ARTIST RECEPTION: Saturday July 10 from 7-10 pm. Exhibit continues through July 31.

Born in New York, and raised in Atlantic City, NJ, Jennifer Cunningham moved to California after graduating from Massachusetts College of Art in 1982. She has been painting watercolors of Los Angeles landmarks since September 11, 2001. In 2004, she published paintings of iconic L.A. locations like Union Station, The Pantry, Philippe’s, and fifteen other notable local landmarks on note cards. The Los Angeles Downtown News took notice, and subsequently published a feature about Cunningham and her work. Businesses then began to commission her illustrations to promote their pride in their own Los Angeles locations. Executives from downtown Los Angeles companies now hang her images in their offices and present them as gifts to family and friends. The City Club purchased the copyright to her image of their favorite dining room and uses it as their logo. In April 2007, the Downtown Artist’s Project awarded her a grant to paint five historic theaters on Broadway in Los Angeles. Watercolors and note cards depicting The Orpheum, The Palace, The Million Dollar, The Los Angeles and The United Artist Theaters honor the role these theaters played in the city’s rich motion picture exhibition history. Now, Jennifer is reaching beyond the borders of Los Angeles for her subjects. Expanding her portraits of buildings to other cities and countries, she is being paid to travel. The foundation of her work is in depicting the essence of a place. Painting en plein air (on location) exhilarates her while generating publicity for her art. People talk to Jennifer about her subjects while watching her work. They begin to see their city in a new light. They walk away feeling better about where they live and work. With her drawing and painting, Jennifer brings art to diverse communities. The thrill of her personal experience of her surroundings, captured in paint on paper, is both her personal interpretation of the world around her and a continuing artistic adventure. Loving architecture, history and watercolor painting as she does, makes memorializing historic landmarks a natural for Jennifer Cunningham.

Sultry, sexy reggae rock for a warm July evening will be provided by Ella “Die of Love” Rodriguez and her band for Jennifer’s reception on Saturday, July 10 from 8:30-10:00 pm. Listen to tracks of Ella’s music at: http://www.elladieoflove.com Ella’s CD will be available for purchase the night of the show.