Photos by Ashlie Benson
Malibu is beautiful, but Los Angeles is a city to explore. Take a trip downtown to the LA Arts District to find yourself standing in the street surrounded by old warehouses transformed into beautiful murals. Extending seven blocks long from 1st to 7th streets and four wide from Alameda to the LA River, this adventure is a walkable journey.
Fourth Place is a good starting point. Walking around, your senses will be on overload as you find yourself pace from one street mural to the next. Galleries and boutiques line the mural-painted walls. Walk down the street and find galleries such as Lili Lakiche hidden behind a beautifully detailed mural of a woman from the 1950s era.
Turn the corner and continue your time in the Arts District. Toward the river, 3rd Street is home to eclectic boutiques such as Poketo, a store that sells knick-knacks from leather wallets to children’s books to handmade clay coffee cups. Once you have popped your head in Poketo, continue down the street to find stores that sell a variety of items from local artists’ works in the front to high-end glasses in the rear. Further down the street is the District Gallery, one of many galleries sprinkled among the murals.
District Gallery is currently featuring artists Ramiro Fauve and Milica Jelisavcic. In their display, “Vavavoom,” the sensual paintings take on a realistic vision with their attention to detail. District Gallery is one project of the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District Space, a non-profit organization that is helping reshape downtown and its hub for artists of all backgrounds.
The Arts District can satisfy several senses, going beyond visual aesthetics and into delicious options for taste buds. From choices such as Umami burger and Wurstküche, a gourmet grill serving sausages and homemade Belgian fries, a nice lunch is a perfect way to break up your day of art and shopping.
Looking for dessert? Located directly across from Wurstküche on Fourth Place, the Pie Hole serves an array of delicious slices of pie for around $5. The Pie Hole has unique items on its menu such as affogato, a scoop of ice cream topped with a shot of espresso.
Speaking of coffee, try a cup from the newly opened Blacktop on 3rd Street. Blacktop gives their fresh brews a passionate boost as each coffee bean is handled with delicate care by its coffee-enthusiast employees. The coffee shop is also home to the Guerrilla Taco truck Thursday through Saturday if more food is what you crave.
Beyond the defining lines of the LA Arts District, more galleries line downtown. DAC Gallery features Pepperdine professor Ty Pownall’s third solo show with the gallery, “Sculptures and Wall Works.” The show has four free-standing sculptures and six wall hanging works.
“I’m highly influenced by the visual and conceptual characteristics that come into play as we interact with our natural surroundings,” Pownall wrote in an email. “In this body of work, I’m using this man-made and natural relationship as a single example of many disparate but related tensions in the world.”
See Pownall’s work and more around Downtown LA during the free Art Walk every second Thursday of the month. The free Art Walk begins at 411 S. Main Street and will take visitors through many vibrant art galleries scattered between Spring and Main.
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Follow Ashlie Benson on Twitter: @Ashlie_Corina
