April 7 – 29, 2018. Opening Reception: Sunday, April 8, 3-5 p.m. From abstract, mystical mandalas that reflect a lifelong interest in Jung, consciousness, and personal transformation to figurative works with mythological and Dionysian themes, this retrospective is Burton Kopelow’s second-ever solo exhibition and the first time these paintings and drawings have been shown.
A self-taught artist and early resident of the Downtown LA Loft scene in the 1980s, Kopelow worked in relative obscurity until 2014, when his first one-man show at LA Artcore’s Brewery Annex launched to much fanfare. The show received the largest number of visitors in the gallery’s history, and Kopelow was featured in numerous articles in the local press.
San Francisco Poet Laureate Emeritus Jack Hirschman says of him: “there were guys who believed in art in the old traditional way….You create art because you’re in love with beauty. You’re in love with form. You want…to be able to express something outside yourself, made of yourself, in an objective way. And he was one of those artists.”
While the show represents only a small fraction of Kopelow’s catalog, which numbers over 3,000 pieces, it spans Kopelow’s long but largely unknown artistic career from the 1960s until 2015, just before his death at the age of 91. Drawing from multiple chapters of his colorful, bohemian life —in Greenwich Village, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oaxaca, Mexico— the selected works tell the story of an artist who explored and invented radically different styles over his lifetime. Kopelow was also an accomplished colorist painter, and his vibrant color combinations are on display throughout the show.
Despite limited mobility in his later years, Kopelow never slowed down in the studio, says wife Nancy Blumstein. “He was still painting daily and feeling at the top of his game. His art was always the number one priority in his life.” And after waiting more than 50 years for recognition, Kopelow felt exhilarated by the first show. “I just am pouring myself into my work and not thinking too much about it anymore,” he told the Jewish Journal. “I paint so much it’s incredible, more so now, because I’ve matured. I’m much more secure in how I approach my work.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a video montage of interviews with some of Kopelow’s close friends, mostly other artists and poets, who deeply admired his work. Many describe him as an “artist’s artist” who had an intense work ethic, ignored art world trends, and painted for the sheer joy of it.
The show will be part of the Brewery’s Spring Art Walk on April 7th and 8th and closes on Kopelow’s birthday, April 29th. He would have been 94.
April 7, 2018 to April 29, 2018
Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 5 PM. Wednesdays by appointment only.
