By Teresa Acosta
The Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation is hosting its third annual silent auction art fundraiser that including works from over 30 artists.
The auction titled “Art á La Carte” is open now and will close December 11 at 9 p.m. The available pieces up for auction include photographs, stoneware, drawings, paintings, performance artifacts, serigraphs and soldered brass.
These pieces can all be viewed on the VPAM website at www.vincentpriceartmuseum.org.
The funds raised will be used to support the Vincent Price Art Museum located at East Los Angeles College.
Before the pandemic the foundation would host a gala in the spring to raise funds. This event funded the museum’s exhibitions and programming throughout the year.
For the second year in a row they have chosen to cancel the gala to protect the health and safety of everyone.
The fundraisers silent auction portion continues to be held during the pandemic.
The VPAM website contains two vignette videos featuring two local artists, Umar Rashid and John Valadez. The video gives a studio tour of their creative workspace.
Other videos on the website include little introductions where the artists talk about the type of art they create and reasons they decided to donate their pieces to the auction.
Raina Lee donated the stoneware piece titled “Clouds Keishiki Tea Bowl.”
For this piece she applied layers of four or five different glazes on top of each other, “I get kind of different strata of rock,” Lee said when explaining the look of the bowl.
She describes her work as functional and sculptural. The main focus on textures that mimic the natural landscape.
The bowl is 4×5 inches and has a current bid of $150.
Rebecca Vega, the registrar/exhibitions coordinator & guest services manager said this is the third year in a row that the silent auction had run. It could have been four if they didn’t have a gap period.
The auction opened on Nov 20 and some items have current bids starting at $200. The entire collection is available for viewing in person at the museum from Wednesday through Saturday between noon-4 p.m.