Baker's dozen is an annual survey of 13 artists who have made an impression over the past year and who reflect the strengths of contemporary practice as seen at various galleries and spaces throughout Los Angeles. Brought together under one roof for the first time this show as an excellent reader for becoming familiar with some current rising stars of the SoCal art scene.

Nathan Redwood, Into White, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 80 inches

Origin (from Wikipedia)
The oldest known source and most probable origin for the expression "baker's dozen" dates to the 13th century in one of the earliest English statutes, instituted during the reign of Henry III (r. 1216-1272), called the Assize of Bread and Ale. Bakers who were found to have shortchanged customers could be liable to severe punishment. To guard against the punishment of losing a hand to an axe, a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat. Specifically, the practice of baking 13 items for an intended dozen was to prevent "short measure", on the basis that one of the 13 could be lost, eaten, burnt, or ruined in some way, leaving the baker with the original dozen. The practice can be seen in the guild codes of the Worshipful Company of Bakers in London.
Especially in America, tradition suggests some customers see it as a sign of appreciation from the baker for continued patronage. During the Depression especially, bakers often gave 13 items to those purchasing an "even dozen", out of generosity and compassion. In societies using 12-base systems, the number 13, as represented by a "longer measure" or "baker's dozen", is seen as auspicious and lucky.

Baker’s Dozen – A Curator’s Thoughts
Group shows are great. I love them. One can see a variety of art within the same space and get an intellectual shortcut, via the curator, into a set of linkages and relationships that can be very rewarding to mentally process deeper for oneself. One-stop shopping for the mind and eye, as it were. Although I am being humorous here (or attempting to be at any rate) it is important to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of these shows. This is not the time, nor place (within this text), to explore these issues further but I would hope that this is a discussion we all have regularly between ourselves when presented with a group of artist’s works.

For anyone in the visual arts, but in particular those who work within the curatorial field, be they museum curator or the occasional organizer of an exhibition, the sheer visual weight of art seen over the course of a year is numbing. For myself I see about 350 exhibitions a year, excluding art fairs. I bow down to anyone who can remember what they have seen over that period. It takes a better memory than mine and so... Baker’s Dozen – a collection assembled from notes, kept postcards, solid impressions, good advice and an assortment of other visual means. Is it damaging to ones reputation to admit some of this? It does not sound logical enough, intellectually rigorous, or professionally determined enough – but perhaps a bit more ‘real’, akin to what I suspect we all do, curator or not. Oh well.

Bakers Dozen is intended to act as a review of sorts. An exhibition that allows one to rethink the works we may have seen alongside those new to us. To think about any trends that may be emerging with artists here in LA. It does not offer a thematic unity – that is for the bulk of our other exhibitions. Baker’s Dozen is a statement of what we find interesting. Of what we have seen that has made myself and the other curatorial staff here stand back and think again.

An historicism perhaps – an active relationship consciously developed in regard to previous art forms or timelines, often from previous centuries. All art does this, of course, but these artist’s seem to be more deliberately aware of those relationships. Can we claim this to be directly related to the sea change feeling of these times – the Obama phenomena that has us all thinking in terms of new beginnings and the weight of the past?

There is a scale symmetry of the work to the human body – a return to a more humanist set of concerns may indicate a building of ties to our own experiences and those we recognize as like us – to the understanding that we are more alike than different perhaps – as a response to war atrocities, prisoner abuses, human rights violations, oppressive governments perhaps? – I cannot say for certain.

A concern with materials and their use, whether as craft or anti-craft - a truth to materials for the 21st century – seems evident too. Is this a recoiling from the lo-fi art of recent years that mimicked the unskilled, that used a studied awkwardness to achieve some sense of ‘authenticity’? Authenticity is a crucial word for artists right now. With the art market collapse what are we really here for? To search for authenticity, to reflect upon a 21st century version of existentialism, does seem to be particularly valid right now.