Art Walk and Roll Festival 2023
at Helms Bakery District
Saturday, October 14, 2023
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Campus-Wide Event
Helms Bakery District is thrilled to collaborate with the Culver City Arts District for the fifth annual Art Walk and Roll Festival. Immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of Helms Bakery District and the Arts District along Washington Boulevard, where you can explore galleries, enjoy live music, and savor delectable bites—a perfect day for the whole family.
Be sure not to overlook the Helms Studio Series at the Helms Bakery District, which highlights exceptional artistic talents. Engage in all the exciting activities on Helms Walk, ranging from savoring artisanal gelato at Pasta Sisters to admiring Tessa Johnson’s intimate artwork. Delight in the charm of restored vintage pieces from Rejuvenation and be enchanted by the musical performances of Ron Freund and Christi Lao. Additionally, treat yourself to Lustig’s Instagram-worthy bites and let the kids enjoy face painting by Marbled Palette. Explore the world of Gavin Green’s photography and be captivated by the thought-provoking exhibit eb, The Jersey Genius, at Arcana: Books on the Arts. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to discover David Hartwell’s unique photography at the Helms Design Center and much more! Experience this rich tapestry of creativity at the Culver City Art Walk & Roll Festival on October 14th.
Check out the full program of Helms Bakery District events below.
Take the Expo to see us!
SHOWING IN WASHINGTON CORRIDOR GALLERY
8723 Washington Boulevard, Culver City
Helms Studio Series
Helms Bakery District presents Helms Studio Series, where the artistry of five individuals converge to offer a captivating experience during the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival.
Chris Hero, a versatile Los Angeles-based painter, channels two decades of life drawing at Studio II onto salvaged paper, crafting spontaneous and intuitive masterpieces in acrylics, inks, and gouache, often completed in under half an hour during life-drawing sessions. Meanwhile, artist David Valvoda captures unique perspectives of the everyday world through photography, weaving disparate images into captivating compositions.
Kate Leachman explores memory and emotion through oil paintings on canvas and wood, reimagining personal photos and nature in vibrant colors. Their smaller, instinctive creations, known as “Musings,” provide a delightful escape into the joy of the creative process. Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, a Los Angeles-based set and costume designer, combines theater and art in the ongoing project Hypothetical Scenarios, celebrating the tactile experience of creating with found materials. Finally, Toby Pederson, with an illustrious 20-year career as a commercial photographer, skillfully illuminates the overlooked and mundane, revealing the beauty in simplicity.
Helms Studio Series is your invitation to explore these unique artistic journeys and witness the world through their creative lenses.
Chris Hero
Helms Studio Series presents Chris Hero, a versatile Los Angeles-based painter with a unique journey through various professions. His current work, born from two decades of life drawing at Studio II, involves layering history and surface on salvaged paper. Hero’s spontaneous, intuitive art uses acrylics, inks, and gouache, with most pieces completed in under half an hour during sessions with life-drawing models.
Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
Helms Studio Series presents Hypothetical Scenarios, works created by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, an Los Angeles based set and costume designer working with theaters, installation artists and painters. Her design work has been seen on stages across Southern California as well as in Portland, Oregon and Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.
Hypothetical Scenarios is an ongoing project that combines Stephanie’s theater and art practice, along with her passion for creating interactive environments with found and collected materials. Expanding the relationship between objects and materials fascinates her — exploring the tactile experience of making things, and the transposed feelings that arise from the combinations. By juxtaposing materials such as raw rope and refined colorful silk, or discarded rusty metal and precious gold leaf, her work chases beauty using tactile craft, finding meaning in the juxtaposition of objects and materials that pass through her hands, relieving them from the duty of practicality.
Kate Leachman
Helms Studio Series presents Kate Leachman, a native of Los Angeles, currently working in Studio II, Culver City. Kate’s current work centers around people, places and objects integral to her life. Paintings in oil on canvas or wood are inspired by memories. Resourcing personal photos, nature and imagination, she recreates her memory of the subject in vibrant color. Kate’s artistic practice also includes making small mixed media works. Constructed on a variety of paper, canvas or board, she explores combinations of wet and dry media. These are instinctive creations she calls “Musings.” A daily practice, working on the Musings is a liberation from the inherent problem-solving that comes with large paintings and allows Kate to relax into the pure joy of the creative process.
Toby Pederson
A graduate of Art Center College of Design, Toby Pederson, boasts an impressive 20-year career as a commercial photographer. His collaborative and skilled approach has graced major advertising campaigns, showcasing his refined style rich in subtlety and detail, particularly emphasizing lighting. Beyond commercial work, Toby’s personal still-life photography delves into the often overlooked or mundane, contrasting with today’s flashy tech-driven world. Armed with extensive photography expertise, he skillfully highlights and captures simple subjects like construction materials, insects, paint, or even a humble bubble in water.
