Over the past few years we have come across Zach Peabody, an artist and art observer, at the various art fairs throughout the country. Usually when we find him, he's got his camera pointed at the walls of the fair, documenting as much art as he can. When asked what he does with the photos, he mentioned that he puts the thousands of photographs on Facebook to stimulate conversation about the contemporary art world. He described Facebook as, "...a great way of discussing and showing each other art - both for people in art hubs and for people further out." He continued, "Some of the people I chat with or who's profiles I check are often in Australia, New Zealand, France, Greece, or are tenured far from art hubs in the Midwest or the South - sharing images is very useful especially when living in a cultural vacuum."

When we dug deeper into Zach's mission to share the art he comes across at the fairs, he turned us onto another venture, the Culver City Arts District Map (CCAD). After the jump, learn more about the map, created by Black Market's Jana Des Forges, and how Peabody contributes to the local art scene in Los Angeles by documenting the dozens of exhibitions so others can find their way through the region.

New American Paintings asked Zach about the creation of the CCAD Gallery Guide and his ZLIST, and this is what he told us:

"I live about two hours from LA, so when I decided to start looking at art there regularly I had to be very organized about it, so I developed an extensive and personal go-see list. At the time I started looking, Jana Des Forges of BLK/MRKT (Black Market Gallery) was printing, at her own expense, maps of the Culver City Arts District Gallery Guide and distributing them to the galleries there. This map was EXTREMELY helpful to me. Then, years later, when I had befriended some of the gallery owners and would occasionally gallery sit for them, student groups would come thru with a printed version of the online map and I would update it by hand for them (there was a brief span of time after the brick and mortar aspect of BLK/MRKT went on hiatus during which Jana was preoccupied with other aspects of her life, such as building a house and running her graphic design business with her husband, artist Dave Kinsey).

Eventually, I discovered that Jana, the person responsible for the excellent CCAD map, which has been so useful for myself and others, was actually already in my friends list on facebook. We've been collaborating ever since as our little charitable contribution to the arts, as a way of making the geographically sprawling arts scene in LA more navigable - Jana's excellent and well designed map on the front end as the visual appeal, and my list on the back end leading to arts related interests throughout LA. There is absolutely NO WAY I could have pulled the list off without Jana - not only is she the one who really understands graphic design and produces the visual appeal which leads people into the project, she taught me HTML so that I could code changes to the list."

So, if you're in the Culver City area, and looking for art exhibitions, I think you know where to go to find out what is going on. The ZLIST also covers galleries, museums, non-profit spaces, and art fairs beyond its borders. It's a great reference for anyone in the art world, and we recommend you check it out! Also, look up Zach on Facebook and join in the dialogue.