The Robert Berman Gallery Features Southern California's Illustrator Artists

Written by Marcus Cole Wednesday, 21 March 2012 21:44

Santa Monica, CA.- The Robert Berman Gallery is proud to present "Paid to Play", an overview of the oft overlooked Southern California artists rooted in illustration, commissioned to create imagery for record albums, magazines, advertisements, et al.  A genre dirtily linked to commercialism but nonetheless full of innovation, technique, artistic expression and speed. "Paid to Play" is on view at the gallery until November 12th and is part of the Pacific Standard Time collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.

"Fueled by a combination of intense demand, sleepless nights and brutal competition, the four men at the center of LA’s airbrush market – Dave Willardson, Charles E. White III, Peter Palombi and Peter Llyod – embarked on careers that produced iconic work for Playboy, Levi’s, the Rolling Stones, along with major studio films such as American Graffiti and Tron." From 'Overspray: Riding High with the Kings of California Airbrush Art'. And the wrangler of these men was Mike Salisbury – the art director of West magazine, the Sunday supplement of the Los Angeles Times, beginning in the late 60s – who was for illustrators what Ferus Gallery was for beat artists – a platform to project Los Angeles cool to the world at large. Though the visuals defined a generation, most west coast illustrators never landed the fine art jump with the aplomb of their east coast contemporaries like James Rosenquist, Tom Wesselmann and Andy Warhol.  But perhaps the most convincing testament to the relevance of a movement largely branded as irrelevant would be the 1969 West magazine cover painted by Ed Ruscha, commissioned by Salisbury, which fetched $578,500 at auction in 2009. Included in the exhibition are works by Willardson, White, Palombi, Llyod, Lou Beach, Pat Blackwell, Tim Clark, Dante, Sean Douglas, William George, Bill Imhoff, Patrick Nagel, George McManus, Dennis Mukai, Martin Mull, Margo Nahas, Jayme Odgers, Neon Park, Everett Peck, Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr, Millard Sheets, Tommy Steele, Len Steckler, Ben Talbert, John Van Hamersveld, E. Franklin Wittmack, Zox and others.


The Robert Berman Gallery has been in business in Santa Monica, California since 1979. One of the first galleries to be located at Bergamot Station Arts Center, it has occupied two exhibition spaces there for the last thirteen years. Founder and owner Robert Berman was early on in exhibiting artists such as Keith Haring and Raymond Pettibon and has done historical and seminal exhibitions by such artists as William S. Burroughs and Man Ray. The gallery has a rotating exhibition schedule specializing in mid-career and established artists in all mediums. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.robertbermangallery.com

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