May 15, 2017

Meet Monika Basse of The G2 Gallery in Venice

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monika Basse.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started working in the art world as a student liaison for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive while working towards my bachelor’s degree. Following my undergraduate studies, I returned to Los Angeles and worked as a gallery assistant at the Lois Lambert Gallery in Bergamot Station. After almost a year of working there, I was accepted to the University of Southern California’s Master’s Program in Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere. During my graduate studies, I had internships at LACMA and Christie’s, and also served as a teaching assistant. Following the completion of my Master’s, I joined the G2 Gallery as their Curator.

Please tell us about The G2 Gallery.
The G2 Gallery is a nature and wildlife photography gallery located on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, CA. Founded in 2008, it is one of the only nature and wildlife photography galleries in the area and exhibits works that highlight the beauty of our natural world as well as raises public awareness of environmental issues. For each exhibit, we partner with an environmental nonprofit and donate 100% of the gallery proceeds from art sales to that organization.

The G2 Gallery Store offers a curated selection of fine jewelry, housewares, stationery, and more, all of which complements the photography on view in the second-floor gallery. Many of the goods are sustainably produced, responsibly harvested, and reusable. The store selects products made by talented artists throughout the United States, with priority given to local designers in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Over the course of our tenure, the G2 Gallery has worked with hundreds of artists such as Alan Ross, Art Wolfe, Clyde Butcher, and Tom Mangelsen. Our collection also includes original works by Ansel Adams. We have worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations such as Earthjustice, the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, and so many more.

The gallery also hosts a variety of events including receptions and artist talks, as well as the annual G2 Green Earth Film Festival, which showcases features and shorts on environmental issues from around the globe. Many artists and environmental groups have come together in this space to collaborate, and the gallery is available to rent for private events.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?)
In 2016, we celebrated the centennial of the National Parks Service with a four-part series highlighting different regions of the United States and their respective national parks. The series closed with an exhibit on the Western National Parks, showing 64 works by 36 different photographers. The exhibit was a huge success and the proceeds from those art sales amounted to $6,500 in donations given to the Western National Parks Association, our nonprofit partner for that exhibit. With each photography purchase that our clients made, they were making a donation to the very park they were admiring on their wall!

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