“Maybe we’re really just interior decorators,” joked art collector Michael Gold after he and his wife Sirje walked through and explained the “Goldmine” exhibit on Tuesday as if the University Art Museum was the new home to harbor their eclectic pieces.
“The energy was so amazing coming in,” said docent Dr. Helgard Niewisch. “The physical energy I had seen from the paintings and within each painting when in [the Gold’s] smaller two bedroom-house was so powerful. I asked them, ‘How will you push it all back into the house?’ The paintings have their own lives and relationships.”
The Golds toured students, professors and docents around the exhibit, while lightheartedly decoding selected works piece by piece.
[Michael] Gold described Don Suggs’ plastic totem pole as a towering sculpture, in which the “commanding piece was Yoda.”
Visual and sound artist Steve Roden explained how his color-coded and musically-inclined hanging sculpture was meant to be used by musicians as a stage decoration.
Paul Cherwick’s two steel paper planes tear into the wall as a minimalistic homage to September 11.
Fred Tomaselli, known for his heavy elemental use of drugs, like marijuana leaves, peyote and pills, created “Joshua” based on his favorite place Joshua Tree with Benadryl pills laced in resin.
The late Steven Criqui’s mixed media “Untitled ‘J’s 2′ (2001) drew close to the Golds because of their daily sightings of the featured Johnie’s Coffee Shop at Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.
A Tony de los Reyes’ bloody, five-starred triptych of Moby Dick made with red bister concluded the gallery talk.
Docents Gary and Judy Cooper said that it’s interesting how the Golds each have interesting taste in artwork and go their separate ways when explaining selected pieces.
The Golds’ cocktail mix of contemporary artwork both from unknown and renowned artists around L.A. are pieces that can speak for themselves.
“We don’t choose a piece to fit in,” said [Sirje] Gold, “It’s the piece itself as we see it and what meaning it gives us, and to find out and know if it represents the artists’ body of works.”
“Goldmine” will run through April 10 at the UAM. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. and Thursdays until 8 p.m.
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