HITS & MISSES ON ART WALK: Kudos to the Latino Museum for the current exhibit of images of the Virgin of Guadalupe…The museum is a resident of the Los Angeles Theater Center on the 500 block of S. Spring, and the display of artworks from Self Help Graphics on the Eastside provided a highlight of the Downtown Art Walk on December 13…Roman Catholics believe The Virgin of Guadalupe was an incarnation of Mary, mother of Jesus…It can be tough for non-Catholics to understand the reverence that believers have for her…Tougher still for artists to incorporate her image in a way that provokes thought while avoiding the trap of cheap shock art…The exhibit succeeded on both counts, and will be on display until January 18 (see related Correction, Inside Stories)…At Red Dot Gallery, just up the street, we liked the acrylics by Byron Buchanan, an interesting mix of spare perceptions and stark contrasts that work well on the likes—and looks—of John Wayne, John Lennon and Bono…A lowlight came with Xu Ruotao’s abstract paintings—comprised of series of lines—at Morono Kiang Gallery on 3rd Street between Spring & Broadway …We tried to keep an open mind—and then we read the gallery’s description, which described the works as “cynical” and assured us they carried no meaning at all…No argument here.
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IS THE MAGIC GONE? Word on the street in Echo Park says the Magic Gas Station at Echo Park Avenue & Morton is up for sale…Little wonder—the station hasn’t had any gas to sell for some time…Wonder what’s in store?…With a new condo development expected to rise across the street on the old Chicken Corner lot, new owners might do better turning Magic Gas into a parking lot.
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WRONG-WAY TURN x 2: A couple of guys driving through the Fashion District recently made a fairly common mistake when they went southbound on Los Angeles Street and attempted to turn west onto 9th Street…That sent them into oncoming traffic, since 9th is a one-way eastbound thoroughfare there…Such moves typically lead to some honking from drivers, but this time a cop happened to be on the spot, pulled the fellows over, and found that neither could explain who owned the car…They were last seen in the back seat of an LAPD squad car, with a traffic ticket likely the least of their problems.
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PLAYER AT THE TABLE: Those wayward travelers would have gotten a look at a unlikely display of Hollywood celebrities if they had made it another block down 9th Street…Photos posted in the window at the Grill Table near the corner of 9th & Main show longtime waiter Miguel Lopez at the recent American Film Institute Festival, posing check-to-cheek with Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock and Paulina Rubio…Lopez says he has “connections” that provided entrée to pal around with the Hollywood set.
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