University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Pop-life: why art-based pop-ups are happening now in L.A.

(USC Thesis Other)

Pop-life: why art-based pop-ups are happening now in L.A.

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

POP-LIFE:
WHY ART-BASED POP-UPS ARE HAPPENING NOW IN L.A.

by

Chie Kamali Hampton-Davis

________________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM: THE ARTS)

May 2013

Copyright 2013 Chie Kamali Hampton-Davis

2
Dedication
To all artists and 'creatives.' The world needs you. Keep going.

3
Table of Contents
Dedication 2
Abstract 4
Chapter 1: Introducing Art-Based Pop-Ups 5
Chapter 2: Fashion Retail Pop-Ups Inspire Art to Pop 9
Chapter 3: Art Pop-Ups Thrive in L.A. Due to the Internet 15
Chapter 4: DIYers Lift Up L.A. Pop-Ups 21
Chapter 5: Art Pop-Ups Sprint From Collaboration 29
Chapter 6: Conclusion 32
Bibliography 34

4
Abstract
In a city built on the backbone of celebrity, exclusivity is intrinsically woven into the
fabric of Los Angeles culture. An invitation to what is rare and limited conjures up the
notion of special selection and the golden privilege of access. Artists are now
incorporating this limited time adage into their presentation process. Art-based pop-ups
offer select, in-person art sharing experiences to consumers for a limited period of time.
They are a fresh and exciting way to view art sharing. For the past six months I have
studied art-based pop-up shops, galleries, events, and performances that have occurred
throughout Los Angeles. This essay is an in-depth study of this growing practice. The
purpose is to examine- why are art-based pop-ups happening in L.A.?

5
Chapter 1: Introducing Art-Based Pop-Ups
Steam escaped from the taco trucks that lined the block, enclosing the action like
a barricade. Clouds of Nag Champa incense bowed to the bitter scent of Krylon
spray-paint, crawling from the electric mural until it enveloped spectators in a
haze. Crowds huddled in corners to watch live street art unfold at the FAME
Festival. Peppered with jewelers, crafters and emerging artists showcasing and
selling their work, the monthly pop-up event occupies two spaces. Artists whose
pieces sell for an upwards of $5000 are given space inside of the spiritually
themed Ethos Gallery on the (Melrose Avenue) strip. Painters and crafters, with
work starting at $100, set-up shop in an adjacent parking lot facing Fairfax High
School.

FAME Fest creator Eddie Donaldson says that the temporary arts festival plays a
viable role in the area’s social revitalization. Fairfax, home to the district’s only
public visual arts magnet program, is situated near the legendary Canter’s Deli,
one of oldest 24/7 restaurants and Hollywood hangouts in California. While
historical L.A. landmarks remain the same, the surrounding culture that
showcases, sells and processes art is rapidly changing. When describing the artists
involved in the FAME pop-up, Donaldson says, “They’re all emerging artists, so
the energy is high and the stakes-even higher, because most of the people here are
putting everything they have into what they do. They create art on the spot. It’s
more of a for- yourself and by-yourself situation, versus an edited show by a
gallery owner that picks what they want to see the best. The public gets to take it
raw, directly from the artist,” he explains.
1

Donaldson is one of many alternative art curators that I’ve spent time with
throughout the past six months, when I embarked on a multimedia exploration of fine arts
based pop-up shops, galleries, events and performances in Los Angeles. I’ve captured
these experiences in a column for KCET “Artbound,” an online and broadcast series
produced by the largest independent public television station in the nation. “Artbound”
provides in-depth coverage of fine art practices in Southern California.
As a longtime New York City dweller and international traveler, in my journeys I
noticed a pattern of exclusive and quick art sharing experiences. These shows were held

1. Chie Davis, “Pop-Life: Why Melrose Avenue is a Mecca for Graffiti Writers,” KCET Artbound,
March 7, 2013.

6
in temporary spaces, with the goal of dazzling onlookers for a night or limited period of
time before they disappeared. They were referred to as ‘pop-ups.’ When I returned home
to report in Los Angeles, I could not ignore the presence of similar events infiltrating
social spaces, like FAME Fest on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. I witnessed a massive
shift in the way that artists and consumers were presenting, viewing, marketing, buying
and sharing their work. But why were these art pop-ups happening in L.A.?
Given the unstable, post-recession marketplace, where traditional corporate
theories of success are crumbling and industry rules are being discarded, pop-ups are
quickly emerging as viable agents of change due to their ability to energize consumers
from a diverse demographic base. Fine artists, craft makers, musicians and performers-
otherwise known as ‘creatives,’ form the crux of the art-based pop-up movement. They
recognize the marketability of pop-ups and have begun producing them on both a small,
independent scale and in larger settings through group collaborations. Creatives are
deviating from more traditional modes of art sharing, straying from museums and
theaters and gravitating towards more transient and restructured locations. They desire to
carve out economically modest and flexible spaces to display and sell their work outside
of a gallery’s confines. This is a natural transition for artists, writer and arts activist
Gregory Sholette says in his book, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise
Culture (Marxism and Culture). He explains, artists “self consciously choose to work on
the outer margins of the mainstream art world for reasons of social, economic and
7
political critique. By grasping the politics of their own invisibility and marginalization
they inevitably challenge the formation of normative artistic values.”
2

The fleeting nature of pop-ups push the boundaries of traditional art display
practices, while acting as a saving grace for artists seeking short-term leases with a low
overhead. Most of the pop-up artists and curators who I met do not hold a formal
business degree. Instead they’re invigorated by the idea of a non-committal art
experience. Ilan Dei, a Venice, California based furniture designer who has been in the
area for over 20 years, is such person. In October of 2012 he launched Moving L.A.:
People Powered Design, a collaboration with other fine art, technology and product
designers in his studio on Abbott Kinney. “It’s a very liberating concept when you think
about it. You can be more fluid than if you’re committed to a lease for a year or two. I
think that it’s answering a need culturally for exploration. If the commitment is not really
large, you’re more likely to take a larger risk.”
3

With the 2008 U.S. recession providing a breeding ground for this change, fine
arts-based pop-ups are evolving as a movement with artists attempting to carve out new,
economically sustainable methods to support their work. Based on what I’ve observed
and the research that I’ve collected during my six-month multimedia study, there are four
reasons why art based pop-ups are happening in Los Angeles, and they have to do with:
• The successful fashion retail pop-up movement
• The power of the Internet and impact of social media

2. Gregory Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture (Marxism and
Culture) (New York: Pluto Press, 2011), 4.

