The Gallery Wall displays surfboard art along with the Bob Bonis photos of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on tour Oct. 5. The Gallery had a wide variety of mediums on display from film photography to sculptures. Photos by Chloe Chan
The Tracy Park Art Gallery in the Malibu Colony Plaza offers a wide variety of art, artists and price ranges for customers and art lovers alike to explore.
Tracy Park, the gallery owner, said she has been in business for 20 years, but the gallery recently moved locations from the Country Mart to the Malibu Colony Plaza next to Ralphs. Park said she is motivated to represent smaller artists from Malibu because there is a lack of local representation in galleries.
“That’s our motivation now — we like to represent local novel artists because there is no gallery representing local work,” Park said. “So, that’s what we like to do.”
Park said her original desire to open a gallery came from her own love of creating art.
“I wanted to be a painter,” Park said. “I thought that I was super talented – I really thought I was a good painter, but I wasn’t. I didn’t have the talent that it really took, but I just loved the idea of having a gallery for emerging and local artists.”
With the exception of the Bob Bonis photography, the art on display in the gallery is from local Malibu artists and includes surfboard art from Chloe Trujillo and Jeff Redman.
When selecting art to display at the gallery, Park said she is dependent on her personal taste and style.
“I don’t choose my work based on anyone else’s taste, only my own,” Park said. “I have to love it because if I don’t love it, and if I don’t believe in it, I can’t sell it.”
Andrea Cady, has been working at the gallery since February 2022 and said she loves the gallery because of the joyful energy Tracy has and how that joy attracts similar people.
“Tracy, the gallery owner, has great energy, and so it’s fun to bring in more people,” Cady said. “When you have good energy, more comes in.”
Bob Bonis’ photographs of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles on tour in the 60s display the fashion of the era clearly, an aspect of the photographs that Cady said draws her to the collection.
“I love the style of their outfits,” Cady said. “It’s my favorite part of it. I love fashion stuff, so I love these images and all their clothes.”
Park said she made an exception to the Gallery’s typical art style to include Bonis’ photography.
“I don’t normally carry rock ‘n’ roll photography, but these are never-before-seen images of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones,” Park said. “That’s why we decided to carry them.”
Cady started working at the gallery around the same time they received these photographs in February. She said she enjoyed the experience of meeting the curator and learning about the history behind the photos.
“We met with the curator for a whole night, and he told us about all the images,” Cady said. “It’s fun to know the history behind them — and people love the imagery.”
As the manager for all three of The Beatles’ tours and The Rolling Stones’ first five American tours, Bonis had behind-the-scenes access to the bands, according to the Bob Bonis archive’s website. The majority of the photos have never been published, including those on display in the gallery.
Park said she hopes her gallery will rally support for local artists.
“We hope that people who haven’t heard about us will come in just to see what we’re doing and to support local artists,” Park said. “We have a great price range. You can buy something here for $100. You can buy something for $100,000. We like to have a little bit of something for everybody.”
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Email Audrey Geib: audrey.geib@pepperdine.edu
