The ‘demonstration house’ for the planned Miramar Estates, the Spanish-style Villa Aurora was completed in 1928, with luxury features like electric garage doors and a pipe organ to accompany movie screenings. Following the Wall Street Crash, it failed to sell and fell vacant, but in 1943, it was acquired by Lion Feuchtwanger, author of The Oppermans (1933) and his wife, Marta. With Salka and Berthold Viertel’s nearby home, the Villa became a meeting point for émigrés like Bertolt Brecht, Alma Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg. After Lion Feuchtwanger’s death in 1995, it became a residency for artists.
Showing Kelly Akashi’s work at Villa Aurora, opens a dialogue between the Feuchtwanger history and Akashi’s personal history. Just a few months after the Feuchtwangers arrived from Germany, Executive Order 9066 was issued, forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps, many of whom were from Santa Monica and Venice. Akashi’s own father and grandparents had to leave Boyle Heights to be interned at Poston Internment Camp in Arizona.
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February, 13-15-17-18
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Monday, February 13, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Wednesday February 15, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Friday February 17, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Saturday, February 18, 10:00AM-1:45PM