3. Ilan Dei, telephone interview with author, October 31, 2012.
8
• A response to the Do It Yourself (DIY) movement
• The sharing of resources in an economic downturn and ascent of collaborations

9
Chapter 2: Fashion Retail Pop-Ups Inspire Art to Pop
Russell Miller, one of the founders of Vacant, a Los Angeles based strategy group
credited with bringing pop-up fashion retail to the states in 1999 explains, “the term pop-
up has been used very loosely to describe anything which operates for a short period of
time, in order to gain more exposure for the project or function. It’s an economic model
for social interaction with interested consumers and hopefully loyal repeat customers to a
brand or event.”
4
Miller took note of the emerging pop-up retail trend during a business
trip in Tokyo. He observed footwear and clothing collectors lining up for hours to
purchase rare sneakers and clothes in locations throughout the city. Once the limited
editions sold out, oftentimes within two to three hours, the niche retailer closed the shop,
re-opening it in a different location.
5
This Where’s Waldo? inspired scavenger hunt not
only appealed to consumers but also proved to be lucrative for business owners.
6
Vacant
recognized this bankable concept, finding it equally transferrable from multi-tiered
corporations to independent start-ups.
With a background in public relations, Miller and his partners pooled their
contacts to alert the press of their project, a national roving “retail concept and exhibition
store” with the purpose of opening shops, only to close them as soon as they ran out of
merchandise, explains business reporter Billy Gray in the Commercial Observer.
7

Partnering with mainstream footwear brands like Puma and Dr. Martens in New York in

4. Russell Miller, email interview with author, November 8, 2012.

5. S.D. Rockswell, “The History of the Pop Up Shop (in 4 Minutes),” freshlyserious, May 12,
2011.

6. Martin Handford, Where’s Waldo? (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1987).

7. Billy Gray, “On 10
th
Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back,” Commercial
Observer, December 5, 2012.
10
2003, Vacant’s aim was to attract consumers by featuring exclusive wares crafted by
coveted designers in locations that were only open for a month. Vacant’s approach
transformed the shopping experience into a headline garnering affair- rejecting “other
traditional retail practices, like putting price tags on their products or offering to help
customers. We want you to come in like it's a gallery,” Miller told New York Times
reporter Andreas Tzortzis in 2004, “…come in and explore.”
8

Vacant’s media blitz, combined with the momentum of independent retailers
piggybacking on what was initially regarded as an experimental idea, attracted the
attention of corporate marketing teams. In September of 2003, Target, the second largest
discount store in the U.S., galvanized New York Fashion Week attendees by launching its
collaboration with high fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi at a pop-up shop in Rockefeller
Center.
9
Mizrahi’s couture counterparts including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Commes des
Garçons were instantly inspired, sparking a trail of fashion pop-ups throughout the
country.
10
With short-term /high impact shopping experiences now within the scope of
the mainstream, “the pop-up template was clear and advantageous to an eclectic group of
retailers,” writes Gray.
11
From holiday themed pop-ups to temporary mall concepts like
Popup Hood in Oakland, California and Boxpark in London, England, “classic brands

8. Andreas Tzortzis, “Pop-up stores: here today, gone tomorrow,” The New York Times, October
25, 2004.

9. Gray, “On 10
th
Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back.”

10. Wikipedia contributors, “Pop-up retail,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-up_retail (accessed November 8, 2012).

11. Gray, “On 10
th
Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back.”
11
reached young shoppers through guerilla marketing. Fledgling companies made splashes
in highly trafficked corridors without signing expensive long-term leases.”
12

As the fashion industry reveled in their newest ‘discovery,’ artists recognized the
foundation of the popularly coined term ‘pop-up,’ as a familiar sales and marketing
model that was already evolving in art circles. One of the first documented “experiment
(s) in arts and crafts,” in the U.S. was in Michigan, organized by the South University
Businessmen’s Association with the support of the Ann Arbor Art Association.
13
For a $1
registration fee, in 1960, artists could participate in the Street Art Fair, a juried outdoor
show and shopping experience. With booths bordering University of Michigan’s campus,
the Art Association initially dismissed the idea, saying- “no good artist will sit in the
street.”
14
Today the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair attracts over 500 thousand people.
15
Like
the fashion pop-up retail phenomenon, it spurred a wave of art fairs.
16

Melissa Bent, the former co-owner of Rivington Arms, a contemporary gallery
based in the Lower East Side from 2002-2009, is now the Artist Outreach Director for
20x200, an online art sales firm. She likens the structure of today’s art pop-up parade to
the now economically potent and highly selective art fairs executed annually by highbrow
dealers and curators. “We did the 2
nd
year of Frieze (London). That was a huge help to
how quickly business grew. It immediately gave the gallery that was so small and the

12. Ibid.

13. “Where We Came From,” Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original, accessed March 2, 2012,
http://www.artfair.org/UserFiles/File/Street%20Beat/WhereWeCameFrom.pdf.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. “Art Fairs,” Art-Collecting.com, accessed March 2, 2012, http://art-
collecting.com/artfairs.htm.
12
artists that no one knew, an international platform. Like a pop-up you’re taking all of
your surface wares, putting up something very temporarily, and you have a limited time.
It’s not like someone driving to a museum and spending 4 hours there. People aren’t
lingering- discussing the ideas of contemporary art. This person is more of a quick sell,
like what you have on the Internet or in a chat room.”
17

While fine art pop-ups may imitate the structure of art fairs, today, they derive
their inspiration from the fashion pop-up concept, in which retailers adopted a gallery
approach, without the stringent approval of a committee. Seeing this model, artists were
quick to adopt it. Highly collaborative and DIY in nature, all 13 of the L.A. based pop-
ups that I visited specifically for this project, have no-to-low registration fees and do not
restrict talent to guild members or those with ties to a gallery or art association. “Its really
transient in that way. They don’t have to be museums, have a board of committees or
operate seven years in advance. They’re much more nimble. People are setting up
something that have a lot more at stake. That kind of sale mentality is going to be
relevant and really bubbling at the top of your brain.”
18

Bent agrees that art pop-ups also translate in Los Angeles due to another pop-up
retail formula. It lies within the quick and constant turnover of artists and their
merchandise. “People are always looking to see the new restaurant, the new artist, fashion
designer, literary star. And that newness has a chance of being constantly refreshed when
you have a pop-up, because there’s such a short shelf life.”
19
Pop-up retailers have not

