Since opening in 2003, the Tortoise General Store has offered a curated selection of Japanese craft and design at its location on Abbot Kinney in Venice.
On Tuesday, Feb. 20, co-owners Keiko and Taku Shinomoto will host a grand opening for their new location, 12705 Venice Blvd. in Mar Vista, simply called tortoise, a gallery annex to their general store on Abbot Kinney.
The grand opening coincides with the opening of a month-long art exhibition at tortoise for New York-based Japanese artist Susumu Kamijo. The event will begin at 5 p.m. and a book-signing for Kamijo’s 2017 retrospective, “Poodles,” will take place from 6 to 8 p.m.
Tortoise will exhibit 10 pieces by Kamijo until the exhibition ends on March 24. The book “Poodles” includes a foreword written by L.A.-based artist Jonas Wood, and both Kamijo and Wood will sign copies.
Tortoise in Mar Vista will showcase art, design, and vintage-ware along with regular exhibitions and public events, and an expansive feature of Taku Shinomoto’s line of multi-functional ceramicware, Hasami Porcelain, as well as his full line of tabletop brassware, S/N, among others.
“As I continue to design Hasami Porcelain and the line grows, we wanted a larger space to display the full collection, to show the strong multi-functional character of Hasami,” said Shinomoto. “As we plan to host more art exhibitions, events and workshops in the future we felt a larger space would allow people to take their time with their visit, to learn, absorb and converse.
“When you enter tortoise, it divides into a room on the left and to the right. My vision was to have it resemble the two sides of the human brain. The right side is an atelier with my personal collection of art and vintage — the source of design inspiration. The left space is a shop, with designs that are my own as well as others. Visitors can follow the creative process from inspiration to design by going from one room to the other.”
For more information, call (310) 314-8448, email [email protected] or visit www.tortoiselife.com.