DiCorcia's not the only artist to take this area as a subject — Bruce LaBruce made his film Hustler White along this stretch of boulevard, with the help of Rick Castro and Vaginal Davis.
But, of course, none of that work ever showed right here. Instead, for decades this intersection has been one you passed by on your way to galleries, like the original batch on La Cienega, where Ferus first opened and Irving Blum gave Warhol his first solo show. It's possible you even pass by on the way to Overduin & Kite and Michael Benevento, all galleries with Sunset Boulevard spaces that are in Hollywood too, but tucked in among storefronts much more manicured than here.
PHOTO COURTESY REGEN PROJECTS AND MICHAEL MALTZAN ARCHITECTURE
Rendering of the new Hollywood space of Regen Projects, one of L.A.'s top galleries
PHOTO BY CATHERINE OPIE
Shaun Regen of Regen Projects
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Leron Gubler, president-CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, suggests a practical reason for this current trend toward Hollywood's grittier part. As post-production goes digital and these big studios and storage units are no longer needed, real estate agents are eager to unload the buildings they've been saddled with. "That would ... be very attractive to galleries," Gubler says, "that they could find space that is more affordable."
There are other reasons as well. When gallerist Perry Rubenstein decided to move his gallery from New York to Los Angeles, Blum, formerly of Ferus fame and now based in New York, was among the people who suggested Rubenstein consider Hollywood proper as a location. "Do something different," Blum had said. "Don't follow the crowd."
Of late, the crowd has been moving to Culver City, a neighborhood that has become so full of galleries that people now refer to opening-heavy Saturday nights as "Culver City Art Walks."
"For us, in looking at the landscape from the perspective of New Yorkers arriving to build a new home," Rubenstein says, "we quickly determined that the majority of the artistic community — the artists themselves — live to the east."
The collectors live west, but nothing is gained by favoring one group over another.
"This [gallery] is a home to artists and a meeting place for collectors," he says.
In July 2011, Rubenstein found a film-storage building on Highland and enlisted Kulapat Yantrasast, the principal at wHY Architecture known for his work with art spaces, to spearhead renovations. Rubenstein opened almost exactly a year later, on July 26.
He didn't know Regen Projects would be moving in when he chose his location — the galleries are only three blocks apart — but, he says, "I'm thrilled. ... It's a fortunate coincidence."
But when Erica Redling wanted to move Redling Fine Art out of Chinatown, it was Shaun Regen who encouraged her to move to Hollywood. Redling's new space is "quintessential L.A.," she says, "an old prop warehouse whose front was sliced off to make a strip mall."
It has dark wood slats across its windows and it's in a mall directly adjacent to the one with Donut Time and Honey Spot, next to Holistic Apothecary & Preventive Acupuncture, another pot dispensary and a pawn shop that refuses entrance to anyone wearing sunglasses. The lot appears in a scene from The Big Lebowski, right before the underwear money drop.
"At first a strip mall seemed insane," Redling says, and she worried about being the only gallery in the immediate neighborhood for a year. "But ... it seems like almost everyone drives down Santa Monica Boulevard at one point or another during the month."
Recently, rumors have spread that Michael Kohn Gallery, which started in Santa Monica 25 years ago and then moved to West Hollywood, and Thomas Solomon, who currently shows old-school conceptualists and emerging artists in his Chinatown storefront, will be moving to the neighborhood. Neither Kohn nor Solomon confirms this, but the nonconfirmations betray a certain thrill at the prospect.
"With several notable galleries moving from west to east, there is certainly a cultural revolution under way in Hollywood," Kohn says. "It is practically the center of the city. ... It's a brilliant idea for art galleries to move [in]."
He adds, "You'll be hearing more from Michael Kohn Gallery on this."
"It's fresh for now," Solomon says. "Hollywood has the attraction of its historical name — the urban city and the aura of it."
The aura attracted Nina Garduno, the designer and owner of the Free City Super shop, which both Regen and Redling cite as a good neighbor. She moved her store and workshop to a space half a block south of Rubenstein's new gallery in 2010. "These basic, high-ceiling buildings that are between everything," she says, "lend themselves to these ... fantasies."
She means fantasies about how to respond to and reimagine what's already there — but also just fantasies in general. The neighborhood, maybe because it's changing while still holding on to its seedy strip malls and lore, feels full of vague but palpable potential.
"You'd be remiss to be in this city and not take advantage of this," Rubenstein says of Hollywood.
When architect Maltzan renovated Regen's space, he left the original buttresses, windows and exterior wall on the west side of the building, and raised the ceiling on the east, to allow for higher walls in the gallery space and adjustable natural and track lighting. But he was careful to keep the roof level. It will be used for events and artist installations once the gallery opens, and standing on it, you feel you're in the city, not gazing out over it.