17. Melissa Bent, interview with author, New York, NY, January 9, 2013.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.
13
only received mass attention by making exclusive products available on a limited basis,
they often do so in non-traditional spaces.
Target’s 2003 pop-up at Rockefeller Center wasn’t their first use of an alternative
retail space. In 2002, the superstore “positioned itself as the funky anti-Walmart when it
took over a 220-foot-long boat at Chelsea Piers for a two-week stay on the Hudson River
that coincided with Black Friday.”
20
Christina Norsig, a New York based entrepreneur,
dubbed “The Pop-Up Diva,” has built a business off of connecting pop-up artists with
short-term real estate. She proudly admits that a local deli was the location of her first
tableware pop-up. “Can you pop-up somewhere really unusual and create an experience
that customers love and talk about? The more unlikely the venue the more it can be talked
about –both on social networks and by the media,” says Dan Thompson, author of Pop
Up Business for Dummies.
21

Artists have taken note. Most of the pop-ups that I’ve seen take place outside of a
traditional gallery setting. Salty Shakespeare is an acting troupe whose mission is to make
Shakespeare relevant to audiences today. They condense the Bard’s three-hour plays into
three-minute pop-up performances on Venice Beach, in elevators and on the streets of
Downtown L.A.
22
Their ability to secure and perform in a variety of non-traditional
spaces is integral to their goal of educating the public about Shakespeare. Hassan
Nicholas, the creator of L.A.undry, a quarterly fine arts pop-up event, prefers public
Laundromats as his exhibit space of choice. He desires to expose fine art to low-income

20. Gray, “On 10
th
Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back.”

21. Dan Thompson, Pop-Up Business for Dummies (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2012),
79.

22. Nancy Linehan, telephone interview with author, December 6, 2012.
14
communities that often lack arts funding. The Watts Village Theater Company selected
Avalon Boulevard and 116
th
Street as their location to raise awareness about the
community’s history. In the spring of 2013 the company will launch a series of pop-up
performances called Riot/Rebellion, at the same intersection where the Watts Riots began
in 1965.
23

Art-based pop-ups in L.A. have adopted some of the key elements that allow
fashion pop-ups to succeed. They include having a more fluid approach, showcasing a
variety of artists under one temporary roof and repurposing non-traditional exhibit spaces.

23. Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez, telephone interview with author, December 6, 2012.
15
Chapter 3: Art Pop-Ups Thrive in L.A. Due to the Internet
As pop-up retail exploded in the mainstream, the shopping habits of the
consumers changed due to the Internet. The allure of the 1980’s American mega mall,
equipped as “palaces of consumption” filled with supersized food courts and department
store conglomerates, waned with the Internet’s rise in the mid-nineties.
24
Independent
artists and curators began generating sales by creating online galleries and eventually
marketing their websites through social media. In Dark Matter, artist Gregory Sholette
elaborates, “online art ‘galleries’ such as deviantART, Elfwood, and Gfxartist today host
hundreds of thousands of artists, both trained and informal. Social networking sites like
Twitter, Flickr, WordPress, Facebook, and MySpace serve as sales platforms for artists,
essentially cutting out dealers and commercial venues in a form of direct marketing. In a
very real sense, the once-invisible archive has split open. And it has done so with an
incomprehensible degree of detail, releasing other forms of unseen dark creativity.”
25
The
art-based pop-up is a form of this “unseen dark creativity.”
26

According to Mashable, an online news and resource community with over 20
million monthly unique visitors, social media now accounts for 18% of time spent
online.
27
With digital media and social interaction dominating one’s opinions, tastes and
buying habits, independent artists seized the opportunity to build their brand by

24. Christina Norsig, Pop-Up Retail, How You can Master the Global Marketing Phenomenon
(New York: Bauhaus Press, 2011), Kindle edition, Chapter 2.

25. Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture (Marxism and
Culture), 96.

26. Ibid., 1.

27. Zoe Fox, “This Is How Much Time You Spend on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr” Mashable,
November 8, 2012.
16
cultivating online communities and as a result-offline pop-up events. Artists took note of
the success of retail pop-ups, adopting the simplistic business approach to enhance the
growth of their online brand. The Internet, in its unrestrained and exploratory nature,
fosters communities that are a blend of high and low culture, professionals and amateurs,
united by niche interests. Those who climb to the top of the heap, emerging as online
influencers, have the power to make an economic impact offline. “Previous industrial
ages were built on the backs of individuals, too, but in those days labor was just that:
labor. Workers were paid for their time, whether on a factory floor or in a cubicle.
Today’s peer-production machine runs in a mostly nonmonetary economy. The currency
is reputation, expression, karma, “whuffie,” or simply whim.”
28

Arts critic turned social media strategist, Su Wu, is an online influencer who has
made an economic impact offline, due to her social media currency or whuffie.
29
The
opportunity to curate a crafts based pop-up with Los Angeles retailer, Creatures of
Comfort, came to Wu, because of her blogging and pinning. Her I’m Revolting blog
currently boasts over 300,000 followers on Pinterest. “I think social media and Pinterest
and interest in visual idea gathering really allowed people to get to know work beyond
their immediate geographical sphere. It’s not this jet set art world, of people who are
going around to art fairs. It’s a lot of people who are working on a very small scale, doing

28. Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture (Marxism and
Culture), 151.

29. Tara Hunt, The Power of Social Networking: Using The Whuffie Factor To Build Your
Business (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009).
17
really experimental work. And one of the things that is so amazing about pop ups (is that
they’re) taking an online community and manifesting it in real life.”
30

Fostering the growth of a concentrated artist community thrives in a city like Los
Angeles, recently named the most densely populated urban area in the nation by the U.S.
Census.
31
Joanna Williams, an artist in Wu’s Creatures of Comfort pop-up agrees. She is
the founder of Kneeland Co., a studio and online marketplace located in the Atwater
Village section of the city. They create textiles, handmade goods and accessories.
Williams admits, “It has been incredibly inspiring for me to connect with like-minded
individuals through blogs and Instagram. Being able to share your work with and meet
other designers and artists who are making things is essential to building a community. I
think in L.A. there is a very strong sense of community amongst many artists and people
are starting to take notice.”
32
Elyse Graham, a sculptor who works from her home studio
in Lincoln Heights, was also featured in Wu’s exhibit. She believes that online press is a
contributing factor to the rise of art-based pop-ups in the area. “I think that the
temporariness of them is perfect for L.A. Sometimes people won’t get out and see a show
if its up for a few months, but if they know its happening for one weekend only, there’s
more of an incentive to go out and see it. I think pop-ups are hip, exciting and getting a
lot of press, that’s something people in L.A. pay attention to” she says.
33

30. Su Wu, interview with author, Los Angeles, California, October 27, 2012.

31. James Brasuell, “Los Angeles is the Most Densely Populated Urban Area in the US,” Curbed
LA, March 26, 2012.

32. Joanna Williams, email interview with author, December 2, 2012.

33. Elyse Graham, telephone interview with author, December 1, 2012.
18
Creating her own positive press through her blog and social media, Su Wu
seamlessly translated her marketing and curatorial skills to produce a vibrant in-person
arts pop-up in L.A. This speaks to the power of the Internet and the direct effect that it
has on influencing a real life event in an area with a growing artist community. I was
there to follow Wu’s thoughts during the opening her Creatures of Comfort pop-up. I
describe our meeting in “Pop-Life: From Social Media to Socializing,” an article
published in my KCET “Artbound” column:

With the cyclone of cyber culture wrapping us tight around technology, it has
never been more of an opportune time for artists to capitalize on the power of
social media. A slowly rebounding economy, combined with the dangling
temptation of purchasing online, has urged creatives to come up with inventive
methods to share their goods on the Internet. Digital pop-up ‘events’ have
revolutionized this online effort by providing an immersive experience that links
the shopper, their social network and a brand within a controlled space and
limited time.

