A Gallery Big as All Outdoors : Art Comes to the People as Part of New Exhibit

Art dealer and collector Carl Schlosberg is creating a new sculpture gallery. It is called Malibu.

Fifty large sculptures are springing up all over the countryside near the Civic Center as part of his Malibu International Sculpture Exhibition. Over the next eight weeks, works by 30 artists, including George Rickey and Claes Oldenburg, will be installed for the show, which runs from June 28 to Sept. 3.

Schlosberg, the curator of the exhibit, said he is placing the sculptures outdoors to show that “art has more meaning when you come in contact with it in your daily life.

“When you go to the market, you’ll see art,” he said. “When you go to eat yogurt, you’ll see art. If you take your children to the playground, you’ll see art. If you’re driving on the highway, you’ll see art.”

And Malibu, with its rugged landscape of mountains and sea, is the ultimate gallery, said Schlosberg, who has homes in Malibu, Sherman Oaks and New York.

“We hope the show agitates, soothes and titillates,” Schlosberg told a recent gathering of business, civic and cultural leaders at an afternoon reception he hosted with sponsors.

The sculptures, all by living artists, will be in 18 locations on fields, near beaches, in the mountains, at parks, in front of restaurants and around shopping centers, he said.

Perhaps the most visible piece, he said, will be a 27-foot-tall, bright red abstract sculpture by San Francisco artist Fletcher Benton. It will sit prominently on a knoll at Pepperdine University that overlooks the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road.

Five stone sheep by French artist Francois Lalanne will graze in a field off Civic Center Way, and Masayuki Oda’s “Walking Moon” has been placed in a small park in the Cross Creek Shopping Center.

The first to be installed in April, near a fountain in the Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center, were three vividly colored, larger-than-life human figures by San Francisco artist Viola Frey. Two of the glazed ceramic figures, “Urban Man” and “Ethnic Man,” are nearly 10 feet tall. “Reclining Nude Woman” graces the lawn nearby.

A short way up the sidewalk are two enormous bronzed bags by Beverly Hills artist Marlene Louchheim. Weighing about 150 pounds each, the bags are made of burlap and shot with molten metal, Louchheim said in an interview at the recent gathering hosted by Schlosberg.

Titled “Standing Together,” the bags serve as a commentary on relationships, she said.

The bags were installed April 21 and already “the response (from passersby) has been tremendous,” she said. One viewer told her they looked like “two pots of gold. They keep changing with the light.”

Louchheim said she started on the bag series about 10 years ago. People now call her “the bag lady,” she said with a smile.

Two other bags weighing about 1,000 pounds each will be installed in a field on Webb Way near the Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center by the first week of June. Titled “Mixed Bag” and “Patch Bag,” each will have room for three people to sit.

“They’re really outrageous, but you have to have a sense of humor,” about them Louchheim said. “I really enjoy making people smile and laugh.”

A gallery will open at 3900 Cross Creek Road in the Cross Creek Shopping Center and function as a headquarters for the exhibit, Schlosberg said. Weekend bus tours led by docents will start from there, and it will also be used to exhibit smaller works by artists in the show.