This Year’s “souvenir print” is by

John Outterbridge

“Tickets” are $150.00 each

Print Edition is 150

How Does The Phantom Ball Work?

Instead of coming to the Phantom Ball, we invite you to pick something you want to do, but haven’t (because you can’t find the time) and do that instead. Seriously.

However, if you still buy a “ticket” to Side Street Projects’ 19th Annual Phantom Ball, we’ll still send you the “party favor” made for this infamous non-event: a signed, limited-edition print by a well-known contemporary artist created exclusively for the Phantom Ball (edition of 150).

What does the print look like? Well, that’s a secret until June 1, 2012.

So, buy your “ticket” now (sight unseen) for $150. On June 1st, 2012—when we unveil the print on our website—the “ticket” price doubles to $300. So buy your “ticket” today (sight unseen) and save! See how it works?

As always, we’ll understand if you can’t attend, because nobody ever has. Nobody ever does. Not in 19 years.

And on that note, this year’s “souvenir print” is by John Outterbridge.

About the Artist

“The quirky, politically minded sculptures of John Outterbridge, a 78-year-old artist living in Los Angeles, have become the sleeper hit of Pacific Standard Time.” — Wall Street Journal

If the Getty’s sprawling Pacific Standard Time initiative accomplished only one thing, it reminded Los Angeles that John Outterbridge is a national treasure. His landmark assemblages were prominently showcased in three standout PST exhibitions: Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum, Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at MOCA, and Rag Factory at LA><ART — his first solo exhibit in Los Angeles since 1996.

John Outterbridge (b.1933) is a legendary figure in the Los Angeles art community, particularly within the Black assemblage art scene that developed during the 1960s and 1970s. Outterbridge began teaching at the Watts Towers Art Center in 1965 and served as its director from 1975-92, merging his artistic practice wit community activism. In his assemblages, Outterbridge combines influences from folk art, Dada, and African sculptures, using discarded materials to create evocative works that confront socio-political themes.*

The PST-fueled “rediscovery” of John Outterbridge began some years ago, most notably with Outterbridge inclusion in Centre Pompidou’s 2006 groundbreaking exhibition, Los Angeles, 1955-1985: The Birth of an Artistic Capital. In 2009, Outterbridge had his first-ever New York solo exhibition at Jack Tilton Gallery, followed by an Artist Legacy Foundation Award (2010) and a United States Artist Fellowship (2011).

John Outterbridge’s newest installation can be seen at the Studio Museum of Harlem’s upcoming exhibition Shift (through May 2012). Outterbridge lives and works in the Los Angeles area and is represented by the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York.