Please join us on Saturday, October 19th, 4:00 – 6:00 PM for a book signing with Magdalena Suarez Frimkess for her wonderful book published by South Willard!

If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a signed copy, please order here or call us (310-458-1499).

A long-overdue monograph on the playful, pop-inspired ceramics of West Coast legend Magdalena Frimkess. Born in 1929, Venezuelan-born, Venice, California-based artist just now getting the recognition she deserves, with her work finding its way into the collections of LACMA and The Hammer Museum. Her unique approach to ceramics - incorporating cartoon characters such as Felix the Cat, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Goofy, and Betty Boop as well as more traditional motifs such as landscapes, birds, and flowers - has charmed a younger generation of artists such as Jonas Wood, Shio Kusaka, Mark Grotjahn, Lesley Vance, and Ricky Swallow. Published to coincide with an exhibition @southwillard that commemorates the artist's ninetieth birthday, this lovely new catalogue features a foreword by Mr. Swallow and offers a broad, beautifully illustrated range of the colorful autobiographical pieces Magdalena Suarez Frimkess has produced over her long and varied career.

We are thrilled to invite you to the Los Angeles launch of ZANDRA RHODES: 50 FABULOUS YEARS IN FASHION

On Sunday, October 13th, Dame Zandra Rhodes will be joined by Joan Agajanian Quinn in discussion followed by a reception and book signing. 

The discussion will begin at 4:15 in The Helms Design Center located at 8745 Washington Boulevard - just 350 feet west of Arcana.

A reception and book signing will follow in the shop at 8675 Washington Boulevard. A map of venues and free parking areas at Helms is below.

If you cannot attend but wish to purchase a signed copy of 50 FABULOUS YEARS IN FASHION, please place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

If you would like to pre-order a book to collect and have signed at the event, you may enter the code PICKUP at checkout and you will not be charged for postage.

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Celebrating decades of achievement by one of the foremost names in British fashion, whose vitality and influence continue to shine Zandra Rhodes provides a luscious documentary of this leading British designer, spanning her 50-year career in fashion and textile design. The book showcasenot only Rhodes’s work but also her vivid personality and creative energy. Both a fashion trailblazer and a consummate textile designer, she has influenced the work of contemporary labels such as Mary Katrantzou and Alice Temperley. The book honors the centrality of textile design in Rhodes’s work, while exploring the versatility of her imagination throughout her long career; contributors include Pierpaolo Piccioli (creative director of Valentino), Suzy Menkes (editor of Vogue International), and celebrated fashion designers Anna Sui and Rajeev Sethi. It also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the house of Zandra Rhodes, a British-owned and -made brand, and Rhodes’s successful establishment of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.

PLEASE JOIN US ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5TH,
4:00 - 6:00 PM
FOR A BOOK SIGNING WITH MICHAEL JANG

Michael Jang spent nearly four decades working as a successful commercial portrait photographer. Unbeknown to the world, however, he was assembling a vast archive of thousands of remarkable images, authoring several now-iconic series: The Jangs (1973), Beverly Hilton (1973), San Francisco (1973–1987), Summer Weather (1983), College (1972–1973), Punks & Poets (1978–1980), and Garage Band (2001). Jang revealed nothing of that vast archive for almost 40 years until 2001, when he submitted a number of images for consideration to San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. His work attracted immediate acclaim, and for the past fifteen years he has revealed those images in a series of national and international exhibitions and books. The artist’s first major monograph, Who Is Michael Jang? - pubslished by Atelier Éditions - introduced by long-time collaborator and SFMoMA curator emerita of photography, Sandra S. Phillips, offers readers an eagerly anticipated examination of Jang’s truly idiosyncratic oeuvre.

The monograph launches in tandem with Jang’s first major retrospective exhibition, Michael Jang’s California, curated by Sandra S. Phillips. On view September 27th, 2019 to January 18th, 2020 at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts (San Francisco, CA).

If you cannot attend, you will never really know who Michael Jang is.

However, you still may purchase a signed copy of Who Is Michael Jang? and we will send it to you. Place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499. 

Please join us on Saturday, October 12th during the annual @culvercityartsdistrict art walk for an event with Michael Murphy & Jens Lucking for Santa Monica Pleasure Pier: A Look Back to 1917 from Today. “Santa Monica Pleasure Pier: A Look Back to 1917 from Today” is a side-by-side comparison that juxtaposes the past and present in ways that puts today’s landscape in the greater historical play. Scores of vintage images appearing in a 1917 ‘Prospectus Book’ - created by its then owner, Mr. Looff (who built the first carousel) hoping to sell shares in his Santa Monica “Pleasure Pier" - now archived in the Stephen Raul Anaya Collection present a rare and mostly unseen look at the attraction and its surroundings. No detail goes unturned for this historical treasure trove which is clearly a labor of love. It is with great pleasure that we share and celebrate this book with you as this 1917 collection of images serves as a reminder of our own continuity, specifically as it relates to time and place, in the case one of most popular and traveled destinations on the West Coast.

Author Michael Murphy is a former agency Senior Art Director gone independent design professional. He has had the privilege to design a traveling exhibition called "Vedem Underground" that the Smithsonian Institution hailed as one of the ten “Don’t Miss…” new exhibits. Last year in collaboration with his photographic partner Jens Lucking, he created a book and exhibition about Santa Monica in 1902. He is currently focusing his efforts launching LookBackArt.com.

