Art Center Opens New Gallery Program

Art Center College of Design in Pasadena opens its 4,600-square-foot Williamson Gallery on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. with the first West Coast solo exhibition of works by noted British painter Christopher Le Brun.

The gallery, named after Art Center trustee Alyce de Roulet Williamson, marks the beginning of a professionally-curated, full-time exhibition program for the college.

Future 1992 shows include “Facing the Finish,” a San Francisco Museum of Modern Art-organized exhibition of emerging California artists; “Artists of the Nation,” a survey of political cartoons from the magazine, and a new installation by L.A. sculptor Michael C. McMillen.

GRANTS: Five artists and nine organizations have been selected to share a total of $180,000 in 1992 grants and fellowships from the California Community Foundation’s J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts. Receiving unrestricted fellowships of $15,000 each are photographers Nancy Webber and Peter Reiss, sculpture/new genre artists Michael C. McMillen and George Stone, and performance artist Hirokazu Kosaka. Receiving organizational awards--either for project support or institutional development--are the L.A. Center for Photographic Studies, East L.A.’s Self-Help Graphics and Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Complex, $15,000 each; San Pedro’s Angels Gate Cultural Center and the Asian-Pacific group Visual Communications, $12,500 each; the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Venice’s Beyond Baroque and Santa Monica’s Highways, $10,000 each; and the Gay and Lesbian Media Coalition, $5,000.

WOLF PRIZE: Santa Monica architect Frank Gehry has been chosen as one of three recipients of the 1992 Wolf Prize in the Arts. Gehry will share the $100,000 prize, awarded annually by the Israel-based Wolf Foundation, with fellow architects John Utzon of Copenhagen and Denys Lasdun of London, all of whom were cited for “consistency in seeking ever-extended fields of freedom” and for being “reminders that the art of architecture can aspire to qualities existing well beyond the range of passing fashion.”

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: “The 10th Annual Artists’ Salute to Black History Month,” billed as the country’s largest exhibition of African-American art works, will be held Wednesday through next Sunday at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards. More than 8,000 art works from more than 90 artists and galleries will be on view. Artists include Bernard Hoyes, Betty Biggs, Varnette P. Honeywood, Brenda Joysmith and Carlos Spivey. The event, previously held at the Fox Hills Mall in Culver City, also features a number of lectures and seminars. Information: (213) 939-0250.

Works by six African-American video artists will be screened Feb. 13 at Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts. Offerings in the free, 7:30 p.m. program include “South African Women Artists Speak” by Karen Hayes, “What Goes Around/Comes Around” by Philip Mallory Jones and “Word of Mouth” by Nicole Atkinson and Julia Kerfoot. Other Black History Month offerings at the Armory include an afternoon of free artmaking activities and music performances next Sunday from 1-4 p.m. Information: (818) 792-5101.

Also celebrating is Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, which will host a free reading by contemporary African-American poets on Saturday from 1-5 p.m. Information: (310) 519-0936.

VALENTINE’S BASHES: Artist Laddie John Dill’s Venice studio is the site for “Valentines from Artists’ Hearts,” an annual party held by the L.A. County Museum of Art’s Graphic Art Council. The Feb. 14, 7 p.m. event includes dining and dancing, plus a silent auction of “valentines” by contemporary Southern California artists such as Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston and Ed Moses. Tickets start at $100. Information: (213) 857-6087.

Artists and writers including Manuel Ocampo, Nick Taggart, Hunter Drohojowska and Akilah Nayo Oliver will read from their favorite erotic literature during the “7th Annual Night of Erotica” at Venice’s Beyond Baroque, at 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 14. Tickets are $10. Information: (310) 822-3006.

LACE’s annual Valentine’s party, featuring an “Erotic Carnival” of romantic videos, performance art and dancing will be held from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Feb. 15. Tickets are $12 in advance; $15 at the door. Information: (213) 624-5650.

OTHER EVENTS: “Art and Architecture: Connections and Intersections” and “Women in Environmental Design: Reconsidering Feminist Issues” are among the topics scheduled for “Broadening the Discourse,” a multi-disciplinary conference being held Friday through next Sunday at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. The conference is co-sponsored by the Assn. for Women in Architecture and California Women in Environmental Design. Information: (213) 487-3191.