LA Weekly Best of Award 2012: Best Telephone-Only Art Gallery - 2012 by Shana Nys Dambrot
Ever had one of those nights where you sincerely planned to make it to a killer art opening in, say, Culver City or Chinatown or Santa Monica's Bergamot Station, but you just couldn't drag your black-clad, chardonnay-swilling self across the room, much less across town? Wouldn't it be lovely if you could just phone it in instead? A professionally curated art gallery with a regular exhibition schedule and opening-night events, 323 Projects exists entirely on the telephone line. Founder Tucker Neel figured, why make people drive to an empty room to experience sound art when all they need is a phone? Besides the potentially international reach of this format, it also expands the potential of group exhibitions and for serializing the art itself. The gallery often features works in installments, so that visitors can call every day for a fresh piece; group shows also provide new programming daily. Case in point: 323's open-call (no pun intended) fall show, "October Surprise," which promises even more chaos than its election-cycle namesake. No physical address, just call from any phone, anywhere, anytime. (323) 843-4652. 323projects.com.
—Shana Nys Dambrot