A Beatle Brother Steps From the Shadows

Paul McCartney isn’t the only member of his clan involved in arts and entertainment. The celebrity Gallery in Brentwood is presenting an exhibit of limited-edition photographs and silk-screens by Michael McCartney--Paul’s brother.

Most of the 13 silk-screens (ranging from $1,000 to $1,700) and 18 photographs (from $400 to $800) in the show deal with the Beatles, though McCartney, who has published several books of his photographs in the United Kingdom, has included photos of celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone as well.

The McCartney show is the second of the Celebrity Gallery’s Beatle photo exhibits. Currently on tour around the United States is a collection of photos by Dezo Hoffmann, who was the Beatles’ first professional photographer, hired to document the band’s personal life. The Hoffman exhibit, on view in the Bay Area, also includes photos of the Rolling Stones.

What’s the Celebrity Gallery’s connection with the Beatles?

“Basically fondness,” says the gallery’s director, Larry Richard. “We want to move rock memorabilia past the hobby stage and bring it up to a collectible level.”

Michael McCartney enjoyed some musical success in the 1960s under the name of Mike McGear. His band, the Scaffold, had a British No. 1 hit with a song called “Thank You Very Much.” He took back the McCartney name in 1980 and has subsequently written several children’s books.

Will the Beatle be by to see the exhibit?

“We don’t know,” Richard says, “but we certainly hope so. He’ll be in Los Angeles for two weeks during the run of the show.”

Michael McCartney at the Celebrity Gallery, 11682 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood. (213) 826-4255. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, through Dec. 31.

VISCERAL PENETRATION: That’s the goal of a group show by the same name running at the Installations One Gallery in Encino, according to curator Laura Peisner.

“What I wanted,” Peisner says, “was a gut reaction, an emotional gut penetration to the work.”

Some of the 40 oils, photos and drawings and 10 sculptures in “Visceral Penetration” were commissioned especially for the event. (They range in price from $250 to $3,000.) Participating artists include Rene Deloffre, Debra Drexler, Dan Gonzales, Leslie Hara, Francisco Hernandez, Louis Jacinto, Robert Moore, Sandra Mueller, Anton Paris, Peisner, Franscska Schifrin and John Paul Thornton.

All of the artists are members of LAART, an organization designed to help young and emerging artists develop and promote their work by securing free gallery space in unleased portions of new buildings. Installations One, in the newly completed Encino Terrace Center, was donated by the Fujita Corporation for this show.

The exhibit is open and will have its official opening reception Wednesday from 7:30 to 10 p.m.

“Visceral Penetration” at Installations One, 15821 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 981-9422. Gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday through Dec. 16.

FIBONACCI AT URBANATI: Italian avant-garde artist Mario Merz will be re-creating one of his most famous installations at the Fiorella Urbanati gallery on Melrose beginning Dec. 2.

The installation, “Leyda’s Bottle,” was originally created in the late 1970s in Italy and installed on the walls of a deconsecrated church in the city of Brescia. Consisting of false walls, “Leyda’s Bottle” is hung with plastic sheeting, steel cages and neon numbers from the Fibonacci series.

Leonardo Fibonacci, a 13th-Century Italian mathematician, decribed the infinite series of numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 . . .) in which each number is the sum of the two numbers preceding it.

Merz’s work is the subject of a major retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. His work was seen locally last year at the Museum of Contemporary art. “Leyda’s Bottle” opens to the public on Dec. 6, with a pre-opening reception Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

Mario Merz’ “Leyda’s Bottle” at the Fiorella Urbanati gallery, 8818 Melrose ave., Los Angeles. (213) 271-8094. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Exhibit opens Dec. 6 and continues through Jan. 30, 1990.