On View
SUMMER SEATING: LAUN & BZIPPY AT HOLLYHOCK HOUSE

 

June 20–October 26, 2024

 

This summer, Hollyhock House welcomes visitors to take a seat and enjoy the south terrace as Aline Barnsdall and her daughter Betty did a century ago. The special installation features furnishings by LAUN and BZIPPY—innovative, women-led design practices here in Los Angeles.

 

While Frank Lloyd Wright designed furniture for Hollyhock House’s living and dining rooms, Barnsdall favored her own furnishings in other spaces, including the terraces and patios—rooms for outdoor living. Photographs from the 1920s show Aline, Betty, and friends using wrought iron and wicker furniture on the garden lawns. Betty and her playmates amused themselves on canopied swings and perched on poolside steps. Building on this legacy, LAUN and BZIPPY furnishings activate the south terrace, allowing visitors to engage with Wright’s garden house as Barnsdall had and as she wished the public would too in gifting her property to the City in 1927. Sinuous lines and striking geometries of the contemporary benches, chairs, and planter boxes create new points of reference with the architecture and indoor/outdoor living synonymous with Southern California.

 

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The installation is curated by Leigh Wishner and debuted as part of Los Angeles Design Weekend.

 

Advance self-guided tour tickets are recommended. To book, CLICK HERE.

 

Photos: BZIPPY ‘Ruffle’ Planter & LAUN ‘Ribbon’ Chair collaged with Betty Barnsdall (left) & her friend Mary at Hollyhock House, c. 1922. Photo courtesy of David Devine and Michael Devine.

RAVI GUNEWARDENA: IKEBANA FOR HOLLYHOCK HOUSE

 

Hollyhock House presents Ravi GuneWardena: Ikebana for Hollyhock House. The installation features striking new ikebana by GuneWardena, which reanimate the interiors of the Frank Lloyd Wright-described “garden house” through the Japanese art of flower arranging. The expressive arrangements introduce bold forms and textures with dried plant material, bringing nature indoors and further showcasing the influence of Japanese art and design on the site—built simultaneously with Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

 

“The placement of an ikebana arrangement can inform and define the work itself.  The light and space of Hollyhock House appear to have been designed with this art form in mind,” says GuneWardena.


The compositions reference the placement, mass, and scale of floral arrangements that Aline Barnsdall had in the house during the 1920s. GuneWardena also utilizes innovative materials that Sogetsu School founder Sofu Teshigahara embraced in his practice, dating back to the late 1920s. While ikebana is a centuries-old artform, the Sogetsu School, of which GuneWardena is a part, was established in 1927, challenging traditions of ikebana and celebrating freedom of individual expression. GuneWardena’s works active Wright’s gesamtkunstwerk interiors for Hollyhock House, adding new reference points in dialogue with the site’s holistic approach to art and architecture.


The installation is organized by Abbey Chamberlain Brach, Director & Curator at Hollyhock House.

 

INSTALLATION GUIDE 

 

Advance reservations recommended. To book a self-guided tour ticket, CLICK HERE.

 

 

Photo: Installation view of Ravi GuneWardena: Ikebana for Hollyhock House by Hiroshi Clark, 2023.


PAST

FLOWERS FOR ALINE: AN EXHIBITION BY SOGETSU IKEBANA LOS ANGELES BRANCH

 

April 18-21 & 25-28, 2024

Saturday, April 20, 2-4 pm: Free demonstrations by Sogetsu Masters

 

Hollyhock House presented Flowers for Aline, a special exhibition of 45 fresh-flower works by the Sogetsu Ikebana Los Angeles Branch. With dynamic arrangements featuring spring’s finest blooms, the installation transformed Frank Lloyd Wright’s “garden house,” designed in 1921 for the visionary arts patron Aline Barnsdall, who gifted the landmark site to the people of Los Angeles nearly a century ago.


The exhibition, curated by Hollyhock House director Abbey Chamberlain Brach and architect and ikebana artist Ravi GuneWardena, featured expressive arrangements both inside and out—activating terraces gardens, spilling from cast concrete planter boxes, and responding to Wright’s artful interiors. For the first time since the site’s 2022 reopening, the child’s bedroom was on view as part of this special exhibition with six ikebana works in this space alone. 


On Saturday, April 20, 2-4 pm, four high-ranking Sogetsu masters and selected students presented ikebana demonstrations free to the public in the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. Demonstrations by Marilyn Drageset, Yumiko Inoue, Chiyoko Chasin, Tony Shum, Mikayo Arao, Keiko Miyahara, Haruko Takeichi, and Kaz Kitajima. 

 

Photos: Hollyhock House living room, c. 1921, Los Angeles Public Library. Installation views of Flowers for Aline. Photos by Alex DelaPena.

ENTANGLEMENTS: LOUISE BONNET AND ADAM SILVERMAN AT HOLLYHOCK HOUSE

 

February 15–June 24, 2023

 

Entanglements: Louise Bonnet and Adam Silverman at Hollyhock House was the first artist intervention at the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the first formal collaboration for the Los Angeles-based couple. In dialogue with the site, Bonnet’s paintings and drawing and Silverman’s ceramics engaged the house’s 100-year history as a platform for artists and experimentation. The new works were installed in Hollyhock House’s public rooms where Aline Barnsdall’s celebrated art collection was once on display.

 

Known for her portraits of exaggerated proportions and grotesque features, Bonnet continually explores emotions of melancholy, loneliness, nostalgia and grief in her works on canvas or paper. Silverman is among the most dynamic practitioners dedicated to ceramics today and is known for his sculptural vessels and richly textured glazes. He brings an architect’s sense of structure to his objects and utilizes personal and experimental techniques to glaze and fire his works.

 

The exhibition was organized by Abbey Chamberlain Brach, Director & Curator at Hollyhock House. Special thanks to Galerie Max Hetzler.

 

BROCHURE | EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

 

Photos: Installation views of Entanglements: Louise Bonnet and Adam Silverman at Hollyhock House, 2022. Photographs by Joshua White, courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler.