ARTIST STERLING RUBY'S LA HOUSE & STUDIO ARE KNOTTY PINE PERFECTION

Sunland is a relatively sparsely populated, scenic area in LA, in between the Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains.

Artist Sterling Ruby‘s live-work compound is on the market there. It was designed in 2009 by Ruby in collaboration with three architects from SCI-Arc, Sandy Watts, Tammy Ho, and Simon Storey. It has several trees built into the structure of the house, which references both Scandinavian and Japanese design. But it’s cabin-like warmth would also look at home in The Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, where I currently live.

It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms across 2,331 square feet. The charred-wood exterior contrasts the interior, done in floor-to-ceiling knotty pine paneling. There are LOTS of built-in shelves and cabinets, all done in the same wood. It has concrete floors throughout and a simple concrete-block fireplace. A nod to artist Sol Lewitt’s iconic concrete-block structures.

ASHTRAY 457, 2018

The listing agent at Sotheby’s, Carol Stewart says, 

“Sterling has mentioned that a good cabinetmaker, someone who understands space, is sometimes the most valuable thing when making a place to live.” 

There are multiple outdoor decks making indoor-outdoor LA living easy. There’s one off the master with a Japanese-style soaking tub, one with built-in seating, and another overlooking the hills. 

There are existing plans for a pool and the half-acre property also comes with a studio workshop with a loft and a garage. Plus, a kiln room, which in LA, is a must. (Bring your own yoga mat.)

Overall, it is chic as fuck and I’d live there in a heartbeat. You can too for $1,189,000

(Photos, Zen House Collective for Sotheby’s International Realty; via LA Curbed)

THE BILLBOARD CREATIVE TAKES AMAZING VISUALS OFF THE WALL AND ONTO LA'S STREETS

The Billboard Creative (not the magazine) celebrates photographers, like my pal the street photo-dynamo, Ruben Natal-San Miguel as well as other high-profile artists like Lawrence Weiner, Marilyn Minter, Laurie Simmons and Spencer Tunick by featuring their work on billboards all around LA. 

Andrea Blanch (photographer and editor of of Museé Magazine) was asked by Mona Kuhn, creative director of TBC, to curate the project that had over 6,000 submissions. Blanch explained the criteria,

“What became important during the selection process was not only the quality of the work but how the work would look on a billboard…“

The winners are posted on the Museé website with a special print edition of the work. For the participating artists and an interactive map of locations around LA, go here. The Billboard Creative transforms 31 Los Angeles billboards into public art spaces starting in October…

Ruben Natal-San Miguel

Miguel Arzabe

Andrea Blanch

Laurie Simmons

Marlies Plank

Susan Propper

Lissa Rivera

Ken Pivak

Marco Walker

Marilyn Minter

Julia Fullerton-Batten

Spencer Tunick

Lawrence Weiner

Naomi Harris

LIKE MID-CENTURY MODERN AND S&M? JAMIE DORNAN'S SEXY HOLLYWOOD HOUSE IS FOR YOU!

Former Irish model turned actor, Jamie Dornan, best known as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades franchise, is selling his sexy mid-century modern Nichols Canyon house.

It was built in 1959, but the home has been thoroughly modernized and retains era-appropriate open “breeze blocks” and stone fireplace in the living room. It’s very indoor-outdoor with walls of glass for the exhibition in you. The central atrium, open to the elements, leads into the kitchen, dining, and living areas.

With 2,500+ square feet of living space, it has four bedrooms and four baths, a covered patio, a swimming pool, a spa, and and a fab entrance. You could easily convert one of those 4 bedrooms into a playroom.

It listed for $3.195 million. Whips and sling not included.

(Photos, The Agency; via LA Curbed)

SIMPSONS' CREATOR SAM SIMON'S NEUTRA COMPOUND IS ON THE MARKET FOR $18 MILLION

This Richard Neutra house belonging to the late Simpsons creator Sam Simonand has hit the market for $18 million. The Bailey House (aka Case Study House #20) is really the guest house that sits on the Simon estate as a counterpart to his four-bedroom contemporary “main house.” (Simon died this year after a long battle with cancer. His estate is estimated in excess of $100 million. He’d be worth more but he donated a big chunk of his Simpson’s fortune.) 

