Celebrate the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District  with this exhibit featuring artworks by artists inspired by photographs of Downtown Muse blogger Melissa Richardson Banks at Art Share L.A. on Saturday January 18 from 7pm to 11pm. The art will be hanging through February 8, with a closing reception also from 7pm to 11pm.

Captured and shared daily through her “Downtown Muse” blog and social networks, the photographs by Richardson Banks reveal an insider’s view of the Arts District. Her images chronicle this extraordinary community in a way that is more like someone admiring a loved one instead of documenting a neighborhood, evoking the sense of a place more pastoral or exotic than what one expects to find in the center of the nation’s second largest metropolis.

Using one or more of her photographs as inspiration, the artists created their own interpretation and incorporated their artistic license to create unique works of art. The exhibit features narrative and representational art utilizing a variety of styles including impressionism, surrealism, abstract and outsider. The work represents a wide range of media including paintings using oil, spray paint, watercolor and/or acrylic, mixed-media prints and drawings, as well as sculptural installations, neon, and more.

Over forty artists were involved in the project, creating new works of art: Jari “Werc” Alvarez, A.S. Ashley, Qathryn Brehm, Jesse Burgos, Gary Callahan, Diego Cardoso, Susie S. Chang, Jaime Colindres, Kikki Eder, Ramiro Fauve, Clemente Garcia Lassaulx, Margaret Garcia, Tom Garner, Kristopher Gee, Yolanda Gonzalez, Jacinto Guevara, Christian Hernandez, Javi Herrera, Miriam Jackson, Jeremy Thomas Kunkel, George Labrada, Lili Lakich, Bonnie Lambert, Lauren A. Langford, Leba, Tod Lychkoff, Ted Meyer, Colette Miller, Patricia R. Mitchell, Valerie Mitchell, Alberto Miyares, Birgitte Moos, J.W. Pippen, Wenceslao Quiroz, Patti Lou Richardson, Rick Robinson, Sandy Rodriguez, Alex Schaefer, SEK,ShadowMonsterBear, Roderick Smith, Anna Stump, Bob Ujszaszi, Jerico Woggon, and Jaime “Germs” Zacarias.

Proceeds from artwork and book sales during the exhibit’s run benefit Art Share L.A., a nonprofit community center, which is a sanctuary for the arts and their creators that provides 30 live/work units and 14,000 sq. ft of creative space in Downtown Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday 11 a.m to 2 p.m. and Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.