I managed to get out to some galleries in Los Angeles with the wonderful Liza Cowan, owner and director of Pine Street Works in Burlington, Vermont. We saw the Tomoko Sawaka exhibition at the Rose Gallery, which, I decided, feels more like Agnes Martin than Cindy Sherman. Not to be missed.

Also visited Obsolete, one of my all time favorite gallery/stores in Santa Monica and happened upon a small display of Vee Spears work (mentioned in an earlier post). It was nice to see the work in person, but even nicer to be in their fabulous space with amazing curiosities.

The best discovery of the afternoon was at the Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica. Laszlo Layton had an exhibition of Portraits of Nature, featuring toned and hand painted cyanotypes of animals. I thought these were from the turn of the century, but they are contemporary–framed in vintage-feeling frames, with handwritten descriptions on the page, and the most fabulous logo/signature since James McNeil Whistler, in a maroon ink or paint on each image. The work is utterly charming.