from The NY Times Asked & Answered

Asked & Answered | OHWOW

By STEFFIE NELSON

From left, Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff.
photo by Curtis Buchanan – From left: Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff.

Downtown is a state of mind for the art impresarios Aaron Bondaroff and Al Moran, whether they’re selling Statue of Liberty figurines by Kembra Pfahler at a pop-up shop in Athens, Greece, or recreating the Ludlow Street watering hole Max Fish at a bar in Miami (bar staff included). After descending upon Los Angeles last year with a one-night-only Halloween Neckface show that drew 5,000 people, this weekend the two introduced the new L.A. home of their OHWOW gallery. Opening Saturday in a 4,000-square-foot, ivy-covered former Laundromat on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, OHWOW presented “Noblesse Oblige,” the first L.A. exhibition from Scott Campbell, who is as well known for the work he’s inked into the flesh of Marc Jacobs, Terry Richardson and others as he is for the intricate 3-D pieces he cuts into sheets of United States currency. “Noblesse Oblige” — an ironic battle cry for Campbell’s backwoods Louisiana kin and a phrase he has tattooed on his neck — also finds the artist working with neon, etching onto 24-karat gold plates, and drawing on the insides of ostrich eggs. We caught up with Bondaroff and Moran in the Rafael de Cardenas-designed space to discuss the bigger picture.

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