The third annual La Jolla Gallery and Wine Walk has two new art galleries to showcase, plus hors d’oeuvres to offer from the latest restaurants in town. The self-guided tour will take place next Thursday, Sept. 28, from 5 to 9 p.m.
The Molloy Gallery, 8008 Girard Ave., and the Bartram Gallery, 7874 Girard Ave., are the latest additions to La Jolla’s art emporiums. Twenty galleries will showcase their fine art, textiles, animation, pop culture and photography during the walk.
Artists will mingle with the crowd at the Contemporary Fine Arts gallery and at the Bartram Gallery, where photographer Scott Reither will speak about his portraits of the San Diego and Hawaiian coastlines. Abstract artist Nessa Rezanai will paint live at the Derissi Design Studio & Art, a Persian-owned gallery that portrays modern, surrealist art by Persian artists.
More than 50 variations of wine will be featured and sample dishes from various eateries will be served, including taste treats from the new South American restaurant Cendio that replaced Moondoggies at 909 Prospect St.
Promote La Jolla, the local business association, operates the gallery walk to raise awareness of the village and to garner funds for its projects. Crowds have grown from 600 people the first year to 800 attendees last year, but the association has yet to make a profit from the event.
“Having special events like this one allows people to experience the village who haven’t been to La Jolla, or haven’t been to La Jolla for a few years. It’s our hopes that they would come back,” said Tiffany Sherer, executive director of Promote La Jolla Inc.
Former biotech executive Peter Molloy and his wife Christine opened the gallery five months ago to sell Australian aboriginal art that depicts stories from their creation mythology. Molloy proudly relayed the story of one of his paintings by Gabriella Possum that tells the mythology of the constellation known as the seven sisters.
The painting depicts seven ancestral sisters who are being chased by a man called Jilbi Tjakamarra, who attempts to seduce them with love magic. The sisters have no interest in him and flee to Uluru, a large rock formation in central Australia that is revered as sacred by the aboriginals. The sisters employ the spirits of Uluru and transform themselves into the seven stars in Pleiades. Jilbi is not to be outdone and he turns himself into the Morning Star in Orion’s belt and continues to chase them across the night sky.
“The distribution of aboriginal art in Australia is a very well-established business,” Molloy said. “In Australia we did our research on who the better suppliers and artists were and “¦ now represent about 90 artists.”
Molloy said that he switched careers from running Biota in Carlsbad to operating an art gallery “because it’s more fun.”
Gallery curator Jesse Donovan opened the Bartram Gallery, using his middle name, in April to sell a collection of natural landscape photography. He said that it is the finest work he could find during his world travels.
“[I chose] that theme because I think it’s something that we should focus on as a people ” coming back to nature and taking care of our landscapes and nature,” Donovan said.
He chose to open his gallery in the village because he believes it has great potential to become a fine art community, with many galleries and fine restaurants.
Tickets to the La Jolla Gallery and Wine Walk cost $25. To purchase, call McFarlane Promotions, (619) 233-5008, or visit www.lajollabythesea.com.