlooked, focusing on the human side of the creative process over the commercial” is Mr. Baseman’s moving call to action on his social sites.
99 Cents Only Stores locations, including the one located on Wilshire Boulevard near the Miracle Mile, were shuttered nearly two years ago after the company filed for Chapter 11.