California bred fashion designer, Rachel Roy, who generally sells her wares at
mainstream department stores like Nordstrom and Bergdorf Goodman, recently
teamed up with British R&B songstress, Estelle to launch an exclusive 3-day
jewelry pop-up shop for Facebook fans. Not only did the sparkly trinkets sell out
in six hours, but it also boosted Roy’s online fan base by 100%, accumulating 1
new fan nearly every second. Deep pocket designers armed with a stable of
golden marketing reps are not the only ones recognizing the power of social
media to influence and mobilize a community. Local curators and fine artists have
taken note- carving out their own space amongst the bustling online marketplace.

Arts critic turned social media guru, Su Wu, best known for her blog I’m
Revolting, found comfort in the changing tide of consumer trends. Seeking solace
online after the arts publication that she wrote for in Chicago folded, the spunky
lover of avant-garde aesthetics “wanted to have a place to dump my interior world
online, sort of look for ideas that were percolating, to think about some emerging
thoughts and some trends I was noticing. That just spiraled into an arts blog.” 3
years after the inception of I’m Revolting, a passion project that Wu tinkered with
for a year before going public, she has amassed an avalanche of readers, including
over 300 thousand Pinterest followers. “For me, blogging and Pinterest have
made a case for the pleasure in taxonomy, in making lists and finding patterns,
and in this impulse to arrange. Going at it without any scheme meant that I didn’t
have to worry about that scheme-that this was totally a pure, indulgent respite.” It
19
is studying theories on taste, attraction to process, materials and artistic
instruments that fuels the now Downtown L.A. resident’s quest, which reigns
supreme over simply hawking artist wares online and making a profit. Delicately
pondering each word before it spills from her lips, Wu explains, “I'm really
interested in the idea of taste and how it’s learned…or if it has any other
significance, like whether the visual information that we're drawn to says
anything more about us. I think it's important to at least try to make sense of our
emotional responses.”

Admiring the work of visual artists globally and connecting with them through
her blog, Su Wu unknowingly began to piece together an online community of
inquisitive crafters, all yearning to peel back layers and peek beyond the veil. The
“amazing thing about the internet is that you can find your own community. You
can reach out to these people across the world, in Australia, Japan, Detroit, New
York and L.A. and create your own tribe, with people who love the things that
you love. I think we’re all just looking for some understanding, especially in those
areas that are the most deeply held and difficult to articulate,” Wu reveals.

While the conceptual complexities behind the work showcased on the I’m
Revolting blog, such as leather shipping boxes or paper-made clothes, may prove
difficult to decipher for the untrained eye, retailers could not ignore Wu’s online
influence- a simple presentation of odd yet alluring pieces, attracting page views.
Etsy.com jumped onboard first, asking her to curate a column. Creatures of
Comfort, followed suit. Instead of mocking the mold of executing an online
digital pop-up to capitalize on Wu’s social media reach, the curatorial
arrangement melded social media with an in-person social experience—
facilitating a 3-week pop-up on the site of Creatures’ Los Angeles exhibition
space/retail store. Wu immediately salvaged talent from her online artist
community- bringing the We’re Revolting pop-up to life.

Elyse Graham, a native Angelino that creates neon-colored geode sculptures out
of urethane, sand and resin from her Lincoln Heights studio, says that while she’s
shown at pop-ups before, this one felt different. “Su is an independent curator, so
she didn’t really have a financial stake in it. She just took pieces from people that
she’d never met before and really liked and put their work together.” Wu beams
describing the rush that she received while curating pieces online to create an
equally dynamic offline experience. “There’s a certain type of relationship that
you have with people on the Internet, that you admire from afar. Having the artists
here, engaging with one another, going to their studios and having an excuse to
visit their physical spaces to touch their work, I don’t think that feeling can
duplicated, even for all of the wonders and miracles of the internet!”

For Wu the We’re Revolting pop-up was a product of sampling, planning, and the
fine juxtaposition of objects, all while observing how they react to each other- a
delicate balancing act that is not required online. The preparation involved in
showcasing and sharing products in a physical space, is far more intimate, she
20
contends. “In this world where there are so many choices and the price of things is
much more removed from the cost of production, so many of the decisions we
make are aesthetic decisions, curatorial decisions, and taste is more and more an
element of social organization. It’s not the most important element, and it’s bound
up in all the other ways we stratify ourselves for better or worse, but it does reach
across certain boundaries of time and space and create new communities,” says
Wu. The I’m Revolting artist community was strengthened in the process of
creating the pop-up, Wu reflects, due in part to the collaborative spirit of the
artists involved, open to producing pieces that comfortably straddle the line
between use and art, while seamlessly conversing with consumers at the core-
both online and off.
34

34. Chie Davis, “Pop-Life: From Social Media to Socializing,” KCET Artbound, January 10, 2013.
21
Chapter 4: DIYers Lift Up L.A. Pop-Ups
As Downtown L.A. resident, Su Wu, continues to build her brand online while
increasing her participation in pop-up events, she represents one of many Do It Yourself
(DIY) entrepreneurs that are carving out a niche in a post recession marketplace. They
are direct reflections of philosopher Marshall McLuhan’s prediction. Thirty years prior to
the age of the Internet he prophesized, “the age of automation is going to be the age of
Do It Yourself.”
35
It is the newly emerging DIYers who are fueling the engine of art-
based pop-ups in Los Angeles.
‘DIY’ is a 1950’s cultural phrase that originally referenced individuals tackling
home improvement and small-scale construction projects “as both a creative-recreational
and cost-saving activity.”
36
This definition expanded, due to need, following the 2008
recession-the worst economic unbuckling since the Great Depression.
37
With a record
number of people unemployed and art sales sharply declining, entrepreneurialism
increased.
38
DIY art-sharing practices were leaned upon, rapidly exchanged by
communities online, and eventually in-person. Reporter Jaymi Heimbuch echoes this
sentiment in TreeHugger, an online magazine that promotes sustainability. She writes,
“With the ease of replacing an object versus repairing it, and the overwhelming variety of
items in the marketplace to suit every need and style, the idea of DIYing took a backseat

35. Thompson, Pop-Up Business for Dummies, 139.

36. Wikipedia contributors, “Do it yourself,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself (accessed March 2, 2012).

