With its Commune-designed interior and market-driven cuisine, the restaurant Ammo has been luring art world power players and tastemakers to a semi-desolate stretch of Highland Avenue in Los Angeles for more than a decade. The eclectic interior-design studio Blackman Cruz, down the street, boasts a similar following. Still, until recently, one was more likely to encounter a pack of streetwalkers than a group of art lovers roaming this dubious Hollywood artery. Things are changing fast, however. The area’s many studios and film- storage facilities, rendered obsolete by the rise of digital media, have provided ample space for new inhabitants—like Shaun Caley Regen, who in the fall took over a 20,000-square-foot film-postproduction lab for her gallery, Regen Projects. In the past year, a flurry of galleries, restaurants, and boutiques have sprung up within a few blocks of one another. Just last month, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (the pair behind “dude food” Los Angeles restaurants Animal and Son of a Gun) and pop-up prince Ludo Lefebvre launched a new venue in a former pizza joint. Word on the street is that more such ventures are on the horizon—in the meantime, here are a few of our current favorites.
1. Perry Rubenstein Gallery
1215 North Highland Avenue 323.464.1097
When West Chelsea pioneer Perry Rubenstein decided
to relocate to Los
Angeles in 2011, he teamed up with
Why Architecture’s Kulapat
Yantrasast to carve two galleries from a former film-
stock warehouse.
This month, Rubenstein is featuring
Iwan Baan, the photographer whose
post-Sandy aerial shot
of Manhattan went viral.
2. Michael Kohn Gallery
1227 North Highland Avenue 323.658.8088
In a nod to his new surroundings, L.A. native Michael Kohn commissioned
Lester Tobias to design both
a “malleable” space for art and an
illuminated edifice visible
to passing cars. “There’s a synergy between
urban life and art-making,” says Kohn, whose gallery will open this
summer, with a roster that includes artist Ryan McGinness and the
archives of Wallace Berman.
3. Free City Supershop Supermat
1139 North Highland Avenue 323.461.2226
In 2010, in search of that elusive neighborhood feel, style-setter Nina
Garduno moved Free City from a Malibu storefront to this
3,000-square-foot emporium emblazoned with can’t-miss multicolored
stripes. Inside are Garduno’s cult-favorite printed sweatshirts and
sweatpants, ornate bikes and motorcycles, jewelry, and art books.
4. J.F. Chen
941 North Highland Avenue 323.466.9700
J.F. Chen, the premier L.A. antique-furniture dealer, has been making a
mark on the contemporary art world lately. The Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles, built a mini Chateau Marmont—with a pool—inside Chen’s
40,000-
square-foot warehouse for James Franco’s “Rebel” show
in May. A
recent exhibition featured animal-inspired seating by Tijuana-born
textile artist Tanya Aguiñiga.
