Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction

A charity art show is easy to file under “nice local event.” But this one is doing real work. Venice Family Clinic’s Art Exhibition + Auction is live now in Venice, and the point is not just to look at good art — it is to turn art sales into health-care funding for people who might otherwise fall through the cracks. (venicefamilyclinic.org) The 47th edition opened May 8 and runs through May 17 at 910 Abbot Kinney Blvd., with the online auction beginning to close at 6 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, May 17. ### What is this event, exactly? Basically, it is the modern version of the old Venice Art Walk. What started in 1979 as a one-day emergency fundraiser has grown into what the clinic calls Los Angeles’ longest-running charity art exhibition. (lamag.com) This year’s edition is a 10-day public show and auction built around the theme “Past. Present. Future.” ### Who’s in the show? The headline name is Alison Saar, this year’s signature artist. But the draw is broader than one artist. The exhibition features more than 150 established and emerging Los Angeles artists, including names like Ed Ruscha, Helen Pashgian, Kenny Scharf, Frances Stark, Ed Templeton, Peter Shire, Laddie John Dill, Max Hooper Schneider, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Umar Rashid, and Nancy Evans. (venicefamilyclinic.org) ### What’s happening this week? The exhibition itself is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through May 17 at the Venice Art Walk Gallery. The week also includes side events meant to make the show feel less like a silent gallery and more like a neighborhood gathering. (venicefamilyclinic.org) The one that got picked up in local event guides is Friday night’s dublab-presented “Music + Movement,” running May 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with Japanese Butoh dance and music by Kyoko Takenaka, Colloboh, and Dylan Fujioka. ### Where does the money go? This is the load-bearing part. Proceeds support Venice Family Clinic’s programs and services, which the organization says provide care to more than 45,000 people across the Westside, Inglewood, the South Bay, and nearby communities. (lamag.com) That means the auction is not some abstract gala add-on — it is part of how the clinic funds medical, mental health, dental, vision, and other support. ### Why does the art angle matter here? Turns out the art piece is not branding. It is history. When the clinic needed money in 1979, local artists donated work and opened studios, helping keep care going. That volunteer model stuck. Curator Max Rippon frames this year’s show as part of the same idea — artists, organizers, and patrons each contributing what they have. (venicefamilyclinic.org) ### How big has this become? Pretty big for a local benefit. The clinic says the exhibition and auction have raised more than $25 million over the years. That helps explain why the event now pulls blue-chip and emerging artists into the same room. (venicefamilyclinic.org) It also explains the urgency behind this year’s messaging — clinic leadership has tied the fundraiser to uncertainty around federal and state safety-net funding. ### If you’re deciding whether to go, what should you know? The exhibition is free and open to the public. You can view work in person and bid online, but there is a 5% buyer’s fee added to the final hammer price. (venicefamilyclinic.org) So the easiest way to think about it is this: gallery visit up front, philanthropy underneath, auction mechanics in the background. ### Bottom line? This is a Venice art event, yes. But it is really a health-care fundraiser with cultural gravity — a nearly 50-year local institution using Los Angeles art to keep a community clinic funded. (venicefamilyclinic.org) (lamag.com)