On a nice Saturday off of my rat race job, I took a walk to pick up some pieces and have lunch here where I live. On the way I passed a garage sale and it happen to be at the house of Freddi and Evan Cerasoli, owners of Lab101 gallery also on ‘gallery row’ in Culver City. I had a sneak peek into the collection they own (because they were moving the entire collection was off the walls and out ready to be moved. It was hard to imagine all of it being up on the walls honestly, there were tons of pieces.) I also got to see some of Freddi’s new collaborative work with J.Shea and talk with her a bit about her philosophy on art etc…. I went to a show at their gallery that evening, realized these people had been a huge part of the Culver City art revival, and my next installment of Recon materialized.



Todd Bradtrud (I bought this painting. Everyone who knows me knows that I love zombies and Astro Burger on Melrose. The zombie kind of even looks like me. So this was a match made in hell…)


After talking with Evan and Freddi, I just had to know more and put it ‘down on paper’. These people are individuals and in a very trendy market here in Los Angeles, they stand out as a gallery that sticks by their philosophy first and not that of the greater market. In my opinion, it might have s4omething to do with the fact that Freddi is an accomplished artist in her own right so she understands artistic integrity, conceptual purity, and gallery issues from an artist’s perspective. Evan is a solid business balance to the creative side, having been involved in marketing creative people for decades. (Musicians, artists, etc…) Together they make Lab101 a beacon in the sea of Culver City galleries.



Brooke Reidt


Here’s an interview I conducted with Freddi and Evan after the show about their space and philosophies on art:


Poor Al *When did you start Lab101? Where was the gallery in the beginning?

The lab started In 2002, when I founded and curated the international series of exhibitions; ‘STREETWISE’ the first one which took place in my home town of London at this mad gallery called AP-Art. I was organizing and running every thing for these shows from the bed room of my venice based loft apt and it some how got nicknamed the Lab and I even tried to registered that URL but it was taken by a graphic designer. When I moved to my Santa Monica loft the street address # was 101 so I registered and named my company “The Lab 101”. The Santa monica loft was meant to just be my design studio - I'd built some walls in it to display design projects and art work on in the living room of the space and for the launch of the studio 'The Lab 101' we exhibited two of my friends Crash and She One’s art work. This was a series they had completed together in Crash's Bronx studio but had never been seen by any one. Then we did a few months later we did an exhibition with some of my mates Mr. Jago, Will Barras, Steff Paletz, Nick Walker from the UK who make up 'The Scrawl Collective'. Coinciding with this I was working on 'STREETWISE 3' which was going to be LA based that year - well the sponsors came to The Lab 101 studio space and wanted to do it there and so we did it four exhibitions over five months in the Santa Monica space Exhibiting artists included ; Dalek, Doze Green, Wk Interact, Shepard Fairey, Andrew Schoultz, Matzu, Kofie, Rich Colman, Michael Leon, Rich Jacobs, Faile, The London Police ......etc and Kinsey who we met for the first time through that exhibition. At the end of a year our lease was up for renewal but our landlord wanted to sell the space and we really wanted a retail shop front space. Kinsey and Jana had almost completed their renovations on their Black Market Gallery and sent us the info on our now Culver City Location. It took a lot of convincing from Jana to make me leave the beach but that lady is damn smart and I’m so glad we took their advice and made the move in 2004 to become then gallery number five in the area - its three years later and their are over forty something galleries here.

*Why did you start a gallery?

Simply my friends and my self who weren't low brow artists and were not doing fine art high end work had no were to show in - the higher end galleries were scared to show 'Urban style' artists due to fear that tags would deface their galleries during openings! Funny how things soon change when they see red dots. But it has taken about eight years for that.



Ricky Powell slideshow




Ricky Powell slide show seen from the other side.


*I've noticed that your shows are visually cohesive. (Meaning that the work usually 'goes together' in some visual way.) Is this planned? Or just lucky that 'like' people often work together?

That is an unintentional mixture of my design background and eye creeping in. For example, last year I had artists curate the shows and select the artists exhibiting and they tend to have selected artists they relate to or are friends with which seam to always be in similar genres.

*I'd like to know what you think your roles are?
Freddi?

Cleaning

Evan?

Being cool.




Cancelled Flight. A show about the love/hate relationship of humanity and pigeons.


*What do you think are some 'defining' aspects of our current art scene? (For example "collaborative work", like the Collabro show is showing off...) Are there others you can think of?

Hmm there are too many theme shows for me too mention.... one I do really like is the traveling one 'YO What Happened to Peace' as it makes a statement.

*Do you like showing newly discovered 'gem' artists or ones that are already established and popular? Or both?

I like showing artists that don't have attitudes and act like rock stars! Some of the most humble down to earth artists are simply just going to go really really far mark my words! I've been working in Fashion and been around the music industry for years and the guys who are still around are as humble as pie. It’s sad that artists now warrant entourages and managers!


*I know most galleries are booked out for at least a year, how long is your space booked out for?


Normally galleries book one year to two in advance. We are moving The Lab 101 Gallery and will be looking for emerging ego-less artists to exhibit with us when we reopen.













Mike Giant - "Burque"


*Are you surprised by how much the Culver City scene has grown?

I knew it would happen as I sat and watched Abbott Kinney turn in to yuppie kingdom over the past 11 years but I had no idea this street would turn that way so quickly. I was hoping it would take longer. Soon it will be all yuppies and rich wankers who open galleries for tax breaks and all the underground cool appeal will be replaced with valet parking and jaguars - Damn may be I should get my self one of those - wait and see ... give me a few more years and I’ll trade my flip flops and promotional tote bags for a Gucci purse and Prada pumps!!!

No seriously it’s caused some really big problems. We can't have the fab parties we used to as we now have to obey all these newly enforce City Codes and restrictions. No more djing, out door bar etc... with out permits and permits of that nature cost big bucks we are a small gallery, with owners that work two jobs each to keep the place going. We can't and don't want to pay for additional permits! As that would mean we'd have to be all about making loads of cash and not focusing on our passions which is to show cutting edge artists.



The Birdhouse Show (Yes, they built a giant birdhouse in the gallery.)




And even more birdhouses. This was everything good about birds, and not a single one crapping on your car.


*I know you both are busy people, what other projects are you working on?

Someone asked me the other day how many hours I work a week and I found my self replying 'oh I work seven days a week '. What don't we have going on is more like it, but you know that we love what we do and we are healthy, we have all our limbs and still have a few years left in us to do what we are doing which is working for US and NOT answering to the MAN which i spent years doing in nyc. I'd much rather being working 24 / 7 a week then that again!

Freddi? (Obviously your own art shows, but where/what is coming up. Also any professional projects?)

I just did a two person show in SF at The 1988 SF Gallery with this very talented and really cool mate Joe Shea. The show was on the 2nd of August. It was a fun project and different. We collaborated on all the pieces in the show which is just so easy to do with Joe as he is totally ego-less and just so laid back. We have created a way to tell a little story though out our work in a mini series that depicts a main charter Joe’s skateboarder phantom. Sounds mad right?! I think that’s what Joe thought when I was like “hey Joe I want to make a story about a skater as homage to all my friends who skate”. See I didn't grow up with this Culture and I’m really fascinated by it.

Then I just completed my painting which joins the next leg of the Scion Installation Tour then I'll be hanging up me brushes for the rest of the year as far as the Freddi C stuff goes so I can focus on the changes and relocation of The Lab 101 Gallery etc... You'll have to monitor the site for announcements regarding that. http://www.thelab101.com




poor al