Slideluck Potshow will mix food and art at Fifth L.A. Studios Friday

The recipe is simple: take a dynamic urban space, add a copious, international pot luck supper, a DJ, a local mixologist and 40-some artists eager to share their work via multimedia slide show. Plus about 100 additional guests, give or take.

The intention? Shared food + art = community.

Slideluck Potshow (essentially, a potluck slide show) is an international art and food event with a decidedly local, DIY spin -- and Los Angeles is its next stop on Friday. The New York-based nonprofit brings roughly 40 local artists together in cities around the world -- Bucharest in Romania; London; Cleveland; Washington; and Tel Aviv among them – for what’s essentially a photography-heavy group art show, in slide-show format. Participants each bring a well-thought-out dish for a potluck dinner, paired with music and cocktails, preceding the show.

“By bringing together diverse but complementary foods, people, artwork, ideas, genres, friends, cultures, industries and perspectives, we feel something unique and magical is born,” says Slideluck Potshow founder Casey Kelbaugh. “It’s a real communal experience to view a slide show – you can literally watch the temperature in the room rise and fall as images glide across the screen.”

Kelbaugh, a photographer who shoots regularly for the New York Times, started Slideluck Potshow in his Seattle backyard in 2000. When he moved to New York several years later, he brought the event with him; and in 2006, it went global.

Local on-the-ground teams curate each show, with an eye toward pairing established photojournalists, painters, designers, sculptors, fashion and fine art photographers with emerging talent. Featured work is then archived – along with recipes from the evening -- on Sideluck’s website. In May 2010, that list of dishes was particularly long. More than 1,000 people enjoyed 479 dishes at Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse – and it broke the Guinness Book of World Records for largest potluck.

Friday’s show will be held at Fifth Studios, a new 2,500-square-foot photography studio and event space in downtown run by photographer Ben Miller. Ton Koene, Mike Slack and Garry Winogrand will be among the photographers showing work; and the event, which is requesting a $10 donation, will also feature music from DJ Solecito, DAMA cocktail mixologist and a 3-D photo booth.

Twitter.com/@debvankin

ALSO:

Smithsonian explores the art of video games

Salvaged Banksy artwork goes on display in Detroit

Critic’s Notebook: Metro douses expectations on Union Station project