Abundantly Clear

Art in the San Fernando Valley may be decentralized, but it is very much alive--if you know where to look.

The year 2001 finds the SOHO Gallery in Studio City moving to a much larger space on Ventura Boulevard. The Lurie brothers, emigres from New York, set up the shop two years ago and have enriched the visual art landscape with provocative shows.

In the same block on Ventura Boulevard is Utopia Design, which deals mostly in decor and craft with the periodic nod to art.

The collective art gallery in Northridge, VIVA, opens its third year with a watercolor exhibition by 85-year-old George Labadie. Labadie’s first solo show starts a new policy of January exhibitions devoted to important Valley-based artists.

A hub of art in the Valley has been the Cal State Northridge Art Dome, which opened after the 1994 earthquake. A permanent new gallery will open this spring, with a neon splash courtesy of Lili Lakich’s “Sirens & Other Neon Seductions.”

Another long-standing and inviting art space is in West Hills at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Center. The Finegood Gallery has been around for 13 years, and its current exhibition takes stock of the experience there so far. Curator Ruth Weisberg, dean of the School of Fine Arts at USC, has put together a show that includes many of the artists who have previously exhibited at the gallery.

The Finegood’s schedule includes a group show in February, “The Art of Whimsy,” and a ceramics show, “Celebrating Passover With Contemporary Ceramic Judaica,” curated by Elaine Levin. Timed to coincide with Passover in spring, the latter show will present objects of ritual and artistic significance by 30 ceramists, among them several Los Angeles-based artists.

The venerable Orlando Gallery will celebrate its 42nd anniversary this spring. It moved from Sherman Oaks to a new space in Woodland Hills, but the focus of the gallery run by Bob Gino, co-founder, and Don Grant, nephew of the late Phil Orlando, the other founder, remains the same--championing intriguing area artists with a monthly rotation of shows. For the Orlando’s first show of the new year, photographer Eric M. Boyd joins with mixed-media artist Cynthia Wands. February brings a show by Sian Revella, and March, work by Jo Blaber and Burt Severy.

Head up and over the 405 and you will find two institutions with their own dedicated cultural agendas. The Skirball Cultural Center boasts plenty of enticing art, music and other programming, and the University of Judaism presents fine art exhibitions in its Platt Gallery, well worth the short trip.

Noted artist and feminist Judy Chicago is featured at the Skirball from January to April with the show of her fabric-based work, “Resolutions: A Stitch in Time.”

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At the Platt Gallery, the assemblage medium is the crux of a three-person show, “Assembled Allegories,” with work by Eva Kolosvary-Stupler, Annemarie Rawlinson and Joan Vaupen.

Artist and retired teacher Charles Borman opened the Village Square Gallery in Montrose a few years ago and has presented many fine shows in the space. Planned for 2001 are exhibits featuring Doris Smart, Debi Beck, Bruce Trentham, Teri Garcia, Maria Ana Gutierrez and the “Montrose Chamber 2001 Exhibition” in May.

As it happens, two of the Valley’s most reliably inspiring venues for fine art are found in geographical extremities and in park settings. Glendale’s Brand Library presents engaging shows in the dreamily lighted Skylight Gallery and in the Atrium Gallery. The fare through Monday is “Brand XXIX National Juried Show: Works on Paper,” curated by William McAllister.

In another remote corner, also nestled in a park in the hills, we find the Century Gallery in Sylmar. Theme-based shows presented during the school year and usually curated by Mission College’s John Cantley are generally strong enough to warrant a trip off the beaten art path.

Then again, art off the beaten path describes the entire Valley art scene, which deserves more credit than it generally gets.