Fifth Floor Gallery, Chinatown Los Angeles, May 30 - July 11, 2015, reception June 13th

Fifth Floor Gallery is pleased to present, CHINATOWN LEAGUE of ULTIMATE BENEVOLENCE (or C.L.U.B. for short), a collaboration between Los Angeles based artist, Bettina Hubby, and Fifth Floor Gallery. Part store, part art exhibit, the show features a number of limited edition objects designed and made by Hubby and Fifth Floor Gallery owner, Robert Apodaca.

“Tourists have always flocked to Chinatown in Los Angeles. This is a part of our town that is a stylized version of China, but is also where Chinese people live and work and where Chinese associations and the occasional mahjong parlor still exists. It’s a neighborhood that has seen boom and bust many times since its construction in the 1950s. Art galleries moved in to the neighborhood in the late 1990s. I was one of its gallerinas who socialized in its midst and befriended the locals; they were rightly suspicious of the art movement that pushed through their foo dog flanked portals and took root. The energy of the art world there has ebbed and flowed, but art remains, and so the cohabitation of this Chinese community and the art world continues.

This show, or shop, is our secret society that exists to observe this union of happenstance. It is a facade of a club, and an occasion to celebrate the comingling of the real and the unreal that make up Chinatown and its mother city. The idea of the facade is intrinsic to Los Angeles, as is belonging to its various inner circles. This is a club to honor the facade and the real of Chinatown, L.A. and belonging to this club is as easy as showing up or buying its merch. This is how you make your way into the C.L.U.B., and the carpet rolls out to you as soon as you take home its logo. Welcome to the CHINATOWN LEAGUE of ULTIMATE BENEVOLENCE. All are welcomed ~ no membership required.” -Hubby

About Fifth Floor: Opened in January of 2008, and is now closed as of November, 2015 due to a Northeasterly relocation. It was a hybrid art/design gallery in the heart of LA’s Chinatown. Owner, Robert Apodaca’s background in architecture sees that the space delights in a mixture of contemporary art and design. Work by varying artists, designers, and architects rotated through the exhibition areas every month to two months; all the while, a steady base of unique accessories, jewelry, furniture and design objects remained on display.