The Art of Junk
There are clubs, there are coffeehouses, there are art galleries--and then there’s Young Moguls Inc. It wants to be a mix of the three--or in a league of its own.
In a way, it’s an artist’s work-in-progress. In a way, it’s what would happen if guerrilla artists ran a Hard Rock Cafe at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Most of all, though, Young Moguls is a mix of artistic ego and business sensibilities, a clear reflection of the intentions of its co-founders, Beeage (pronounced Bee-ahj ) Quick, a 27-year-old immigrant from Australia, and accountant Philip Duff, 30. For Quick, the artistic partner, the idea is to have a space where locals can “be creative.” For Duff, all this creativity has to get to a place where it pays off.
What the two have to work with is a 7,000-square-foot warehouse (the former Frederick’s of Hollywood telemarketing room--”We found cases of panties and phone lines all around,” said Duff) just off Hollywood Boulevard.
It’s hard to miss. The building is painted in blue and black with the name of the club in huge letters, and there’s a 12-foot-tall chrome statue of St. George--with dragon--on the roof. Inside is a huge, funky art gallery and a restaurant that serves sandwiches and snacks.
It’s an amusement in itself to watch first-time visitors enter. They’re the ones with the open-mouthed awe.
What faces them is a mixture of art (mostly Quick’s) and junkyard finds (also mostly Quick’s).
Just a few items in the current collection: a Hovercraft speedboat, a series of 6-foot Hunt’s ketchup bottles, the school bus that is Quick’s former home, a wooden bowl the size of a small swimming pool filled with plastic cornflakes, myriad modernistic paintings and a statue of Ronald McDonald.
“People have seen everything,” says Quick, who cruises the room on roller skates. “The only thing left is creativity.’
It’s Quick who’s made the place into something more than just another art-strewn coffeehouse. He invests it with the possibility that it could become something more. He resists letting Young Moguls be labeled. At one point in a remark worthy of a young Warhol, Quick says he wants it to be “a place that suggests whatever you’re doing is not enough.”
Trying to pull off the financial side is Duff. What he’s got right now is a massive, over-decorated coffeehouse that would have to set a world’s record in cappuccino sales to make a profit, so he’s looking to make the place viable in other ways.
He wants to expand the restaurant, have bands play on weekends, let performance artists use the space. He’s open to most ideas except one: “I draw the line at poetry readings.”
At the moment, YMI is used primarily by the late-night crowd, who come to read, play foosball and hang out. In many ways, it’s a very comfortable space to spend some time.
There’s the art, a variety of music, interesting people--it suggests a freedom that most museums just talk about.
“For me, this place is a funnel,” says Quick. “And I’m just watching all the choice stuff go by.”
“What Beeage needs is a partner who’s a billionaire,” says Duff.
Name: Young Moguls Inc., 1650 N. Hudson Ave., Hollywood. (213) 461-1833. Open Sunday-Thursday, 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Cover: $2 (with $1 applied to food or drink purchases).
Food and Drink: No alcohol. Cappuccino goes for $2.25. Make-your-own sandwich: $6.50.
Attitude: Loose end.