Roberts Projects is a contemporary art gallery located on Washington Blvd. in Culver City, California that “represents mid-career and established artists who work using a variety of mediums”. One of the artists featured at Roberts Projects is the late interdisciplinary and performance artist, teacher, actress, and animal rights activist Rachel Rosenthal (1926-2015). Titled Thanks: Collage Works from the 1970s, the exhibit will be on display through December 12, 2020.
Rosenthal was an extraordinary artist and performer whose work I first saw at Highways Performance Space back in the 1980s. According to her biography on the Rachel Rosenthal Company website Rosenthal was born in Paris of Russian parents who fled Europe during WWII to New York. She studied art, theatre and dance in Paris and N.Y. and after the end of the war continued her training with Hans Hoffmann, Merce Cunningham, Erwin Piscator and Jean-Louis Barrault. Rosenthal moved to California in 1955 and soon formed the experimental Instant Theatre which she performed in and led for ten years. She was a social activist working with L.A. Women’s Art Movement in the 1970’s, and the co-founder of WomanSpace, among other projects. Rosenthal performed both nationally and internationally and after retiring from performing in 2000 she resumed a career in visual art working in oil and watercolor, a career that had lay dormant for many years.
Rachel Rosenthal – Photo courtesy of her archive.
According to the press release Thanks: Collage Works was organized in collaboration with the Rachel Rosenthal Estate and “takes its title after the artist’s second performance at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles (1975), in which she thanked those who had actively done something important for her, with the audience participating in the familiar roles of “father,” “mother” and “friend.” The performance marked the year of her mother’s death, twenty years after her father’s. At the end of the performance, each of the participants received a small box containing a unique miniature collage work from the artist”.
Rachel Rosenthal Untitled, 1975 Mixed media collage – Photo courtesy of Rachel Rosenthal Company
Roberts Projects is located between Fairfax Ave and La Cienega Blvd at 5801 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA. 90232. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00am – 6:00pm.
Parking is available on the street and at Dunn Edwards located ½ block East of the gallery.
To learn more about this exhibit, click HERE.
To visit the Roberts Projects website, click HERE.
By Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Rachel Rosenthal – Photo by Patrick Downes.
