L.A.-Area Artists Win 4 Arts Federation Fellowships

Los Angeles-area artists have won four of 20 prestigious 1991 Regional Fellowships for Visual Arts from the Western States Arts Federation. Ten awards were made this year in each of two categories--photography and sculpture. The winners will each receive unrestricted $5,000 cash awards and will be featured in a four-color catalogue to be published this September.

Local recipients are the collaborative photographic team Kerr + Malley, photographer Lyle Ashton Harris, sculptor Kim Lee Kahn and sculptor Caryl Davis.

Other California recipients include photographers Anthony J. Aziz and Ed Kashi of San Francisco, Kaucyila Brooke of San Diego, Albert Chong of La Jolla, Terri L. Garland of Capitola and Brian D. Taylor of Monte Sereno; and sculptors Matt Heckert of San Francisco, Margaret Honda and Jean Lowe of San Diego and James A. Luna of Valley Center. The remaining awardees are photographers Thomas Harris and Mark C. Olsen of Washington, sculptors Beth Lindsey Gellar and Sarah M. Timberlake of Colorado, New Mexico sculptor Cameron Gregg and sculptor Kathy Gaye Shiroki of Wyoming.

The winners were selected from 1,544 applicants from 12 Western states. In addition to the cash awards and catalogue, the federation will also provide matching stipends of up to $1,000 per artist for non-profit exhibiting institutions to show their works.

Fellowships for 1992 will be offered in painting and works on paper. Applications will be available in January.

She’s Back: Irit Krygier, whose Krygier/Landau Gallery in Santa Monica closed early this year as one of the first local victims of the recession, is back on the local art scene. Krygier has curated “The Spiritual Landscape,” a group show opening July 25 at West Hollywood’s Biota Gallery. The exhibition features works by 21 artists--including Clytie Alexander, Vija Celmins, Astrid Preston and Jon Swihart--who depict issues of spirituality within the context of landscape.

Lectures: Santa Monica’s Meyers/Bloom Gallery is holding a series of four monthly art lectures beginning Saturday with “Out of Bounds: A Critical Approach to Contemporary Art,” by Marcia Tucker, director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art. On Aug. 3, New York critic and curator Dan Cameron will speak on “The Pros and Cons of Eclecticism”; San Diego State University professor Emily Hicks will address “The Death of the Monocultural Artist/Birth of the Border Cyborg” on Sept. 14 and UC Irvine art department chairwoman Catherine Lord will speak on “Bad Girls Have More Fun: Projects for Feminism in the ‘90s” on Oct. 26. Tickets are $100 for the series of 9 a.m. lectures. Reservations: (213) 829-0062. . . . Also launching a new lecture series is the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is holding lunch-time talks from noon-1 p.m. every other Tuesday through Sept. 17. Upcoming topics include “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture” on July 23 and “How Do Museums Acquire a Permanent Collection?” on Aug. 6. Tickets are $7 per lecture and includes a box lunch and museum admission. Reservations: (213) 626-6828.

Auctions: Works by artists including Ed Moses, Laddie John Dill and Peter Shire, and celebrities such as John Ritter, Kim Carnes and Woody Harrelson will be auctioned off July 25 to benefit the environmental group Heal the Bay. Tickets are $50, and the 7 p.m. event is at Leonard’s Santa Monica showroom at 2727 Main St. Information: (213) 394-4552. . . . The Colombian government will auction off more than 70 pieces of Colombian fine art at 8 p.m. on July 25 in the Catalina Room of the downtown Bonaventure Hotel. Proceeds will go to Intensive Care for Newborn Babies Foundation at the Hospital Universitario del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Information: (213) 965-9760.

Films: Several documentaries related to the L.A. County Museum’s “Design 1935-65: What Modern Was” exhibition will be shown at the museum this month. Screening Saturday at 2 p.m. is “Isamu Noguchi” (1971), “Making Aalto’s Furniture” (1984), and “A Walk Around Aalto” (1986). On July 27, “Beyond Utopia: Changing Attitudes in American Architecture” (1983) will be shown at 2 p.m.

Umbrellas Tour: Los Angeles-based curator Noriko Fujinami has organized a tour to the Japanese opening of Christo’s “The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and the U.S.A.” Fujinami will take participants to see 1,340 blue umbrellas nearly 20 feet tall and more than 26 feet in diameter which artist Christo will place along Japanese farmlands in Hitachi-Ota and Satomi as part of a bi-national installation in which 1,760 similarly-sized yellow umbrellas will be erected in grazing fields near Bakersfield. The Oct. 1-9 tour will also feature visits to local museums and ceramic kiln sites. Information: (213) 475-5661.

Entries: The San Bernardino Art Assn. will accept works from all California artists working in media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed-media, collage and graphics (no photographs) for the juried Inland Exhibition XXVII to be held at the San Bernardino County Museum Aug. 20-Sept. 16. Works must be delivered to the museum on Aug. 17 or 18 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Small cash awards will be given. Information: (714) 885-2816.

Etc. “Art Pro Choice II Portfolio,” a collection of limited edition prints by artists including Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Claes Oldenburg and Cindy Sherman on sale to benefit the National Abortion Rights Action League, is on view through Aug. 15 at Santa Monica’s Linda Cathcart Gallery. . . . L.A. The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art now has free admission on Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m.