37. Bob Willis, “U.S. Recession Worst Since Great Depression, Revised Data Show,” Bloomberg,
August 1, 2009.

38. Judilee Reed, “Artists and the Economic Recession: Brief Highlights on the Findings,”
Grantmakers in the Arts, GIA Reader 21, no. 1 (2010).
22
for decades. However, over the last few years we have seen the beginnings of a mind
shift, a resurgence in DIY culture that goes well beyond the craftiness of making one's
own jewelry or party favors.”
39

While critics view both the DIY and pop-up movements as “informal responses to
the scarcity of space for everyone’s needs and ambitions,” the DIY pop-up artists that
I’ve encountered associate creative empowerment and financial freedom with popping-
up.
40
Last summer, Samaire Armstrong, a Los Angeles based actress and painter,
bounced from one pop-up to the next. “It’s a different crowd. They’re more eclectic and
spur of the moment, like a Facebook blast, Twitter crowd. I was in (pop-ups) every
month, and literally covered all of my bills. I didn’t know that could happen. I would do
Art Walk Downtown and the Cahuenga Corridors. It’s lucrative, but it’s not only about
selling pieces. You make different connections and are presented with opportunities that
lead to other opportunities.”
41

Art based pop-up shows, events and performances champion the Do It Yourself
concept, by glorifying the image of the independent artist. No longer is shame attached to
artists who promote and sell their work without the backing of a gallery. The growing
impact of art-based pop-ups, as influenced by the DIY movement, cultivates a culture of
respect for the multitasking artist that can create, promote and sell their work. In Dark
Matter, Sholette writes, “What has changed is that these practices are not confined today

39. Jaymi Heimbuch, “30 Best Moments in the DIY Movement in 2012,” Tree Hugger, December
11, 2012.

40. Ann Deslandes, “What do pop-up shops and homelessness have in common?” Australian
Policy Online, accessed March 2, 2013, http://apo.org.au/commentary/what-do-pop-shops-and-
homelessness-have-common.

41. Samaire Armstrong, interview with author, Los Angeles, California, December 6, 2012.
23
to limited groups of aficionados and informal communities. There are countless DIY
websites for knitting circles, Live Action Role Play gamers (LARPs), zinesters, home
crafters. LARP participants create DIY garments, weapons, social structures and military
campaigns that are performed on weekends and after work in people’s backyards. On
You Tube you can find some 13,000 homemade videos of these medieval-looking leisure
activities that nevertheless take place offline.”
42

With the rising costs of living and creating projects in Los Angeles, a city known
for green lighting large-scale productions, DIY art pop-ups provide an affordable option
for local producers and consumers.
43
The state of a slowly rebounding economy makes it
increasingly difficult for an independent artist to produce an exhibit or production
without sizeable sponsorship. With simplistic, core business elements and a fluid here
today/gone tomorrow approach, pop-ups can be done alone, without formal training.
Basic how-to steps, posted by DIYers, can even be found online.
44

The economic challenge of producing a show on a shoestring budget is nothing
new for the arts community. DIY creatives have historically existed as independent street
artists and performers. Bent agrees that the notion of ‘popping up’ has long been a
creative solution. “Pop-up in one form of another has been taking place as long as there
was a street performer,” she says.
45
From 19
th
century buskers making music in Florence,

42. Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture (Marxism and
Culture), 95.

43. Raphael Bostic, “How to Slow L.A.’s Rising Rents,” Think USC, February 7, 2013.

44. Maire Loughran, “How to Open an Arts and Crafts Retail Pop-Up Store,” About.com, accessed
March 2, 2013, http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/openingastorefront/a/How-To-Open-An-Arts-And-Crafts-
Retail-Pop-Up-Store.htm.

45. Melissa Bent, interview with author.
24
Italy, to William Shakespeare’s turning Blackfriars Monastery in London, England into a
playhouse in the 1600’s, artists donned their DIY hats to ensure that their work was seen
in a raw and socially engaging form. Early pop-ups involving street performers can be
linked to many cultures. The efforts of DIY avant-garde artists in Japan were documented
in 1964. Neo-Dadaist painter Ushio Shinohara was inspired to lead a series of pop-up
shows called “Off Museum” in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Their series of edgy outdoor group
performances was born after the experimental Yomiuri Independent show was
censored.
46
The Brixton Artists Collective in South London was another Do It Yourself
group that stretched the traditional boundaries of art sharing.
47
A vacant carpet showroom
was the location of their short-term exhibits. From 1983-1988 the diverse group
highlighted the work of up to 50 artists at a time, including the Women’s Work feminist
association and members of the South African artist community.
48

49

The role that DIY makers play as one of the main influencers of the arts pop-up
movement should be acknowledged, The Pop-Up Diva, Christina Norsig says because,
“The store may be temporary, but the trend is rooted in economic and social forces that
has been building for years. When you pull back the curtain on the history of the pop-up
phenomenon, you can see how concrete changes in economics and human behavior have
led us here. When the foundational elements are revealed it is clear that pop-ups are far

46. Mika Yoshitake, Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde (New York: The Museum of Modern
Art, 2012), 166.

47. Thompson, Pop-Up Business for Dummies, 10.

48. Ibid.

49. Wikipedia contributors, “Brixton Artists Collective,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton_Artists_Collective (accessed March 2, 2012).
25
more than temporary, they’re a paradigm shift.”
50
Today, this paradigm shift has circled
back to embrace the dedicated entrepreneur. Many emerging artists are attracted to the
prospect of marketing their works without gallery representation. “I worked with an artist
who is in an uptown gallery now, but has told me that it’s an outdated model. He would
like to sample other areas of New York to expose his work. It’s very hard to get the
attention of today’s busy, distracted consumer. The pop-up model offers a sense of
urgency that grabs (their) attention,” explains Norsig.
51

Twenty-nine-year old Hassan Nicholas has become an expert at grabbing the
public’s attention. A self-described DIYer, who labels himself a multimedia artist/non-
profit executive/entrepreneur, self-funds L.A.undry. The quarterly one-night gallery show
pops up in Laundromats in high traffic, low-income areas throughout Los Angeles.
Research led me to a YouTube video that Hassan Nicholas posted online.
52
It showed the
first L.A.undry exhibit that took place in a Downtown L.A. Laundromat. When I visited
the 2
nd
installment, just a few months later, the event had doubled in size. Here’s a closer
look at Nicholas’s L.A.undry, to share a better understanding of why art pop-ups are
thriving as a result of the Do It Yourself movement. It is seen through the lens of my
“Artbound” article, “Pop-Life: L.A.undry Hangs Art and Clothes Out to Dry”

With the sticky, sweet aroma of corn tortillas bubbling in the deep fryer, the
entrancing hip-rocking rhythms of cumbia wafted through the air. The sounds,
seemingly in sync with the flashing neon wash sign that illuminated the 7
th
Street

50. Christina Norsig, Pop-Up Retail, How You can Master the Global Marketing Phenomenon
(New York: Bauhaus Press, 2011), Kindle edition, Chapter 2.

