Perfect Exposure Gallery has been showing the work of upcoming and mid-career photographers for 20 years, operating from a small storefront in a neighborhood with no parking. Some months ago the building owner came to gallerist Armando Arorizo with the news that he would have to move. That bad news has now proven to be a godsend for Perfect Exposure because they have relocated to a unique and wonderful new space on Crenshaw Boulevard.
The building last housed a private Karaoke club, with long corridors leading to lots of small rooms, all of it wrapped around a big central space. It took a large vision and a leap of faith to see how it could be transformed into a gallery but it has become in fact a wonderful gallery, bringing together a large and diverse community. On opening night the crowd explored the space, rounding corners, finding rooms and making discoveries at every turn. In the large central area Cuban music pulsed, and off on one side a door opened into a studio space with a bandstand a bar and booths – not your usual gallery.
The new Perfect Exposure opened Thursday November 17th with a show called Aesthetics 2016, a group show featuring the work of 47 photographers. Curated by Arorizo, A.P. Photo Editor Richard Vogel, and ASC cinematographers (and still photographers) Charlie Lieberman and John Simmons, the show is a celebration of contemporary photography. The halls and rooms gave the crowd enough space to see the 91 prints on exhibition without the usual groups clustered around prints on a wall feeling of a gallery opening. Perfect Exposure’s new gallery is a lesson in how to make use of the wrong space to do the right thing.
Andy Romanoff
Aesthetics 2016
Through January 4, 2017
Perfect Exposure Gallery
1125 Crenshaw Blvd
Los Angeles, California 90019
USA
www.TheperfectExposureGallery.com
