Los Angeles's lively art scene has its share of pocket-sized art spaces in former mini-marts and disused pedestrian underpasses, so it's probably not a surprise that for about four years, a gallery has been hosting shows of everything from sculpture to sound installations to painting in a stairwell in a Los Feliz apartment building. The Finley, as the gallery's called, is visible to the public via a panel of windows that face the street and sidewalk in front of the Los Feliz Villas and even more visible to the people who live in the building and have to use the stairs to travel between the laundry room and the parking garage, the LA Times reports.
To entice the public to take a closer look, the Finley's set up a viewing platform in front of the windows and put up a small sign with artist information, enticing passersby on Finley Avenue to take a closer look. By making viewers peek through the window, the gallery add an exciting element to the viewing experience, "[turning] art seekers and the curious into peeping Toms," as the LA Weekly once put it. The art is, of course, even more accessible to the people who live in the building and have to use the stairs to travel between the laundry room and the parking garage. (The gallery was founded by Los Feliz Villas residents Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer and Jeff Hassay.)
The gallery is lit from the inside, so the best time to see them is "between dusk and dawn," its website says. Photos taken from the outside during the day suggest the glare of the sun makes it harder to see through the windows unless you relly get your face up there.
· Apartment stairwell turned into public art gallery? See the latest show for yourself [LAT]
· The Finley Gallery [Official site]