Ron Linden

Worthy of our attention

He spent the ‘80s in downtown Los Angeles, “which was exactly the right time to be there because after 6 o’clock at night it was artists, musicians, and bums, and that was it. You kind of felt like you owned the city, and there were a number of bars (Al’s Bar, for example) and eateries that were just legendary.

“And then gentrification hit downtown L.A.” Meanwhile, Linden had made some trips south to San Pedro, helping out friends who were refurbishing half of Ted Twine’s building and putting in an art studio. “In doing so I looked around

San Pedro and was taken aback by how beautiful it was.” He’d told his wife that if they ever got booted from downtown LA they were going to seriously consider a move to the Harbor Area.

Which then happened, and soon Linden was meeting with many of the artists and the gallerists who’ve played a key role in his life ever since. Some have moved on, of course, and some have passed away. “Now chaos reigns, as usual,” he says. “Just when you think life was going to get easier it gets more complicated.”

Why, do you think this area’s going to get too gentrified?

“Yeah, I do,” Linden replies. “And this terrifies me. There’s no overall plan.” He then points out that although the galleries and the artists have given downtown San Pedro a cachet, he feels that their best interests aren’t being properly safeguarded. Artist enclaves are too easily steamrolled over by profit-minded developers. Linden again emphasizes the richness of the local art scene and the talent residing therein, while also pointing out that it’s often been overlooked in the context of art across Greater LA. He specifically mentions the city-wide Pacific Standard Time (PST) series of exhibitions that took place 10 years ago. “My response to Pacific Standard Time, where they totally missed the South Bay, was to do a show called, instead of PST, PSST: Art in San Pedro 2000-2012.” That was his rebuttal, one might say, to the notion that art radiating from the Harbor Area was marginal.

I don’t really mean to, but I sort of put Linden on the spot when I ask if he’d like to say a few words about any specific artists, in particular those he hadn’t already spoken about. It’s not a good question to ask, because invariably someone important or influential gets passed over. Nonetheless, the question is out.

Linden mentions Merwin Belin, one of his favorite iconoclasts, whom he’s known since the ‘70s, “who makes collages and eccentric objects, always deliberately beneath the radar.” Jay McCafferty’s name has surfaced a few times, including in the very first line of this nice, long article. McCafferty has work in the Getty’s permanent collection, and this writer, who knew him briefly but as someone noble and sincere, was deeply saddened upon learning of his passing. “I believe in his work in the long run, for sure,” Linden says. He mentions a few more, including Eric Johnson, “who’s technically one of the finest craftsmen that you’ll ever see, bar none. And we have painters like Marie Thibeault, we have sculptors like Ann Weber.

“The list goes on,” Linden says, and he mentions Ted Twine, “who I think is a very good painter,” and in fact right now, at this moment, Twine has a solo exhibition running through

Jan. 7 at the Palos Verdes Art Center. Craig Antrim’s name again comes up, fondly of course, as having been someone who, as a teacher, was

“open, accessible; as a friend, jovial, hospitable, generous of spirit,” but who apparently maintained a low profile “and just kept on doing his work, and I think always searching for a resolution, spiritually — not in a religious sense.”

Linden pauses and continues. “Peggy Reavey and Yong Sin are outstanding, and they fly mostly beneath the radar, too.” He praises their intensity, commitment, and, a point he stresses, their authenticity. “Peggy doesn’t fuck around and neither does Yong, and both of them work all the time.”

Inevitably, of course, it comes full circle to where we’re sitting, in Ray and Arnée Carofano’s Gallery 478. In some way, because the gallery (and photo studio) is often a gathering point during the San Pedro First Thursday Art Walks, the Carofanos have been a key figure of the local art scene, and Ray’s fine art photography has been widely acclaimed (his hardcover book, Faces of Pedro, was profiled in these pages).

“I will do that as long as I can,” he says, “to try and present artworks by significant artists. And I try all the time to never talk down to the audience. Often there are little docent groups that will come in and look at a show, and I don’t sugarcoat or soft-pedal it. I feel that part of the mission is to elevate the public and get rid of misapprehension. A lot of people feel a sense of alienation like it’s an insider world when it really isn’t. What could be more open than laying your life out there on a — no matter what it is — a musical score, a written manuscript, a painting?” And then he sums it all up. “I’m just trying to carry on, you know?”

Craig Keith Antrim: Selected

Works,

Theory,

Ted Twine: Deep Flat