Chinatown’s the Place for Labor Day Celebrating!
This weekend Chinatown celebrates in the end of summer with four days of music and art on Chung King Road and an over-the-top, all-you-can-eat taco event with live painting and DJs on Sunday at KGB Gallery.
Chung King Road kicks it off Friday night with two stages of music from 7pm to 11pm featuring Ruthann Friedman fan page, Drunk Old Ladies, WORDS, The Walker Brigade, Dick and Jane Family Orchestra, Brother/Sister, Circus of Books and surprise bands to be announced. Don’t want to drive or Uber? Take the MTA Gold Line which drops you right off on Spring Street just two blocks away.
Saturday night all the galleries in the Chung King district are holding receptions from 7pm to 11pm unless otherwise noted:
Coagula Curatorial – Diane Silver – “Sacrament”
Coagula Video Lounge: Kent Anderson Butler – “Sacred Encounters”
Charlie James Gallery: Casey Reas
The Good Luck Gallery: Cathy Ward (7-10pm)
Fifth Floor Gallery: “Tacos & Beer”
Chung King Studio: “Trade Show” (7-10pm)
The Institute for Art and Olfaction – Erik Benjamins (6-9pm)
The Gregorio Escalante Gallery Official Opening: “The Collection”
Wait, what? The Gregorio Escalante Gallery? Yes! That Greg Escalante: Kustom Kulture and Low Brow museum exhibitions and Copro Nason Gallery, who co-founded Juxtapoz Magazine. A serious force in SoCal art (and thus international art), Escalante opened up an exciting gallery in Chinatown next to Coagula. His first show, “The Collection,” features pieces from his own very substantial collection–you can bet the dapper Escalante has amassed an amazing amount of art! “The Collection” includes works by Robert Williams, Rat Fink, Jeffrey Gillette, the late Chris Burden, and The Pizz, who sadly died early this week, as well as Leslie Ditto’s iconic Salvador.
Sunday on Chung King Road, you can be erudite and attend a series of artist and panel talks beginning at 4pm with a curator walk -thru at Gregorio Escalante Gallery, a 5pm artist talk with artist Diane Silver, critic Peter Frank and gallerist Mat Gleason, and at 6pm a conversation between critic Doug Harvey and artist Cathy Ward.
Also on Sunday, just north on Spring St, Galo “Love Galo” Canote launches his
inaugural edition of the Dine-Nasty Series at KGB Gallery in Chinatown which features all-you-can-eat tacos, live painting, and DJs. (Don’t let the name put you off; Canote, who paints under that name LoveGalo, explains that the Dine-Nasty Series is “inspired by the Dynasty shirt series of basketball teams like the Lakers, Bulls, Celtics, et cetera which list significant team players on the shirts. Our event will host the five main “C” word elements: cans–that is, live art–cold ones, cocktails, carnitas, and cameras.”)
Canote is the man behind Con Safos, last year’s most-talked-about-but-never-seen-museum show—nervous trustees at Anaheim’s Muzeo went sideways on the art being shown and even the show’s title, forcing curator Canote and his artists to take a stand against bigotry-based censorship—and he has assembled some super skilled can artists like Ankore, Ezra One, Jennifer Korsen and Size One to create walls, as DJ Costa, DJ Gingee, DJ Sheak and special guests lay down tunes.
And the tacos? From Carnitas El Momo Acosta, consistently voted by critics and folks-in-the-street as one of LA’s top tacos. These are delicious porky piles of love on tortillas. Stand in line, get two, eat them whileyou wait in line in for a refill. All-you-can-eat El Momo for $10 in advance, $15 at the door.
Dine-Nasty runs Sunday, September 6 from 2pm to 8pm, and donation tickets are $10 in advance $15 at the door (the donation gets you all-you-can-eat-tacos and a drink ticket), and is 21+ age limit, with ID. There’s also a specially priced ticket at this link for $25 which includes tacos and a bump-up to eight beers.
You can nurse your (pork) hangover on Monday at around 4pm with BBQ and possibly some of the hair of the dog that bit you from Lings Market, Chinatown’s only craft wine & beer store, located on Chung King Road. Ling’s will be fully stocked with end-of-summer themed fruit beers, European white ales, unique IPA’s, Prosecco singles, Cabernet splits and more. Bring your own corkscrew and cups and whatever you want to grill–this BBQ is BYOM, Bring Your Own Meat.
Chung King Road Four Day Weekend
Friday thru Monday, September 4 through 7, times vary.
978 to 945 Chung King Road, and along Chung King Way
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Dine-Nasty Series: Cans, Cold Ones, Cocktails, Carnitas and Cameras
Sunday, September6, 2pm to 8pm
KGB Studios
1640-1646 N. Spring Road
Los Angeles, 90012
Top image: The Pizz, The Treaty of Versailles is Written in Blood.