One of the Worlds Largest Artists Colony - The Brewery Complex in Downtown L.A.

[robertpaulsen]

Bi-annually in April and October, over 100 artists open their studios and living spaces and invite the public to see their world. The Brewery Arts Complex near downtown Los Angeles covers 16 acres (64749.70 m²) and is an industrially zoned space where only artists are allowed to live and work.

[shraby]

1. Thanks for posting this

My grandson is an artist. I passed it on to him to see if he's heard of the place.

[robertpaulsen]

3. That's great!

Does he do painting? Sculpting? Or all kinds? The Brewery Complex definitely has a wide range of art forms.

[shraby]

4. He paints abstract. Located in New York right now. Has sold some paints for $5000.00

so he must be doing what people like.

[robertpaulsen]

16. Fantastic!

Sounds like he's doing great. Wish I could see his work!

[shraby]

18. I'll ask him if he has some online and get back to you.

[Atman]

2. It's an wesome place!

Some of the studios are amazing. I visited one guy's studio which used to be an old beer cooler. It was big, easily 1000sqf or more. You entered through a thick metal refrigerator door. The walls were lined with a couple feet of cork (for insulation back in the day), and the floor pitched towards a drain in the center of the room (so they could hose the place down easily).

If you have a chance to visit, do! It's an amazing place.

[robertpaulsen]

8. Wow! I wish we had seen that studio!

We tried to visit as many studios as possible but there were so many! That one sounds pretty cool. Although, the refrigerator door does sound similar to the Dystopian Studios set-up that we showed in the video which has an apocalyptic motif. Is that the same studio?

[Atman]

9. I haven't been there in years, so it could have changed.

The one I visited was a single story, no stairs. But it was right near the catwalk between the two buildings. It's been several years, so names/residents could have changed. Either way, one of the coolest places I've ever seen. We were launching an art web site (back in the hey-day) and toured several art colonies in LA. Some pretty mind-blowing stuff. My favorite was the studio that had a huge industrial garage door. It look like crap from the outside, but the interior was almost sterile. Huge open space, two stories high, with a sealed concrete floor you could eat off of. It was the artist's live-in studio, and hi "bedroom" was an oversized bed in the middle of the room...next to which he parked his Porsche Turbo Carerra. Seriously, in his bedroom. I recall being far more impressed with his studio than his art, so I'm guessing he was living on a trust fund. But I could be wrong. It's LA.

[robertpaulsen]

12. I think we were in the industrial garage door studio a couple years ago.

There wasn't any Porsche in there, but there was a bizarre collage of cut-up pastings of different cars on the second story. We weren't too impressed by the artistry (not sure if it was the same "artist"; you're probably right that a few people there might be trust-fund poseurs) so we haven't seen that studio since. But the artists are constantly changing, as you point out. My favorite artist this year had only been in his studio for 4 months. He's the guy in the video who made the sculptures out of dried paint.

[Atman]

15. Craziest thing I saw...

One studio was full of stuffed animals embedded in cinder blocks. Seriously. Stuffed bunnies and chickens, neck deep in concrete. The message was something to do with...uh...how we enslave bunnies and chickens? Or concrete? Once again, I'm guessing trust fund baby.

[robertpaulsen]

19. That seems somewhat...morbid!

Perhaps a bit heavy-handed too. Not sure what my reaction would be to seeing that in real life!

[R B Garr]

5. This is awesome! It must have been 20 years ago I went to one,

but at the time I can't even remember that I knew what it was called, but we took a tour of the artists lofts (it was those buildings you can see from the freeway...?). I was impressed. I'm going to go back now and take it in again. Thanks for the reminder!

We were recently talking about the artists lofts after visiting a local restaurant and seeing the local artists they supported. This restaurant is gaining popularity. It was featured on a local radio station when they interviewed the owners, so we put it on the list to try and really liked it:

http://www.guisados.co/featured-artist/

[robertpaulsen]

10. Thanks for the link. That restaurant sounds cool!

I've got to visit. They had me at ... chicken mole taco! Sounds scrumptious!

Yes, you can see The Brewery from the freeway, the I-5, I believe. My wife and I started going to their spring and fall presentations to the public about 15 years ago. There's always something new to blow our minds. We shot the video in April but we can't wait to go again in October!

Thanks again for telling me about Guisados. Which restaurant did you visit? We might try checking out their Burbank location. It's great to hear about a place that supports local artists so we'll certainly try to support them.

[R B Garr]

13. We went to the location on Cesar Chavez. My husband wanted the mole taco, too!

We tried the sample platter and a fish taco. Very good! We'll try that new Burbank location soon, too.

Thanks for this fantastic video! Loved the music with it, and I'm going to go again soon. It will be a trip down memory lane. Around the time I went to those art studios, we also went to the Formosa Café with all the Hollywood pictures, and I'm sad to see it's closed now. I meant to go to both those places again but never got around to it.

FYI, we also tried the Donut Man in Glendora after seeing your video. We were at that Ikea in Covina and I told my husband about your video and we looked it up and tried it. Another favorite stop when out and about, thanks for that too!

[robertpaulsen]

17. I wish we could go to the Formosa Cafe.

So many great restaurants in LA have closed just in the last several years. I was at the closing a few years ago for The Cat and Fiddle. They moved to a new location, but the old one had such great history. My wife and I used to love going to Todai, which was a great sushi buffet restaurant, particularly the Studio City location. Now that's all gone.

So glad you loved the video! We'll be putting out another video next week of a place we visited just down the street from The Brewery. Great talking with another Donut Man fan!

[IcyPeas]

6. thank you for helping us discover los angeles

I enjoy your posts. (and I live in l.a.)

[R B Garr]

7. Me, too! I think he had a thread about the Donut Man and we just

went there recently. His threads are wonderful.

[robertpaulsen]

14. Yeah, that was me. Thanks!

I can't wait to go back to the Donut Man. They should be selling their peach donuts in the next month or two.

[robertpaulsen]

11. You're welcome, IcyPeas!

I'm glad you're enjoying them. There are so many great places to visit in the greater LA area. This is our way of trying to document it, both for our future reference for when we're bored on the weekend wondering, "Gee, what can we go out and see?", and to share with anyone else interested in the same things!