Who Says Bongs & Pipes Aren't Art? High-End Smokeware in LBC
Large Dichro Flower Cluster by Darby Holm. Photo by Jared Schoenemann Photography for GooseFire Gallery.
There's a special spot deep in the heart of the LBC that offers brilliant, intricate sculptures. While you may not be in the market for home decor, perhaps you are perusing the sprawl for new additions to your marijuana paraphernalia collection. GooseFire Gallery in Long Beach is a spot you may want to add to your checklist.
Doubling as high-end smokeware, these artistic pieces not only spice up your living space but serve as pipes and bongs.
Exhibiting around 75 pieces of "controversial glass art," GooseFire Gallery showcases the work of 15 artists, reports Press-Telegram. Though marijuana isn't for everyone, Owner Matt Abrams, 29, feels that anyone can appreciate the items as art.
"I think even people who don't enjoy the marijuana see the time and effort and the artistic elements put into these pieces," Abrams said. "You can't deny that. They look at it and go, `I don't appreciate that it's a pipe, but I do appreciate that it's a beautiful piece of work.'"
The functional artworks range in price staring at $500 to $10,000, excluding a $45,000 glass bamboo-climbing lemur. The piece consists of about seven pipes hiding among the bamboo shoots.
"There's nothing else like that out there," said Abrams of the lemur work.
Aside from practical art, Adams also dabbles in medical marijuana. His family owns One Love Long Beach, the collective across the street from the gallery. Adams serves as the managing director and handles the legal work.
While the gallery is well-received by many, others are not impressed.
"Drug paraphernalia labeled as smokeware is no more art than vomit is," Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation. "Drugs have destroyed many lives and families and there is nothing beautiful or fascinating about it. ... Peddlers of smokeware who recklessly promote drug activity and contribute to this health problem just to make a buck, even under the guise of art, are repulsive, not artistic."
Art or vomit, L.A.?
