If you've never been to Cannibal Flower, this weekend's CF @ Hangar 1018 might be something you wanna check out. It's a fun spot packed with entertainment so that you don't just go checkout the art, but you are there to hang out at a big party and see all the new and the latest art in LA :)

Here's the link to the original article that explains what Cannibal Flower's all about. The content below by Allie Ward from Metromix is copied and pasted from the link:

http://losangeles.metromix.com/events/article/q-and-a-l/300603/content

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"Q&A: L. Croskey
We chat with the L.A. multitasker about art...and being whack
By Alie Ward, Metromix
March 26, 2008

Call him:

Dr. Needledropper.
DJ Mr. Numberwonderful.
Living Concept.
L.C.
L. Croskey.

Just don't call him Leonard.

"Only my mom and judges call me that," the gallery owner/DJ/one-time fashion designer/collage artist/curator/former rapper says, leaning back his chair in the tiny but immaculate office of Silverlake's Thinkspace Gallery.

It's an overcast Thursday, and the multitasker has spent the afternoon doing what he does best, being "an art friend to the little guy." His informal, open-door portfolio reviews are much like the monthly Cannibal Flower art shows he helped create: Anyone is welcome. Two artists with oversized binders scamper out the front door after getting some advice on technique and where to show their work.

To anyone who's left the house in the last several years, the Delaware native with the wiry goatee and horn-rimmed glasses has become as much a fixture of the underground art scene as free wine and dirty fingernails. Not only does he organize Cannibal Flower, he also curates Westside art space the Grind, DJs at Nic's in Beverly Hills, and is touring with trip-hop darlings Bittersweet as a producer and DJ. On the day we visit and corner the busy man, he chats about the L.A. art community, how Cannibal Flower got started, and the concept of "whack versus fly."

How's the art scene in Delaware?
There is no art scene in Delaware! Are you kidding? It's just hip-hop, basketball and crack. But the difference with East Coast and West Coast is, out here we ignore the whack and really pay attention to the fly. Even if you're a whack artist here, people just ignore your work and you have a chance to tighten it up and get back in the running. The artists have a chance here, just like actors and actresses have with movies.

What motivated you to start Cannibal Flower as a roving monthly art show?
Jean-Paul Garnier and I were working at Wacko and were into collage, and Michelle Waterman did this kinda mosaic, but there was nowhere for us to show that kind of work. And I was like, "Well, I can put together an art show, have one of my bands play, and I'm gonna DJ. Let's do something without any politics." It was down by MacArthur Park, which was a crack park. But at the first show, we had like 150 people show up. And it was amazing, and just got bigger. And now, oh my god...I've seen shows with like 2000 people in it, lines two hours long. At Cannibal Flower, we charge $8 to get in and then set up the artwork as entertainment. The minute they drop their $8, they get around the corner...you give them the fireworks show.

Do you let any artist in the show, with any piece?
Anybody in the show, with any piece, 'cause it's their chance to just do their thing.

It seems that a lot of artists who have made it into the bigger galleries talk about Cannibal Flower as a starting point. Who's started at Cannibal Flower?
Oh my god [laughs]. And I want you to print all this: Luke Chueh, Joe Ledbetter, Brendan Monroe, Lola, Amy Soul, uh, Chet Zar...oh wow. Thomas Han. Luke Chueh, he was like my assistant!

Why do you think so many people come up from the underground to become so successful?
Before these underground shows, going to a gallery was pretty clinical, like going to a doctor's office. You go in there and you've got some snobby-ass whatever-the-fuck that won't even speak to you, they don't think you've got on the right shoes, and you just feel funny. But I think the underground art scene has brought out the art lovers. And there's a new wave of collectors, not the old guy with the black American Express.

What was it like going from the monthly Cannibal Flower events to co-opening Thinkspace, a brick-and-mortar gallery?
[Co-owners] Andrew and Shawn Hosner pretty much taught me the ropes. I've always been a hustler, and then took that hustler mentality and applied it to helping the artists. And working with Shawn and Andrew, both of them being from a marketing background-they both work at record labels-everything I've learned about this I've learned through them. Like scheduling! Before, I was really laid back [laughs]. There's no room for that now.

How do you feel about gallery shows becoming the new bar scene?
First of all, if you are in L.A. and you're not going to art shows, it's almost insane. Because there's free (or cheap) booze, there's great art, there's beautiful people in beautiful clothes with the lights on and ready for intelligent conversation...Whaaaat? What else can you ask for?

You think you're ever going to leave L.A.?
Man, if I have to say one wonderful thing about this city, it's that it's waiting for the new and fly. It is a land of opportunity, and the people that don't like L.A. need to just get out of L.A. I'm not leaving. I'm so L.A.!

If you haven't been to a Cannibal Flower show, it's indeed insane; stop by the roving event Sat., March 29, held this month at Hangar 1018. Or stop by Thinkspace any Thursday afternoon to chat with L.C. Or catch him behind the decks, spinning at Nic's on Thursday nights...or touring with Bittersweet this spring. (Dude, we told you he was a multitasker.)

Alie Ward is Events editor for Metromix Los Angeles."

http://losangeles.metromix.com/events/article/q-and-a-l/300603/content