‘Blue Velvet’ Director’s Paintings Cut From the Same Eerie Cloth as His Films

Film maker David Lynch opened an exhibit of his “New Paintings” at the James Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica on Aug. 12.

Lynch’s first show at the Corcoran in 1987 garnered much public and critical attention and led to a second exhibit at the Leo Castelli Gallery in Manhattan earlier this year. Now, in only his third show, Lynch’s oversized paintings with titles like “When I Returned There Were Bugs in My House and Fire and Blood in the Streets,” are priced between $5,000 and $13,500.

Though best known for his cinematic slices of low life in award-winning films such as “Blue Velvet” and “Eraserhead,” Lynch is also the author of a comic strip, “The Angriest Dog in the World,” which appears locally in the L.A. Reader. He has also produced and written lyrics for an upcoming Warner LP, “Floating in the Night,” with composer Angelo Vadalamenti and vocalist Julee Cruise. He is now filming his fifth movie.

Rendered in eerie chiaroscuro, Lynch’s oversized paintings are reminiscent of his films: at times childlike, and always filled with subconscious imagery and attempts to communicate an undefinable Angst.

The exhibit continues through Sept 2.

James Corcoran Gallery, 1327 5th St., Santa Monica. (213) 451-4666.

NEW ART SPACE: “Bon Angeles,” a group show by nine German artists, marks the unveiling of the Santa Monica Museum of Art’s new art space, Edgemar, designed by architect Frank Gehry.

The “Bon Angeles” exhibit has been open since Thursday, although its “grand opening” will be on Sept. 15. The show will continue through Oct. 15.

“Bon Angeles” will be a cumulative show, according to exhibition coordinator Adam Finkel. Previously completed works by the artists (the result of a recent group show in Bonn), will constitute the bulk of the exhibit for its first weeks, while they use the performance space as a workshop. As they create art within the museum’s walls, new pieces will be added to the show.

“The public is invited to come by at specific hours to talk to the artists and watch them create,” says Finkel. Included are painters Adolphe Lechtenberg and Julia Lohmann; printmaker Annette Leyener, and sculptors Hilmar Boehle, Marcel Hardung, Ernst Hesse, Wasa Marjanov and Manfred Muller. Though some have exhibited in the United States before, for most, it’s their first U.S. show.

Since the museum began presenting exhibitions last summer, the former egg warehouse on Santa Monica’s Main Street has been transformed into a bow-trussed exhibition space with 25-foot ceilings and clerestory windows, providing 6,000 square feet of exhibition and performance space as well as 2,200 square feet of offices, workshops and storage.

At the show’s official grand opening Sept. 15, the work done in the previous month will be added to the pieces the artists brought from Bonn. At that time, Edgemar will be complete, and the museum is calling the occasion its “inaugural exhibition.”

Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2437 Main Street, Santa Monica, (213) 399-0433. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and till 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

GROOMS AND BACK ROOMS: “From the Back Room: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture,” a group show by 36 artists, continues at the Saxon-Lee Gallery in Los Angeles through Sept. 2.

The largest part of the show consists of some 40 previously unsold works by Saxon-Lee clients, according to gallery co-owner Dan Saxon. Among the works for sale are pieces by Carlos Almaraz, Billy Al Bengston, Gronk, Raul Guerrero, Luis Serrano and Peter Shire, among others.

Concurrent with “From the Back Room,” Saxon-Lee is also presenting a limited-edition exhibit of functional art by Red Grooms in the gallery’s atrium.

“Fire Engine Bunk Bed for Children,” a detailed, colorful sculpture in painted white birch, has been produced in a limited edition of 15 by Fun Furniture of Los Angeles. The 74-inch bed includes a carved Dalmatian, several firemen hanging from the sides and a self-portrait sculpture of Grooms driving the fire engine itself. The bed sleeps two, and includes mattresses, quilts and shams designed by Grooms. The whole set is available for $17,500.

After the two exhibits close in early September, Saxon-Lee will be presenting two solo shows by some highly collectible artists.

Peter Shire’s new collection of furniture, glass objects and new drawings will be exhibited Sept. 9 through Oct. 14. (Shire has just received sculptural commissions from Ramada Inns and the Las Vegas International Airport.)

From Oct. 20 through Nov. 25, recent paintings by Raul Guerrero will be collected for this third solo exhibition with Saxon-Lee. Titled “Aspectos de la Vida Nocturna en Tijuana,” the paintings focus on the night life in “La Zona Roja,” the part of Tijuana frequented by native Mexicans and studded with dance palaces, bars and nightclubs. Guerrero, some of whose major works were recently purchased by the Lannan Foundation and La Jolla Museum, is scheduled to be profiled in a fall issue of Vanity Fair.

Saxon-Lee Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 933-5282. Open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.