Gallery Space Dedicated to Championing Local Artistic Talent
On Oct. 10, Random Lengths News is publishing a story on San Pedro artist and curator Ron Linden and his exhibit The Look Of Disquiet, in which Linden discussed with zeal The Ranch, a new gallery space in town.
Linden, who curated The Ranch’s inaugural exhibition this summer, explained the gallery is intended to support local artists who are now gaining greater recognition in respected art circles. The Ranch is the brainchild of a local artist in partnership with Linden, San Pedro artist/sculptor Eric Johnson, who has enjoyed representation in Santa Monica and Los Angeles Galleries. He is currently showing at The William Turner Gallery as part of (Pacific Standard Time) or PST Art.
Linden said this effort is overdue because there have been and there remain quite a few really serious practicing artists in San Pedro.
“You don’t realize that all the time and when I got down to making that list we were both surprised at how many real practicing artists live and work here. [Eric’s] idea is a good one,” Linden said.
Eric Johnson, who moved here in 1996, spoke to RLN further about The Ranch, which he described as a peer review of what’s going on in the San Pedro art scene.
“The reason I wanted Ron to curate [The Ranch] is because he’s a brilliant man,” said Johnson. “I moved to San Pedro because he [lives] here. We got wiped out in the Northridge earthquake. I moved down here, [a couple of years after the quake] because [Ron] is one of our most brilliant art minds on the west coast.”
Last year, Johnson built a small gallery space at his studio to hang his work and where people can come to view it.
“I approached Ron about this space and told him I want to do shows,” Johnson said. “To do it properly, I think it’s important to show local artists first before I start reaching out and [Ron] agreed. So we both sat down and made a list of artists, and our lists were long.”
Each list had well over 20 people. While The Ranch shows local artists, Johnson noted that artists from out of town are aware of this project. He’s gotten calls from artists who like what they’re doing and want to take part in it. Linden and Johnson both noticed after a recent get-together that camaraderie was beginning to form between artists they had never seen before. Johnson said many artists who never really communicated with each other on a serious level now visit The Ranch and even tag along with each other on outings to exhibitions.
Johnson added artists want to show and The Ranch doesn’t want to show any favoritism whatsoever but they do want shows to work well together. He noted there are many very good artists in town but there are no collectors or no real critics here.
“James Allen, in his position, has the opportunity to enlighten the community about the growing arts scene in San Pedro,” Johnson said.
“And Ron having the show at Palos Verdes Art Center, [which Johnson will participate in next year] has given it more seriousness. It’s not just a bunch of local artists that came down here to die. We’re working. I’ve always told people uptown [who] want to move to San Pedro … that’s a place you go when you really want to work and you don’t want to deal with a lot of people, a lot of looky-loos. You come down here to work.”
After their first show, they realized they would need to do three to five more, to have a good pairing for all the artists. The Ranch is not set up for the public — yet. Johnson noted he is in a physical position to bring attention to artists and that Random Lengths is in a literary position to do that.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback,” Johnson said. “It’s basically like poetry reading in a Beatnik kind of situation where you show what you’re working on, a peer review of what’s going on in the San Pedro art scene. And if you want to bring the collector to buy something, that’s fine. That’s all you. … I’m making that opportunity because what happens with San Pedro artists is there’s a lack of venues and a lack of hope in a sense and this … [can help] like somebody cares.”
Their goal is to keep The Ranch going. Their hope is that somebody from the community steps up, at a point when they’ve developed it, to build a brick-and-mortar so that San Pedro can actually have a place for the public to come to.
In 2019, RLN reported: “For the first 15 years of this century, [Arnée and Ray] Carofano (of Gallery 478) anchored San Pedro’s budding arts district by inviting cutting-edge artists from across the country to their gallery and hosting regular artist openings. Gallery 478 was not alone in this work, but it did lead the charge.”
Just as in the early 2000s when Linden, Ray (known as a dark room magician) and Arnée Carofano along with James Preston Allen pioneered the Arts Culture and Entertainment or ACE District, some 15 years later, Linden and Johnson are cultivating the new nascent art scene in San Pedro, of, by and for San Pedro artists.
Editor’s note: an earlier edition of this story stated Johnson built a gallery space at his home, rather than at his studio.
