The latest art exhibition to occupy the Town Center Art Space at the Westfield Valencia Town Center, “Retrospective” by Los Angeles artist and senior Michele Boyer, will have its opening reception on March 23.
Also presented by the city of Santa Clarita, Boyer’s exhibit consists of abstract sculptures made from bronze or marble. Boyer began working as an artist in the 1960s, when she arrived in Los Angeles from New York, according to Julie Rico, art representative and owner of the Julie Rico Gallery.
“She’s a dynamo,” Rico said Friday. “She’s a very positive, hard-working woman. She has a lot of energy, intellectual energy and physical energy.”
Boyer learned how to sculpt during time she spent in Italy in the two decades before she came to L.A. She also a showgirl in Las Vegas, touring with musician Johnny Mathis, and later used her dance experience for films like “The Music Man” and “Viva Las Vegas,” on television through “The Danny Kaye Show” and “The Frank Sinatra Show,” among others, and in musical performances with dancer Donald O’Conner and several others.
“Many of the pieces actually twirl around, so you get that dancing feeling,” Rico said. “We felt like it was two things, her dance and sculpture career in one.”
As she’s evolved from one art form to another, Rico said, Boyer’s not stopping any time soon, with this exhibition designed to encapsulate all of her life’s work into one show.
“I think the main thing that I’ve learned from her, because I’m 62 and have hung out with her, is to really get involved with life,” Rico said. “Get involved with creating and don’t stop creating. Not everybody creates or thinks it’s important to create.”
The exhibit is scheduled to be the featured installation until June 21.
