Artist’s Homeless ‘Artifacts’ Begin Tour

“Artifacts of the Street,” the series of paintings by artist Randy White depicting homeless families, begins a national tour Tuesday with a five-day exhibition at Santa Monica’s Lowe Gallery.

The exhibition is the culmination of a project supported by Comic Relief and actress Whoopi Goldberg, in which White provided temporary housing for homeless families in his studio, where he spent three weeks creating a painting depicting the plight of each family. The families were then granted stipends and help in finding permanent housing and employment.

In addition to White’s 10 resulting paintings, a photo collection of the families by James R. Cessna will also be on view. The gallery hours are 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday. A reception to benefit Comic Relief will be held on Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m.

The works then go on a national tour, starting with the Boulder Art Center in Colorado on Jan. 15.

Information: (310) 449-1840.

PRINT SHOWS: Twenty-one community and commercial galleries are participating this month in “L.A. Print ‘93: Southern California Perspectives in Printmaking,” a series of exhibitions highlighting both local and national artists.

Highlights include “The Los Angeles Printmaking Society’s 12th National,” a biennial exhibition juried by UCLA’s Henry Hopkins, shared between Loyola Marymount’s Laband Art Gallery and the Palos Verdes Art Center (both run Jan. 20-Feb. 20); selected Mixografias by artists including Robert Graham, Larry Rivers and Arman at Santa Monica’s Remba Gallery (Jan. 21-March 6); new editions by Ellsworth Kelly and Jasper Johns at Gemini Gel (through Jan. 31), and the exposition “Prints/Los Angeles,” with 11 national dealers, Jan. 23-24 at the Radisson Bel-Air Hotel.

Information: (310) 338-2880.

BILLBOARD: The Downey Museum of Art is sponsoring artist Jean Pinataro in the creation of “Integrity,” a billboard poster and public-participation project that goes up Monday at two locations: the south side of Firestone Boulevard just east of Rives Avenue in Downey, and the west side of Downey Avenue just south of Gardendale Street in Paramount.

The poster depicts convicted savings-and-loan financier Charles H. Keating Jr., along witha fragmented planet Earth embedded with money. In the background are the words Integrity and Future .

The billboard, on view through Feb. 1, encourages members of the public to participate by sending ideas on the poster’s subject to the museum, which is planning a subsequent exhibition of responses.

Information: (310) 861-0491.

GRAFFITI ART: “Hip Hop” artists Ben, Cre8 and Toons will spend Jan. 13-15 at Occidental College’s Quad creating “Hip Hope,” a series of aerosol mural panels celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The panels will then be exhibited in the college’s gallery Jan. 18-March 12.

Information: (213) 259-2749.

MORE MURALS: SPARC has received a three-year contract from the Cultural Affairs Department to inventory the city’s estimated 1,500 murals and recommend methods for their treatment and maintenance.

In the project’s first year, during which it has received $80,000 in funding, SPARC plans to identify the 300 murals most in need of maintenance. Archivist Ben Keppel will head the new Murals Inventory and Maintenance Program, which will join with SPARC’s Mural Resource Center.

Artist Art Mortimer will lead a daylong bus tour of “The Murals of Venice and Santa Monica,” with works by artists including the L.A. Fine Arts Squad, Christina Schlesinger, Gilbert (Magu) Lujan and Frank Romero, on Jan. 16 beginning at 9 a.m. The tour is the first in a new series of monthly treks by the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Tickets are $25; reservations are required.

Information: (310) 470-8864.

WORKSHOPS: The Museum of Contemporary Art next Sunday begins “Please Don’t Touch!”--a monthlong educational series on the conservation of contemporary art.

The free series, which takes place on Thursdays and Sundays and includes six lectures and four family workshops, focuses on recently conserved works in the museum’s current “Hand-Painted Pop” exhibition. Artists, independent conservators and representatives of the Getty Conservation Institute are among the featured speakers.

Information: (213) 621-1757.

Plaza de la Raza will offer a series of five workshops on fund-raising and marketing skills for community artists, starting with grant-writing consultant Daphne Trager on Jan. 16. Other sessions include a Jan. 30 lecture by artist Frank Romero on exhibition opportunities. Fees range from $7 to $15 for each workshop.

Information: (213) 223-2475.

EVENTS: “An Evening of Poetry,” organized by L.A. Artcore’s Norma Jean Squires, and “Words Across Cultures,” a group performance piece, will be held at Woodland Hills’ Artspace Gallery on Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m., in conjunction with the exhibition “Visual Utterances.” Admission is free.

Information: (818) 716-2786.

GRANTS: L.A. County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Baron has won more kudos for her “Degenerate Art” exhibition, with the National Endowment for the Humanities awarding a $50,000 matching grant to the museum for an accompanying hourlong documentary. The award was among 25 media grants awarded last month totaling more than $6.6 million.

ACQUISITIONS: The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at UCLA has received seven important early 20th-Century German and Austrian works on paper from the estate of collector Mary Elizabeth Braun.

The drawings and prints are highlighted by two rare works by Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Emil Nolde’s figurative watercolor “Man and Nude Woman” and Alexei Jawlensky’s oil on board “Tete de Femme (Woman’s Head).”

DEADLINES: The Westside Art Center is seeking artist- and architect-designed birdhouses, feeders and baths for “Wings Over the City,” a benefit auction and exhibition scheduled for March and April at the Santa Monica Place Mall. Completed works must be received by Jan. 31.

Among artists already committed to contributing works for the benefit of the nonprofit arts center are Joe Fay, Guy Dill, John Okulick, Peter Shire and Steve Weinstock.

Information: (310) 319-9867.

PERSONNEL: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has named Emily J. Sano as its deputy director, chief curator and chief administrative officer, effective this month. She is currently deputy director and senior curator for non-Western art at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Recent changes at the American Federation of Arts include the merging of the fine arts and media arts exhibitions departments, headed by the new exhibitions director, Robert Workman. In addition, Mark Gotlob, the federation’s director of finance and administration, has been promoted to deputy director.