Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl Baratta.
Carl, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid started in Philadelphia almost 10 years ago. Some of the members moved to New York and started a TSANYC. About 4 years ago Chris Ulivo, friends with many of the TSA members out east decided to start a TSALA. Since then, we have a branch in Chicago and the 4 spaces are now a nonprofit status network of artists.
About 2 and a half years ago I took over as co-director of TSALA. Vanessa Chow was the other co at the time. She has since left and Liz Nurenberg has taken on the role. She’s great! We currently have 13 members total in our LA branch and all of us work together to put on thought provocative shows for the community. Since our business model is based on membership dues we are not reliant on sales. That approach is perfect for taking huge risks and putting on the unique shows possible.
We work alongside Monte Vista Projects, POST, Track 16, and JOAN gallery in the Bendix Building. Currently we try to coordinate our openings with each other so we can have huge events for our viewers. The atmosphere during the openings is really positive and fun. As more and more galleries move into The Bendix you will start to see a new consolidated area for galleries. We are shooting for a vertical Chinatown circa 2005 if that makes any sense.
At any rate, our turnouts for our shows have been amazing and working with the other spaces has been a pleasure. Plus, after 6 pm, it’s free parking so life is good!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, it’s not been a smooth road. But because we are part of the artist-run gallery community everyone has supported us through our various struggles. Before the Bendix Building, our old space on 5th and Broadway was demolished. We found out right before the New Year. Merry fucking Christmas.
So, we scrambled to get out and kept parts of the galleries in our studios. For a couple months, we were homeless before settling into our new building. It actually worked out better for us! Losing our original space put a fire under our asses to get something nicer and ultimately more stable.
Another notable crisis we have had recently was our February show was stolen from our moving truck on the way to being installed at the gallery. A crime lab, street cops, insurance and police investigators got involved. We were able to cover the artists’ costs for the missing work through art insurance and still put on a show! The visiting artists from ICOSA in Austin were all champs about the whole thing and MVP, ICOSA and ourselves banded together to get the replacement work up and ready. But man, what a ride. Here’s to the rest of 2018 is way more chill.
Please tell us about Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles (TSALA).
The TSA Network is about community and artists offering a different business model to the art community. Like I mentioned before, we are nonprofit and that actually frees us up to put on shows that are not commercially driven. Locally, each member has a couple tasks they do so that every part of the gallery is run and kept in good shape. For myself, I’m the scheduler. Liz and I work closely with the network to help guide our group forward as we grow. My favorite part of the gig though is working with other groups outside our network both nationally and internationally. Next year we are helping to organize a festival type event with cool artist-run spaces in Berlin and maybe Vienna too!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing. As we go we learn and meet new interesting people. We have a great group of members and it’s been amazing working with each and every one of them. When problems rise up we figure out how to move through them together as a gang. OK, maybe one thing I’d do differently: I wish we had a bartender to shame more people into donating money for all the beer we hand out so we could have a beverage fund.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1206 Maple Avenue Ste 523
Los Angeles, California 90015 - Website: http://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/
- Phone: (209) 553-0462
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: tsa_la
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tigerstrikesasteroidlosangeles/?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tsa_la
Image Credit:
Members of TSALA and our visiting Berliners, oMo Art Space
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