In the Old Days:
Night Scenes
In the Old Days:
Canals, Bridges
In the Old Days:
Gondolas
In the Old Days:
Lagoon and Midway
In the Old Days:
Windward Avenue
In the Old Days:
Miniature Railroad
In the Old Days:
Market Street
In the Old Days:
Mecca Buffet
In the Old Days:
Scenic Railway
In the Old Days:
1921 Amusements
In the Old Days:
Cabrillo Ship Cafe'
In the Old Days:
Venice Pier
Arielle Haze
Venice Photos
Arielle Haze views
Beach Art
Scott Shellstrom
Venice art
Dale Hartman
snapshots
Venice Paintings
by
Pat Hartman
Ehrlich buildings
Homage to Old Venice
Unpainting the Town:
lost murals
Helen K. Garber photos
Art at the Rose Cafe'
New Venice Sign
2004 Carnevale Poster
Jeff Verges
neither master nor slave
Photographer
Rodrick Bradley
Roberta Farrington
Official Carnevale Book
Helen K. Garber
Sue Ramsay card
Robert Farrington
2003 Carnevale Poster
Rodrigo Toledo
St. Charles mural, by Terry Schoonhoven, in early stage.
Old Venice Jail postcard
2005 Carnevale Poster
Janet Gervers
"Morning Shot" by Rip Cronk,
1991, Speedway and 18th Court
Venice Artists Roster
Visual artists who live in Venice or did in the past; or who visited and made art depicting Venice; or who made murals or designed buildings that are an important part of the landscape. (There are other websites with excellent photos of the public art of Venice.) Some of the people listed here have worldwide reputations and sales in the millions to big-time collectors and corporations. Some have sold their work on the boardwalk. The history of Venice encompasses every kind of artist there ever was, including some not found anywhere else. More information is welcome!
Bennett Abroms - sculptor, maker of silk flowers
Chad Adair
Larry Albright - neon artist in Venice since Sixties
Lita Albuquerque
Peter Alexander
Martha Alf
Jimmi Alonzo - beat lightshow artist
John Altoon - beat painter, died young in 1967, said to have been mentally unstable
Kwaku Alston - celebrity photographer
Mike Angeleno - beat painter, decorator of Gas House
Bill Attaway - ceramics, mosaics, sculpture
Judith F. Baca - founding member of SPARC, muralist/visual artist, professor
Russell Baer - photographer with Venice Arts mentorship program
Dana Balicki - CodePINK Media Coordinator
Larry Bell
Linda Benglis
Billy Al Bengston - Originally established studio in Venice on a $30-a-month budget; told an interviewer,"I think I was the only non-drug-dealing artist in the area."
Ed Bereal
Tony Berlant - his work is said by Gordon J. Hazlitt to "capture the conceptual heart of wicked Venice"
Wallace Berman - influential guy (Dennis Hopper calls him a guru) who is on the cover of the Sergeant Pepper album. Berman’s saying, "Art is God is Love" was written on the wall of the Venice West Café, and he appears in Easy Rider as a sower of seeds, which William Wilson calls "very apt." Berman published a zine called Semina. In 1959, his wife Shirley was on the cover of #4. He and Bob Alexander frequented jazz clubs, self-identified as outlaw artists, and had a lot to do with the Ferus Gallery. Recently, all nine issues of Semina were "recreated" by George Herms in a four-year project.
Edward Biberman - his painting entitled "The Story of Venice" or "Kinney's Dream" was in the old Venice Post Office.
Critter Bill - glass figures
Annette Bird - studio in a renovated church
Jeremy Blake - "moving paintings"
Peter Blake - British, did paintings in the 1990s of various Venice Beach subjects such as rollerskaters and bodybuilders
Sandy Bleifer - collage, handmade paper
David Blixx
Carol Bodlander
Mimi Bogale
Samuel Boissot
Bob Bond - airbrush artist specializing in custom auto work, raised in Venice
Jan Book
Gil Borgos
Jonathan Borofsky - Venice studio, large outdoor sculptures include "Ballerina Clown" at Venice Renaissance Building
Anita Borrego
Michael Braden - architect
Craig Bradley - some pretty impressive creations via Lighthouse Stained Glass
Michele Bradley
Rodrick Bradley
Foster Brashear - developed Metaphaser
Charles Brittin - photographer, around since the late 50s when he and his wife lived in an apartment at 15A Avenue 54 apartment
Chris Burden
Diane Butler - artist and activist
Huguette Caland - personally designed her studio/home, collects work of fellow Venice artists. Used to design caftans for Pierre Cardin
Vija Celmins- resident in the ‘70s and ‘80s
John Chamberlain - sculptor - mid-Sixties
Michael Childers - Hollywood portrait photographer, also studio in Venice
Jack Chipman - abstract style paintings; longtime collector and connoisseur of California pottery.
