Who: Cosimo Cavallaro
What: Jelly Beans Exhibition
When: April 2013
Where: Nye + Brown Gallery, Los Angeles
Photo Credit: MGPTravelBlog
When I heard about Cosimo Cavallaro’s Jelly Bean exhibition featuring sculptures practically the size of a Mini, I had to see it for myself!
Gleaming, glossy, and perfectly shaped resin coated beans lay before me when I arrived at the Nye+Brown Gallery in Los Angeles. Placed at just the right angles, the smaller and massive sized candy colored jelly beans were irresistible not to touch. Attendees murmured their hellos and carefully made their way around the gallery – almost transfixed by their presence. I have to say, it felt a little bit Alice In Wonderlandish… I would have loved to nab one of the smaller cotton-candy pink beans for myself!
Photo Credit: MGPTravelBlog
International sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro lovingly saws, sands, and molds the smaller 11 x 10 inch and massive 5 x 5 x 10 foot whimsical pieces for approximately a year until they have reached perfection. Initially, the hum of a chainsaw meets a massive block of precision board…and the process begins. Well worn hand-tools, hours of sanding around every bend, and smoothing every corner has proven to be well worth his meticulous effort.
Photo Credit: MGPTravelBlog
Ultimately, Cavallaro uses fiberglass to create a mold, so the daunting task of starting from scratch each time is eliminated. Melted plastic is poured and left to cure. As the final touches come together, highly pigmented acrylic paint is applied.
Photo Credit: MGPTravelBlog
- Should you find yourself in the Los Angeles area this Spring, make a point of popping into the Nye+Brown Gallery and see for yourself. You can feast your eyes on these lustrous gems Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 6pm.
- Several of the large jelly beans are tentatively scheduled to be on display in front of the Pacific Design Center in August 2013. Mrs. Cavallaro described the great deal of thought that was going into placement. The beans will need to be placed; forgoing anchoring, bolting, or fastening of any kind. The sculptures will be nestled in using sand and other natural landscape to give them just the right balance of stability and effect.
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Photo Credit: MGPTravelBlog
- This is a great exhibit to check out solo, with a friend, or as an impromptu date with your significant other. Nye+Brown is a petite gallery, lending itself to a quick peek into culture and can seamlessly be incorporated into your day. You could easily spend half an hour enjoying the exhibit and then pop over to Father’s Office for a decadently casual bite to eat.
- This upscale pub located off of Venice Boulevard, practically around the corner from the gallery, is situated within the former Helms Bakery. Helms District is now a mecca for design, architecture, and furnishings, not to mention the odd culinary treat. I flat out highly recommend ordering the Liberty Duck Confit Salad. Biting into the mustard greens, frisee, figs, hazelnuts, and satsuma vinaigrette practically changed my life. I won’t oversell it – judge for yourself.
- Dining outside on one of the modern highly varnished heavy wood picnic tables is a perfect spot to people watch and savor the local flavor. Quite a few locals make Father’s Office a regular habit and while you’re traveling, this can make for more than just idle entertainment.
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Here’s to a feast for all of your senses!
Love the pictures of the giant Jelly Beans and it’s always but know how they are put together. I’ll definitely check them out if I get to LA.
I love random museums about some obscure topic. The weirder the better. There’s no subject matter too nonsensical that it can’t be made interesting.
Yea – this is a cool exhibit! Los Angeles has so many beautiful museums and galleries – worldclass, mainstream and then the more obscure. OCDemon – have you checked out the Museum of Death in Hollywood and the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City – those are some pretty “weird” museums in town!
And today is actually “National Jelly Bean” day – I just happened to stumble upon that fact – good timing with this piece!
What can I say… Thanks Dave!