The British aren’t coming; they’re already here, in a pub, in Santa Monica. But the New Yorkers are piling in, the latest and best evidence is Maccarone’s tricked-out art gallery, surely a bellwether for the new, gentrifying Boyle Heights.
The 6,000 square-foot SoHo-style space, the Los Angeles outpost of a West Village parent gallery, occupies a stand alone building, a beautifully refurbished warehouse. It’s right down Mission Road from the sidewalk auto-repair shops where you replace your windshield when it gets smashed by a falling coconut, or some gunshot.
Hubbard’s 11-work show is gripping not just for its heroic scale and bold coloring but for artist’s industrial process. He poured hot pigmented urethane to generate chemical reactions that created bright patterns. Appropriate for the neighborhood, he then added contrasting elements by hand-applying oil and automotive paint. They are gorgeous, and Hubbard, a New York City exile, made ’em right here in Los Angeles.
Photos: John White for Maccarone
Alex Hubbard, Basic Perversions | Maccarone Boyle Heights | 300 South Mission Road | thru Dec 19