51. Christina Norsig, email interview with author, January 14, 2013.

52. Hassan Nicholas, “LAundry ‘pop up’ art gallery at Laundromat of Downtown Los Angeles,”
YouTube video, 9:10, posted by “WakeUpTokyoChannel,” February 28, 2012,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1lRlRL2yd8.
26
Laundromat, guided the influx of the interior shadows crowding the area. It was
Friday night-10pm, and as families piled in, soon all of the washers were
occupied. Wine bottles popping and gourmet cheese sweating from the
atmosphere’s perspiration, a young boy, no older than ten, clutched his action
figure close and dashed through the space freely dodging wet, hanging pajamas
and dry, pinned portraits.

“When we first got there, there were a lot of people actually just doing laundry,
which I was amazed at. I’m not sure why I expected anything different,” laughed
Echo Park based artist Georgia Koch. Matt Jones, a painter from Leimert Park
chimed in, “…for me, it had a rave mentality to it, where you find out about it- a
random spot- and have to know where to go.” “It reminds me of pioneers in the
art game, like Basquiat. He’d do stuff like this- turn on the lights in the hall and
just have people come in and look at his art pieces,” says South L.A. sketch artist
Logan Anderson.

Bright-eyed Hassan Nicholas, an entrepreneurially sound, yet reserved Haitian
American artist with a captivating smile, prefers to observe his event from the
sidelines. For the 29 year-old non-profit executive, the creation of L.A.undry, a
quarterly guerilla styled takeover event that involves transforming a downtown
Laundromat into an exhibit space during their peak business hours, was organic.
Moonlighting as a self-taught multimedia artist, he says that L.A.undry was born
after years of struggle. “I’d submit my work (to museums) and get no response.
There are reasons why you don’t see art galleries in low-income areas. This is
why I have a profound appreciation for graffiti and other displays of street art. It
is a response to an environment that hasn’t formally set up outlets for creative
expression. You work with what you have; whether that be someone’s wall, a
trash dumpster, or Laundromat.”

Investing under $100 for posters and stickers for his first event, and harvesting the
talents of his friends, Nicholas sought the kindness of local business owners
willing to waive location fees in exchange for a staged 3-hour peaceful
disturbance. “The pop-ups definitely disrupt the neighborhood, but I believe in a
positive way.” Still in its infant stages, the West L.A. native has developed strict
criteria when selecting his pre-existing gallery spaces. “The Laundromat has to be
in a lower income neighborhood. It needs to be facing the main street.”
Community accessibility to art in a social hub like a public Laundromat, Nicholas
contests, helps shift the dynamics of the downtown neighborhood, which is
wedged between latte sipping hipsters and longtime rooted immigrants, still vying
for a cohesive identity. While the artists were proud to hang their paintings from
dryer racks during the second installment of L.A.undry, they admit that this pop
up is not the saving grace of the entire arts genre. “It sends a message to the
residents, small business owners and visitors that this particular neighborhood is
worth something. Seeing an art event at your local Laundromat helps you change
your perspective on things…Why here? Is the neighborhood changing?” Nicholas
says.
27

From the positioning of their work- whether framed, presented on butcher paper,
taped to a dryer or clipped on clotheslines, the artists admit that engagement is
key. Henderson Blumer, a recent Studio Arts graduate of University of California
at San Diego who answered Nicholas’ call for artists on Craigslist, thrives from
the rush of one-night pop-ups, which he says fit into his transient lifestyle.
“Gallery spaces mostly focus on the walls, but when you have a Laundromat, you
can’t prevent them from using the utilities.” Blumer also acknowledges the
benefit of showing in Downtown L.A., a region rumbling behind unclear division
lines. The 7
th
Street Laundromat sits between a gentrified community and an
adjacent neighborhood, still in economic flux, that boasts strong historical roots.
“You’re not sure what the audience is going to be,” he says. “When you go to art
galleries, you’re pretty sure of the types of people that will be there and what the
conversations might be about, because they probably found out about it through
the same channels. But to have a pop-up, you have this chance for people to come
through who don’t expect it, but will participate in some sort of experience and
give a conversation about art that you wouldn’t have had.”

While Nicholas contends that the term ‘pop-up’ gives liberty to the notion of
creative recklessness, structure and purpose are essential to curating an event that
involves re-purposing a space. All seven of the featured artists created custom
made paintings and sketches specifically for the L.A.undry exhibit, likening their
preparation process to a theatre performance. “I spent the whole day and night
before preparing and printing things. I loved watching people’s faces. A guy came
up and said, ‘...oh, I really love this stuff. I draw too!’ Then he showed me a card
that he’d made for his daughter,” Koch says. The ultimate goal with L.A.undry,
Nicholas describes, not only encompasses showcasing art, but also stimulating
community engagement by way of space sharing. Neighborhood growth in the
downtown area will likely help facilitate that blend.

Downtown’s revitalization paired with the mainstream embrace of street art has
squashed pretension amongst this local generation of artists who are redefining
preset boundaries established to showcase their work. “We’re coming into our 30s
and have money and time to invest in art. It’s beneficial to work with the existing
community and have all parts of the people that are there have a role in organizing
and activating those creative spaces,” explains Jones. Creative spaces play a
viable role in both community building and nurturing artistic communities,
offering a non-competitive, democratic work environment.

With ‘creative placemaking’ sitting at the center of the National Endowment of
the Arts’ agenda, L.A.undry slides seamlessly into focus. “In creative placemaking,
public, private, not-for-profit, and community sectors partner to strategically
shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood,” explains Ann
Markusen, Director of the Arts Economy Initiative at the University of Minnesota
in NEA’s 2012 report. While Laundromats have made news recently, being
repurposed as a dance performance site in Eugene, Oregon and as a ‘Dirty Disco
28
Laundrette’ in Brooklyn, New York, topped off with detergent themed drinks, the
L.A.undry event marks the first well-documented Laundromat turned gallery
event in the Downtown, L.A. region that unknowingly applied the strategy of
‘creative placemaking.’

