Opening this year, the private club cum workspace takes over a building previously occupied by David Hockney, with multihyphenate creatives in mind
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Weeks after emblazoning Barbara Krueger’s “Who Buys the Con?” mural across its Hollywood private workspace during the Frieze L.A. art fair, NeueHouse is turning its gaze to Venice Beach’s creative district. Josh Wyatt, NeueHouse CEO, says a new 11,000-square-foot location with a 2,000-square-foot roof deck slated to open at 73 Market Street later this year may be the company’s “most treasured chapter yet.”
Owned by actor and director Tony Bill, the storied 1920s building — known for housing everything from David Hockney’s art to production facilities for Bill, Oliver Stone and John Landis to Snap’s L.A. headquarters — will join the city’s two other equally pedigreed NeueHouse spaces: the original CBS studios in Hollywood and downtown’s Bradbury Building.
Wyatt says the Venice location’s design, led by L.A. and Toronto-based DesignAgency, will help members feel intellectually protected to share ideas “with the hope that a breakthrough moment happens.” On a street formerly home to the Jean-Michel Basquiat’s workspace and Larry Gagosian’s first gallery where cross-community collaboration has deep roots, Wyatt’s betting there’s still something in the water that drives creative minds.
Venice remains one of L.A.’s smaller-scale neighborhoods and Wyatt compares the more intimate layout of the Venice space to a jewel box tableau with a residential feeling. “Our design inspiration will be going back a bit to the Frank Lloyd Wright motif, where the mixture of textures, wood and warm hues creates a sensual and warm abode.”
He points out that the area has a dramatically different feel from Hollywood or downtown in terms of the professional aims of businesses and also the artistic bent of what is being produced. Music, media, digital innovators and artists converge here. “We are also seeing the solidification of the flexible, solo career where someone is now multihyphenate: producer, talent, creator all wrapped into one.”
Bill — himself a multihyphenate Oscar-winning producer (The Sting), actor and director — agrees. He calls Venice the birthplace of Southern Californian beat poets and notes that in the ’70s, his Venice space held the only westside screening room. He also hosted concerts, lectures, art shows and community political meetings. Back then, he says, he only had room for a couple dozen filmmakers, artists and entrepreneurs.
“Now, there will be spaces for many, many more,” he says, counting himself among them. “I live close enough to walk or bike over. Market Street is my hang, and I’ve always depended on bumping into people there. Why would I go anywhere else?”
Feature image: NEUEHOUSE has chosen Venice as the location for its next California edition.
March 9, 2020
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