Casa Effie: The Artist’s Live Work of Art

Dan Abramson’s visual art career re-emerged in the late 1980s when he moved into his Silver Lake, Los Angeles home, Casa Effie, in 1987. The house itself was considered his "live work of art".

The move led Abramson back into visual art. Since he was frugal and "had a lot of junk," he began making functional furniture as assemblage. This process of constructing art from found materials, which he found "in the gutters & dumpsters, in heaps of earthquake debris, baking on backroad shoulders" initially resulted in functional art. This furniture was later exhibited in galleries such as Sonrisa in West Hollywood and the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica, marking his return to visual art.

Below is a visual story of Casa Effie, documenting its transformation from a "shithole tear down" into a "curated piece of art". The photo library and archives include photos from the beginning of his journey with Casa Effie, documenting the sweat equity he put into rebuilding it. This documentation captures the way his assemblage work and furniture were integrated into the space.

Much of Dan’s work from his 1980s-2000s phase is signed ‘Casa Effie’, ‘3621’ (the Casa’s address), or a combination of the two.