DOWNTOWN WEEKLY

DOWNTOWN WEEKLY THE SPIRIT OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

WWW.DTLAWEEKLY.COM VOL 17. NO. 07 SEPT 8TH - SEPT 14TH 2022

DTLA artists in residence

isaac pelayo Luminex

Returns to South Park SAYING GOODBYE

EMMERIC KONRAD AT GDCA

Photo by SERGIO GALLARDO

THE BROAD STROKES OF DOWNTOWN WEEKLY

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ON THE COVER ISAAC PELAYO

location: FASHION DISTRICT PHOTO BY SERGIO GALLARDo

THE PASTELS

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DTLA REAL ESTATE EMPIRE: LOFTWAY + DPP... 4 dtla artists in residence: isaac pelayo...6 saying goodbye: emmeric konrad...9 luminex returns to south park....10 GET2DTLA EVENT GUIDE...

MAP INSIDE...11 DTLA WEEKLY

editor and chief KERI FREEMAN

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

SALMA AHMED KERI FREEMAN ANDY CLAYTON RANESSA HARDING

photography

KERI FREEMAN SERGIO GALLARDO

VIDEO Production

@kerieatsdtla design and layout @kerieatsdtla

social media

@kerieatsdtla ART HUNTER

Special thanks to...

MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES & Council district 14 THE CITY OF LA ARTS DISTRICT CHINATOWN CIVIC DISTRICT BUNKER HILL EXPO/USC HISTORIC CORE LITTLE TOKYO FASHION DISTRICT FINANCIAL DISTRICT SKID ROW SOUTH PARK WAREHOUSE DISTRICT THEGRAWN ARTWALK NEWS

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4 DTLA REAL ESTATE EMPIRE: LOFTWAY JOINS DPP BY ABEL WIESS

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LOFTWAY JOINS MEGA REAL ESTATE MOGUL DPP

Luxury real estate brokerage firm DPP Real Estate (DPP), a select member of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Network, recently announced the addition of Christiano Sampaio, Kevin Gerdes, and Roxanna Godinez of Loftway to DPP. Loftway brings a wealth of experience to DPP, with a total 2021 transaction volume exceeding $51 million.

“Christiano has been in the vanguard of agents, developers, and preservationists who have been instrumental in the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles.”

“He boldly opened one of the first real estate offices downtown at a time when larger, more hide-bound agencies were avoiding it. As a result, the brand became known for promoting loft living, historic buildings, adaptive reuse, and new construction in DTLA. A brand very much in sync with DPP’s.” - DPP founder Mike Deasy Sampaio founded Loftway in 2007 after working for some of the largest firms in Los Angeles. The firm initially focused on lofts and condos throughout the city, and it has since become a respected, recognizable Southern California real

estate brand. In 2022, Sampiano devoted himself once more to selling real estate rather than mentoring agents and handling the back office.

“With DPP’s support and like-minded goals, I can dedicate even more time to servicing my clients,” Sampaio said. “I’ve always had an affinity for George, Mike, and the company. I like them because they are boutique; I like their look and architectural home aspect. I do a lot of lofts, and usually, when clients move out, they want an architectural home.”

The partnership adds another dimension to DPP’s full-service offering, which includes new developments, an innovative marketing and bidding platform, and two key alliances — one with Cohen Financial, a mortgage brokerage firm, and the other

with Side, a venture-backed real estate tech company.

When asked what’s next for the firm, founder George Penner said, “The idea of ‘home as art’ has always been our guiding principle. We’ll continue to partner with industry leaders who demonstrate an affinity for that.”

Founded in 2005 by Mike Deasy and George Penner, DPP Real Estate (DPP) is one of the largest independently owned brokerages in Southern California, with offices throughout the greater Los Angeles market and over $1.5 billion in annual sales. With over 300 agents, DPP has represented thousands of clients and billions of dollars in real estate transactions. The firm is internationally recognized for its creative vision, dynamic business model, and unparalleled client service. www.dppre.com. www.loftway.com

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DTLA ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE: ISAAC PELAYO BY ANDY CLAYTON

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ISAAC PELAYO

THE NEW RENAISSANCE

saac Pelayo exploded through the art scene back in 2020, displaying mesmerizing works and his signature third eye that quickly became a staple in his career.

Pelayo has since taken a new approach to his work which he will be debuting at his fourth solo show, THE NEW RENAISSANCE, Saturday September 17th.

J

ust like so many others, the economic pressure caused early in the pandemic lead to both Isaac and his father being furloughed as animators with Disney Studios.

The news wasn’t easy for him and his family, but he didn’t let that stop him. Pelayo got into tattooing, modeling, acting, designing, produced music and somehow found the time to produce a studio full of paintings that would take hours, if not a whole day to go through.

His paintings illustrate a map of Isaac’s strongest emotions over the last two years which tell a tale of hardship, heartbreak, rebirth, strength, and all else that encompasses Isaacs story. “Painting is like breathing for me, if I’m not painting, I’m not breathing,” Isaac mused as he looked at his studio.

Photos by SERGIO GALLARDO After two years of building his studio, in January 2022 Pelayo needed a break from his work and took an impromptu trip to Europe with his best friend where they got to go backpacking, ate well, and finally got to see with his own eyes, the artwork that had been most influential to him since his early childhood.

“Italian Renaissance and Baroque period art was the work that struck me the most.

So having learned about these paintings from reading books and only seeing them in videos or pictures didn’t give any of them justice… but to f-inally see them in person just floored me."

