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It was only supposed to last a month—maybe two, tops. That was the understanding George Augusto and Luckey Remington had when George moved into Luckey’s downtown Los Angeles loft while hunting for a new house. George was so confident he’d find a place quickly that he left most of his things in storage and slept on a mattress on the floor. But then a year went by.
“I was unintentionally living a very minimalist lifestyle that whole time,” George says. Luckey laughs at this, saying he was a great tenant who never missed a payment. But one day, after becoming far too familiar with realty sites and “for sale” sign stakeouts, George found the house he intended to call home in the eastside neighborhood of Mount Washington. He just had to figure out a way to distinguish himself from the 40 or so others who wanted it too. “We were all like vultures descending on a dead animal,” George quips. “But that’s the L.A. housing market for you—it’s cutthroat.”
He jokes that perhaps it was the nicely worded message he sent that eventually got him the keys to the property last October. But his tone turns more serious when he speaks of the reasons why he saw himself here. “For me, it was the light,” he says. “When architect Michael Ferguson built this house for himself in 2004, he installed floor-to-ceiling windows and doors on the first floor, so everything is bright. It all feels very calm, and very thoughtful.”
At first, George didn’t necessarily think of his 1,800-square-foot home as anything beyond a long-awaited address. But because of his background—he’s the founder of Dilettante Paper and artistic director of Staud Clothing—it’s no surprise that it eventually became the site of Augusto and Remington, an intimate gallery he opened with Luckey. Celebrated artist Mimi Jung will hold her first exhibition in L.A., “Eleven Minutes From Home,” in the light-filled ground floor and adjoining private courtyard. It will be open by appointment between September 16 and November 24.
“I had been to a few home showings before, and they were always more intimate and fun,” George says of the gallery-meets-private home concept. “We’re not out to replace a white-wall gallery—that’s never going to change—but I think this route mixes things up. It allows artists to see their work in the context of a home, and it hopefully lets visitors hang out with the art in a way that they couldn’t in a more public setting.”
Mimi’s meticulously made pieces, which often feature textural materials like mohair yarn and paper, caught Luckey’s eye when they both rented studio spaces in the same building four years ago. “I always admired her work through the door, but we’re both quiet, private people, so we mostly kept to ourselves,” he remembers. When he and George were thinking about this gallery, Luckey had those past glimpses in mind. George laughs when he says they wrote another nice message, this time to Mimi, hoping for the best.
“I assumed she was going to say no,” George says. “I just thought the odds of saying, ‘Oh, hey, we're starting a gallery in my house, do you want to show?’ was going to get a response of, ‘I've shown in museums, get out of here.’”
Turns out, Mimi liked the same light that originally drew George to the home, and now her colorful sculptures shine in the courtyard sun and cover the walls of an open living space. “I’ve gotten used to having them here,” George says. “I think I’ll be sad when they’re gone.”
For now, he and Luckey have agreed on another two-month stretch of time for their premier exhibition to unfold. But maybe that time frame is debatable too. “If people go crazy for this show, maybe we’ll extend it a month,” George says. “We’re casual—well, unless Mimi wants her work back.”
