Los Angeles native Senon Williams is a lifelong artist and musician. A founding member of the always-engaging Dengue Fever, Williams’ visual work finds space in the natural, exposing outstanding and devastating stages of human evolution. “To provoke thought, a question works better than answers. I enjoy to start a story I resolve in different ways depending on my mood". With imagery ranging from stark silhouettes to lush landscapes and human forms staged in undetermined acts of hope, his pairing of words and imagery form a poignant visualization of the inherent human struggle both ancient and contemporary. 

Williams' first book, "Hunted & Gathered" was painstakingly produced by Hamilton Press. The press was established in 1990 by master printmaker Ed Hamilton and artist Ed Ruscha to encourage artists to produce art in a peaceful, unhurried atmosphere. Steeped in traditional book making in a modern age, each publication itself is a fine object created by an esteemed team. Designed by Lorraine Wild and Marina Mills Kitchen of Green Dragon Office with color separations by Echelon Color, Santa Monica and printed by Dr.Cantz’sche Druckerei Median GmbH in Ostfildern, Germany, the first edition consists of seven hundred hardbound copies along with a deluxe edition of limited to fifty copies containing an original work on paper by the artist. Both editions will be available at the event and are available pre-order now. 

Come to Arcana on Saturday October 7th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to celebrate the publication "Hunted & Gathered", view an exhibition of Senon Williams' artwork, and partake in the afternoon's Culver City Arts District Art Walk! If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy of either - or both - of the editions, please click here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

SATURDAY JUNE 24th, 4:00 to 6:00 PM

ECHOES OF BHUTAN

BOOK SIGNING AND DISCUSSION

WITH AUTHORS BARRY AND BARBARA SHAFFER

Echoes of Bhutan is the first fine art publication from Los Angeles-based photographer Barry Shaffer. Compiled during Mr. Shaffer's visits to Bhutan in 2001, 2014, and 2015 as a private citizen, a photographer for the Tribal Trust Foundation, and at the invitation of Bhutan’s government and travel Industry, the stunning photographs are accompanied by written contributions from Dr. Robert Thurman, Bhutan’s Queen Mother, Bhutan’s Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Honorable Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, National Geographic editor Costas Christ, and Samten Wangchuk. The book has been selected to receive its Asian release at the “Mountain Echoes International Literary Festival" in Thimphu, Bhutan in August 2017. All proceeds from the sales of Echoes of Bhutan will benefit Bhutan’s Tarayana Foundation.

Please join us Saturday, June 24th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to welcome Echoes of Bhutan authors Barry and Barbara Shaffer.

If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy, please click here or call us at 310-458-1499.

SUNDAY, JUNE 18th, 4:00 to 6:00 PM

DAN HICKS: I SCARE MYSELF - A MEMOIR

Book Signing, Panel Discussion, and Performance

with editor Kristine McKenna,

Hot Licks guitarist Paul Robinson,

Van Dyke Parks, Maria Muldaur, and Jim Kweskin!

Please join us on Sunday, June 18th for a special event to celebrate the publication of the late, great Dan Hicks' autobiography I Scare Myself. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of “The Summer of Love”, Dan’s editor and close collaborator Kristine McKenna will be signing copies of the book and moderating a panel discussion about Dan’s life and music featuring Van Dyke Parks, Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, and Hot Licks guitarist Paul Robinson. There will also be a short musical performance by the participants following the discussion. 

Dan Hicks didn’t have his heart set on a career in music. It all just sort of happened to him. It didn’t hurt, of course, that he was in the right place at the right time - San Francisco, 1966 - and had a front-row seat for the birth and death of the counterculture.

Among other things, I Scare Myself is a classic story of the sixties. More importantly, though, it’s a story of musical genius. By the time “The Summer of Love” limped to a close in the fall of ’67, Dan Hicks had quit The Charlatans - the pioneering psych-rock band with whom he played the drums - and turned to jazz; the music he’d secretly loved all along, as he began building his own band.

“I just started taking ingredients I liked and putting them together to see what came out,” he writes. What came out was an amazing blend of complex time signatures, unusual instrumentation, and intricate vocal harmonies that took him to the top of the seventies rock world as well as a downward spiral of drink and drug abuse.

Dan details it all with wit and candor in I Scare Myself Emerging from a long wilderness, he eventually returned to recording and performing, making a number of acclaimed albums, including Beatin’ The Heat, a set of duets with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, and more. Along the way, his music continued to subtly permeate the culture, turning up everywhere from The Sopranos to commercials for Levi’s and Bic.

Though he passed away in early 2016, Dan’s music, and the stories he tells here, remain as fresh and irresistible as ever. Combining those stories with dozens of rare photographs and a detailed discography by esteemed writer and critic Kristine McKenna, I Scare Myself takes readers on a journey behind the music, and into the life and mind of the fantastic artist who created it.

If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy of I Scare Myself signed by Kristine McKenna please click here or call us at 310-458-1499.

QUEER THREADS: CRAFTING IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY

BY JOHN CHAICH + TODD OLDHAM - LOS ANGELES BOOK LAUNCH
SATURDAY, JUNE 10th 4:00 - 6:00 PM
 

Join us Saturday, June 10th  for a book signing and exhibition with John Chaich as part of the Design Field Day at Helms! We'll be showing work from Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community and enjoying treats from our own Culver City community -  a special cocktail from Bar & Garden and the ice cream stylings of CoolHaus!

The exhibition, running through June 24th, will feature work by five Los Angeles-based artists. On view will be fiber and textile work by Diedrick Brackens, Ben Cuevas, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Maria E. Pineres, and Nathan Vincent. Spanning video to soft sculpture and wall-work, the pieces on view range from  life-sized knit and crochet urinals to a stop-motion animation based on needle-point scenes from RuPaul's "Supermodel" video.

Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community spotlights an international, inter-generational, inter-sectional mix of thirty artists who are remixing fiber craft traditions such as crochet, embroidery, quilting, and sewing while reconsidering the binaries of art and craft, masculine and feminine, and gay and straight.

Designed by Todd Oldham and edited by John Chaich, Queer Threads features full-color spreads of each artist's work, intimate details of selections and artist studios, and an introductory essay by Mr. Chaich, who curated the exhibition of the same name that inspired the book.

To further examine how queerness informs their work in fiber and textiles, the artists are interviewed by makers and thinkers from the worlds of dance, design, fashion, media, music, museums, scholarship, and more - many of whom are members of the LGBTQ community themselves and otherwise passionate allies. Queer Threads is not just an exploration of fiber art and crafts, but also a celebration of the creativity, diversity, and vibrancy of contemporary queer culture.
 

If you are unable to attend but would like a copy of Queer Threads signed by author and editor John Chaich,  please place your order on our website here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

The exhibition will be on display through June 24th. 

The Helms-wide "Design Field Day: This Modern Life" will be running all day Saturday. There are dozens of panels, specials, workshops, demonstrations, tastings throughout the Helms "campus" from 12 to 6. Here's a link to the schedule, including a panel lead by KCRW's Frances Anderton. Attendees can enter the "This Modern LIie" sweepstakes to win chairs from Vitra, lamps from Louis Poulson,  a gift certificate from Arcana, and more!

JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL AFTERNOON OF:

NUDE FIGURE AND VEGETABLE LIFE DRAWING

ROSÉ SIPPING,

BOOK SIGNING,

CONVERSATION WITH JULIA SHERMAN + EVAN KLEIMAN

and, of course, SALAD

S A L A D   F O R   P R E S I D E N T

A COOKBOOK INSPIRED BY ARTISTS

BY JULIA SHERMAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH, 3:00-5:00 PM

A salad is a composition. I am perfectly happy to see cars or clouds or salads as artworks. It’s what you do with them and how you contextualize them that matters.”—Laurie Anderson

The creator of the immensely popular Salad for President blog presents a visually rich collection of more than 75 salad recipes, with contributions and interviews by artists/creative professionals like William Wegman, Tauba Auerbach, Laurie Anderson, and Alice Waters. Sherman loves salad, and she encourages her readers to consider it an everyday indulgence that can include cocktails, soups, family style brunch dishes, and dinner-party entrées.

Salad—with its infinite possibilities—is a game of endless combinations, not stifling rules. And with that in mind, Salad for President offers a window into how artists approach preparing their favorite dishes. Sherman visits sculptors, painters, photographers, and musicians in their homes and gardens, interviewing and photographing them as they cook. Utterly unique in its look into the worlds of food, art, and everyday practices, Salad for President is at once a practical resource for healthy, satisfying recipes and an inspiring look at creativity

Please join us in collaboration with Aesop, June 4th between 3:00 and 5:00 PM for this extra special event as we celebrate the publication of Ms. Sherman's fantastic new Abrams book: Salad For President!

Q + A between Ms. Sherman and Evan Kleiman will begin around 3:30, concurrent with the nude figure and vegetable life drawing. Listen, sketch from life, snack on Sherman's Mexican Fruit Salad (recipe from the book!) and raise a glass! Bring your own art supplies or use the charcoal and newsprint that we will have.

If you are unable to attend but would like a signed copy, please place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

LA Forum is proud to join with Arcana: Books on the Arts in hosting a publication launch for local design and architecture office SO-IL, who are presenting their first monograph, "solid objectives: order, edge, aura" 

Featuring a collection of built and unbuilt projects, texts, processes and experiments from the firm’s first eight years of work (2008-2016), the book proposes an architecture that requires interpretation. The publication is at once a visual and textual manifesto that introduces an attitude towards the design and realization of architecture in an interconnected environment. 

The event will feature SO-IL's Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu in discussion with Johnston Marklee's Mark Lee.
 

UPCOMING EVENTS AT ARCANA!

Stay tuned for details or sign up for our e-mailing list.

Sunday June 18th, 4:00 to 6:00 PM
DAN HICKS: I SCARE MYSELF - A MEMOIR
BOOK SIGNING AND PANEL
MODERATED BY KRISTINE McKENNA 
with VAN DYKE PARKS, MARIA MULDAUR, JIM KWESKIN, 
AND HOT LICKS GUITARIST PAUL ROBINSON!

Saturday, June 24th, 4:00 to 6:00 PM
BARRY AND BARBARA SHAFFER: ECHOES OF BHUTAN

Join Us Sunday, May 14th, 4:00 to 6:00 PM for 

HAROLD BRONSON: MY BRITISH INVASION

Harold Bronson grew up in Los Angeles as a passionate Anglophile. Through his career first as a music journalist, then as a label executive, Harold met and befriended many of those performers whose music he loved. With his newly released My British Invasion from Rare Bird Books, Harold pens his insider's account of London's cultural youthquake of the sixties and seventies that brought us The Yardbirds, The Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann, Herman's Hermits, The Hollies, The Kinks, The Troggs, The Zombies, Johnny Rotten, Pirate Radio, and much, much more. A co-founder of the legendary Rhino Records label, Harold is the author of Rock Explosion: The British Invasion of America in Photos 1962-67, Hey, Hey, We’re The Monkees, and The Rhino Records Story: Revenge of the Music Nerds.

Come to Arcana Sunday, May 14th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to meet and reminisce with Harold Bronson, twist and shout, and dine on humanely raised, grass-fed hot dogs from our friends “Let’s Be Frank”. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a signed copy of My British Invasion please click here or call us at 310-458-1499.