Alex Haley Gallery

Alex Haley Gallery is run by a really warm, sincere, considerate owner who specializes in local talented budding artists. Much of the art tends to be graphic, hang on the wall type media, but there are smaller sculptural pieces as well as more practical art which features objects such as finely crafted pottery & ceramics.
There are art gallery openings for featured arts on occasion where the artist himself/​herself comes to mingle with the local guests. It’s a convivial, cordial gathering presided by the ever so hospitable yet discreet impresaria of this rare outlet that features art in Gardena.
I was an ardent art collector until the mid 2000’s when all the available walls in my home were filled, but before that happened, I managed to purchase several interesting art pieces at Alex Haley. I found dealing with the owner to be a really pleasant experience. She has a warm charm that makes it a pleasure to be able to support local artists & validate their art by displaying them in my home.
Although Alex Haley is in an unexpected location, it is filled with rather sophisticated art and objects d’art featuring artists who are from any ethnicity, cultural, religious, sexual orientation background, etc. so that the art is wide ranging. You will find truly eclectic art here especially when you attend their various art gallery openings so that you can witness the changing art.
I bought a small painting by Jose Lopes whom I had met in one of their fabulous art gallery openings. We talked for a short time and found him to be intense, mysterious, other-​worldly. His painting was of a dying man pictured with an aura in brimstone reds, dark black, volatile blues that seems to be escaping from his body moving skyward. The man himself painted in lurid flesh tones, dark red has only one unseeing eye open, mouth agape ready to leave his body. Strangely, after I had hung his picture, I found streams of what looked like dried blood running down the wall behind & just under the painting which I have not cleaned for fear that I might offend the dying man & Jose Lopes, the artist.
In the back of the painting of the dying man there is scrawled in rough, impatient, rushed hand writing:
ask me how many times
i had thoughts about it this month
how many times i have stared in bed pretending
to sleep well past noon
wishing for the end
Jose Lopes «The end» 6 – 2006 Oil on Board (gesso)
Another piece is of a surrealistic nature made of paints & cardboard cut outs of mice men trooping in front of a church with one of the men bleeding with a knife cut in the chest. However, I have bought much happier pieces at Alex Haley also such as an idyllic autumn hillside scene somewhere on the east coast with aquamarine blue sky, the leaves turning fall colors all reflected in a small lake. When I bought a post wedding reception scene by a young talented female artist at full price, the owner was thoughtful & kind and presented me with an intricately detailed Japanese style large teapot glazed in what looks like a celadon glaze finish with a delicate whirlpool design incorporated throughout the teapot.
I feel that the Alex Haley Gallery is worth the time to peruse and appreciate the multifarious works by different local worthy artists. Also I like good deals, and being able to buy in an off the beaten path area as well as purchasing art by budding artists makes for saving thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars compared to buying on the west side