In a small boutique in Eagle Rock, a few people mingled with drinks and stared at a wall of records. They weren’t shopping for vinyl tunes, though. They were actually admiring the talent of artists who turned that vinyl into their canvas.
The Jukebox Art Show at Mi Vida Boutique, which opened this Saturday night, came about from the efforts of two creative minds responsible for similar shows. Deadmundo and Sketch, as they are known in the artistic community, previously put on one hell of an art show themed around Star Wars. For Saturday, they brought together the talents of many artists to transform the boutique into a place for record and art lovers. Featuring the work of Vyal, Passenger Uno, Mr. Mas and also the organizers themselves, the show transformed the plain surface of the vinyl into something new and exciting. We talked with the organizers over e-mail about their journey and curating fun shows.
The duo met in 2008 at California State University of Northridge, where they both pursued a Graphic Design degree. Sketch eventually graduated with a Bachelor’s in Art Education while Deadmundo took a Bachelor’s in Graphic Design.
“In 2008 I began curating art shows in small bars in the Los Angeles area. I did that for about 3 years, until I decided to pull out from the bar scene,” writes Sketch. “In 2012, Deadmundo and I teamed up for what was supposed to be a one time show. That show was called “A one night stand…” A one night stand was presented on Feb 10th 2012… We wanted the event name to somehow be related to Valentine’s day. Since the event was only set for one night, the name “A One Night Stand” fit perfectly. The art show brought in about 500+ attendees. Due to the success of our first show, Deadmundo and I decided to give it another shot and collaborate on a second show. In 2012 we were able to curate 15 art shows.”
Those shows move from location to location, but the pair also uses the Coba Gallery in Downtown, a participating gallery in the monthly Downtown LA Art Walk. They turned into the space’s curators, injecting the locale with energy through new artists each month. Coba now helps sponsor other events outside its own space.
The Jukebox Art show came about because Deadmundo and Sketch originally planned to stage the show in a much smaller place. They then creatively came up with the idea of using the smalls-sized records to maximize the talent involved. Unfortunately, that venue didn’t work out, but the two decided on Mi Vida Boutique which will now keep the show going until May 10th.
“It is absolutely amazing, and very fun to curate shows like this one. We love networking and hanging out with creative minds, so it’s a perfect environment for us and we feel at home at every event we put together,” writes Deadmundo. “We have been blessed to have the amount of followers and supporters that we do have… When brainstorming for new shows, we think of themes we would be excited about participating in or attending ourselves. Just like the Star Wars show, although Sketch and I aren’t diehard fans, it was an idea we had since mid-last year and people had been asking for us to make one for a while. Because we wanted to give people not just any Star Wars show, but a huge and memorable Star Wars Show, we kept putting it off so that we could build it up to our expectations, and it turned out pretty amazing.”
As for choosing the artists, Deadmundo and Sketch use their connections but also put the opportunity out there for budding artists to contribute.
“A lot of the times, most of our discoveries come from these open calls and sometimes reaching out to artists we find on Instagram & Facebook, so we are constantly on the lookout for new artists to show work at our exhibits,” writes Deadmundo.
The duo continues to set its goals high and will churn out even more shows over the course of the year – just don’t expect them to reveal too much at a time. The fun part is not really knowing what these creative minds might come up with next.
