‘ModArte’ Designs Wear Well for L.A. AIDS Hospice

Eighty-five Los Angeles artists, including Patssi Valdez, May Sun, Diane Gamboa, Daniel J. Martinez, John Valadez and Powers of Desire, have contributed works to “ModArte: Los Angeles Designers and Artists Against AIDS,” a fashion parade and silent auction of “wearable art.”

The event will be held Saturday at the Park Plaza Hotel, 607 S. Park View St., across from MacArthur Park. Proceeds go to the City of Angels Hospice.

The participating artists have created a “fall lineup” of clothing exclusively for the event, including gowns made of recycled materials, such as Paul Botello’s “Aluminum Mini-Blinds Riveted Sequin Dress” and Rosalie Ortega’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, but Urban Goddesses Swear by Bottle Caps.” Safe-sex-themed designs include Gayle Gale’s “Play It Safe & Live Vest and Tie” and Armando Norte’s “Don’t Be Afraid,” a dress and headpiece constructed of knives and vinyl. In addition to the actual garments, the artists’ sketches for each design will also be on view.

Michael (Mixx’in) Moor of KCRW-FM (89.9) will serve as emcee and deejay for the event, which runs from 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and includes cocktails and dancing. Admission is $20. Information: (213) 243-9488.

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GALLERIES: Twenty galleries are participating in this year’s Santa Monica/Venice Art Dealers Assn. Open House from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. The event, dubbed “Spend a Night With Art,” features openings at galleries including Angles, James Corcoran, Christopher Grimes, G. Ray Hawkins, L.A. Louver, Dorothy Goldeen and Tortue. Information: (310) 319-9956.

Benedicte Saxe Gallery-Maeght Editions in Beverly Hills is the latest art venue to succumb to the recession. “Business is quiet, and I think Beverly Hills . . . is not a good place for modern art,” said Saxe, who will close the 2-year-old gallery tied to the powerful French Maeght family on Sept. 15. Saxe said she will now look for an American partner and hopes to reopen the gallery next year--in either Santa Monica or on Melrose Avenue, and with a new focus on young American artists as well as the Maeght stable of modern masters like Joan Miro and Antonio Tapies.

Also falling victim to the economy is La Brea’s Parker/Mark Gallery, which closed last week. The 4-month-old gallery was an attempt to resurrect Parker/Zanic Gallery, an outlet for younger, emerging artists that had shut down earlier in the year. “It’s sad, but there just wasn’t enough money, and what little there was ran out in a few months,” director Tracie Berson said. “And collectors just don’t seem willing to take a chance on art right now.”

Richard Green reports that contrary to abundant rumors, his Santa Monica gallery is not closing but simply will no longer represent contemporary artists. The gallery instead will shift its focus entirely to prints and graphics. The shift coincides with the gallery’s opening on Friday of two print shows, “Frank Stella--A Selection of Prints, 1967-1989” and “Recent Releases From Tandem Press.”

Venice’s Ashley/Craig Gallery will donate a portion of proceeds from its riot-related exhibition “Fat in the Fire: Despair & Loathing in L.A.” to the Rebuild L.A. organization. The show, which runs through Oct. 25, features works by eight Los Angeles artists, including Ron Pastucha, Darius Blue Richmond and Elena Mary Siff. Information: (310) 399-0193.

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PERSONNEL: Diana C. du Pont, curator of Cal State Long Beach’s University Art Museum for 2 1/2 years, has been named curator of 20th-Century art for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Du Pont, who assumes her new post Oct. 1, said she plans to develop an exhibition and acquisitions program offering “a stimulating balance of local, national and international artists and of varied mediums, from painting and sculpture, architecture and design, to new genres, such as installation and media arts.” Before joining the University Art Museum, Du Pont was assistant curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Deborah McLeod, who directed BlumHelman Gallery in Los Angeles for five years before its recession-forced closure, has joined Christie’s as West Coast contemporary art specialist. McLeod, who also worked at Ace and Jan Turner galleries, will be responsible for new business development and will work out of the auction house’s Beverly Hills office.

Rona Edelbaum, former associate director of L.A. Louver, has become gallery director of the reconfigured Ruth Bloom Gallery, which opens Friday with works by David Ireland.

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MURALS: Alhambra-based Chinese artist Hui-Xiang Xiao’s “Golden Phoenix Is Flying,” at the Quon Yick Noodle Company, 2730 N. Main St., Lincoln Heights, will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Saturday. The 62-foot-by-17-foot mural was produced through SPARC’s “Great Walls Unlimited” program, funded by the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department. The work depicts Chinese-American youth led by the phoenix, a symbol of luck and prosperity, into a future of peace, happiness and progress.

Local artists MB Hanrahan and Michele Chapin are working with members of the nonprofit Turning Point Foundation on a mural at the Livery Arts Center, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. Themed “The Arts Are in Reach of All,” the mural depicts various elements of cultural life in the city. The work, funded by Ventura’s Community Art Outreach Program, is scheduled to be unveiled at 5 p.m. Friday.

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VANDALISM: Five oil paintings by artist Jungran Noh were vandalized at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena last month. When opening the museum one Tuesday morning, officials found that the works had been slashed in foot-long cuts. The museum believes the vandalism had occurred around closing time the previous Sunday. Pasadena police are investigating the incident.

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MORE WEARABLE ART: Images by 10 prominent artists, including Keith Haring, Annie Leibovitz, Wayne Thiebaud and William Wegman, will be featured in the first line of a new series of T-shirts produced to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The shirts will be available in stores, galleries and clubs in the coming weeks. Apparel merchandiser Artwear Collection eventually plans to produce about 36 different T-shirts each year.

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EVENTS: Beyond Baroque hosts “Word L.A.: An Oral Response to the Rodney King Verdict,” featuring spoken-word performances by artists including Dan Kwong, Keith Antar Mason, Amy Gerstler and Gloria Alvarez, at 8 p.m. Saturday. The event, a benefit for Beyond Baroque, is the kickoff to the Multicultural Spoken Word Festival, featuring events at five sites citywide. Admission is $8. Information: (310) 822-3066.

Artists including Judie Bamber, Cindy Bernard, Nayland Blake, Carol Caroompas, Lawrence Gipe, Connie Hatch, Jim Shaw, Linda Albertano and Beth Lapides will join the karaoke craze and use their vocal cords to benefit the LACE bookstore on Friday in “Sing . . . Sing a Song.” The event begins at 8 p.m., and tickets are $10. Information: (213) 624-5650.

Los Angeles guerrilla artist Robbie Conal will be at the Midnight Special Cultural Center in Santa Monica at 7:30 p.m. Friday to sign copies of his new full-color, oversized paperback book “ART ATTACK: The Midnight Politics of a Guerrilla Artist.” Conal says the book is filled with “a lot of shtick” and “anecdotes about splattering myself with glue and running around to every city I could get to” to erect his irreverent political posters, such as “Men With No Lips” and “Gag Me With a Coat Hanger.” Information: (310) 393-2923.

Works will be previewed Saturday and next Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art’s annual art auction and party, which begins at 5 p.m. next Sunday. More than 60 L.A. and Orange County artists have donated works for the auction, which will benefit the center’s continuing exhibitions program. Tickets are $10. Information: (714) 549-4989.