'Mindthegap' at Prism, LA

The latest venture from Australian gallerist and man about town - 23-year-old PC Valmorbida – the Prism Gallery is set to inject a little high-design artistry to the high-gloss throes of LA’s Sunset Strip.

Housed within the architectural surrounds of PATTERN’s specifically designed structure, Prism casts a neat contorted shadow over the sun kissed streets of Southern California. Designed in collaboration with alternative building material specialist 3Form – the gallery doesn't just look good, it's also the first structure in the states to have been built entirely from a resin-based polycarbonate.

Inspired by the swooping lines of 1960’s American automotive design, Valmorbida has conceived the gallery as a pioneering centre for artistic investigation – which, if the exterior is anything to go by, the Antipodean playboy has already achieved.

Elegantly titled ‘Mindthegap’, Prism’s inaugural show has been designed to bridge the barrier between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ artwork that defines the breadth of the LA scene. Featuring work from American-born artists Barry McGee and Phil Frost, the show provides a low-fi, high-colour take on contemporary American painting.

With McGee’s street art roots and Frost’s self-taught pedigree, the pair were an ideal choice for Prism’s opening show and the combination of McGee’s blocky, textual prints and Frost’s menacingly totemic sculptures, paintings and installations perfectly compliments the interior attributes of the space.

Alongside McGee and Frost's works, the gallery will also play regular host to film screenings, lectures and roundtables - a valiant move on the part of Valmorbida to ingratiate Prism as a force to be reckoned with on the Californian scene.

17 November 2009 | Art