David Valvoda
David Valvoda is a local photographer and artist who hails originally from Cleveland, OH. David’s photography focuses on the world around us as seen through unique perspectives, often seeing the dramatic geometry in our everyday surroundings as well as putting disparate images together to create a unique image.
SHOWING IN HELMS DESIGN CENTER
8745 Washington Boulevard, Culver City
Helms Bakery District
David Hartwell | Circle of Confusion
Opening reception and presentation during Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival.
Exhibition Dates:
October 14th, presentation 3:00 – 3:45pm followed by reception.
October 14th – November 17th by appointment
In photography, the circle of confusion determines the depth of field, the part of an image that is acceptably sharp. Artist photographer David Hartwell sets his sights and lenses on the myriad of plants and flowers that inhabit his garden in Pasadena. David’s art and craft consists of taking hundreds of photographs of each specimen. Inching himself closer to his subject a fraction of a millimeter at a time, David ends up with images only differentiated by the location of their razor thin focus point, the circle of confusion. With the aid of AI and a lot of manual post production David reassembles those photos into images that are impossibly sharp, blurring the boundaries of illustration, photography and the stored visual memory. This circumvention of the limitations of the lens –the human eye having the same constraints –allows David to physically emulate what the human brain does: synthesize information into a coherent whole. The images are conspicuously simple and familiar yet the resulting amalgams have never been seen by a photographic lens, nor the human eye.
David Hartwell is a British citizen. He was born and raised in Switzerland where he studied photography and obtained his BFA from Art Center College of Design’s European campus (1991) He is also an accomplished animator, CG artist and color grader. His work has shown at the Palm Springs Art Museum, WUHO Gallery in Hollywood, the Wende Museum of the Cold War, National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, National Museum of China in Beijing, 798 Arts District Beijing, EPFL University Gallery in Lausanne Switzerland.
Hartwell will present his most recent work which blurs the boundaries of photography, illustration and the stored visual memory. He will give a presentation about his work and process from 3:00 to 3:45 pm October 14th followed by a reception.
Poster Territory
Design In Motion
Projected nightly on the entrance of the Helms Design Center at 8745 Washington Blvd.
Projection Dates: October 14th – November 12th
Helms Bakery District and Poster Territory proudly present “Design In Motion” as part of The United States International Poster Biennial’s “animated poster” category during the fifth Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival. This captivating projection will showcase animations that promote cultural exchange and push the boundaries of visual communication. The US International Poster Biennial (USIPB) is an exhibition dedicated to celebrating and advancing excellence in both national and international contemporary poster design.
Join us as Helms Bakery District projects “Design In Motion” onto the entrance of the Helms Design Center at 8745 Washington Boulevard every evening from October 14th to November 12th.
ON HELMS WALK
Pedestrian Plaza on Helms Avenue
Arcana: Books on the Arts
“eb, The Jersey Genius”
Arcana: Books on the Arts brings “eb, The Jersey Genius” to Helms Walk. “eb”, the reclusive inventor of “The Boonsburg Egg”, and self-declared “Smartest Man in the World”, has no advanced degrees in science, physics, math, art or engineering (and thus, not encumbered by any predetermined laws), eb simply tries to explain the mysteries of the universe through his work. Mixing his innate gifts for inventing and artistic expression, this “folk engineer” uses recycled wood, nails, glue, screws, rotisserie motors, nixie tubes, bicycle tires, rope, waffle irons, and anything rusty his mother happens to be throwing away at the moment, to create intricate works of art that exhibit a childlike innocence, yet tackle highly technical subjects. eb’s Helms Walk exhibit showcases his groundbreaking theories challenging conventional views of ancient Egypt’s religious nature and reexamining King Tut’s famous headdress.
CoCo Republic & HD Buttercup
View Photography by Gavin Green and Exquisite Rugs on Helms Walk
Join HD Buttercup and CoCo Republic at the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival for a captivating fusion of photography and textiles. Gavin Green, a renowned Australian-based photographer, melds portraiture and architecture to immerse viewers in the vibrant atmosphere and architectural grandeur of Australia through high-quality photo paper prints. Explore rugs designed by Exquisite. Your floors are a canvas, each detail a conversation starter. Floor Art, like a painting on the wall, expresses your style and personality. Colors, patterns, and textures evoke emotion and set your interior’s tone. Explore this fusion of photography and floor art at the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival.
