Tonight is the night, more specifically, The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk and the inaugural launch party for ILLUMINATED LA, an artist collective in Los Angeles that is bringing awareness to all facets of art and not just art itself. VivaLAfoodies is so excited to be an active participant and Adam Rubenstein as co-Founding Father of ILLUMINATED LA along with friend & local renowned graphic and visual artist Seth “Meex” Wilder. We have both been working to the bone, literally to get this off the ground and now is our time to showcase and expose the vast talent of artists curating the best of their craft from Culinary, Visual, Musical, Graphical & Performance. Our kickoff event will take place tonight, 1.12.12 at Nola’s, A Taste of New Orleans in the Downtown Los Angeles Historic Arts District from 6pm-2am for an independent Art Mart & Swap Meet. The talented folks from our collective will be creating art and selling their works throughout the evening.
MEEXONE sums it up best with the following quote: “Illuminated LA wants to shed light on stuff that doesn’t necessarily gain light-Things, People & Art that we believe in, that we think should shine”
Read the complete interview from Suspend Magazine and see why you should get involved and support Los Angeles’ newest movement. Prepare to get ILLUMINATED LA!
“ILLUMINATED LA”
FEAT. ARTIST SETH “MEEXONE” WILDER & ADAM RUBENSTEIN
Written by DIANE ABAPO
Over hot cocoa and two cups of cappuccinos, I sat down with food enthusiast/writer Adam Rubenstein of VivaLAFoodies.com and resident SUSPEND artist Seth “MeexOne” Wilder whom we featured not too long ago to discuss their new joint venture: Illuminated LA, an artist collective. I quickly complimented MeexOne’s retro 1940′s rockabilly hairstyle before eyeing the two pins on his denim jacket, one of Keith Haring’s work and the other a Murakami. We gathered together at a table in the outside patio of The Wood Cafe to discuss Illuminated LA’s first event to be held at the Downtown LA Artwalk this Thursday, January 12th.
On how they first met:
MEEX: I met him at a DJ school on the West Side, Scratch Academy that this cat DJ Hapa runs. Adam was taking a class there and DJ Hapa had me do a portrait of Jam-Master J and that’s how we met. It all comes back to art and love of art and love of food.
On tying in culinary arts with Illuminated LA’s first “pop-up” event, “A Secret Society,” centered around local art & food:
AR: The secret art component is culinary art. I consider Seth and I the founding fathers of Illuminated LA. I went from having a Business degree and a different outlook on life to deciding to go back to school for Culinary Arts. I’ve worked in kitchens with chefs and even remember our first Culinary Art classes where we had to display our food in an artistic way.
On deciding their first event venue in Los Angeles:
AR: After we did the last event in Santa Ana, it was better for us to find pop-up venues from the ocean to Downtown [Los Angeles]. Once we planted that seed, that’s when we started planting the idea of spaces like warehouses, etc. I happened to be at NOLA’s and I got invited for a special media tasting and I was looking around at the murals driving up and I thought, ‘This is it. We have to do something here.’
On the notion that there has been a resurgence of street art:
MEEX: It’s almost like the vinyl revolution where, I think, people sort of gave up on digital music and started bringing records back. I see it happening again. I hope people will get off the internet and actually want to experience art firsthand and go outside.
On designing the logo for Illuminated LA:
MEEX: The concept visually for the Illuminated LA logo was to draw a twist on the Illuminati idea. I wanted us to be conspirators of good instead of conspirators of bad. We took a Masonic symbol and made it art-related. So there’s a sharpie pen, an exacto knife, a spray can, and a compass.
CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Diane Abapo
VIDEO BY Lovelin Descalso
LOCATION The Wood Cafe
Please visit the official event page for “ILLUMINATED Los Angeles presents A SECRET SOCIETY” on Thursday, Jan. 12th here.
NOLA’s “A Taste of New Orleans”
734 E 3rd St Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 680-3003
http://nolasla.com/
Feat. Illuminated LA | MEEX ONE | ADAM RUBENSTEIN from Suspend Magazine on Vimeo.
