{"id":3469,"date":"2014-04-14T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/phone-booth-gallery-marks-6th-year-with-nearly-a-hundred-paintings\/"},"modified":"2014-04-14T14:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T14:01:00","slug":"phone-booth-gallery-marks-6th-year-with-nearly-a-hundred-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/phone-booth-gallery-marks-6th-year-with-nearly-a-hundred-paintings","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach’s Phone Booth Gallery Marks 6th Year with Nearly a Hundred Paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long Beach’s Phone Booth Gallery is celebrating its sixth year in operation with a special exhibition entitled 6X6<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"PhoneBooth01\"The concept is quite simple: artists are to present a 6\u201d-by-6\u201d piece made specifically for the exhibition. Initially inviting artists who have been longtime partners with the gallery, such as Bryan Schnelle or Ryan Milner, the project soon quickly expanded and now features nearly 100 unique pieces, up through the end of April.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the artists we work with like working with open themes for group shows to explore their own vision,\u201d said Garry Booth, owner and director of Phone Booth Gallery<\/a>. \u201cFor 6×6<\/em>, the underlying theme is size; there is a lot you can do with a 6×6 inch blank slate, but it can also be surprisingly difficult if you are a large scale painter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Booth touted several of the featured artists as those being at the forefront of the “New Contemporary” art movement, largely an artistic aesthetic and philosophy which uses everything from pop culture to comics, street art to graphic illustration that has its beginnings firmly planted in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n

Adrian Penaflor\u2019s series is a perfect example: using close-up shots of famous horror monsters such as Leatherface and Michael Meyers, the artist\u2019s mix of popular faces of monsters on classic oil-and-canvas generates both intrigue and disgust. Peter Adamyan, in a similar vein though evoking a more whimsical sensation, highlights famous composers above appropriated metal logos such as Mozart written in the Metallica-style font.<\/p>\n

On the opposite side of the spectrum would be agnes-cecile, showing at the gallery for the first time. Her iridescent and dream-like paintings of young women evoke a complex series of feelings: sadness, hope, and wonder.<\/p>\n

\"PhoneBooth02\"A Long Beach Post \u201cBest Of\u201d winner, Phone Booth Gallery began as an online-only gallery and has since grown into a brick-and-mortar Long Beach arts staple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Long Beach art scene has significantly grown in six years,\u201d Booth said. \u201cProof of that is the support we have at our opening receptions, often getting long lines waiting to get into the gallery and shoulder-to-shoulder exhibition crowds\u2026 Phone Booth Gallery has seen exponential growth in the last six years, and we envision nothing short of that for the next six years. We’d love to further collaborate with Long Beach art institutions and venues, and also draw attention to our artists on a global level.\u201d<\/p>\n

6×6 runs at Phone Booth Gallery, located at 2533 East Broadway, until April 30. It is free and open to the public.<\/em><\/p>\n

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