La Luz de Jesus Gallery looks like a store from the outside. That’s because it is. The gallery takes up two rooms in the back of a very cool, much hipper than me shop that sells a plethora of not only quirky books but bizarre and rare merchandise. I mean where else would one find a plastic goblet made to look like a vein-y eyeball than at this amazing, rather large store that is appropriately named Wacko? So too is it appropriate that Wacko should house La Luz de Jesus Gallery which in and of itself houses some not so run of the mill artwork. Max Grundy and Dennis Larkins are two artists whose work is seen in the first room, Gallery I, and who share quite similar Armageddon-like themes. In Gallery II there is some visually fascinating work that is produced by Scott Hove whose theme touches on those seen in Gallery I, but in a slightly different light.

The Happening Gallery certainly lived up to its name during its grand opening celebration on Saturday night, March 27th. The little gallery located on Lincoln Blvd in Marina del Rey was packed full of wide eyed spectators, each with a hankering for some fine, fine art. Thankfully, they were in luck as there was no shortage of amazing art work happening at The Happening Gallery.

Don Argott’s new film The Art of the Steal is closer to a conspiracy flick than institutional documentary. On the face of it, the film tells the tumultuous history of The Barnes Foundation, a maze of political and art world chicanery with twists and betrayals to rival a season of “Lost” – only at the end of the day, it all makes sense. The motive: money, over $25 billion to be exact, the estimated value of the late Albert Barnes’ unrivaled collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Early Modern masters. The crime: betraying the old man’s legal trust by hijacking the entire collection from its rightful home at an eccentric educational institution in Lower Merion County to a shiny new tourist hot-spot in downtown Philadelphia. But the most surprising element of the mystery is the culprit: the big business of big philanthropy.

On Saturday, March 20, I found myself exploring airplane hangars full of art at the Santa Monica Airport Artwalk. Literally—airplane hangars full of art. Studio space like you would not even believe. And everyone was showing it off—and everyone and their mother was there (as well as their children wearing Disney Princess costumes—apparently I missed the memo).

Night—it can be a time of peaceful tranquility when all the world seems to be at rest; or it can be something more sinister—a time when nothing is as it seems. For many of us as children the darkness of the night presented a slew of frights. For me, a vivid imagination too often got the best of me as I saw a desk chair to be an angry lion or a bureau to be a looming monster once the lights turned off. Could it be the world transforms as day turns into night? Or are our minds just playing tricks on us? In any case, for whatever reason our perceptions of things seem to change at night—sometimes making the world more beautiful, other times more mysterious. A walk through the current exhibit at DNJ Gallery entitled “Night Lights” is what spurred these thoughts as the three artists on display present photographs of various scenes, all taken solely at night.