Jenny Chu - photographer
Joe Coleman
Jackson Collins - has been a Venice painter since age 16
Mike Colt - Outsider art
Robbie Conal - poster artist, father of Men With No Lips, studio at 5th and Rose
Ron Cooper
Kristin Corning - home and studio
Maureen Cotter - photographer
Rip Cronk "Lost Art" mural on the facade of the Venice Heach Hotel (the old St. Charles) and "Venice Reconstituted" on the west wall. Also, on a different building, "Morning Shot", a portrait of Jim Morrison (1991, Speedway at 18th Court); "Rip Tide" and "Ocean Swell" on Clubhouse Avenue, "Homage to a Starry Night" at Wavecrest and Ocean, more
Keith Crutchfield - digital graphic designer
Kate Cunningham - painter, also "John Harris Designs" the one-of-a-kind art furniture company
Beverly Danailoff - spent some time in the Venice art scene in early 60s
Ron David
Ronald Davis
Woods Davy - home/studio in Venice, creates sculptures from natural forms, mainly stones
Julia Dean - photographer
Milica Dedjier - architect
Stephanie DeLange
Brian Detweiler - photographer
Laddie John Dill - once told an interviewer he came to Venice for its quiet. Original studio was on the boardwalk at Wavecrest and Speedway, another over the Townhouse Bar on Windward Avenue which might or might not be the same as his studio in former Venice Cable Car headquarters
Guy Dill - studio in Venice, has made a sculpture called "Venice Angel," and "Harmonic Arch" is at Navy Avenue
Mark di Suvero
Scott Dosch - creator of sand sculptures on the sidewalk, also a mural on the Sidewalk Café and an aerosol mural on Clubhouse Avenue. Used to live in a van parked at the beach.
Dougo (a.k.a. Doug Smith). Venice-raised, self-taught painter and graphic artist
Gonzalo Duran
Charles Eames
Ray Eames
Jean Edelstein- studio in Venice
Doug Edge
Gregory Edwards - published his lithographs at Hamilton Press
Steven Ehrlich - architect, has designed numerous homes and other buildings in Venice
Shari Elf - makes delightful things from found objects
Jerry Emmons - Venice paintings really beautiful, actual residency not known
Ned Evans - surfer-painter, lived in Venice more than 30 years
Fred Eversley
Eleanore Fahey - drawings of boats and houses seen in the Canal District
Greg Falk also appears in a mural by somebody else
Claire Falkenstein - apparently later moved but kept Venice house as art archive
Mark X. Farina - street aesthetic, cryptic messages, academic credentials
Eric Farnsworth - performance artist early 1980s - rode all over Greater LA on a bicycle at night, decorating lampposts with hanging cardboard rhinoceroses with "600-600" written on them. Told reporter, "If I don't do it, who will?"
Robert Farrington - best pictures of Venice ever painted
Roberta Farrington
Mollie Favour - neosurrealism and organic abstraction.
Wylder Flett - Look up his "Odd Box Bags." Go ahead. I dare you.
Anthony Friedkin - had a 30 year retrospective show in 2003
Kathleen Gahagan - jeweler; sterling silver masks
Jim Ganzer - surfer/artist. In early 1980s was making furniture and lamps using palm tree branches, surfboard resin, and helicopter window Plexiglas, in a studio three blocks from the beach. He is in the 1975 Ed Ruscha film Miracle
Helen K. Garber - photographer, creator of the official Centennial book. Venice is represented in her L. A. Noir series. Is a friend of, but not the same person as, the painter Helen Garber.
Frank Gehry - architect, designed the two buildings flanking the three-story "Binoculars" by Claes Oldenburg (1991), and many other Venice buildings
Chris Georgesco
Janet Gervers - designed poster for Carnevale 2005
Ed Gilliam
Brooke Glaze - designer and animator
Betty Gold - sculptor
Jane Golden - mural, Ocean Park at Main - Venice in its heyday as an amusement park, with rollercoasters, lots of people and bright umbrellas
Joe Goode
Marc Goodrich - sand sculptures
Robert Graham - figurative sculptor, home and studio in Venice
Michael Grecco - Santa Monica photographer, held a week-long Lighting and Dramatic Portrait workshop on the Venice Boardwalk
Deborah Greene - EpoxyBox Gallery
Ron (Ronald Dean) Griffin
Richard Hamilton - British artist said to have invented Pop Art. In a Venice gift shop he came across a lapel button imprinted with the words SLIP IT TO ME. Greatly enlarged, this became an art work titled "Epiphany"(1964), an homage to Andy Warhol.
