Volunteer Efforts are Successful!
1.23.24, Los Angeles -I am delighted to share that Lot 45 has been renamed as "New High Village" and has received approval from the Board of Supervisors in Los Angeles. This development will feature over 300 affordable apartments located in the heart of Chinatown. I have dedicated 3 years of my time volunteering with members of the Chinatown community in order to realize this project. What excites me the most about this development is the inclusion of a Community Creative Center. Our main focus is to form partnerships with universities, companies, and industry leaders. The center will offer classes, workshops, and screenings of foreign films and documentaries. Additionally, it will have a workshop area where people can create and fix things. We envision the art exhibition space, lecture hall, and movement area to be able to transform into a large event space suitable for group gatherings and celebrations.
Arts District Los Angeles, CA 2023 Comeback Fest with works by Jean Jacques Bastarache it was amazing fun talking about Jean’s work to so many people. It should have been called the Love Fest.
Art Gallery History from 1989-2010
It all started here. With the help of Artist Spadau Parks The Rico Gallery, 228 S. Los Angeles Street, L.A.- 12,000 sq. ft. 1988-1990 See the underground space and the art of: Jett Jackson Exhibition
VIDEOS with Julie Rico
Julie Rico Gallery 1992-1995 2623 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Artist Robert Reynolds took this picture of me. At Julie Rico Gallery, Main Street, Ocean Park, Santa Monica
1996/7-2000 The Rico Gallery 208 Pier Ave. Santa Monica, CA This gallery was generously donated by the artist Manfred Menz. Thank you Manfred! It is a long story. But sure wish we were still there. A couple of the exhibitions were by Stanley Mouse, Ed Big Daddy Roth, Peter Liashkov as seen in the center picture and the Alex Grey show and the History of LSD by Mark McCloud. We had great shows in this space. Look at the Treiops video to see a cool show and the space.
1995 Lollapalloza Tour, 30 cities USA and Canada. Produced, The Mean Art Tent, I was the Art Director for signage and the touring gallery that housed a large number of L.A. artists work. During the tour I came up with the idea for the The Von Dutch clothing line. Before the tour I met up with Ed Boswell who was making Von Dutch eyeball patches and work shirts. I decided to take them on the tour to sell. They were hugely popular. I thought there should be a Von Dutch clothing line. With flames on shorts and up the sleeves of shirts. Pin striping on clothes. When Ed Boswell went on the last leg of the tour with me from L.A. to San Francisco I told him to make a clothing line. He came back to Venice and hooked up with some nefarious people and set out to create the line. When they started the clothing line Jean Bastarache helped with some of the first Von Dutch clothing designs. I have some more pictures we used as reference for the clothing line. I will post later. See second picture from left for the flying eyeball design by Von Dutch. There is a documentary about Ed’s debacle with Mike on HULU. I asked Ed about our trip. He said he did not remember me telling him to start a clothing line. I am sure that is not true. So that is why I am mentioned not at all in the documentary. None of it would have happened without the Lolla tour experience I had in those 30 cities. Wow!
1995 Lollapalloza Tour, 30 cities USA and Canada. Produced, The Mean Art Tent, Julie Rico, Art Director for signage and the touring gallery.
2005 LA Art Fest Arts District L.A. a giant indoor/outddoor art and music festival Julie Rico, Director and Producer, Special thanks to the following people Joel Bloom, Brian Tortora, Mary Milelzcik, Egg, Doug Rimmerman, Brian Stotesbury, Madamemoxie Monikah, countless artists and performers and LARABA. There were 4 stages, a 25,000 square foot building filled with art. A 5-acre lot with giant outdoor sculptures. It was an amazing scene next to the Sci-Arc building in the Arts District of Downtown L.A. A super special thank you to Sid Carter.
2005-2010 Weeneez and the Red Dot Gallery and Bistro. Downtown L.A. at 5th and Spring The coolest and craziest idea to support art was Weeneez. I presented lots of amazing exhibitions in both spaces. The front restaurant was selling hot dogs to support art and the back space was a formal gallery with beer, wine and fine art. The work showing above in the Red Dot is by the artist Youn Woo Chaa. During this space we established art walk in the area. I worked with Skid Row artists meeting in the space every week to develop a plan to include their work into the art walk. As a group we successfully launched a number of artist careers.
A note about selling the restaurant.