Only 34 houses were designed as part of the Case Study House program; 24 were actually constructed, 21 remain standing, only one designed by Neutra was built. Simon engaged master architects and restoration artists Marmol Radziner to preserve and renovate the Bailey to achieve its Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status. The main house has energy conservation technology and used sustainable and recycled, toxin free materials. A theater/bar/game room connects to a stone deck with a infinity-edge pool that overlooks the Bailey House and the private grounds. Nice job on the restoration, Sam. But your taste in interior design overall is not mine. The palette overall is off and in particular, that curved class banister and Dale Chihuly “chandelier” are the antidote to Neutra, if you ask me.

(via The Agency)

SOHO FARMHOUSE IS 100 ACRES OF BRITISH BLISS

You know about SoHo House, right? It was started as a private club in London, where there are multiple clubs, over a decade ago. There are now houses in New York, Miami, Chicago, LA, Toronto, Istanbul, Berlin and the latest is Soho Farmhouse. It is set on a 100-acre estate in the Oxfordshire countryside with 40 cabins in different sizes plus a four bedroom cottage and a seven bedroom Farmhouse. I’m an “Everyhouse” member and when the club sent out a huge illustrated map of the grounds (below) and it was LOVE at first sight. This is my kind of scene and looks like the perfect civilized getaway. It’s just two hours outside of London and whether you go with a group of friends or just your sweetie, there looks like so much to do. Canoeing, boating, swimming, horseback riding, tennis and the Brits fave pastime, drinking. Why am I telling you about an exclusive private club? Well, you are in luck, non-members are allowed to book too (but you have to make a request, and it’s not cheap.) But if you’ve got the dough, can you imagine a wedding here?! Or your big 4-0? I hear it’s been booked like crazy, so request WAY in advance and start saving, kids. For more info and enticing photos, you can go here.

THE PILOT HOUSE HOUSE IS MID-CENTURY PERFECTION

Before architects A.Quincy Jones and Whitney Smith went to work on Brentwood’s renowned Modern architecture community Crestwood Hills, they built this aptly named Pilot Housein Mt. Washington to show 

“how well-designed homes could be built on steep hillside lots.”

Even though it looks fifties and is quintessentially mid-century modern, it was built in 1948 and it was designated a city monument in 2002. The house stretches across its corner lot and has incredible views of the surrounding hills out of its many angled windows. There are multiple patios and a modest pool by LA standards. The place is really more guesthouse-sized, but the two-bedroom, 1,524-square-foot house would be a perfect LA pied-à-terre for moi. It’s on the market $1.125 million. (via LA Curbed)

(via LA Curbed)

RIP CHRIS BURDEN

If you live in L.A. and like art, you’ve seen Chris Burden‘s work, even if you aren’t aware. Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s entry plaza features “Urban Light,” a sculpture in the form of a Greek temple composed of 202 antique cast-iron street lamps. Installed in 2008, in addition to the Hollywood sign, it’s become new new symbol for L.A. LACMA director Michael Govan says

“Chris’ work combines the raw truth of our reality and an optimism of what humans can make and do… he wanted to put the miracle back in the Miracle Mile.”

But by this piece you’d never guess that the same guy had himself shot in the arm for a performance piece at a Santa Ana gallery over 40 years ago. It made him semi-famous in the much smaller art world of the 70s. Burden, was a pioneer in the newly forming category of “Conceptual Art”, the art of the idea, not the “object.” And he eventually became one of the most compelling and widely admired sculptors of his generation. He died yesterday in L.A. of a malignant melanoma. He was 69.

Burden gained notoriety in 1971 as a 25-year-old grad student at UC Irvine and for his master’s thesis, he created “Five Day Locker Piece,” where he closed himself inside an ordinary school locker just two by two by three. The locker above had a five gallon bottle of water, and the locker below, an empty five-gallon bottle.

Now, suddenly part of the emerging Post-Minimal artists, young Burden got his degree and quickly connected with a group of Northern California artists. What cemented Burden’s rep was having himself shot in the arm by a friend from about 15 feet away, in “Shoot“. He would forever be known as “the artist who had himself shot” — lampooned by critics and closely monitored in the L.A. art community.

Power was always a motif in Burden’s work. “The Big Wheel” was a turning point. A performance sculpture —activated by the artist– where a three-ton, cast-iron wheel eight feet in diameter is powered by a motorcycle. When the engine revs and the motorcycle’s tire is engaged, the flywheel begins to spin eventually, very fast. When the engine shuts down, the big wheel spins for several hours on its own. It is in MOCA’s permanent collection. He also was known for “L.A.P.D. Uniforms,” a row of oversize, navy-blue garments, big enough for a giant, made after the Rodney King beating at the hands of local police– it's particularly relevant today. “What My Dad Gave Me,” is a 65-foot skyscraper made entirely of Erector set parts installed briefly in Rockefeller Center in 2008.

