Los Angeles Visionaries Association

LA alternative arts organization, Carp, shows selections from its 1970s ephemera archives of contemporary art—mailers, letters, photos, and other documentation—from a cross-section of LA’s early performance and media arts. Artists include Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, Kim Jones, Alexis Smith, Richard Newton, and Bruce Nauman. Carp encouraged experimentation in non-traditional venues for art like television and print, sponsored LA’s first pop-up galleries, and organized a number of signficant public and private installations and actions. Carp was founded by Barbara Burden and Marilyn Nix in 1974, and was funded by NEA and private donors.

Carp’s mix of installation, performance, television, video, print magazine and street influenced many experimental art organizations that have followed. As part of Pacific Standard Time, this exhibit reflects an under-appreciated but growing-in-importance aspect of contemporary art—ephemera. It includes the early and experimental work of both well- and lesser-known LA artists in the 1970s.

After the Oct. 8 opening, the show will be open Saturdays Oct. 15, 22, 29 from 1 to 5 pm, and by appointment.

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