Inside Out With Conceptualist Fred Fehlau

FACES

“My works are about a certain kind of destabilizing or decentralizing; they all disrupt that comfortability of the gaze,” said conceptual artist Fred Fehlau, whose new installation-specific exhibition is on view at La Brea Avenue’s Burnett Miller Gallery through Oct. 27.

Fehlau, 32, has seen his work evolve from geometric paintings to his current installation-specific pieces. Those pieces, he said, all aim to involve the viewer. But that involvement is in non-traditional ways, such as through doors that can’t be opened, and mirrors that can’t be looked into.

Included are “Dance Floor,” an eight-foot-square marble dance floor mounted on springs, meant to be walked or danced upon by observers; and “Twin,” two movable mirrors which can be repositioned in several ways, but can never be made to face each other.

The latter piece, Fehlau says, illustrates the ideas of separation and of being inside or outside of something--ideas that run through the rest of his installation, which includes a makeshift room set up in the center of the gallery with two facing and alternately-textured paintings inside.

“The room becomes a real interruption of the way the space usually works; people who know this gallery will think it doesn’t fit,” said Fehlau. “It creates an inside/outside, open/closed separation, so that your own physical condition becomes a part of it. Really, what is working in every piece is this problem of location: Where you are, where it is, and the subsequent turning or displacement of the object. . . . They’re not necessarily objects you look at, but things you participate in.”

Fehlau, who teaches at both Art Center College of Design and Otis/Parsons Art Institute, noted that although he’s been a working artist since the late ‘70s, his career seems to have really taken off in the last couple of years.

This is his third solo show in the past year (the others were “Margins” at UC Santa Barbara University Art Museum and “New California Artist Series” at Newport Harbor Art Museum), during which time he has also been featured in six group shows (including those at the respected L.A. Municipal Art Gallery and Security Pacific’s Gallery at the Plaza).

“It’s only recently that I’ve had so many shows,” he said. “I think it’s partly the result of a commitment that I made to function more seriously in this community; to really be a part of the dialogue.”

THE SCENE

More than 50 art events--ranging from exhibitions at Scripps and Pomona colleges, open studio tours, “Day of the Dead” group shows and an “Open Windows” program of installations in various store windows in the Pomona Mall--are included in the Pomona Valley’s 1990 “Fringe of the Fringe Arts Festival,” which runs through Oct. 13.

The festival, patterned after the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe, includes art, performance, music, poetry, lectures and family events. Participants independently produce their own work under the festival’s umbrella.

For a schedule of events, call Pomona’s DA Gallery at (714) 397-9716.

The nonprofit group Arts Inc. is holding one-on-one workshops with grant-writing experts for artists and arts organizations applying for grants from the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department.

The workshops, held on an appointment-only basis, are a half-hour for individual artists and an hour for organizations. They will be held through Oct. 6, and the grant application deadline is Oct. 9.

Cost for the sessions, which are underwritten by the city, is $5. Weekday, evening, and Saturday appointments are available. Reservations: (213) 627-9276.

OVERHEARD

“So what if the colors wouldn’t match?” said a woman in her late 30s as she tried to talk her male companion into purchasing a painting at a recent Westside opening. “That’s not the function of a painting, to match your decor. It just needs to sit on a wall and look good all by itself.”

CURRENTS

Laguna Art Museum has added nine works to its permanent collection. Included are two 1979 acrylic works on paper by L.A. artist Peter Alexander, two 1988 photographs by Northern California artist Linda Connor, two ceramic pieces by Laguna Beach artist Kris Cox, and one work each by mixed-media artist Ronald Chase, painter Roger Kuntz and outsider artist Jon Serl.

Oct. 19 is the application deadline for the Long Beach Museum of Art’s 1991 Video Access Program, which annually awards eight “grants” to Southern California artists, non-commercial independent producers and nonprofit organizations. The grants provide access to five days of production and/or post production facilities at the museum’s Video Annex. For information, call (213) 439-0751.

ELSEWHERE

For Frank Lloyd Wright fans who didn’t get enough with “In the Realm of Ideas” at the San Diego Museum of Art, a second Wright exhibition can be found only a bit further away--in the Bakersfield Museum of Art. “Frank Lloyd Wright: The California Residences,” on view through Oct. 27, includes reproductions of Wrightian rooms, furniture, fabric and decorative objects, and spotlights San Joaquin Valley residences built by the architect.

Renowned American photographer Robert Frank has donated a major archive of his work to the National Gallery of Art. Included in the gift are 27 rare vintage photographs, 34 photographs bound in a volume, negatives from approximately 2,000 rolls of film, more than 2,000 contact sheets, and nearly 1,000 work prints. The works will be included in an exhibition of Frank’s work scheduled for the museum in 1992.

HAPPENING

Visual and performance artist William Leavitt will perform his one-act play, “Random Trees,” at the Santa Monica Museum of Art this Thursday and Friday and Oct. 4-5. All performances are at 8 p.m.

Leavitt will transform the museum space into an elaborate theater set for the play, which explores the serious and humorous consequences of mechanizing one’s belief system. The production is the inaugural presentation of the museum’s 1990 Artist Projects Series.

Tickets are $5; $3 for students. Information: (213) 399-0433.

The Long Beach Museum of Art is hosting a special day-long trip to the L.A. County Museum of Art to view “Masters of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection.” Cost for the 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. tour is $15 and includes admission and bus fare. Reservations are required. Information: (213) 432-2003.

ETC.

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions is giving new prints by artists Jeffery Vallance and Astrid Preston to its upper-level members. Those contributing $1,000 can select either Vallance’s “Man and Beast” or Preston’s “Four Apples,” and those contributing $1,500 or more will receive both limited-edition prints. . . . Serena Rattazzi, associate director of the Brooklyn Museum, has been appointed as director of the New York-based American Federation of Arts. She takes her post Oct. 22, and replaces Myrna Smoot, who is leaving the service organization to become vice president of the Abbeville Press.