Industrial Strength

FOR ARTIST ELLIOTT HUNDLEY, WORK AND LIFE COALESCE IN A FORMER FACTORY IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

- MAYER RUS

AS A CHILD GROWING UP in Greensboro, North Carolina, Elliott Hundley formed his conception of how artists live based on cinematic archetypes of painters and sculptors roughing it in bohemian splendor in converted industrial spaces. “I was obsessed with the idea of New York artists in these huge lofts, like Nick Nolte in New York Stories. That was my fantasy of how I wanted to live,” Hundley recalls. The romantic image proved indelible. For the past decade, Hundley has made his home and studio in a former engine factory built in 1907 in the Chinatown neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles.

Sprawling over nearly 18,000 square feet on two levels, the building had functioned as an import warehouse and a sewing shop at various points over the past century. Today, it is a place where art and design slip the bonds of their traditional ghettos to form a kaleidoscopic wonderland of beauty and inspiration—a live-work space where living and working are truly two sides of the same coin.

“I don’t see a difference between functional art and fine art,” says Hundley, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and, more recently, forays into furniture design. “Function is just another layer of meaning,” he continues. “Functionality is a way to create interaction, and I’m always interested in interaction and ways of integrating aesthetic experiences into our daily lives.”