Create:Fixate’s Build party was this past weekend, and they have, once again, managed to find the best of the best in young and emerging artists from wide and far in Los Angeles. I’d never been to a Create:Fixate party, but I’d sure as heck heard of them, something like they were these ubercool undergroundish all night art parties with loungey techno music just low enough for people to hear their conversations about neo-minimalist Dadaism and the effect it had on working class France.  At least that’s what I pictured in my head.

I still have that picture in my head, as I could only stay for the art opening in the early evening – which worked well, I had plenty of time to enjoy the art at my own pace without a bunch of party noise in the background. 

Among the art highlights were Francesco D’Isa with his beautifully rendered pastel ladies (…of the night?), looking out seductively, held in inviting poses, making the viewer almost uncomfortable in looking so long, but the Easter-candy colors and the flawless art-deco wallpaper prints juxtaposed everywhere are just so dang pretty! 

Another favorite was Kate Daly. Daly takes a different approach from the bulk of popular art these days and seems to paint purely from a fantastical place that only she’s seen in some weird, unsettling dream. Pretty girls morph into skeletal rib cages floating above a wind-blown dress made of red blood cells, holding a heart in a cage above an icy river. Sound awesome? You should see her work in person.

Also on hand was Max Neutra, doing live, propaganda-ish paintings of Gehry and other old men that an average viewer wouldn’t know if he didn’t put the guy’s name at the bottom in big, follow-your-government-or-else lettering. He brought a certain street graffiti aesthetic in the vein of Sheppard Fairey to the whole shindig, and it was much appreciated. 

Overall, the art of Create:Fixate was enough to get me hooked, as I swept up all their brochures and pamphlets and signed up for their volunteer list. If you haven’t gone to a Create:Fixate show, you’re seriously missing out on the best local and emerging artists of Los Angeles.