Joshua Tree’s 25th HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tours Features Sculptures by Former Topangan Ben Allannof
Topangans and Santa Monica Mountain residents are often regular visitors to Joshua Tree. Some even have a second home there. Less than three hours’ drive away, it’s a great place to go for a weekend.
There’s a good reason to head there this October: the 25th HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tours begins this weekend, and this year’s event is even bigger and better than previous ones, featuring a record 226 artists across 141 studios over three weekends: October 3–4, 10–11, 17–18.
Obviously, canyon locals will be touring the Open Studios of Topanga on the weekend of October 3-4 from 10 am to 6 pm (see separate article by Chloe Chapman), but for those who have a taste for art and travel, and like a well-organized tour, the 25th HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tours may be just the thing.
One of the featured artists is former Topanga resident sculptor Ben Allannoff. Ben moved to Joshua Tree from Topanga in 2017. He works primarily with plant material, found objects, steel, and wire. Ben’s work ranges in size from tabletop to large-scale installations for public parks, botanical gardens, and other indoor and outdoor spaces.
Before Ben became an acclaimed and eminently collectible sculptor in Joshua Tree, he chaired the Topanga Creek Watershed Committee for ten years, and ran the 2012 “Stop the Poison” campaign that convinced Caltrans to cease using herbicide along Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
While tirelessly helping to protect our local environment, Ben also made art out of these mountains. Between 2016 and 2018, he built four installations for the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains NRA, including two summers at Peter Strauss Ranch where he made art woven entirely from arundo donax—the same invasive reed volunteers keep hauling out of Topanga Creek.
Ben is now artist-in-residence at the Simi Dabah Sculpture Foundation—he founded its annual RustFest—and he opens his studio for the HWY 62 Art Tours.
Before we talk about Ben Allannoff’s art and this tour, why did he move from Topanga to Joshua Tree?
“I moved to Joshua Tree in large part because I needed flat outdoor space. I was in the early days of my work making large-scale outdoor installations for parks and gardens, and I found it useful to pre-build my sculptures off-site prior to installation.
“In Joshua Tree, I have acres to play on, with sky and mountains all around, so that is a huge help to me. I already knew I loved the beautiful and inspiring desert landscape, after many years of camping trips and work as a location scout, but I was happily surprised to discover the vibrant artist community here.”
Ben lived in an oak grove in Topanga and his house was up in the bird-filled branches.
“I miss the birds and the oaks every day,” he said.
He says there are similarities between Joshua Tree and Topanga, with both seeming to attract creative people, nature-lovers, and those who actively support their environment and community. “My kind of people,” said Ben, who feels it’s important for him to open his studio to the HWY 62 tours.
“The HWY 62 tour is a great opportunity to connect with visitors from across Southern California,” said Ben. “People come by because they have seen my work somewhere and they like something about it. In my studio, we can talk in depth about what goes into my work and what it sparks in them —which is the whole reason for making and buying art, to experience that spark.”
Ben’s main focus has always been large-scale outdoor sculpture. “The tour has pointed me towards making smaller pieces that people can pop in the car and take home with them, which has been a great activity for me between bigger jobs, and has also led to gallery shows.
“I usually have an interactive/collaborative installation on my property during the Art Tours, so visitors can take a break from absorbing what the tour artists are making and actually get creative themselves for a bit. It’s always something easy and fun for people of all ages and abilities, usually weaving sticks to make a giant sculpture, and people seem to enjoy it a lot, which brings me joy too.”
Ben’s art is inspired by a reverence for the natural world, a desire to catalyze connections among people, and between people and nature. Back in his Topanga days, Ben used to pull rusted steel objects out of Topanga Creek and save them for no reason that he could ever name.
“Years later, I weld them into my sculptures, so art tour visitors can now see actual pieces of Topanga history in the art in my gallery.”
Ben Allannoff is sharing Studio #28 on the HWY 62 Studio Tours with the Simi Dabah Sculpture Foundation at 5255 Sunfair Road, Joshua Tree, CA 92252 on the corner of 4th and Sunfair.
What began as a modest art fair in 2000 has grown to become the largest open studio event in Southern California. This annual multi-disciplinary desert-wide open studio event takes place across the gateway communities of the Joshua Tree National Park. Artists working in all media open their studio doors to share their process and bodies of work. The volume of work represents art for every taste and every price range.
The art tour organizers recommend starting your desert adventure with a visit to the Art Tours Collective Show at the Hi-Desert Artists Gallery in Yucca Valley. It’s an opportunity to see a sampling of work by most of the artists on the tour. The collective show runs through October 18.
This year, the festivities don’t end when the sun sets. Art Tours After Dark will be spotlighting the local music scene on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights of the three Art Tours weekends. There will be over 40 performances taking place at nine local venues across the basin.
Not all studios are open all three weekends, so double-check before heading out. Forgive my telling you something you probably already know, but the organizers have asked me to remind you that October in the desert can go from warm to chilly pretty quickly, so dress in layers and remember to stay hydrated.
Although most of the studios are located along paved roads, some are situated off the beaten path in inspirational spots accessible by unpaved dirt roads. GPS will work fine for most of the studios, but watch for the red NO GPS icon on some of the studio listings. See the website for turn by turn directions for studios marked with the NO GPS icon. The Art Tours website also offers interactive tools to do a deeper dive for better planning. Visit the website for more information, maps and other helpful tips.
The HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tours mobile app is also available from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Admission to all the studios is free, but tickets are required for the musical events: hwy62arttours.org benallanoff.com hwy62arttours.org/get-a-catalog-1 joshuatreemusicfestival.com
