COMMUNE: DESIGNED IN CALIFORNIA

Commune was established in Los Angeles in 2004 by four like-minded souls - Roman Alonso, Steven Johanknecht, Pamela Shamshiri, and Ramin Shamshiri - with a common mission: to enhance life through design, and to blur the lines between disciplines, eras, and styles. California is for those who refuse to conform and who live for freedom of expression, indoor / outdoor living, and that golden sunshine glinting off the waves of the Pacific. Hot off the Harry N. Abrams press, Commune: Designed in California perfectly captures this spirit and embodies a new California style that freely mixes old and new in its layered, highly personal interiors that embrace color, pattern, and texture. Housed in a graphically striking slipcase, this stylish publication celebrates the influential firm's ten years of designing hotels, commercial spaces, restaurants, and private residences, along with the decorative objects Commune has commissioned from a host of today's most inspiring contemporary California artisan craftspeople.

PLEASE JOIN US AT ARCANA: BOOKS ON THE ARTS FOR A BOOK SIGNING WITH KIM GOTTLIEB-WALKER

 

BOB MARLEY AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF REGGAE 1975-1976

During 1975 and 1976, renowned photo-journalist Kim Gottlieb and her husband, Island publicity head Jeff Walker documented what is now widely recognized as “The Golden Age of Reggae”. Over two years of historic trips to Jamaica and exclusive meetings in Los Angeles, Kim took iconic images of the artists who would go on to define the genre and captivate a generation.

Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae features candid and intimate photographs of all of the musicians, artists and producers who brought the reggae sound to the international stage, including Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Toots Hibbert, Burning Spear, Lee “Scratch” Perry and of course, Bob Marley and The Wailers. Kim’s photographs include never-before-seen performance shots, candid behind-the-scenes footage of Bob’s home in Jamaica, and exclusive records of key moments in reggae history.

Acclaimed rock journalist and director Cameron Crowe provides  a rousing foreword, and Reggae historian Roger Steffens writes lucidly about the significance of the pivotal moments documented here.

 

 

ON SET WITH JOHN CARPENTER: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF KIM GOTTLIEB-WALKER

John Carpenter’s producing partner Debra Hill hired photographer Kim Gottlieb-Walker to be the unit photographer on Halloween, and Kim soon became part of Carpenter’s filmmaking family, going on to shoot stills on the sets of some of his most iconic films: Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, Halloween II , and Christine.

Collected together here for the first time is the best of that on-set photography, with iconic, rare, and previously unseen images accompanied by exclusive commentary from those involved - including John Carpenter himself along with other key crew and cast.

From scores of production stills, portrait shots of the actors who would eagerly pose for Kim, to candids of the stars between takes and the crew in action, this engaging new Titan book gives an unprecedented glimpse into the action on set with the legendary director.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A BOOK SIGNING AS PART OF HELMS' WEEKEND-LONG APHROCHIC POP-UP EVENT!

Authors Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason will be signing Remix: Decorating With Culture, Objects, and Soul at Arcana as part of the AphroChic Show House and two day design festival at the Helms Bakery in Culver City.

Hays and Mason are the husband-and-wife team behind the lifestyle brand AphroChic. Their sumptuous recent tome takes you into homes where cultural, global décor breathes vibranct and beauty into contemporary interiors, and features soulful photography by Lonny co-founder Patrick Cline.

On October 11 + 12th, Helms Bakery District partners with Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason to bring you a “Remixed” Helms Pop-up Home. Located at 8723 Washington Boulevard - just 1/2 block west of Arcana - it will feature furnishings and décor drawn from Helms merchants Arcana: Books on the Arts, Room & Board, H.D. Buttercup, Rejuvenation, Vitra, Plummer's, Rug Warehouse, and more. This design-savvy couple’s fresh and modern aesthetic (including their new AphroChic artisan collection), will reveal the secrets to inject your own personality and culture into any space.

The Pop-up Home will be open to the public Saturday, October 11th from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM, and Sunday, October 12^th from 11:00 AM – 3:00PM. In addition, The Helms Bakery will present a full calendar of events next weekend including design and art panel discussions, designer Q & A, inspiration for your new home, and a book signing on Sunday at Arcana! Plus, you can enter to win Helms Bakery prizes with 100% of the proceeds from the raffle going to support AIDS Project L.A. Full details for all of the events can be found on the Helms Bakery website.

Francesca is represented globally by CloutierRemix.

GLEN E. FRIEDMAN: MY RULES

PAMELA LITTKY: VACANCY

Vacancy is a multifaceted portrait of two towns that are as much rural desert communities as they are states of mind. While driving between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Pamela Littky was exposed to the small towns at either edge of Death Valley - the legendary region of the Mojave Desert that hosts the hottest and driest climate in the US. Anyone who has ever been there can tell you that there is little else on either side except for long, empty stretches of straight-line desert highway. But the Mojave’s harshest conditions have not deterred all living things. The towns that both claim the title of "Gateway to Death Valley" - Baker, California and Beatty, Nevada - are tight-knit communities of people who remain settled where most merely pass through. Littky found an America that is far from "frozen in time," but entirely in its own cultural zone. Independent, hardy, and idiosyncratic, the people of these towns were ideal subjects for Littky to explore the heart of what seems like a big empty place, but may reflect back something important about the American experience today. From domestic scenes to colorful bars, trailers to bingo halls and the always beautiful-but-unrelenting landscape, Vacancy illuminates the everyday life of these two unique Desert communities.

