Lou D’Elia was born in Ocean Park in 1951, still lives there and makes his art in what was once his father’s woodshop. Now 75, the assemblage artist is showing his work in his hometown alongside some of the medium’s foundational artists, including the man who encouraged him to make art.
“Some Assemblage Required,” on view at the California Heritage Museum until it closes Nov. 15, pairs foundational assemblage artists with mid-career and emerging artists who are extending that tradition.
The foundational group includes Edward Kienholz, George Herms, Alison Saar, Michael C. McMillen, Ben Talbert, Tony Berlant, Carl Cheng, Alexis Smith, William Tunberg and Gordon Wagner. The contemporary artists are D’Elia, Chris Fraticelli, Sheila Elias, David Lovejoy and Jeff Mounds. Tobi Smith, the museum’s executive director and curator, organized the exhibition.
Assemblage is three-dimensional art made by joining found objects, everyday items and nontraditional materials. Jean Dubuffet coined the term in 1953. The museum says the show traces how the medium has evolved and how artists still use it to critique culture and explore identity.
“Assemblage wasn’t invented here, but Los Angeles County gave it a particularly fertile home,” D’Elia said in written responses to questions. He described the region as a place where different histories, cultures, industries and personalities come together. “We manufacture dreams, tear things down, reinvent ourselves, and leave behind an extraordinary assortment of evidence. For an assemblage artist, there’s a lot to work with.”
Michael C. McMillen, whose garage installation is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said in an email to the museum that Los Angeles artists were somewhat removed from the “European cultural baggage” of the East Coast.
“I think our assemblage art reflects a post war culture of surplus parts, the fantasy factory of Hollywood and a grittier take on art, more palatable to working class makers and their audience,” he said.
Michael C. McMillen grew up in Santa Monica and lived in the city for the better part of 60 years. Asked what it meant to show his work there, he turned the question around: “What does it mean to Santa Monica to show my work?”
For D’Elia, the region’s assemblage history is personal. Kienholz encouraged him to make art, and D’Elia knew Kienholz’s son, Noah. The two sometimes hunted for materials the elder artist needed to finish a piece.
“That could mean looking for something as particular as a taxidermy squirrel,” D’Elia said. “Not everyone’s idea of a shopping trip.”
He said he works in Kienholz’s tradition, starting with an idea and then finding the objects to express it, rather than beginning with an intriguing object and discovering its subject.
“An object may be fascinating in its own right, but it has to earn its place in the work,” he said.
Some of those objects tie back to his father’s trade. His father was a master patternmaker who crafted the wooden patterns used in foundry casting. Those patterns were lost when D’Elia was a young boy; the ones he sometimes builds into his work are pieces he finds online and through collectors.
“They aren’t objects my father made, but they connect me to his skill and his working life,” he said.
D’Elia retired after 32 years as a clinical neuropsychologist. He said that career still shapes his art, which deals with identity, vulnerability, power and subjects people find hard to acknowledge. He often uses visual puns or punning titles to draw viewers in.
“A laugh can make someone willing to approach a subject they might otherwise walk past,” he said. “Sometimes the humor is a little blue. I’m comfortable with that.”
Michael C. McMillen described a lifelong habit of collecting. As a child, he was drawn to discarded electronics and mechanical devices that could be taken apart, their parts inspiring new combinations. He said his work is, in some ways, “a tribute to the people who have made things with their hands, dreams and problem solving ideas.”
“As an artist I am engaged in the human compulsion to create something that has not existed before,” he said.
D’Elia said he hopes his work gives his neighbors something to think and talk about.
“At 75, I’m certainly pleased to be included, but I haven’t retired from asking uncomfortable questions,” he said.
The California Heritage Museum is at 2612 Main St., in the 1894 Roy Jones House, a city landmark. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; the museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is free on Fridays and always free for military members and their families and for children under 12.
For more information, visit californiaheritagemuseum.org.