Back last January I posted about the Diablo Actors’ Ensemble Theatre in downtown Walnut Creek on Locust St. next to Peet’s and I just noticed that it has closed. It turns out that it closed in May according to the Contra Costa Times:
The jewel box of a theater, home to Diablo Actors’ Ensemble for the past five years and Lois Grandi’s Playhouse West for 13 years before that, will close at the end of May. The property at 1345 Locust St. has been sold, and the new owner envisions a restaurant where the theater, the Paint Palette and The Bead Store currently reside.
Recently I checked out an art exhibit at the Bedford Gallery in the Lesher Center called, “Larger than Life: Exploring Scale in Contemporary Art”. It’s on display through August 18th and is really cool. I think everyone including kids will enjoy this exhibit. Although it’s hard to tell from the photos, most of these art pieces are massively huge.
Since the Egyptians, art has played with the limits of its medium, stretching its size and scope to unfamiliar and unbelievable proportions. From the Great Sphinx of Giza, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, artists have realized large-scale projects that have pushed the dimensions of their work to new and spectacular heights (and lengths!)
Larger than Life will explore how contemporary artists have begun to use new materials and technologies to reshape the traditional scale of sculpture. Recently, artists have focused of unfamiliar materials and methods of construction, using these elements to investigate the oversized, overstuffed, and uncanny elements in art. This exhibition will encourage viewers to reconsider what they have come to know about the role of art, and the way in which subjects and themes can be represented.
As I passed by Bank of America on N. Main St. in downtown Walnut Creek I glanced at this beautiful work of art hanging next to the ATM. I read the sign next to it wondering who the artist was when I learned it’s actually an abandoned night drop. How funny is that?!
A new popup art gallery called A Tom Matousek Gallery will be open through the holidays in the alley behind Patxi’s Pizzeria in downtown Lafayette on Mt. Diablo Blvd. Several artists are represented in various mediums such as paintings, photography and sculptures. When I dropped by the first time the art seemed familiar to me, and that’s because the artwork was on display at Cypress restaurant in Walnut Creek. Recognize it? I think it looks incredible! You can follow the gallery on their Facebook page here. They will be hosting a poetry reading soon so keep checking their page for updates.
Check out the artwork by Susan Jenkins and Tom Matousek:
Check out the photography art by Mathew Carden on the walls:
This is really great stuff so if you’re in the area definitely drop by and check it out. The photos don’t do justice to how cool it really is. Can anyone name the musicians depicted in the artwork above?
The Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in downtown Walnut Creek is hosting an exhibit titled Captured: Specimens in Contemporary Art through November 18th. From their webpage:
The intersection of art and nature has inspired artists for centuries. Artists have looked to the natural world as a source book for creative projects and strategies. From Impressionist plein air painting, to medieval bestiaries art has been committed to exploring the unfamiliar and unknown creatures and environments that share our world. Artists in this show will illustrate how a complex and rewarding dialogue between the arts, scientific exploration, and organic, found materials has been staged in a contemporary context.
Looking to traditions as diverse as taxidermy, specimen boxes, and the cabinet of curiosities, this exhibition will address the changing nature of our relationship with the natural world. It will offer us a glimpse into the impermanence and vitality of wildlife and the botanical world, encouraging us to question our assumptions about the curious world of unique and unusual creatures around us.