"This experience I’m now describing was my ego death because everything I felt about my work after that just completely diminished.” Pelayo continued a little lost in the lingering feelings of his revelation, “Up until then I felt I belonged amongst certain artist and status, but that disappeared when I came back. The status and people I was around didn’t matter anymore, it was just about creating timeless art. Look at the Mona Lisa, she’s survived 500 years and still she provokes emotions like no other. That’s what I want with my work, to create timeless art.”

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After his month trip to Europe, Isaac immediately got to work picking up the brush to memorialize the feelings he brought back with him for the world to see. He recreated Caravaggio’s classic David with the Head of Goliath as a self-portrait, depicting himself as both David and Goliath. The powerful image is a symbol of the artist’s profound transformation that had taken root in him. The only way to nurture it was to stop trying to slay the Giants around him and face the one in him.

“I always felt like I was sort of in a dream state with my head in the clouds and I had this “perfect image,” of myself. That’s what my paintings are about,” Isaac said looking at Pray for Paris, the first painting he created in the Street Baroque Series “the very tight rendered parts of the painting represent the parts of me that are very detailed, poetic, and caring. The messy parts are the defiant side of me, the side that doesn’t want to care about anything so that I can unleash the beast within. The world is imperfect, chaotic and messy, but there’s a beauty to the mess we fail to see far too often,” Isaac noted finally looking away from the painting seeming proud.

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On September 17th, between 7pm-10pm, at 1443 W. Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles CA, Isaac Pelyao is launching The New Renaissance Solo Show headlining his Street Baroque Series to showcase the imperfections in life, culture, and himself so that we can come to appreciate it all as a whole; both the good and the neglected bad.

Isaacs new body of work is described as a combination of classical art, street art, pop culture and a bit of contemporary. He’s even come to adopt a new signature, a dripping three-eyed, yellow smiling face.

“It was a subconscious way of saying I always have a smile on my face,” Isaac said reflecting on when he first created the series, “but underneath all that is something more chaotic. It’s the juxtaposition of tight-rendered work and realism with dream-state reality that’s very angry on the inside,” This he explains what his work has come to mean to him.

DTLA - SAYING GOODBYE: EMMERIC KONRAD Courtesy of GDCA

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GLORIA DELSON CONTEMPORARY ARTS HOST TRIBUTE TO

EMMERIC KONRAD

I

Photo by RICK MENDOZA

t is with great sadness that we report the death late last week of Emmeric Konrad, one of the greatest and most talented artists to emerge from the LA art scene and a kind, brilliant and generous friend.

He will be profoundly missed. Just a couple of weeks before Emmeric passed, Tara Thomas died. She was another brilliant light of the arts community. Tara was a chef extraordinaire, entrepreneur, collector — and above all a benefactor whose generosity sustained and vitalized the art community. In light of Emmeric’s passing, his works will be displayed for exhibition only, not for sale. GDCA will host a tribute to Emmeric and Tara on opening night.

This show explores the historical landscape of the DTLA art scene. The curatorial collaboration of Jonathan Jerald and Petra Wright assembles a three-part show, including an exhibition of eight widely divergent LA artists, an extensive collection of works by Emmeric Konrad and Rick Robinson’s 50 ‘Pink Fist’ wall sculptures offered as a fundraiser to help register voters (more at www.pinkfist.com) The signature voices of these artists are LA trademarks – as recognizable as they are evocative of the brutal sophistication that is DTLA Bohemia.

Emmeric Konrad’s exhibition, “BRING TEQUILA”, features old and new paintings, drawings and prints. Konrad’s work is exuberant, provocative and often profane. With signature bold, gestural strokes he explores with brutal honesty, keen intuition and dark humor the human condition from innocence to the orgiastic.

Group Show Participants are: Mark Brosmer, Michele Castagnetti, Edem Elesh, Tanner Goldbeck, Gronk, Kathe Madrigal, Antonio Mendoza, Rick Robinson, and Bill Sherwood.

10 10 GET2DTLA: LUMINEX 2.0 BY KERI FREEMAN

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LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

L

LUMINEX RETURNS TO SOUTH PARK

ast year, a barely publicized art exhibit utilizing city buildings as projector screens, projected artworks shinning through the darkness like a light at the end of the tunnel for a Covid stricken Downtown.

Attracted by the projections, the streets of South Park soon drew unexpected crowds as news of the nighttime luminescence traveled over social media and by private message.

This year, the exhibition returns September 17th. LUMINEX 2..0 explores the meaning of ‘Projected’ in step with the artists’ perceived ‘Realities’ – addressing the medium itself, attributing their emotion or desire to the audience, promoting a particular image or view, and providing commentary based on forecasts of data and trends. Through augmented reality (AR) installations, immersive artworks, a digital drone activation, live performances, sound and video feeds, cultural consumers will traverse between IRL and augmented realities.

The artist-led exhibition will expand to feature 12 internationally acclaimed and leading artists across 12 site-specific installations scaled to the architecture of the urban facades — all within a 5-block walkable radius (W Pico Blvd, S Hope St, W 11th St, S Olive St, S Broadway).

Artist line-up includes: Refik Anadol, Nancy Baker Cahill, Sarah Rara, Luciana Abait, Akiko Yamashita, Carole Kim, David Van Eyssen, Leah Smithson, Nate Mohler, Ryan P Griffin, Mark Hashimoto, and Elizabeth Leister.

New this year is an exhibition-wide Augmented Reality experience. A QR Code will direct residents and visitors to the LUMINEX Channel on the Hoverlay AR App. The AR App will power an interactive map, as well as activate holograms of each artist, and enhanced reality at select installations.

LUMINEX 2.0 is presented by Show Imaging, in partnership with Panasonic Connect, Arup, Hoverlay, Snap Inc., Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel, the South Park Business Improvement District, and NOW Art. www.luminexla.com

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