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Ben McGinty's Quarterly "Art Bender Weekend": December 3 - 6, 2009
Curator, artist, gallerist Ben McGinty refers to his gallery as a "last frontier." Amidst L.A.'s sprawling suburbs, that claim could be made of many a landmark but at this Gallery at the End of the World it seems to truly resonate. Although Sunday salons are a norm at the oddly undulating indoor/outdoor space in Altadena, McGinty's "Art Bender Weekend" comes along only quarterly, and is celebrated by the upper Pasadena and wider community with a vigor that reminds its participants of what it feels like to be an artist within a community of artists.

Indoor space at the premises does double duty as an actual studio for some of the regular artists whose work is exhibited here, and some of the outdoor spaces are reserved for regulars like potter David Lovejoy, whose raku-fired work never fails to impress.

The most notable painter of the regular attendees is Kai Samuels-Davis, an MFA graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The visceral impact of Samuels-Davis's pieces is considerable, his subject's eyes - shut or open - conveying emotional pleadings rarely seen (with exception to the work of Don Bachardy) in contemporary American portraiture. It seems to the NoA that while Bachardy's work illuminates and brightens his subjects, Samuels-Davis's portraiture darkens and obscures his figures, gesturing for them to step out from their safe havens and therapy sessions, toward the viewer.


Wood-block prints from Kenyan-born Ngene Mwaura are also worth an extended visit, as is the work of many of the artists whose work peppers every imaginable nook and cranny (and RV) of this fantastical marketplace.

Artists on display: Megan Bichler, Bonnie S Callahan, Erin McMahon, Joe Feinblatt, Michael Herman, Leigh Adams, Jaime Sabatte, Desdy Kellogg, Enzo Cesario, Nina Ehlig, Simeon Slovacek, Evan Chambers, Kathryn Evans, Kathy Swaydan, Donna Abbate, Kathi Oshima, Joni Coyote, Nancy Ann Jones, Armondo Gonzalez, brian Dario, Bastardartist, Chelsea Squyres, Tom Willard, Jeannie Gayle Pool, Richard Davies, Liane Fourguette, Dominique Fourguette, Heather C Morrow, Lisa R George, Nancy Armitage, David Van Noppen, Scot Schneir, Jeffe Kibbe, Deborah Blanco, Ben McGinty, David Lovejoy, Johnny Fox, Ngene Mwuara, Kai Samuels-Davis, Matt Foote, Kris "Blaze" Carly

With Wreck & Snow performing on Friday, December 3, and the knowledge that there's a potluck barbeque on Saturday, December 4 and a brunch on offer on Sunday, December 5, a trip out to the Gallery at the End of the World might just take less time than you anticipated.

2475 N. Lake Ave, Altadena, CA 91001
www.galleryattheendoftheworld.com
+1.626.794.8779