Ever since his uncle presented him with a $5.00 camera on his tenth birthday, Jens Lucking has not left the house without a camera, and has turned his passion into his profession. His award-winning photographs have been featured in worldwide publications and exhibited in galleries and museums in Europe and North America. Most recently, Jens was recognized at the International Photography Awards at Carnegie Hall for his contribution to “Santa Monica Pleasure Pier: A Look Back to 1917 from Today."

If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a signed copy, place your order here, or call us at 310-458 1499.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL DUAL SIGNING

ED TEMPLETON: CITY CONFESSIONS #1: TOKYO + DEANNA TEMPLETON: YESTERDAY

Come to the shop on Saturday, September 28th for refreshments in air-conditioned splendor to meet, greet, and hang with perennial Arcana favorites - and all-around lovely folks - Deanna and Ed Templeton as they sign their hot-off-the-presses Japanese releases from Super Labo! If you cannot attend but wish to purchase a signed copy of either "City Confessions #1: Tokyo" or "Yesterday" place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499. And while you're at it, add some some selections from our rapidly dwindling supply of older and hard to find titles from Huntington Beach's finest here.

PLEASE JOIN US SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM BILLY AL BENGSTON: PAINTINGS & WATERCOLORS FOR A BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH JOAN AGAJANIAN QUINN 

For more than sixty years Billy Al Bengston has been an innovative and integral part of the Southern California cultural scene. A member of the original group of Los Angeles artists to exhibit at Ferus Gallery, Mr. Bengston has made a name for himself over the decades in the varied worlds of contemporary art, surfing, and dirt-track motorcycle racing. From his early Dentos and Finish / Fetish pieces to delicate watercolors of Dracula bearded irises and beyond, his work remains remarkably vibrant and ever-inventive. He has been the subject of several major museum retrospectives, but until now there has never been a single comprehensive book to fully do justice to his prolific body of work. At long last, from Galerie Neuendorf comes that tome - Billy Al Bengston: Paintings & Watercolors! Weighing in at five pounds, this lavishly illustrated hardbound volume features hundreds of works spanning 1957 through 2016, and contains a detailed chronology, exhibition history, bibliography, collections listing, and more. So, make plans to be at Arcana Saturday afternoon, September 7th to quaff refreshments, enjoy the air conditioning, and greet the iconic and outspoken Billy Al as he signs his new book and participates in a question and answer session moderated by the equally iconic Joan Agajanian Quinn.

If you cannot attend but wish to purchase a signed copy of Billy Al Bengston: Paintings & Watercolors, place your order here or call us at 310-458-1499.

PLEASE JOIN US THIS SATURDAY AUGUST 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

FOR AN EXHIBITION OPENING AND BOOK SIGNING FOR

GARY CANNONE: ALBUMS BY CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS -

WITH A THEMATIC RECORD PARTY BY MESSRS. CANNONE AND TOSH BERMAN!

Albums by Conceptual Artists originated as a crowd-sourced online project in which Gary Cannone encouraged like-minded artists to infiltrate popular and obscure album covers with content from the history of contemporary art in a communal act of parody. Begun as a Facebook comment thread, a Tumblr site of the project soon followed and grew to over five hundred album cover contributions ranging from transgressive to silly, from informative to obtuse. Cannone sees the series as a form of fan fiction, a positive creative act often using arcane minutiae linking the worlds of art and music done by and for art nerds.

The artist’s formative influences include 70s comedy such as Norm Crosby, Wacky Packages, Carol Burnett, Mad Magazine, and the disembodied PA from M*A*S*H (the TV series). He is a 2019 recipient of a California Community Foundation’s Fellowship in Visual Arts grant and his artist’s book, Time Settings for a Microwave Oven with Broken Three, Four, and Nine Buttons was recently acquired by The Getty Museum. His current work explores the phenomenology of furniture in gallery spaces through the lens of a prop comic.

This Saturday between 4:00 and 6:00 PM we are pleased to present in collaboration with Hubbyco an exhibition of Los Angeles-based artist Gary Cannone's Albums by Conceptual Artists artworks, along with a book signing for Forever Now - the limited edition catalogue that documents them! In addition, there will be a special Conceptual Art-themed record party hosted by Mr. Cannone and the illustrious Tosh Berman. If you cannot attend but wish to purchase a signed copy of Forever Now, place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

SATURDAY, JULY 27th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
STEVE BANKS: NITRO - DRAG RACING IN THE SIXTIES
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
GARY CANNONE: ALBUMS BY CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS
EXHIBITION RECEPTION AND BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
WHO IS MICHAEL JANG?
BOOK SIGNING

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
ZANDRA RHODES: FIFTY YEARS OF FABULOUS
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH DAME RHODES AND JOAN QUINN

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
NINA FREUDENBERGER + SHADE DEGGES: BIBLIOSTYLE
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
STEVEN REA: THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK CLUB
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
SITE: MARMOL RADZINER IN THE LANDSCAPE
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
TODD HIDO: HOUSE HUNTING (REDUX)
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
MELBA LEVICK + RUBEN G. MENDOZA:
MISSION SAN MIGUEL
BOOK SIGNING

We are thrilled to be hosting an event with noted Los Angeles-based artist Roger Herman to celebrate the publication of his new book, Ceramics. Designed by Ross McLain / Art Design Office and featuring a text by Matt Connors, this massive, stylish, and engaging edition is limited to a mere two hundred and fifty copies, and is sure to sell out quickly.

Come to Arcana this Saturday afternoon to raise a glass and hang with our longtime friend Roger! If you cannot attend but wish to purchase either - or both - of Mr. Herman's exquisite books, place your order here or call us at 310-458-1499.