Although the micro-entrepreneur never envisioned L.A.undry as an income
generator, he hopes to collaborate with social enterprises that align with his
philosophical beliefs in the future. For now, Nicholas is content with popping up
in fringe communities, supported by a crew of passionate and emerging artists,
seeking to serve.
53

53. Chie Davis, “Pop-Life: L.A.undry Hangs Art and Clothes Out to Dry,” KCET Artbound,
December 5, 2012.
29
Chapter 5: Art Pop-Ups Sprint From Collaboration
Hassan Nicholas, Su Wu, Eddie Donaldson, Ilan Dei and Christina Norsig are all
successful Do It Yourself art-based pop-up producers. But they do not move alone. Pop-
ups are happening in L.A. because of the collaborative engines that keep them running.
Collaborations are tightening artist communities, particularly in a densely populated city
where traditional art institutions are spread out. “In Los Angeles, there’s these different
pockets where there’s a few galleries, a lot that are just sprinkled. It takes a long time.
You have to thoroughly map out your day to hit all of them,” says Bent.
54

In my experience, I’ve found that DIY inspired pop-ups produce the most
dynamic results when the independent artists team up. This allows visitors from all areas
of L.A. to view multiple works under one roof. Eddie Donaldson’s FAME Fest, a gritty
street art meets wine and cheese affair, has “more artists than we know how to deal with.
We're really focusing on the community and rely on teamwork to make that happen. 15-
20 artists are participating. Everyone is buzzing about each other online, versus more
competitive---four artists at a gallery, who may not be so inclined. It’s really about the
social part of it” he says.
55

The art pop-ups that I’ve studied are stocked with efficient volunteers,
tastemakers dedicated to increasing the scope of attendees and philanthropic funders with
a passion for a particular project. In 2009 Arizona native Tom Kirlin began Pancakes and
Booze, a series of traveling pop-up exhibits, which started as a DIY experiment to
supplement his income as a filmmaker. Collaboration was key for Kirlin to bring his

54. Melissa Bent, interview with author.

55. Eddie Donaldson, interview with author, Los Angles, California, December 6, 2012.
30
carnival styled art show to life. Held in former dance clubs, the packed, high energy, all
you can eat event is reminiscent of one night in Las Vegas, capsulated within three hours,
all in one room. Kirlin showcases wall-to-wall fine art, live music, body painting, jewelry
vendors, and as its name details, pancakes and booze. He depends on a team of staffers to
work with vendors, musicians, chefs, bartenders, landlords and over 75 artists per city.
Four years after its inception, Pancakes and Booze has grown from a small event held in
a photography studio in Culver City, California to the largest underground traveling art
show in the nation. It occurs three times per month, making stops in over 15 cities.
56

While independent producers like Kirlin may operate from a model based on less
time and resources than an established museum, the popularity of DIY arts-based pop-ups
has attracted collaborative sponsorships from mainstream sources. According to
PandoDaily, last year Etsy, a giant online DIY crafting community, sought to reap the
benefits associated with smaller offline art pop-ups. Partnering with WORKSHOP, a
Brooklyn based design studio run by three people, Etsy’s yearend financials showed
significant growth. Writer Erin Griffith shares, they “sold $895.1 million in gross
merchandize, representing a 71 percent increase over last year’s $525 million.”
57
CEO
Chad Dickerson attributed their growth to “Etsy’s brick and mortar holiday pop-up store
helped —half of the foot traffic that store got had never heard of Etsy before.”
58

Collaborating on pop-up events, by way of strategic partnerships, not only
increases the potential for economic growth through an expanded invite list, it also

56. Tom Kirlin, interview with author, Los Angeles, California, December 7, 2012.

57. Erin Griffith, “Etsy’s Year in Review: 22 million members, $895 million in sales,”
PandoDaily, January 24, 2013.

58. Ibid.
31
stimulates social engagement, a critical element that is becoming rare in a digital society.
In Los Angeles, art-based pop-ups also show a change in the competitive Hollywood
culture. Pop-up curator Su Wu explains, “I think that L.A. has a particularly great
collaborative spirit and I think pop-ups really require that. Pop-ups require people to take
a bit of a leap of faith with you. They say I’m going to be generous with you, give you
some work to show for a short period of time, going to show with other people and I
don’t want it to be all about me.”
59

59. Su Wu, interview with author.
32
Chapter 6: Conclusion
My six-month journey of absorbing art-based pop-ups has revealed that a
dynamic, alternative art-sharing culture has formed. Now that these pop-ups are taking
shape, as a result of the efforts of DIY creatives, collaborations, the internet and the path
paved by fashion retail pop-ups, they are not only attracting lovers of all things aesthetic,
but also corporations and non-profits. Larger communities recognize that this movement
has the potential to impact socialization, education and local economies.
Vacant’s Russell Miller notes that the potential for pop-ups to make a significant
economic impact is already being noticed in the fashion retail circle. “Given the events in
the economy over the last few years, consumers, companies, brands are spending less.
Consumers are smarter. The traditional retail model is changing. Companies (can) target
specific consumers with pop-up stores for less investment than a long-term lease and
actually make a return on their investment. This trend is likely to continue well into the
future.”
60

While the popularity of art-based pop-ups may have risen from the broken chains
of a failed economy in 2008, the ability to create them anytime, anywhere, alone, with a
group and without formal training, gives art pop-ups a solid foundation. This alone will
allow them grow and enhance their structure in the future. Tracing the roots of art-pop-
ups from 17
th
century street performers and 20
th
century art fairs to its modern iteration,
shows a pattern that continues to build through evolution. I envision art pop-ups of the
future to provide a more express experience- using a 30-second flash mob to showcase
visual art. I see corporate entities more closely tied to artist live/work spaces, whether it’s

60. Russell Miller, email interview with author.
33
through more integrated sponsorships or residencies. The art pop-up movement is
encouraging communities outside of the aesthetic world to place a higher value on the
independent thinker and doer, while recognizing the power of the creative individual. The
city of Los Angeles provides an ideal backdrop for this change. As one of the top
entertainment capitals in the world, it is populated with dreamers, free thinkers and
independent risk-takers that are filled with ambition and relentless in their pursuits.

34
Bibliography

Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original. “Where We Came From.” Accessed March 2,
2012.
http://www.artfair.org/UserFiles/File/Street%20Beat/WhereWeCameFrom.pdf.

Art-Collecting.com. “Art Fairs.” Accessed March 2, 2012. http://art-
collecting.com/artfairs.htm.

Bostic, Raphael. “How to Slow L.A.’s Rising Rents.” Think USC, February 7, 2013.
http://think.usc.edu/2013/02/07/how-to-slow-l-a-s-rising-rents/.

