Arts District Flea Market Grand Opening with Cartwheel Art Tour : Cartwheel Art

Arts District Flea Grand Opening with Cartwheel Art Tour : July 11

Posted by Cindy Schwarzstein

The Arts District Flea a unique permanent indoor flea market in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, one block from Urth Cafe, celebrates it’s grand opening this Friday, July 11 from 6:00pm – 11:00pm with art, music and a Cartwheel Art Tour.

Occupying a 15,000-square-foot, 100-year old building with brick walls, 14.5 high exposed wooden beam ceilings and concrete floors, the Arts District Flea has had a soft-opening that began in April, with a mission

to provide a creative community business space that will bring innovative artisans in clothing, jewelry, art, furniture and handmade goods to the consumers and by design inspire and invigorate downtown Los Angeles.

The 48,000 square foot building where the Arts District Flea is occupied is owned by Keven Chen, a fashion designer and developer. The building also houses DTLA Tattoo Studio and Art Gallery, office space, artist studios, and the soon-to-open Rotelli Cyclery. The building showcases murals recently painted on the exterior walls by local artists Ser in collaboration with Steve Martinez of UGLAR Works, First Hand Society, Mikolai, Sloth. In addition, Vyal One has another mural in process and there are plans for other artists to begin painting more murals, creating more public art in the Arts District, staging the way for LA to reclaim its title as “the Mural Capital of the World” after the mural ordinance was passed last year.

Kevin Chen told the Los Angeles Downtown News:

There are so many artists over here, but you only hear about restaurants coming in. Urth gets a lot of traffic, but other than that, it’s quiet. This is a great way to connect the community and create positive energy.

Fesitivies planned for the Arts District Flea Market include lots of art with the opening of the art gallery space from Modern Multiples where fine art print editions are created and sold of the following artists– Albert Reyes, Phillip Lumbang, Lekit, Billy Chainsaw, Miguel Felipe, Augor, Shepard Fairy, Germs and Becca.

In addition, there will be work of Ricardo Garcia , Michael Hope, Shana Hagan (IMBD), Emmeric Konrad, Evan Mayfield, Alexander J. Pack along with Arts District Flea Vendors– Julie Arnoff–Lillian Abel-Carlos Vargas–a trio from the Los Angeles’s Santa Fe Arts Colony and other surprise artists who will be painting live.

Frank A. Aceves with dj Frank Foreal from SoundWaves Radio/KPFK will be providing the soundtrack for guests as they browse through vendors booths including Beat Cruiser, Farmer’s Belly, Greta Grigorian, Quirky Creatures Cards, Julie A Studios, Delusions of Grandeur, ASTALI, Song Yi Han & Peterson, Steve Park & Victor Jang, Zainab Outlaw, Astali and Roial Photography.

The Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, where the Arts District Flea is located, was once a gritty section of LA filled with disused warehouses, train tracks and manufacturing plants by the LA River, that is now rapidly becoming the hippest, vibrant and most dynamic art-centric part of Los Angeles. The opening of the Arts District Flea gives the neighborhood another artisan, local business which both supports the area and draws in visitors.

As a board member of the Los Angeles River Artists and Business Association (LARABA), I am interested in supporting both the development of a variety of artisan businesses and the artists in the community. With that, I am excited to show support through Cartwheel Art’s media partnership with the grand opening by offering a free one-hour Cartwheel Art tour. This tie-in to the grand opening event creates an opportunity for guests of the Flea Market to discover, explore and experience the various murals, with a possible artist studio visit in the building, significant points of interest in the neighborhood, and other surprises that are in close proximity to the Arts District Flea Market location.

Murals scheduled to be seen as part of the tour itinerary include the exterior of the building that houses the Arts District Flea, DTLA Tattoo Studio and Art Gallery and Rotelli Cyclery (which will be opening soon); along with the many new murals painted on the exterior of The Container Yard, a new emerging mixed-use creative space with mural work created in collaboration by Angelina Christina, Ease, Mar and Sek, the Love Crew, James Haunt, Skeam BWS, Tank, Brek, Zes MSK, Drew Merritt, plus other local street and graffiti artists that have been producing work around the neighborhood.

Cartwheel Art has been offering and creating tours as media partnership tie-ins for events and groups like the LA Art Show, Create: Fixate, the grand opening of the LARABA-sponsored Arts District Farmers Market, and most recently for the VIPs at the Art Share LA’s fundraiser event Above the Streets. Plus we’ve developed and are leading an upcoming tour for Atlas Obscura and a past tour for the American Planning Association.

As a founder of Cartwheel Art, an Arts District resident, a Los Angeles River Artists and Business Association(LARABA) Board Member, and a founding member of the Committee for the Advancement of Mural Proliferation (CAMP), I am looking forward to hosting Friday’s condensed preview version of a Cartwheel Art Tour–I love my neighborhood and the wonderful art and locally owned businesses which support and enhance this historic and dynamic community. Its wonderful to expose locals and visitors to the art around them.

The free one-hour tour begins at 6pm at the Arts District Flea Market, 453 Coylton Street. The Grand Opening is from 6pm to 11pm, so we’ll be back in plenty of time for you to experience the Flea Market.

Grand Opening event is sponsored by ArtsDistrictFlea.com, Roialphotography.com, ModernMultiples.com, RistorGoods.com, Opnk.com and CartwheelArt.com

Facebook invite for the Cartwheel Art Flea Market Opening Tour here.

Facebook invite for the Grand Opening of the Arts District Flea Market here.

The Arts District Flea is open every friday-sunday from 11:00am – 7:00pm at 453 Colyton Street in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, 90013

Photos of the Arts District Flea by Gabe Sage and murals by Cindy Schwarzstein.