HUCK MAGAZINE # 45: THE ED TEMPLETON ISSUE

Hot off the press, London-based Huck # 45 is specially guest-edited by artist, photographer, skate legend, and unique chronicler of Southern California, Ed Templeton. It presents an insightful, colorful cruise through The Tempster’s crew of creative friends spawned from the cultures of skateboarding, surfing and beyond.

Along with an epic, multi-part illustrated visit with Ed – in which skateboarding’s favorite expressionist reflects on his Huntington Beach history, artistic inspirations and the community of like-minded DIYers he surrounds himself with – The Ed Templeton Issue also features in-depth interviews and beautiful photo shoots with Ed’s countercultural coterie:

Lee Kaplan - whose Arcana: Books on the Arts in Culver City is entering its thirtieth year of curating and purveying the printed matter of visual culture.

Curator and gallerist Joseph Allen Shea is bringing Aussie openness to the Parisian art scene.

To flick through photographer Deanna Templeton‘s archives is to see femininity flash past in its many varied forms, ebbing and flowing through Huntington Beach, California.

Photographer of the demonized Dennis McGrath is weaving a thread between skateboarding and porn.

Philly artist Dan Murphy celebrates the fringe of American culture through experimental media project Megawords.

Documentary photographer Tobin Yelland embeds himself in underground subcultures to get a sixth sense about his subjects.

Artist Ashley Macomber is rendering the details of what it means to be a woman in a world of extremes.

Artist, comedian, actor, skater - only Los Angeles could have spat out someone like Kevin Christy.

Street photographer Daniel Arnold channels daily moments of curious New York life into square little social media updates.

California’s quirks are a constant muse for The Deadbeat Club - a zine-making, analogue-snapping, tight-knit street photography crew.

From a dark den in San Francisco's Mission District, photographer Ray Potes is capturing life in stark black and white.

Una Kim channels the principles of punk into Keep Shoes, a company that helps her navigate life.

How did skate filmmaker Kevin Barnett become the visual voice of Ed Templeton’s Toy Machine?

Highland Park’s Ashley Thayer is patiently reconnecting LA to its artisanal roots.

Come to Arcana this Saturday, August 2nd between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to celebrate with Ed, Deanna, and a slew of the contributors who will be happy to sign your copy! And, thanks to the generous cooperation of Emerica and Huck, Ed has produced a limited edition poster for the event that will be included with each issue, as supplies last. There will be no advance or phone sales - you must be present - and purchases must be limited to one per customer. No exceptions!

THE WAY WE WERE: THE  PHOTOGRAPHY OF JULIAN WASSER
 

The Way We Were presents photographer Julian Wasser's intimate panorama of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s when celebrity culture had yet to become all-consuming and privacy was still possible. Best known for his iconic images of Joan Didion with cigarette in hand leaning against a Corvette Stingray, and Marcel Duchamp playing chess with a nude Eve Babitz in the galleries of his seminal 1963 Pasadena Museum of Art exhibition, the book includes many others such as Barbara Hershey and David Carradine in bed in their Laurel Canyon house, Jack Nicholson and Angelica Huston at Jack’s Mulholland Drive home, and the Fondas lined up on the family sofa. Also featured are pictures of California counterculture; the Hog Farm Commune in Sunland; surfers at Malibu Beach; The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Frank Zappa, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, and many more; Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, the Watts riots; and Roman Polanski at his house on Cielo Drive in 1969 after the murder of Sharon Tate.

Julian Wasser started his career in photography as a copy boy in the Washington, DC bureau of the Associated Press. He was a contract photographer for Time magazine for many years, and his photographs have appeared in (and on the covers of) Life, Newsweek, People, Vanity Fair, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Oggi, Hello, Playboy, Elle, Vogue and GQ. He exhibits at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica where his work will be on display through July 5th.

THE ASTONISHING WORKS OF JOHN ALTOON WITH AUTHOR TIM NYE

John Altoon was one of the most outspoken, charismatic, and complex figures in the Los Angeles art scene of the 1950s and ’60s. He energized the circle of artists associated with the Ferus Gallery, a nexus of L.A. avant-gardism that included such influential figures as Ed Kienholz, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Larry Bell, and Ed Ruscha. A boisterous, hard-living man, he was plagued by bouts of depression and episodes of mania that sometimes turned destructive; this personal struggle is reflected in his work. He died young, at the age of forty-three, from a massive heart attack. Walter Hopps called his funeral the largest gathering of Los Angeles artists ever.

Published to coincide with a major Altoon retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (June 8th –September 14th), The Astonishing Works of John Altoon surveys the colorful paintings and virtuosic drawings of this larger-than-life personality. His art is intimate, haunting, and erotic, capturing a magical moment in California art between the Beat Generation and the sexual and psychedelic revolutions. The work is put in context through essays and remembrances from those who knew him best: the poet Robert Creeley; psychiatrist and fan Dr. Milton Wexler; pioneering West Coast curator Walter Hopps; and curator, gallerist, and critic Klaus Kertess. This lavishly produced original collection also features a juxtaposition of Altoon’s lithographs with a selection of Creeley’s poems that the long-time friends originally published as About Women in 1965, a facsimile of his Ed Kienholz-published memorial exhibition catalog, and posthumously addressed letters from friends.

Tim Nye is director of Nyehaus - a New York gallery that focuses on the innovative Southern California artists of the 1960 and '70s.