Brasuell, James. “Los Angeles is the Most Densely Populated Urban Area in the US.”
Curbed LA, March 26, 2012.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/los_angeles_is_the_most_densely_populate
d_urban_area_in_the_us.php.

Davis, Chie. “Pop-Life: From Social Media to Socializing.” KCET Artbound, January 10,
2013. http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/su-wu-pop-up-
galleries.html.

—. “Pop-Life: L.A.undry Hangs Art and Clothes Out to Dry.” KCET Artbound,
December 5, 2012. http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-
angeles/laundry-pop-life-los-angeles.html.

—. “Pop-Life: Why Melrose Avenue is a Mecca for Graffiti Writers.” KCET Artbound,
March 7, 2013. http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/pop-life-
fame-fest-melrose.html.

Deslandes, Ann. “What do pop-up shops and homelessness have in common?” Australian
Policy Online. Accessed March 2, 2013. http://apo.org.au/commentary/what-do-
pop-shops-and-homelessness-have-common.

Fox, Zoe. “This Is How Much Time You Spend on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr.”
Mashable, November 8, 2012. http://mashable.com/2012/11/28/social-media-
time/.

Gray, Billy. “On 10
th
Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back.”
Commercial Observer, December 5, 2012.
http://commercialobserver.com/2012/12/on-10th-anniversary-of-first-nyc-pop-up-
retailers-look-back/.

Griffith, Erin. “Etsy’s Year in Review: 22 million members, $895 million in sales.”
PandoDaily, January 24, 2013. http://pandodaily.com/2013/01/24/etsys-year-in-
review-22-million-members-895-million-in-sales/.
35
Handford, Martin. Where’s Waldo? New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1987.

Heimbuch, Jaymi. “30 Best Moments in the DIY Movement in 2012.” Tree Hugger,
December 11, 2012. http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/best-year-diy.html.

Hunt, Tara. The Power of Social Networking: Using The Whuffie Factor To Build Your
Business. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009.

Loughran, Maire. “How to Open an Arts and Crafts Retail Pop-Up Store.” About.com.
Accessed March 2, 2013.
http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/openingastorefront/a/How-To-Open-An-Arts-
And-Crafts-Retail-Pop-Up-Store.htm.

Nicholas, Hassan. “LAundry ‘pop up’ art gallery at Laundromat of Downtown Los
Angeles.” YouTube video, 9:10. Posted by “WakeUpTokyoChannel,” February
28, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1lRlRL2yd8.

Norsig, Christina. Pop-Up Retail, How You can Master the Global Marketing
Phenomenon. New York: Bauhaus Press, 2011. Kindle edition.

Reed, Judilee. “Artists and the Economic Recession: Brief Highlights on the Findings.”
Grantmakers in the Arts, GIA Reader 21, no. 1 (2010).
http://www.giarts.org/article/artists-and-economic-recession-brief-highlights-
findings.

Rockswell, S.D. “The History of the Pop Up Shop (in 4 Minutes).” freshlyserious, May
12, 2011. http://www.freshlyserious.com/2011/05/12/history-of-the-pop-up-shop/.

Sholette, Gregory. Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture
(Marxism and Culture). New York: Pluto Press, 2011.

Thompson, Dan. Pop-Up Business for Dummies. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,
2012.

Tzortzis, Andreas. “Pop-up stores: here today, gone tomorrow.” The New York Times,
October 25, 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/business/worldbusiness/24iht-
popups25.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Wikipedia contributors. “Brixton Artists Collective.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Accessed March 2, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton_Artists_Collective.

—. “Do it yourself.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed March 2, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself.

36
—. “Pop-up retail.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed November 8, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-up_retail.

Willis, Bob. “U.S. Recession Worst Since Great Depression, Revised Data Show.”
Bloomberg, August 1, 2009.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNivTjr852TI.

Yoshitake, Mika. Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde. New York: The Museum of
Modern Art, 2012.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract In a city built on the backbone of celebrity, exclusivity is intrinsically woven into the fabric of Los Angeles culture. An invitation to what is rare and limited conjures up the notion of special selection and the golden privilege of access. Artists are now incorporating this limited time adage into their presentation process. Art-based pop-ups offer select, in-person art sharing experiences to consumers for a limited period of time. They are a fresh and exciting way to view art sharing. For the past six months I have studied art-based pop-up shops, galleries, events, and performances that have occurred throughout Los Angeles. This essay is an in-depth study of this growing practice. The purpose is to examine- why are art-based pop-ups happening in L.A.?

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Pop the politics

PDF

An old art in a new home: Beijing Opera in Los Angeles

PDF

Inseparable: a manifesto for the separation of art and artist

PDF

Chewyourarts.com: an arts engagement experiment

PDF

Music between the lines: how duality informs the artistic process and future of classical music

PDF

The changing face of arts journalism: an embedding experiment with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

PDF

Coloured identity in post-apartheid South Africa

PDF

Social media as a tool for increasing access to art

PDF

Refocusing fashion: Los Angeles' climb up the style stakes through art

PDF

Confession of K-pop fanboys: what fans learn about societal definitions of masculinity, stigmas and self-identities through discovering Korean pop music

PDF

Art of the possible: a reappraisal of the Eugenia Butler Gallery

PDF

The art of embarrassment and the embarrassment of art

PDF

The pop show: racial performance and transformation in global arts industries

PDF

Skid Row culture: an embedded journalist's exploration of art and community in the nation's homeless capital

PDF

The 818 session: a krump community rizes in North Hollywood

PDF

Artistic seniors: healthy aging through creative programs

PDF

The relevant art museum: views on the role of a 21st century museum

PDF

Finding a voice: essays and columns from the Cuban American experience

PDF

Off the record: reimagining unrecorded histories

PDF

Doing fringe In LA: how three performing artists stay off-beat in the entertainment industry's backyard

Asset Metadata

Creator Hampton-Davis, Chie Kamali (author)

Core Title Pop-life: why art-based pop-ups are happening now in L.A.

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 04/16/2013

Defense Date 04/16/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Art,artist,business,Commerce,digital,DIY,entrepreneur,exhibit,gallery,KCET,Los Angeles,OAI-PMH Harvest,online,performance,pop up,pop-up,pop-up shop,pop-ups

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Anawalt, Sasha (committee chair), Anastas, Rhea (committee member), Smith, Erna R. (committee member)

Creator Email chiedavis@gmail.com,hamptond@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-237677

Unique identifier UC11293778

Identifier etd-HamptonDav-1558.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-237677 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-HamptonDav-1558.pdf

Dmrecord 237677

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Hampton-Davis, Chie Kamali

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA