Tucked back into a corner of a parking lot off Monterey Street stands AGD Architecture + Design, Cal Poly architecture graduate Andrew Goodwin‘s firm, and connected to it is his retail operation, MYLR Bookstore and Gallery, which you really have to look for to find. It’s worth the search because right now, a collection of small watercolor paintings by famed Modernist architect and artist Lawrence Scarpa is hanging in the gallery.
“This is a really important show for me because Larry is, first, an award-winning architect in the United States; a very powerful leader in LA’s affordable housing movement; and Brooks + Scarpa, his firm, has done wonderful things,” Goodwin said. “Larry is also an artist who’s been practicing since his 20s—probably before then, actually, but in his 20s he was painting in watercolors in Italy while he was on fellowship to pay for his studies, so he’s been doing this his whole practice.”
How did Goodwin and MYLR score this important show?
“When he said in casual conversation, ‘Hey, do you want to show my work? I haven’t really had an opportunity to do it.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ because some of the stuff he’s painted in the past is in the Smithsonian Archives and other places that are very well known, but he’s never done a true show like this. It’s a perfect setup because of our architecture and our bookstore—the conversation between architect and art.”
Scarpa’s paintings are fairly small watercolors—ranging from 5.5-by-8.5 inches to 12-by-9, with a few larger works—but instead of the pale pastel of a lot of watercolors, they’re saturated with pigment, making them extremely bright and rich. Many of them are reminiscent of a combination between David Hockney’s brightly colored LA landscapes from the 1990s and Richard Diebenkorn’s city- and landscapes from the ’50s and ’60s. They’re bright and whimsical and geometric. There’s also a deeply charming monochromatic painting of a cow and calf.
“He calls the show Wide Open, and the paintings go between this conversation of his Italian landscapes that he’s done in his travels through Italy, and a conversation he did in California as well, painting things like the Zaca … Fire, the hills above Santa Barbara and whatnot,” Goodwin explained.
Considering Scarpa’s impressive career, he could probably get a show just about anywhere. Why SLO and the MYLR Gallery?
“I actually love it up there,” Scarpa said by phone. “I’ve been there quite a few times and we like being there. I like staying downtown and walking around. It’s a beautiful area, and it’s got a strong design community, a strong arts community. Size doesn’t really matter to me that much. I like to go to places I like. Andrew, too, with his gallery is doing great stuff. The combination of doing books, art, and architecture is really interesting and creative. All of those things combined make it an interesting and unique place.”
Was Scarpa inspired by Hockney and Diebenkorn?
“That’s flattering,” Scarpa said. “First, I love them both. I’ve looked at Hockney and Diebenkorn amongst others. It’s hard not to get that subliminally if not directly, but I did not think about it that way. To some degree, I like to paint what I know is there, not necessarily what I see. I think that’s related as well. It allows you to abstract it a little and see it in a different way.”
It’s also worth noting that his watercolor technique is atypical for the medium.
“So I’ve been told,” he said with a laugh. “I tell people I’ve had zero formal training as a painter. Sometimes that’s a good thing because you do your own kind of style. I have a friend who’s a very good sumi painter, traditional Japanese sumi, and he does these classes, and I sometimes do them with him, and he’s intrigued and appalled all at the same time because I started doing his sumi ink class in ways never seen before.
“My nature is to be a bit more exploratory and try things and be open to other ways of expression.”
Even though he’s had no formal painting classes, his innate talent was enough to help him survive poverty in Italy as a young man. He was in the country on an architecture fellowship, and when it ended, he wasn’t ready to leave. He was also broke. He began selling paintings he’d made in the previous year.
He befriended a restaurant owner named Amedeo who agreed to give him credit in his restaurant until he got a job. When it was time to square up, Amedeo instead commissioned a big painting and hung it in his restaurant.
“I didn’t go back for a while,” Scarpa recalled, “but the next time I went back, he had a boatload of commissions for me from his friends and people who had come into the restaurant. I was doing better making paintings than I was working a job.”
How does he hope people will interact with or react to these small works?
“I do them as a personal expression. I’ve had shows and exhibits in the past, but I’ve never made a real attempt to put my work in other people’s hands. I think art is better when other people enjoy and have it. I want to do that more and get it out and let other people have it. I hope people enjoy the freedom that’s there.”
Goodwin is certainly happy to have the opportunity to share Scarpa’s work.
“This is a really nice treat for San Luis Obispo, first because we try to cater to locals, but having somebody from LA that wanted to be here is really flattering,” Goodwin said. “All the paintings are for sale, and he priced them reasonably. He wants people to enjoy his work.”
The bookstore/gallery is an inviting space, at times filled with Cal Poly architecture students, who frequently gather there.
“We like that we’re hidden,” Goodwin smiled. “We used to be right next to Nautical Bean on High Street, so we enjoy being tucked back here.” Δ
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Health & Wellness 2025.