an art show commemorating the 20th anniversary of the prequel "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" opens at the Copro Gallery more ›

Tonight the Month of Photography in Los Angeles kicks off (in case you were having withdrawals from the end of Pacific Standard Time!). more ›

Way back in 1875, the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica was actually a train stop for the Red Line that ran through Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier. Now the city of Santa Monica is trying to decide what to do in 2015 when the gallery space again becomes a train stop — this time for the new Expo Line. more ›

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The Young Literati membership group of the LA Public Library hosts a reading, cocktail and a bookswap with Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn at the new Silver Lake Branch Library at 7 pm. The duo gives a hilarious account of marriage in their new book, You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up. After their performance, members and guests can grab a cocktail and pick up a few new reads at a bookswap, in partnership with Goodreads, the networking site for book lovers. The event is free for Young Literari members and $20 for nonmembers. more ›

Cars into Bicycles sounds a little like an eco-oriented Transformers, but it's less Optimus Prime and more performance workshop. Head over to Bergamot Station on Saturday at Noon, and at 11 a.m. for the following three Saturdays after that, to watch as German artists Folke Koebberling and Martin Kaltwasser, with the help of students from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena dismantle an old car and turn it into two fully-operational bicycles. While the crew is at work, you can hear different guest speakers from Metro, and on Saturday, April 10th, even get the chance to ride the new bicycles during the final presentation. (Pop in to SMMoMA while you're there--they gave us the heads up on this cool event!) more ›

Some of us remember Polaroid as being a popular trend in photography long before the disposable, digital, and cellphone took over as means of memory-making. Of course, some see Polaroid as the dinosaur reborn as an Urban Outfitters kind of novelty, a fun tech app you can apply to digital images to make them "look old," or as a hobbyist's tool for the photographer. more ›

By Gareen Darakjian, Special to LAist more ›

As part of the opening weekend festivities for the Robert Berman Gallery’s Rock, Paper, Scissor exhibit, Bergamot Station hosted a benefit for the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Sunday, March 1. Where the exhibit focused on visual art by famous musicians (Daniel Johnston, the Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes and most of Sonic Youth are among the contributors), the benefit turned the tables, featuring musical performances by some famous artists: Ron English and Raymond Pettibon, along with Pettibon’s pal and collaborator Mike Watt with his all-Pedro trio the Secondmen. more ›

The Santa Monica Daily Press digs into city council minutes from 1989 finding that Bergamot Station, now a large art gallery complex and cultural center, was bought by the city of Santa Monica to be a future rail storage and maintenance yard for the Expo Line, which is now under construction in its first phase from downtown to Culver City. "Expo officials examined more than 40 sites from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica where the line is proposed to terminate, assessing properties such as Bergamot but opting against the station partly because of its identity as a cultural resource, said Monica Born, the project director for Expo Phase II," found the newspaper. Instead, Bergamot, which was originally a Red Line trolley stop beginning in 1875, is one of the proposed stops for the light rail's second phase. more ›

If you want to do something else tonight besides the mind-numbing seventh season opener of American Idol, here are a few options: more ›

Who is brave or foolish enough to go out tonight? No, seriously. Why do you want to leave the house? There are some things to do if you are so inclined (queue writer's raised eyebrow). more ›

Have a taste for deliciously scary eye candy? Check out Christopher Ulrich's phantasmagorical paintings: Demoneater Series One in Santa Monica! more ›

As a send off to photographer, Ann Summa's Los Angelesshow, bands/performers from the bad old days of early L.A. punk played in the gallery. Dude, it was both awesome and bitchin. more ›

I almost didn’t go to see Ann Summa’s Los Angeles punk photo exhibition at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. No offense to the once, raw obscure photographers who happened to be at the right place at the right time 30 years ago, snapping amazing images of once, raw obscure bands. Your recognition is well past due. It’s just that there’s been a plethora of punk picture/art/flyer/book exhibitions in the past few years and I’ve seen most of them and on the night in question, I was running late from an earlier art opening and thought, “maybe I’ll just skip this one.” Thankfully, I came to my senses and hauled my lazy ass over to Bergamot Station. On the way in, I was greeted by the nostalgic sight of a drunk-off-her-butt teenager being half carried through the parking lot by friends. I took it as a sign from the gods of punk rock. more ›

Saturday night the Copro Nason gallery hosted the Talking Board exhibit (more popularly known as Ouija boards - how do I do the little TM trademark symbol on this keyboard?). The show was held in Bergamot Station, a really cool grouping of galleries in Santa Monica, known for great art spaces (and great parties). The talking boards were unbelievable, even down to the creative pointers, which ran the gamut from a crow skull to a bloodied knife. I wanted to buy every single talking board there. more ›

"Vive l'independance!" Sure, we just hoisted back a few brews, grilled up some meat eats, and set off our own rockets' red glare on the 4th of July, but for the French--or merely fans of--today is the day of celebration: Bastille Day, which commemorates France's national uprising and storming of the Bastille prison. (We love history, but we'd rather talk parties, so if you've an inquiring mind, hop on over here and we'll continue with... more ›

Photo of an Altadena Sunset by sfPhotocraft via Flickr. more ›

The Donnas, Kinky, Rooney, Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, John Doe, Johnette Napolitano, Agent Orange, Josie Cotton, many others @ Bergamot Station more ›

A couple of very cool local artists have an opening this weekend. You might recoginize his work from graffiti and stickers around Echo Park/Silver Lake as well as Spin Magazine, Vans shoes, the hallway at Little Joy and album covers for Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Get Up Kids, New Amsterdams, etc. You might recognize her work from album covers by the Silversun Pickups, Irving and/or hanging on the walls of the Mustard Seed in Los Feliz. more ›

Dave, Mathias and Austin fight for the betterment of Los Angeles on a number of fronts. In addition to their work with the Fallen Fruit Project, the collaborators submitted a proposal for an Endless Orchard to the Grand Intervention Grand Avenue park design competition organized by the Norman Lear Project and the Los Angeles Times. more ›

With promises of Italian food, wine and new works by everyone from Wim Wenders to Matthew Barney, we went to the opening of Dark Places at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Friday. Open from now until April 22, the exhibit, curated by New York-based critic (and video art fan) Joshua Decter explores "the subtle interconnectedness between memory and social space - and the possibility that traces of events are scripted into the fabric of our physical and psycholgical environment." Whatever that means. more ›

FRIDAY more ›

The forty five works in different mediums by nineteen contemporary American artists interpret political and philosophical connections among people of color, pop culture, and urban life. more ›

) is at LACMA through August 8. As described by the museum, this extensive exhibition "explores the complex process of mestizaje, or racial mixing, that has shaped life in the Americas." Works featured in the exhibition date back hundreds of years and yield fascinating insights about the construction of race. Quite relevant to current-day Los Angeles. more ›