Lynn Hanson
Kenny Harris - lives, works in Venice
Dale Hartman
Pat Hartman
Arielle Haze
Mr. Pot Head
Seeking Heaven - muralist
Jimmy Herciuk - home and studio Venice
George Herms - beat artist
Justine Hill - photographer
Cheryl Himmelstein - place of residence unknown; photographed Venice as part of a major project documenting various areas of LA
David Hinnebusch - about him Lisa Adams says: "I am convinced that making use of the Venice boardwalk was a brilliant and intuitive action on his part. It seems that the chaos the boardwalk provides, day in and day out, is a clear external manifestation of David's internal landscape."
Jeffrey Hirsch -Venice painter, sculptor
Phillip Hitchcock - sculptor
Diana Hobson - formerly of Venice, now of New York
Diana Hobstetter - Venice is not only location but subject. A People Palette is one of the coolest artist sites I’ve ever seen. In a project inspired by the Bean Queen coffee shop behind the Bank of America on Windward Circle, she painted a series of Venice folk, each with an object significant to her or him. And there's a -parallel series of abstracts that go with each painting; chosen from among the paint rags used in the creation of that portrait. ( Webslave's note: I used to keep some of the paint rags from Dale Hartman’s works, and am absolutely in harmonic vibration with the impulse that considers them to be artworks in themselves). Hobstetter says, "The color bar at the bottom of each painting shows the palette of colors used to create the skin tones of the respective person, demonstrating that a person is not just one color. " Her husband Richard Grossman is credited for the color bar idea. A couple in artistic collaboration is a beautiful sight.
David Hockney - did a print called "Skaters in Venice Beach"
Craig Hodgetts - Studioworks in Venice - co designer of Gogasian Gallery
Wayne Holwick - in 1966 painted a Bob Dylan mural; one called "Groupie," one called "Rimbaud" none of which exist
Dennis Hopper - artist and major collector. Venice home called the Art Barn, designed by two different architects, Frank Gehry (office) and Brian Murphy (the rest), "a big metal house, closed on the outside, with the light coming through skylights." Hopper says it is perfect for his art collection
Mei Man Hou
Harrison Houle
Jim Hubbard - Director of Venice Arts Mecca
Brian Hunt
Mike Illes - studio, home
Carol Ingram - may or may not have lived in Venice; one painting titled "Lincoln and Rose" depicted the Food Barn at that location.
Robert Irwin - site-specific, primarily public, artworks. Moved out of Venice studio 1970
Anthea Izzart - early 1980s, "utility art," decorated shower curtains in Venice rooftop studio by dripping paint on them with a teaspoon, sold them in exclusive shops for $125-150
Tibor Jankay
John Jerde - architect, office in Venice
Brenda Johnson - Watercolors
Dan Joyce
Cyndi Kahn
Henry Lee Kahn - photographer
Steve Kahn - artist and photographer
Amy Kaps
Nancy Kay
Gloria Kisch
E.F. Kitchen
Koukla - high quality natural toys that resemble art objects
Stacie Krajchir - painter
Deborah Krall
Aaron Kramer - creates art from found objects - "Trash is the failure of imagination"
L. A. Fine Arts Squad - their mural "Venice in the Snow" was on a Little Feat album cover in 1970
Tony Landreau - beat painter
Marion Lane
Ruth Leaf - studio in Venice
Tracy Lee - Samson mural at Brooks and Speedway, with Arnold West
Gabe Leonard - Venice subject matter, for example, the pier from underneath. Sells paintings on the beach.
