Art and love top weekend events
This week, we’re learning about travel opportunities at the Convention Center, getting cuddly for Valentine’s Day in Grand Park, celebrating Black History Month in Hollywood and taking in art exhibitions in Santa Monica, Griffith Park, the Arts District and at LACMA.
LA Travel and Adventure Show
The LA Travel and Adventure Show returns from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Feb. 15-16, to the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St.
You can get information about more than 350 destinations around the globe, meet with travel experts and hear travel celebrities such as Rick Steves, Samantha Brown, Pauline Frommer and Peter Greenberg. There will be stages featuring seminars on savvy traveling, as well as a performance stage featuring music and dance from around the world.
A day pass is $15 at the door.
If you need a passport or need to renew a passport, listen up. You can get that taken care of and get into the show for free. The U.S. State Department will have tables set up so you can do the whole process — application, photos and payment — in a few minutes. They do ask that you register in advance, although the year I renewed my passport, I just showed up. For information about what you’ll need to bring with you, visit https:// travelshows.com/shows/ los-angeles/passport-acceptance-program/
Love in the Park
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly romantic night out, the Music Center has you covered with a free event, “Valentine’s Day at Grand Park: Lovers Rock.”
From 7-11 p.m., Feb. 14, Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., will be transformed with mood lighting and curated music to turn into a premier date spot. Bring a picnic or
grab some grub from one of the food trucks, sit down at tables for two around the park’s fountain and cap the “Rooted in the reggae sounds of the 1970s and in Caribbean nightclubs in London, Lovers Rock is more than a music genre — it serves as a space of love, identity and resistance, fostering a nuanced intersection of gender and expression,” grandparkla. org says.
DJ Linafornia will serve as the evening’s selector to help get couples in the mood. There will also be a complimentary photo booth to help capture the moment.
stARTup Art Fair
The stARTup Art Fair returns to Venice, setting up in The Kinney, a boutique hotel at 737 West Washington BLVD., from 6-10 p.m. Feb. 14, noon to 9 p.m., Feb. 15 and from noon to 7 p.m., Feb. 16.
The idea of the fair is for art patrons to meet and buy artwork directly from the artists themselves in an approachable and relaxed environment. The event features over 80 artists — including a room curated by the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH).
The MOAH room will feature works by six LA-area artists: Lillian Abel, Dani Dodge, Stevie Love, Lynne McDaniel, Annie Seaton, and Stephanie Sydney.
In addition, MOAH will host free, onsite portfolio reviews with art historian and critic Betty Ann Brown, artist and owner of Griffith Moon Publishing Kimberly Brooks and assistant curator of the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Robert Benitez.
A day pass is $15 in advance at www. startupartfair.com or $20 at the door.
A Celebration of Love
Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, will host “A Celebration of Love,” a Black History Month celebration, at 7 p.m., Feb. 15.
The event features a mix of music, dance and spoken word. Featured performers include Elaine Gibbs of the international music competition show “The X Factor,” comedian Six Foota Slimm and keynote speaker Terrance Roberts, an author, retired professor and one of the Little Rock Nine.
The event will be held inside the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills. Doors open at 6 p.m. for a pre-show reception, with a 7 p.m. curtain for the performance. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission and parking are free.
‘Sottobosco’
Hauser & Wirth, 901 East 3rd St. (Arts District), is hosting “Sottobosco,” the first LA solo exhibition of works by Swiss artist Nicolas Party.
Sottobosco is an Italian word for the undergrowth and the name of a genre of painting devoted to botanical and zoological life in nature’s darker regions.
“Comprised of new paintings, sculptures, site-specific murals and an architectural installation, ‘Sottobosco’ conjures the shadowy world of the forest floor in a brilliant pastel universe where subject, form, and time collapse in visual splendor,” the gallery’s website said. “Best known for his unique approach to landscapes, portraits and still life scenes created in pastel, Party directs his idiosyncratic choice of medium toward otherworldly depictions of objects both natural and man-made.”
There will be an opening reception for the exhibition from 3-7 p.m., Feb. 15.
The exhibition is on display through April 12. The gallery hours are 11 to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free.
The Work of Luchita Hurtado
Beginning Feb. 16, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is hosting the exhibition “Luchita Hurtado: I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn.”
The exhibition, described as the first in the United States to showcase Hurtado, traces her forays into abstraction, experiments with language, engagements with nature and ecology and, most significantly, her persistent recourse to self-portraiture and the human figure, according to LACMA.
“Hurtado’s work is characterized by an original view of the world that is both grounded and transcendental, and her subject matter makes use of unexpected perspective s— looking straight down or across her own body, or straight up to a glimpse of sky — using cosmic motifs and geometric abstractions,” lacma.org says. “To the artist, the human body is part of the world, not separate from nature.” The exhibition will run through May 3. LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. and is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday; from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday; and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. It is closed Wednesday.
Admission is $20 for LA County residents and $25 for others. Note that LA County residents can get in free after 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Those 17 and younger get in free.
Masters of the American West
And finally, wrapping up this art-heavy weekend, is the annual “Masters of the American West” exhibition and art sale at the Autry Museum.
The exhibition features paintings and sculptures by 64 of the top Western artists to include: George Carlson, G. Russell Case, Tammy Garcia, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Mark Maggiori, Billy Schenck and Mian Situ.
“Masters 2020 offers a glimpse into the ever-vibrant and dynamic world of Western American art,” Amy Scott, the Autry’s executive vice president for Research and Interpretation and Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts, said. “A range of stylistic traditions, from realism to impressionism and abstraction, now sit comfortably side-by-side. From classic frontier stories to contemporary Native visions, ‘Masters’ embraces a widening array of artists that together celebrate both the history and contemporary beauty of the West.”
All of the artwork in the “Masters” show will remain on view and available for purchase through March 22.
The Autry is located at 4700 Western Heritage Way in Griffith Park.
It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.
Admission is $14 for adults, $6 for children 3 to 12.