Burden was the first artist to join Gagosian Gallery when it opened in L.A. in 1978. His first major solo show in a New York museum didn’t come until 2013, when “Chris Burden: Extreme Measures” opened at the New Museum. His work is better known in California and in Europe. He became a tenured professor in 1986 at UCLA, and no doubt has influence several generations of artists. He was instrumental in developing its rep as one of the nation’s leading art schools.

Burden’s final sculpture, an homage to Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who flew a dirigible around the Eiffel Tower in 1901, will be shown at LACMA in a special exhibition opening May 18.

"Shoot"

Crawling through broken glass in “Through the Night Softly”, 1973

Nailed to the roof of a VW in “Trans-fixed”, 1974

This piece just happened to be performed on my 13th birthday...

"The Big Wheel", 1979

“Metropolis II” at LACMA

"L.A.P.D Uniforms", 1993

His final work, “Ode to Santos-Dumont”, 2015

Chris with his wife, artist Nancy Rubins. Photo: Todd Eberle

KENNY SCHARF KARBOMBZ MY BEETLE (+ A PRADA COAT)

Kenny Scharf and I have known each other since the early 80s when we met at a party I crashed at his loft. (He gives the BEST parties.) I was looking through a stack of paintings he had stored in a bath tub and we struck up a conversation… I’d be surprised if it wasn’t while smoking a joint he was carrying. I knew his work from the legendary shop, Fiorucci. He was best friends and roommates with Keith Haring back in the day and we have MANY old friends in common. He’s a great guy who really hasn’t changed at all, even though he’s one of the few art world “stars” of today. He lives mostly in LA, has a house in Rio, and for the last decade or so, has kept a studio in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. But he’s moving out of Bushwick now, and he just gave his last Cosmic Cavern party last Friday. (I’ve been to them before but I missed last week. Like an idiot, I fell asleep…) The basement of his Bushwick place is a crazy blacklight installation which has been the scene of MANY sweaty disco parties. 

ANYWAY, yesterday he was clearing out the studio, getting rid of of plants, selling a few odds and ends so, I arranged to come by and get my old green Beetle custom-painted… what Kenny calls “Karbomz!”. He’s painted, free of charge, some 140 cars in across the U.S. mostly, and documented the process for a book he’ll eventually publish, showing the finished result… along with Karbombz sightings. He works very fast, although, since it was a sunny day, and we were hanging out, he spent over an hour and kept adding and refining his work. After we looked the pics he shot, he added the finishing touch, a tooth sparkle to the front grill and a speeding glob. He also painted a collector/friend's Prada coat, to the protest of her young daughter who was SO embarrassed by this. Kenny said his daughter, Malia, now grown, was the same way. Well, if you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and want your own Karbombz! tell him Trey sent you. Follow him on Instagram to see tons more Karbombz!

TAKE A TOUR OF THE "AMERICAN HORROR STORY" HOUSE

The L.A. mansion from season one of American Horror Story just sold… and it was a deal, apparently. After its starring TV role in 2012, the owners saw dollar signs and listed it for $17 million! But as there were no offers, the price continued to drop and it was eventually $13 mill less. It just sold for $3.2 million. If you were not thinking about real estate and looking at other things watching the inaugural season of AHS, you might have missed the original Tiffany stained-glass, Batchelder tiles and gorgeous woodwork throughout in the Alfred F. Rosenheim Mansion. Oh, and a private chapel too (or those impromptu exorcisms) but thankfully, no man in rubber fetish gear –that we know of…

SIGN OF THE TIMES

These very realistic street signs warning 

“No Kardashian Parking Anytime” 

…appeared bolted to signposts around Hollywood this week, including one outside the Kardashian-owned Dash boutique. Hung beneath regular parking notices on Melrose and other popular shopping streets were out up by street artist Plastic Jesus. He told the Daily News:

“The idea came from observing celebrities around Hollywood, including the Kardashians, and seeing how (their) most menial tasks…whether it’s shopping, going to a restaurant, pumping gas, have turned into a cultural news event.”

But the K-girls or Kanye never encountered them as they were on an Armenian mini-tour this week and the signage was removed the next day. He’s the same artist that erected the cocaine-snorting Oscar statue in February. Jesus!