Pasta Sisters
Italian Gelato
Join Pasta Sisters during the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival for a delectable journey into the world of artisanal gelato. Savor the exquisite flavors meticulously crafted by Italians in Los Angeles, including our exclusive “peccato” gelato, featuring luscious mascarpone cream and crumbled chocolate salami. Indulge in a symphony of tastes with favorites like Sicilian pistachio, Nutella, peanut butter, peach & mango, and refreshing lemon sorbet. Discover the artistry of gelato, a sweet treat that transcends borders and brings a taste of Italy to Culver City.
Room & Board
Artist Tessa Johnson
Room & Board presents Los Angeles based artist, Tessa Johnson, on Helms Walk for Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival. Tessa has been creating portrait based oil paintings and botanical pastel drawings for the past 8 years. Much of her early practice was focused solely on painting but Tessa started blending her love for drawing and botany into her practice.
Tessa’s evolution through painting and drawing has allowed her to realize the parallel concepts she thinks about when creating work. In Tessa’s surrealist portraits she examines the complexities and often masked layers of a person that are frequently overshadowed by how a person might be viewed on the surface in terms of beauty and how one represents themselves. Her works on paper scrutinize the idea of what is seen as simply beautiful and easy to digest, no added layers or hidden intricacies, just something beautiful. Through her work, Tessa investigates the notions of what it means to understand something or someone at a deeper, more intimate level or in contrast wanting to absorb something strictly for its beauty.
Live Music
Ron Freund and Christi Lao
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Prepare to be transported through time and genres as Ron Freund and Christi Lao enchant us with their musical prowess. Join us on Helms Walk for a musical journey amidst the vibrant ambiance of the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival.
Ron Freund, a multi-instrumentalist, tap dancer, and band leader, has roamed the world, weaving his musical magic in Tel Aviv, Berlin, New York, and New Orleans. Drawing inspiration from the golden era of the 1930s and 40s swing music and the enchanting sounds of Gypsy Jazz, Ron’s performances are a tribute to jazz legends like Charlie Christian, Edmond Hall (of Louis Armstrong’s Allstars), and the legendary tap dancer Sammy Davis Jr.
Hailing from the vibrant city of Los Angeles, Christi Lao is a multi-talented vocalist and guitarist. She specializes in the timeless classics of the Great American Songbook, delivering soul-stirring vocal jazz performances. Her guitar skills are reminiscent of the iconic Django Reinhardt, infusing her music with the spirit of gypsy jazz.
Lustig
Delicious Bites
Lustig is coming soon to the Helms Bakery District, and they will be shaking things up a bit, starting with this year’s Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival on Helms Walk.
Lustig invites you to trade a like for a bite. Simply follow them on Instagram and receive delicious bites from the upcoming restaurant menu, such as Kaesekrainer, a Swiss cheese-infused Polish sausage served with horseradish mustard and a pretzel, or the classic Esterhazy cake – creamy gianduja butter crème with almond hazelnut meringue. Chef Mairinger will randomly select three new followers from the Instagram account and award prizes, including merchandise and an invitation to the upcoming Grand Opening of Lustig.
Rejuvenation
Vintage Decor
Rejuvenation, the design destination for Mid-Century Modern lighting and decor, displays one-of-a-kind restored vintage pieces on Helms Walk for the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival. Rejuvenation’s team in Portland sources unique pieces from across the country and refurbishes them so that they can be used to furnish modern spaces. Immerse yourself in art and historic inspiration.
Marbled Palette
Face Painting
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Join Marbled Palette for a colorful and imaginative adventure at our Kids’ Face Painting booth. Our talented artist Edna Bazikian will use safe and washable paints to create whimsical designs that will bring smiles and joy to kids of all ages.
IN THE SHOWROOMS
The Rug Warehouse
Rug Weaving Demonstration
3260 Helms Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034
Explore the artistry and skill of rug weaving at the Culver City Art Walk and Roll Festival, where The Rug Warehouse will unveil the intricate techniques and craftsmanship that breathe life into exquisite textiles. Witness a blend of tradition and innovation that reflects the evolution of the rug industry.
Cisco Home
Hand Crafted Giveaway
8705 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232
12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Cisco Home handcrafts more than just furniture. They pioneer sustainable ecosystems within our community. Whether it’s repurposing discarded materials into durable pieces, donating spaces to local nonprofits, or teaching employable skills to those in underserved neighborhoods, Cisco Home is at the forefront and redefining what sustainability and design is all about. Visit the Cisco Home Showroom during the Oct 14th Art Walk and Roll event and leave your contact information for the chance to win one of Cisco’s most iconic hand crafted pouf ottomans.
