Bruce Rubenstein Launches His Own Gallery in Los Angeles
Bruce Rubenstein, husband of Israeli and local celeb actress and producer Shirly Brener, opened his art gallery in studio city this weekend, and celebrities and prominent buyers started rushing in. Spotted among the guests: Eric Roberts, Richard Lawson (HBO- Angry Boyz), producer Lati Grobman, Sam and Orit Messica, Runenstein’s good friend Mickey Rourke and many others.
Rubenstein, whose work has been purchased by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adrien Brody and the Kodak Theater, has been creating art wherever he could since growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island, finding inspiration in the crumbling walls and trash-strewn streets; he painted nocturnal murals on the sides of buildings and other public spaces, and soaked up the influence of the detritus of modern city living all around him, learning to find beauty in objects cast aside, ignored or derided.
This early period of Rubenstein’s working life when he was experimenting restlessly with form and style, fed back on itself in the form of one of his most remarkable experiments: a feature film script dramatizing his experiences as a young and struggling artist. It was brought to the screen in 1995 as ‘Bullet,’ starring academy award winners Mickey Rourke, also a collector of Rubenstein’s work.
This was no glossy Hollywood feel-good growth story, but a depiction of the reality which formed Rubenstein’s education as an artist. It also exists as a perfect iteration of his belief that art must exist primarily as an emotional reaction to a moment in time, and that it must function as the encapsulation, transmission and perpetuation of that moment and that emotion: art as truly indivisible from real life.
“The Bruce Rubenstein Gallery” is located at 12240½ Ventura Blvd., Studio City CA 91604 and the phone number is 323-376-4709.
Ruenstein and wife Shirly Brener (Photographer Credit: ABRAHAM JOSEPH PAL)