Francisco Letelier - "Becoming the Circle" mural at 5th and Rose
Steven Light-Orr designer of furniture, jewelry, more - especially Swoopshades (whimsical, one-of-a-kind lampshades originally inspired by vintage lamps of the 1950s -1970s)
Michael Lipson - lighting tech in film industry. Designed Tony Bill’s house, 17 feet wide, and constructed from salvaged materials
Greg Lynn - architect
Mark Mack - architect
Loren Madsen
Kevin Maedgen's - Theater of Paint studio in Venice, uses vintage costumes, stage sets, and theatrical lighting to create narrative paintings
Fowad "Mad Mike" Magdalani - beat painter, known for covering trash cans and every other available surface with art; committed suicide by hanging, body not found for 17 days
Brandon Maggart
John Maggiotto
Robert Mangurian Studioworks in Venice, co-designer of Gogasian Gallery
Rich Mann - photographer
Judy Marchyn - landscape architect, interior decorator
Chris Mason - "Tattoo Asylum" mural on Windward Avenue
Toby Mason - makes gorgeous mosaics of reflective glass; lived in Venice for a time
Charles Mattox - sculptor
Robert Maxwell - had a very successful ceramics studio business in Venice in the 1960s
Thom Mayne - architect, started out building apartments above Venice garages, designed the famous 72 Market Street restaurant
Gerald McCabe - sculptural furniture made from special woods, with natural oil finish
Patrick McCartney - used to have a photography studio at 1101 Ocean Front Walk, wrote at least one article for the Venice Beachhead
Jeffrey McClellan
Allan McCollum - wanting to be near the beach, moved his house trailer to Venice in the late ‘60s
Ann McCoy
John McCracken
Michael C. McMillen - as early as 1965, he was turned on to art and bohemianism by the Old Pot Shop and particularly by Max Neufeldt. For his MFA theses, McMillen did a large-scale installation, the Traveling Mystery Museum, and in 1973 rented a Venice storefront for a couple a of weeks as his exhibition space.
David Meckel - designer, started out working with Eames brothers in Venice studio. Directed design work for the 1984 Olympics
Carolyn Mendoza
Sam Messer
Barbara Mills - wonderful gorgeous Venice paintings since 1969
Rico Mizuno
Gerald George Morrison - painter
Art Mortimer - not a Venice resident but painted the Brandelli’s Brig mural; and "Hi-De-Ho and Penny Lane" at 64 Windward Ave.
Susan Moscowitz - Doll Lady
Ed Moses
Robin Murez - sculptor
Michael Murphy
Hank Murrow - ceramics, founder of the Pot Shop, 324 Sunset Avenue, in 1963
Kenneth Muth
Max Neufeldt - metal sculptor who shared the Tin Shack
Cathy Nichols - painter
Jackie Nunes - painted murals in homeless center
John Okulick
Margit Omar
Pat O’Neill - hung out with the Beat scene in Venice before enrolling at UCLA
Eric Orr - environmental art
Noel Osheroff - ceramics
Edwardo Pagac
Gary Palmer - born in Belfast, Ireland
Cheri Pann - in Venice since the mid-nineties
Felix Peano - when Venice was first built, he sculpted animals and sea serpents on the original canal bridges and designed the fancy curtain for the auditorium stage, and the capitals of the colonnaded buildings on Windward.
Lori Petty - painter, also Lawd Knows clothing line
Antoine Predock - architect
Ken Price
Adrianne Prober - painter of dancers, skaters and cyclists
Joe Ravetz - photographer, series of old wooden gates of the Venice Canals
Arthur Reese - was the first black man to settle in Venice. He was Town Decorator in Kinney’s time. He designed the look of the Ballroom for the 4th of July Ball, also parade floats (he originated the idea of the Venice Mardi Gras parade), and downtown seasonal décor. Reese was largely responsible for the look of Venice festivities, but apparently kept a low profile at the time. This resulted in such nonsense as publicity shots of white bathing beauties with brushes, supposedly painting a giant carnival head, that had really been the work of Reese’s crew of black artisans.
Dorothy Rice - watercolorist; book of her work is called Los Angeles With Love. Working outdoors in Venice, Rice was once surrounded by a group of children who wouldn’t let her leave until she included every one of them in her painting.
Arthur Richer - beat artist
F. Robinson
George Rodart - neo-expressionist, Guggenheim Fellowship
Aeno Rompannan sculptor
John Rose - Venice Studio
Jerry Rowitch - Sculpture Garden
Ed Ruscha
Sally Russell - founded the website veniceartists.com, moved on to Taos
Nancy Sadler
Desy Safan-Gerard
Nikki de Saint-Phalle - had a studio called the Zinc-Zinc Company in the early 1960s
SANO - renowned graffiti artist, work seen at Venice Graffiti Pit, has produced a DVD called Graffiti Verite' of which one critic says, "as either art instruction or social document this is a worthy addition "
Gary San Pietro - photographer
Ruth San Pietro - sculptural paintings of endangered wildlife
Marcus Schenkenberg - supermodel who at age twenty-four was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People on the planet by People Magazine. Discovered while rollerskating on Venice Beach by photographer Bill King
Christina Schlesinger - One of the founders of SPARC; "Chagall Returns to Venice" mural at the Israel Levin Senior Adult Center
Terry Schoonhoven - not a Venice resident but a muralist - the St. Charles painting; "Landscape with Musicians" at 909 Ocean Front Walk
Murray Schwartz - maker of chromatic glass: if you look at it from different angles, the color and transparency change. The technique is based on thin-film physics. The glass is coated with many ultra-thin layers of different metals. Pieces of this glass were made into three-dimensional mobiles at the The Kroma Glass shop, 2700 Pacific Ave.
