A Minute with Katie Nartonis

Hi! This is a newsletter about artists I like.

I began acquiring art through some friends that worked in galleries. I started small, working on a limited budget, for stuff I could afford. As time passed, my collection grew, and it was exciting to watch many of the artists I'd collected go on to bigger shows and critical acclaim. My goal with this newsletter is to make a digestible resource for anyone interested in artists that are making great (and still affordable!) work, whom you haven't heard about... yet.

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I came across Katie Nartonis on Instagram most likely from the Insta algo a decade or so ago after I left working for this craft/design gallery in LA….most likely because it similar artists we were both interested in…..the Ackerman’s, JB Blunk, Gary Knox Bennett, and some other people. Katie’s work/posts would show up on the feed and I was always curious what her next project would be. After seeing some posts on Jack Rogers Hopkins I figured this would be an ideal time to find out more on Katie and her focus on bringing more attention to the wizardry of Hopkins’ and his life.

Little did I know that Katie is the President of the Sam Maloof Foundation Board and a writer, curator, film maker. Some people are a bit more humble on social media and I’m glad I got to talk to Katie and hear about all the amazing things she has done and still doing. Thanks Katie!

Can u chat about your background in the arts and what got you started? 

KN: Lucky for me, In 1993 my first LA roommate was Peter Loughrey. Within a few years of our meeting Pete would found LAMA, Los Angeles Modern Auctions.  In the early days of LAMA, Pete and his wife Shannon would ask their best friends to help them run their 20^th Century design auctions. We’d pitch in setting up the auction previews and bidding with clients over the phone.

After a decade working in film and television animation, I joined LAMA full time in 2000.

It was an exciting time. Peter was a visionary whose passion for mid-century design single-handedly helped create the current national obsession in 20^th Century design. He championed designers like George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and George Nakashima - to name a few.

I came to the auction experience with an Art history degree in hand - but I feel like I learned the most working day-in-and-day-out with the fantastic Peter Loughrey. Tragically, Peter passed in 2020 at the age of 52 from cancer.

For the last 25 years plus I’ve handled thousands of examples, from Sam Maloof rocking chairs to the Playboy Magazine art archives. After LAMA, I went on to work at Butterfields & Butterfields, Bonhams and finally at Heritage Auctions as International Consignment Director/Specialist, 20^th Century Design. Today, I help clients bring their valuable collections to auction - as a consultant.

A child of the 1960’s and 1970’s, I’ve always been drawn to the hand-made furniture, ceramics, jewelry and textiles made in the post war period. I started to travel up and down the California coast from Marin County to San Diego to meet these legendary designers and makers. Eudorah Moore’s “California Design” series was my guide. Many of these important makers she championed were still alive and I tracked them down to hear their stories and to “sit at their knee.”

I’ve been able to help document and celebrate the stories of Jerry and Evelyn Ackerman, Larry Bell, Michael Arntz, Garry Knox Bennett, J.B. Blunk, Art Carpenter, Michael Cooper, Charles Hollis-Jones, John Nyquist and Pamela Weir-Quiton. In 2009 I founded the Bonhams Design Lecture series. Our first event featured legendary furniture maker Sam Maloof and ceramicist Otto Heino. In 2015, I co-curated “Marx Rising” on the counter-culture New Mexico feather-artist Nicki Marx at Reform Gallery with Gerard O’Brien.

Since moving to the Joshua Tree area in the California Desert in 2019, I’ve been an arts writer, gallerist, curator and film maker. Both of my documentary films: “In Tandem: The Life and Work of Jerry and Evelyn Ackerman” and “Jack Rogers Hopkins: California Design Maverick” have premiered at Palm Springs Modernism Week in 2020 and 2023. In 2023 I curated “Edwin + Lloyd” about Mentalphysics Founder Edwin Dingle and architect Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.)  who together created the architectural treasures at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center.

I used to manage a gallery a while back and I recall seeing Jack Rogers Hopkins work in the shop for the first time and was blown away. Can you talk about him and his work? I’d love to hear about the exhibit you are putting on and how that came to be? 

KN: Jack Rogers Hopkins was a real polymath. He was a ceramicist, painter, jewelry designer and maker, sculptor and furniture maker. He taught art at San Diego State College/San Diego State and influenced generations of makers. Famed San Diego furniture designer/maker Wendy Murayama studied with Jack in the 1970’s. John Vugrin, who designed the interior of the Kellog/Doolittle house in Joshua Tree notes the influence his professor Jack Hopkins had on his career.

In 2012/2013 my team at Bonhams offered a beautiful Jack Rogers Hopkins Edition Chair for sale at auction. It hammered for $40,000. Not long after that sale, I drove to San Diego to meet with Hopkins’ widow Esther. Esther Hopkins and her children Ann and David entrusted me with his story and the Jack Hopkin’s archives in 2013. Since that meeting, I have been pleased to publish a Hopkins’ book, a documentary film and now the upcoming exhibit: Jack Rogers Hopkins: California Design Maverick.

For our readers that may not live in a big city and have access to top galleries and museums, what are some resources you recommend for people to gain a bit more knowledge in contemporary art/design etc.

KN: I’m a lover of books and films on artists, designers and makers. Our home is filled with stacks of art and design books. When I’m writing, my desk is surrounded by books open to quotes that inspire me and that relate to the subject I’m thinking about. I’d encourage folks to build a design library and follow their muse, accessing the stories that now exist about artists, designers and makers.

My film on LA design duo Evelyn and Jerry Ackerman and my film on Jack Rogers Hopkins can be purchased thru the Maloof Foundation museum store:

What’s a typical day like for you as you prepare for this exhibit? 

KN: We are getting really close to having the Hopkins’ exhibit finished. I’ve been traveling to the Maloof Foundation from Joshua Tree a few days a week to work on setting up the exhibit. It’s a 2 hour drive each way – so lots of thinking time.

We are installing the wall graphics, timeline and object labels this weekend. We just received the Hopkins exhibit catalogue from the printer today – it looks great. We put the LACMA Hopkins environmental piece on the cover (LACMA acquired the piece from Reform Gallery).

The Hopkins exhibit will open on February 25^th, during Palm Springs Modernism Week 2024 with a first look at the Jack Rogers Hopkins exhibit and a special tour of the Sam Maloof hand-built home and gardens. The opening for the general public is on March 10, from 2-5pm. The Jack Rogers Hopkins: California Design Maverick exhibit will be open through September 28, with the galleries open on Friday and Saturdays.

Go to Maloof Foundation for more info.

Who should we have on next? 

KN: I’d talk to Jeffrey Head who is my co-editor on the Hopkins book/catalogue. His next project is the AP Pottery book and exhibit to open at AMOCA in the Fall of 2024. He’s a very thoughtful, careful writer and researcher who has written on Wallace Neff, Paul Evans and others.