Bright Idea Puts Gallery’s Spotlight on Artists’ Lamps

In January, 1989, Greg Moul decided that he wanted to shed some light on art and design. Operating from the hunch that more artists would create lighting fixtures or otherwise begin working with the medium of electric illumination, Moul opened a gallery named See the Light.

Recently, the gallery unveiled a small ebony-stained exhibition space called the Darkroom, which features changing shows of lamps and other illuminating fixtures by the gallery’s 30 light artists and craftsmen, most of whom hail from Santa Monica or Venice.

On view through July 27 is the work of Michael Murphy, a former glazier, who uses architectural glass--thicker, more industrial than its art-glass counterparts--for his lamps and lit tables.

Employing a custom-made computerized kiln to shape glass and fuse it with other materials, Murphy introduces copper mesh, copper shavings and other ground metals, such as bronze and silver, into his glass with unusual painterly effect. When heated to high temperatures, the metals bleed to pigmentlike reds, yellows or blacks.

For years, Italy has predominated in the lighting field, Moul said, producing 75% to 80% of all new designs either directly or indirectly. “But now the new ideas that are happening in lighting are coming from the crafts-artisan-artist community in the United States,” he said. Having run a lighting factory, Moul is also in a position to help his artists with the technical realization of lighting projects when necessary.

Michael Murphy, through July 27 at See the Light, 1337 W. Washington Blvd., Venice. (213) 396-9442. Open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday 3 to 9 p.m.

NEW VENUE: The parameters of Santa Monica’s gallery district are constantly spreading. The Koplin Gallery, for instance, just moved to a converted 9th Street warehouse. And it will be sharing the space with a new venture, the Sherry Frumkin Gallery.

A collector who has long been politically active, Frumkin will officially open her 3,000-square-foot gallery June 22 with a group show introducing the gallery’s artists. The art that will be shown, she said, consists of “very contemporary painting and sculpture, mainly by American artists--many of whom have a social conscience and a political sensibility that is very appealing to me.” The work does not, however, tend to be heavily didactic, Frumkin added.

Among the artists represented, she said, are Kay Miller, a politically involved American Indian who lives in Colorado; David Bradley, a contemporary Navajo painter who might appropriate naive imagery from Henri Rousseau and juxtapose it with depictions of Indian life, complete with bulldozers, tourist gas guzzlers and trading posts advertising liquor, real estate and adoptions; and Phyllis Daniels, a local figurative painter who depicts her subjects against the backdrop of actual graffiti she has seen in her West Los Angeles neighborhood.

On June 16, a silent auction and dinner to benefit the Office of the Americas--a Los Angeles-based nonprofit educational organization dedicated to furthering justice and peace--will be held at the gallery. For sale will be hand-colored photographs of Nicaragua taken by the actor Rene Auberjonois while on location for the film “Walker.”

Sherry Frumkin Gallery, 1440 9th St., Santa Monica. (213) 393-1853. (Information and reservations for the Office of the Americas event, (213) 852-9808.) Inaugural reception for the artists, June 22, 7 to 10 p.m. Gallery hours will be Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m.

CALABASAS WESTERN: A benign trading-post atmosphere prevails at the Red River Gallery in Calabasas, a homey and eclectic locus for traditional Western art (mainly of the contemporary stripe) that also keeps a door open for local community hobnobbing.

Run by John Sullivan, who traces his love of Western art to an uncle who still is a practicing cowboy, the gallery holds revolving shows every two or three months for its artists, who live in Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii, as well as in the Los Angeles area. (Also available at the gallery--which is named for the classic John Wayne film “Red River”--are original Western movie posters.)

Among the works on view are highly stylized opaque watercolors by the Navajo painter Justin Hso. His work often features symbolic imagery of his tribe--such as gray “shadow riders” that appear in many backgrounds, representing ancestors.

“ ‘L.A.’s not known as a Western art town,” Sullivan said. “Let’s just say that it’s a hard sell--but I like it. We just try to be real friendly with the people, to give out information and talk to them when they come in and look.”

The gallery also is the focus for various other activities. It recently inaugurated a petition drive to conserve the historic Leonis Adobe across the street, which is being threatened by proposed CalTrans road improvements. And later this summer, Alice Segin--sister-in-law of painter Justin Hso--will teach a class in traditional Navajo weaving.

Red River Gallery, 23564 Calabasas Road, Calabasas. (818) 710-0027. Open noon to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.