Art & Craft shopping in California
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Carmel Art Association
Shopping is a favorite pastime for locals and visitors alike, and Carmel has plenty of outlets to satisfy the urge, with a particular abundance of galleries, boutiques and high-end specialty stores, including some national chains.
Many of Carmel's 100-plus galleries are laden with frolicking dolphin sculptures and oil paintings of local scenery (including golf courses). But serious browsers will be rewarded with persistence. The weighty and free Carmel Gallery Guide can help with your hunt. The Carmel Art Association has been showcasing the best of local artists since 1927 and is a good place to begin.
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Polanco
Contemporary folk art by Mexican and Chicano artists mix traditional techniques and new ideas at Polanco, from Artemio Rodriguez’s woodcuts of Day of the Dead skeletons sporting Mohawks to a traditional ex voto painting on tin showing before and after portraits of a transgendered friend by Fernando Guevara. Don’t miss the Oaxacan devil masks embedded with actual goat’s horns and teeth, or the Frida Kahlo–esque earrings of silver hands cupping tiny hearts.
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Encantada Gallery
Build your own Mission-style altarpieces with this motherlode of Mexican folk art. Every self-respecting piano deserves a burnished black ceramic candelabra from Oaxaca, fridges cry out for calendars featuring busty gun-slinging revolutionaries, and even offices can turn festive once bedecked in papel picado (cut-paper streamers). Encantada has it all, plus rotating exhibits of contemporary Latin American artists.
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Flax
People who swear they lack artistic flair suddenly find it at Flax, where an entire room of specialty papers, racks of plump paint tubes in luscious colors, and a wonderland of hot glue guns practically make the collage for you. Kid-art projects start here, and the vast selections of pens and notebooks are novels waiting to happen.
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Tessuti Zoo
PG's compact downtown is centered on Lighthouse and Forest Aves. It's well on its way to quaintness, but there are numerous little boutiques and antique stores that are worth a gander. One excellent place is Tessuti Zoo which is owned by a designer who hand-makes funky items ranging from ponchos to lawn ornaments.
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Noe Knit
So you love handmade sweaters, but could never dream of making one yourself? Noe Knit has heard that old yarn before, and they're out to prove you wrong with friendly service, starter needles, handy pattern books, yummy yarn in a variety of colors and textures, plus classes to get you started.
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Anubis Warpus
Warped and proud, Anubis Warpus has got your alternative lifestyle needs covered. While you wait to get some pendulous part pierced, you can catch up on your 'zines, DIY manuals, vintage smut and comix. They also tattoo, but their piercing rep is stronger.
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Ruddle Cottage
The most notable and original gallery in town is Jayne Bruck-Fryer's. The artist makes every ingenious creation here - sculptures to jewelry - from recycled materials. The pretty fish hanging in the window?… Dryer lint!
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Gallery Row
One of Downtown's most raw and experimental galleries, Gallery Row is at its liveliest during the Downtown Art Walk on the second Thursday of the month when galleries stay open until at least 21:00.
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Mary Goldman Gallery
Specializes in established avant-garde artists from LA, New York and Europe in all types of media, including big-wigs Sanford Biggers and Rob Fisher.
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Bert Green Fine Art
The 'godfather' of Gallery Row likes art that's raw, provocative and not for sissies – expect naked bodies and 'porn' flowers.
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Iturralde Gallery
Contemporary art from Latin America, including Marcos Ramirez ‘Erre' from Tijuana and sculpture by Brazil-born Valeska Soares.
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Hive Gallery & Studios
Tunnel-shaped Gallery Row arts collective with a pop surreal focus and awesome show openings on the first Saturday of the month.
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Fahey/Klein Gallery
The best in vintage and contemporary fine-art photography by the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts and William Claxton.
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Gallery Plus
Leimert Park Village features Gallery Plus where you can pick up the best local paintings and sculpture.
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LMAN Gallery
One of the few galleries on Chung King Rd to represent emerging and mid-career Asian and Asian-American artists.
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Billy Shire Fine Arts
Champions raw, urban, lowbrow art by such emerging geniuses as Tony Fitzpatrick, Bari Kumar and Gary Baseman.
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Margo Leavin Gallery
Contemporary paintings, drawings and sculpture by John Baldessari, William Leavitt and other hot shots.
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