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.

Book of the Day > Godless Utopia: Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda. Published by Fuel. “Throughout the Soviet period the USSR waged war against religion of all denominations. This book is the first to tell this story through the vivid propaganda used against ‘the opium of the people’, from immediately after the 1917 revolution to the eventual fall of communism in 1991. Drawing on the early Soviet atheist magazines Godless and Godless at the Machine, and post-war posters by Communist Party publishers, author Roland Elliott Brown presents an unsettling tour of atheist ideology in the USSR. Here are uncanny, imaginative, and downright blasphemous visions from the very guts of the Soviet atheist apparatus: sinister priests rub shoulders with cross-bearing colonial torturers, greedy mullahs, a cyclopean Jehovah, and a crypto-fascist Jesus; Russian cosmonauts mock God from space while vigilant border guards nab western Bible smugglers.”

Book of the Day > Michael Jang: Who is Michael Jang. Published by Atelier Editions. "San Francisco–based photographer Michael Jang spent nearly four decades working as a successful commercial portrait photographer. Unbeknownst to the world, however, he was simultaneously assembling a vast archive of thousands of remarkable images documenting, variously: college days, Hollywood celebrities, would-be weather presenters, San Francisco street scenes, his family, Bay Area punks and adolescent garage bands. Jang revealed nothing of his ever-expanding, eclectic archive for almost 40 years until 2001, when he submitted a number of images for consideration to San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. Jang’s work attracted immediate acclaim, and for the past decade he has continued to unveil his considerable oeuvre in national and international exhibitions and monographs. The photographer’s first major monograph, Who Is Michael Jang? highlights Jang's most important bodies of work. Introduced by his longtime collaborator and SFMOMA curator emerita of photography, Sandra Phillips, this volume offers readers a long-overdue introduction to Jang’s incredible images."

We wholeheartedly encourage you to stop in tomorrow afternoon, October 5th 4-6,  to meet and great the semi-reclusive Mr. Jang, and immerse yourself in his wry images of a kinder, gentler California of yore that includes the likes of Jack Lemmon, Peggy Lee, 'Ol Blue Eyes, David Bowie, The Ramones, Devo, The Sex Pistols, David Hasselhoff, Jerry Brown, Harvey Milk, John Baldessari, Lee Friedlander, and many, many more. "Who is Michael Jang?" was just shortlisted for the Aperture 2019 Photo Catalogue of the Year. In addition we will have a limited supply of the deluxe Michael Jang rarity "College". If you cannot attend, you may never really know who Michael Jang is, but you still may buy a signed copy of either or both of these gems by placing your order here, or by calling us at 310-458-1499. If you would like to pre-order a signed copy to pick-up at Arcana, please use the discount code PICKUP10 at checkout to remove the postage charge.

Book of the Day > Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses by Dominic Bradbury. Published by Phaidon. “A groundbreaking global survey of the finest mid-20th-century homes - one of the most popular styles of our time. A fascinating collection of more than 400 of the world's most glamorous homes from more than 290 architects, the Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses showcases work by such icons as Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Alvar Aalto, and Oscar Niemeyer alongside extraordinary but virtually unknown houses in Australia, Africa, and Asia. A thoroughly researched, comprehensive appraisal, this book is a must-have for all design aficionados, Mid-Century Modern collectors, and readers looking for inspiration for their own homes.”

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.