Business

drkrm gallery redux

• Courageous
• Ingenious
• Weird

drkrm/lab/gallery is establishing a new home in a much-more-accessible and desirable site. And we need your support. The always intriguing, sometimes exhilarating, often notorious drkrm has found a new location on  prestigious Gallery Row in downtown Los Angeles. But we need funding to build the new lab and perfect the gallery space with proper lighting and new walls. Please help us bring drkrm back to the classic photography-art gallery and lab it once was, and launch the next generation of exciting openings, controversial exhibits and superior, museum-quality B&W printing nearly lost in today’s digital age.

For the last 5 years drkrm/lab/gallery has presented a superb and continuous array of exceptional exhibits, specializing in more under-the-radar, counterculture presentations. As owner/curator John Matkowsky was never afraid of unspoken issues; some shows were immensely stimulating while profoundly poignant, others were compelling, powerful, heart-rending, and even transforming in their relevance. His openings were legend for their large turnouts, hospitable ambience and correlating collation, which were ALWAYS free to anyone and everyone, guaranteeing a splendid time for all.

Past spectacles have include edgy oddities a la Beefcake Babylon, the Art of the Peplum Film, Found: Mid-Century Vernacular Nudes, and Haunted Hacienda, a study of Mexican horror films. Taboo and alternative subjects like ghosts, gay identity, cell phone photography, horror film iconography, brothels and prostitution, AIDS activism, the films of Roger Corman and Donald Cammell and LA Punk have been explored. We specialize in documentary and photo-journalistic work, cutting edge and alternative photographic processes and the display and survey of popular cultural images both current or historic.

drkrm/lab/gallery has received an unprecedented two proclamations from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the SILENCE  = DEATH, Act Up LA exhibit. It has also received excellent acclaim in the press with numerous articles and 5 star write-ups. In one glowing review from the national magazine Juxtapoz,  Matkowsky was called a “visionary” for his edgy, dramatic showcases. He has launched many unknown artists as well as exhibited many famous ones.

drkrm/lab/gallery plans to continue its history of holding seminars, lectures, artist talks and darkroom workshops for the local photographic community. 

“[drkrm exhibits]…some of the most vanguard fine arts photography being shown today. The consistently high levels of aesthetic merit and flayed open populist prurience have caused many to to appreciate Matkowsky’s visionary enterprise. drkrm’s oeuvre is as challenging as it idiosyncratic.”  Juxtapoz Magazine

Photographers showcased have included the street photography of Los Angeles artist Gronk Nicandro, the 3D Kodachrome work of Jack Laxer, Joseph Rodriguez, Scot Sothern and Philip Fagan’s individual series on sex workers and prostitutes, Neville Garrick’s classic Bob Marley photographs, Anthony Friedkin’s photo-journalistic series on Los Angeles gay lifestyle in the 1970’s, Travis Shinn, Paul Zone, Dawn Wirth and Louis Jacinto’s images on rock and roll, glam and the early Los Angeles punk scene, Ryan Herz’beautiful, sad and sometimes disturbing portraits of the developmental disabled, Colin Remas Brown’s Aftermath: The Griffith Park Fire, R.H. Sturges’ Churches of the American South, Patrick Kelly’s Irish Landscapes, and the Fine art work of Aaron Hobson, Don Jim, Alan Kroeber, Christopher Rainone, and Catharine Stebbins.

drkrm/lab/gallery has also presented group exhibitions featuring work by Bryan Barnes, Marco Romano Bhimani, Nicholas Fedak II, Joanna Garland, Nicola Goode, Paul Groh, Stéphane Houari, Lauren Jack, Ginger Liu, Gerald Mocarsky, Marilyn Montufar, Mike Salisbury, Rafael Serrano, Håkan Sjöström, James Stiles, Mark Thompson and Tom Zimberoff. We have also hosted live performances by actor, writer, director, teacher, producer, and activist Michael Kearns.

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