Alan Shaffer - photographer
Sudad Shahin - architect, sculptor
Reesey Shaw - studio in the St. Charle
Robert Sheer - photographer, amazing in-camera effects with night photos
Scott Shellstrom - DNA Studio, has lived in Venice since 1996. His work is at LACMA and he had a show at the Rose last summer.
Laura Silagi
Rick Sinatra - photographer
Single Wing Turquoise Bird - light show production troupe, headquartered above the Fox Venice Theatre. Active in the late Sixties and part of the Seventies, it included among others Rol Murrow, David and Helena Lebrun, Bob Maestri and Larry Janss.
Fortune Mduduzi Sitole
David Skinner
Raphael Sloane - inhabitant of then 711 studio with Larry Silvers. Also known as the Farm, almost directly across from the Fox Theater.
Alexis Smith
Doug Smith - Venice homeboy, painter, graphic artist, concerned with historical preservation of the area, also connected artistically to the skateboard scene. Several of his murals are around town.
David Sprigle - photographer
Gary Steinborn
Peter Stewart - "You Are Not Forgotten" mural at Pacific and Sunset
RA Superstarr
Ben Talbert - beat artist
Katerina Tana - designer who bought oldest house in Venice in decrepit condition and extensively remodeled it
Tati - beat sculptor
Ann Elizabeth Thiermann - "Nurturance" mural at Venice Health Center
Ann Thornycroft - had studio in former Venice Cable Car headquarters
Jean Tinguely - had a studio called the Zinc-Zinc Company with fellow Nouveau Realiste Nikki de Saint-Phalle
Rodrigo Toledo - designed the 2003 Carnevale poster
Masami Tsuchikawa - ceramics
Keith Tucker - may not be local; mural on the wall of Bug Builders on 6th street in return for repairs on the artist's Volkswagen.
James Turrell - (Ocean Park)
DeWain Valentine
Father Maur Van Doorslaer - Benedictine monk whose ceramic design was adapted for the mural "Jesus Roller Skating With Friends In Venice Beach" at First Lutheran Church on Venice Blvd.
Derrik Van Nimwegen
Jeff Verges - designed the 2004 Carnevale poster
Frederico M. Vigil - "El Quinto Sol" mural on Venice Blvd.
Joanne Warfield - photographer
Andy Warhol - was lured to Venice by Dennis Hopper, and had his first US show in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery which though on La Cienega, had its origins in Venice. In early 60s, hung out with Gavin Lambert who wrote 2 books that concerned Venice. In 1978 Warhol had a show "Torsos" at the Ace Gallery. Owner Doug Chrismas said "When we got to the gallery, the entire street was a solid block of people." To help protect Warhol, he had bodyguards from Gold’s Gym. After the opening, they partied at Hal’s on the Beach
Damon Warren
Aaron Waugh
John Wehrle - "Fall of Icarus" on the Fern Violette building 48 Market Street, painted over by a group sponsored by Robert Graham
Susan Weinberg - longtime Ocean Front Walk resident, paints scenes of Venice.
Ruth Weisberg
John White - lived in Venice 1970-85, which influenced his performance work as well as paintings and drawings
Michelle White
Saul White - painter, printmaker; studied at the Otis Art Institute in the mid-1950s and had a storefront studio in Venice Beach
Nicholas Wilder
Martha "Art Girl" Wilson - worked on the boardwalk for two years
Harry Winebrenner - head of Venice High Art Department in the old days. He designed the prize-winning Spirit of Venice parade float for the 1922 Rose Parade in Pasadena. Also created "Welcome" statue in the Lagoon
Emily Winters - first lived in the Canal District, when it was a slum. Free Venice Beachhead, community murals, including "Endangered Species" on Ocean Front Walk, "Jaya" at Dell and Venice, also created a collectors’ item the Venice Coloring Book. 50 year retrospective show in 2006
Jennifer Wolf
Marvin Wolf - photographer. Starting in 1998, covertly photographed the activities of Mishkon Tephilo for four years. In his own words, the artist then "digitized these images and with computer tools, patience and evolving skills, transformed simple snapshots into striking and original works." Wolf is listed as a director of the Synagogue, but whether he lives in Venice is not known
Karen Frimkess Wolff - who moved from Venice to Echo Park.
Tom Wudl
Cynthia Wylie - painter in oils
Robert Yeager
David Yurkovich - graphic artist