I tried to sell this restaurant to the women that we gave a 10% limited partnership deal to when they opened up a wine bar called the Must behind Weeneez. The women offered us a pittance in exchange for their success. I curated the art shows for them every 3 months which helped with their success. I gave them every help they needed to thrive and they did. But they wanted everything. They tried to set up a deal with our landlord to oust us. The women ridiculed me most days. I felt that I would rather not be in business if this was going to be my life. I used my legal rights to claim the restaurant back. I wish they had just bought it to save their employees jobs. It was not me that ended the employee’s jobs it was the owners of the Must. The women could have bought the entire restaurant for very little money from us. They chose to try to steal it. We went to court and I won the court battle. But the whole thing was a mess. They were very successful and could have bought the restaurant from us. It was a bad call to offer us only $10 grand for two restaurants. Not all business deals work out.
Working at the B-1 Gallery, Jeff Poe came up with this idea for an exhibition called the Black and White show. It was really good. See Jean Bastarache's painting to your left with the body builder woman. This is the only shot we have of this painting. It sold. I met Greg Escalante at this gallery. Below: Henry Geldzahler and Jeff Poe with me hanging a show of 3 NYC artists at the B-1 Gallery. I still have a painting by one of the artists, Scott Kilgour, he painted it with silver radiator paint.
Special thanks to Jean Jacques Bastarache and Kai Bob Cheng and Donald Duvall (Weeneez) Jean and Kai Bob hung all of the art for all of the shows in 3 of the galleries. Donald was a loyal fun worker at the restaurant.
Thank you to the artists, the collectors and all of the people (there are a lot) that helped in all of the Julie Rico Galleries designed to support artists.
Also, a big thank you to the following employees for Weeneez. Donald Duvall- please contact me, you were the best of them and Jose , Ole, Charles, Bertha, Maria, Johana, Martha and Roger aka Rojelio and the Veterans and others.
The Mural Jean Bastarache made for the Julie Rico Gallery at 2623 Main Street, Santa Monica, Ca 90405
(L) Ed Big Daddy Roth, (C) Gregg Escalante, Julie Rico (R) Stanley Mouse - Gregg was advising me and brought in these crazy guys.
Outside the Mean Art Tent at Lollapalooza Graff artists galor
(L) Jefff Poe, (C) Henry Geldzehler (R) Julie Rico
The 113th issue of Coagula Art Journal, May 2016, is the largest ever printed in the magazine’s 24 year history at 88 pages. This issue highlights Eric Minh Swenson's documentary photographs of Art Stars – 160 women artists, dealers, and writers in the art scene from New York to California – with an introduction by Mat Gleason.
The First Von Dutch Work Shirt Ever Made!
We wore these on the tour. We sold a whole bunch of them to the crew and musicians. We hit 30 cities across the country so it was well promoted.
5 or 6 of these were made for our crew. We embroidered the Von Dutch eyeball on the back.
I will sell this to the right buyer. :)
Other Articles:
Perry Farrell talks about working with Julie Rico on the Lollapalooza tour Warp Magazine
https://janesaddiction.org/gallery/articles/warp-magazine-june-1995/
Interview with Gerry Fialka on his show I Am Probably Wrong About Everything with Julie Rico 12/28/2021
Exhibition at Rico Gallery for artist and Tibetan Monk Lama Lhanang- Title “Tara” 8’x5’ Acrylic on canvas
Tents created by Graff Artists for Lollapalooza
Chinatown Community Creative Center - A place that is needed in every community!
After speaking with a multitude of people at my art galleries, I had come to fully comprehend the need for safe spaces in our communities that can accept and nurture people from all backgrounds. People deserve an environment with opportunities to grow, be seen and heard, and receive help, regardless of their economic status. Understanding this necessity, I strongly advocated for the Chinatown Community Creative Center as a place where those values could be fostered. My enthusiasm is shared by CCC-LA a community group in Chinatown. Supervisor Hilda Solis and Congressman Jimmy Gomez are helping us realize Lot 45 —an expansive low-income housing complex. We propose the Chinatown Community Creative Center become an asset on the grounds. The facility would offer areas to craft projects, host film screenings, provide workshops and lectures and a movement area and an art gallery and, more importantly, allow community members to learn from each other and work together-FOR FREE. See below.
Please support our work at CCC-LA to provide low-income housing and creative services for our community: Chinatown Community Coalition