A new art exhibition, “Out of the Ashes,” curated by Craig Krull and Douglas Marshall, is helping artists impacted by the recent wildfires.
“Out of the Ashes,” which runs through March 1, features the works of 40 LA artists who were directly affected by the fires. The exhibition is held at the Bergamot Station Arts Center. Robert Berman is sponsoring the exhibit to cover all of the expenses associated with the event.
With the Palisades and Eaton fires ravaging much of the affected area, numerous artists lost their studios and supplies vital to their art creation Krull set out to create a way to provide relief to those struggling.
“We tossed about several ideas, one of them being in our auction to raise money, but I propose that we do this exhibition instead, which seemed to be a more direct approach,” Krull said.
“I want to do a more direct, one to one relationship. So I decided, or proposed to the gallery committee here at Bergamot that we do an exhibition of the artists that were most impacted, the artists who lost their homes and their studios, and then we would offer their work for sale in that exhibition, and they would receive 100% of the proceeds.”
Organizing this event hasn’t been easy, as finding a venue and contacting the participants have been difficult, according to Krull. While most of the artists were extremely receptive to the idea, getting the word out was challenging.
“I have to first of all contact him through DM if I don’t have email, and then hopefully get their email or their phone number. Half the time I got it and half the time I didn’t,” Krull said.
“I’ve done this my whole life, so I know how to put an exhibition together, fortunately, but this one has been a challenge because, I don’t think, not very often that I have group shows of 40 people.”
An LA native, Krull has long been involved in the local art community. Most art galleries have a 50/50 model for the reimbursement of their participants, but Krull is giving 100% of the profits from the art sales back to the creators.
“It started out as a fire relief, like a financial effort to get them sales for their work. But it became very obvious very quickly that it was more than that. It was more about sharing the ideas and the experiences that they’ve been going through,” Krull said.
“So that’s really the gist of the show, because, oddly enough, many of them are not that concerned about selling something. They’re more concerned about making a statement and putting in, you know, their best work, and getting back into the community and exhibiting and that’s what we were hoping for.”
A gallery talk is set for Feb. 22, featuring all 40 artists, followed by a crowd reception.
“Weeks or even days after they lost everything, some of them even said to me how energized they were to work, to get back into making things,” Krull said.
“That’s one of the beautiful messages that we’re trying to convey with this exhibition, is that the artists of our community lost so much, but they are, you know, striving forward.
“They want to share their experiences, their responses to the tragedy. And so in addition to the work that they’ll be exhibiting, a lot of it is related to the fires directly. Some of it is literally out of the ashes.”