Art at the Armory

Time is winding down on your chance to see "at the Brewery Project," an exhibit that ends March 1 at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. The Brewery Project was a showcase for artists, by artists, first organized at the Brewery Art Colony near downtown LA by artist John O'Brien in September 1993. Between then and May 2007, the project was responsible for more than 35 exhibits, curated by as many as 20 different artists, and featuring photography, painting, ceramics, collage and more.

The retrospective at the Armory provides a fascinating glimpse of the contemporary art scene in LA. Among the most fun works on display is Keiko Fukazawa's "Good Luck" with a wedding cake -- made of white ceramic Maneki Neko (Good Luck) cats topped with the colorful ones that are ubiquitous in Little Tokyo -- paired with a kimono decorated with graffiti art. In front of Thomas Muller's enlarged photos of a clay elephant balancing on a gorgeous ripe tomato are the actual items in plexiglas boxes on wooden pedestals -- only it takes a while to figure out what's going on in those boxes because the tomatoes have almost completely decomposed since the installation.

Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena 91103, (626) 792-5101, www.armoryarts.org

Keiko Fukazawa, Good Luck, 2005, clay and kimono, kimono: 60 x 50 x 3 inches, ceramic cake: 60 x 22 x 22 inches/photo courtesy of Armory Center for the Arts