Shana Nys Dambrot
The play of light and color, data-mined political abstraction, computer-aided kaleidoscopic composition, paintings about intimacy with the world, collaborative improvisation at a distance, world fusion sonic experiences in the park, sculptural interventions in the botanical garden, a popup in support of the most vulnerable, an auction in support of public health, performative video projections with puppetry, and vintage-inspired fantasy film.
Les Biller at LA TATE Gallery
Thursday, April 14
Les Biller: Out of the Past at LA TATE Gallery. An exhibition of paintings exploring natural light and color in still lifes, landscapes and figures with personal, geographic, and cultural meanings woven into their optimistic compositions. The exhibit includes works from the Domestic Paintings period, the Monumental Still Life period and the Woman Cycle paintings. Biller’s paintings are celebrations of sensations and experiences that meditate on the ever-changing relationship between color and light and the playful, at times tenuous, and above all romantic interplay between the two. 4816 W. Adams Blvd., West Adams; Opening: Thursday, April 14, 4-8pm; On view through June 25; free; latategallery.com.
Still from “Maggie” at Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles
Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles Spring Showcase at Laemmle’s Monica. A night of community, poetry, and short films highlighting Irish artists in Los Angeles and beyond. The Time Before Now will focus on Irish & Irish-American writers whose work deals with memory and the past in new and innovative work. Guests will receive a free copy of a small surprise publication provided by Poetry Ireland. The Irish Film Showcase, featuring some of Ireland’s most exciting filmmakers, including world premieres and the Irish Short Reel Series, is a curated selection of award winning new drama, comedy, animation and storytelling. It all kicks off with an early mixer at Flower Child next door to the theater. 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica; Thursday, April 14, 5-9:30pm; free; ciacla.com.
By Ear at TSA: Kirsten Lamb, Studio wall with Moon, Observatory, Arctic Landscape, Parabolic Curves (#8), 30 x 22 in, acrylic on canvas, 2021. Matthias Moravek, Storm, contained in a square, 79″ x 79″, charcoal on paper, 2022
By Ear at Tiger Strikes Asteroid. In music, playing by ear is a term for performing a piece from memory and intuition rather than from a proper score. By Ear takes inspiration from this concept and uses it as a model for collaboration between visual artists from Berlin and Los Angeles/New York. Each artist made a new artwork based solely on audio descriptions of an existing artwork created by artists from the other cities. It is an exercise in interpretation and imagination and willfully limited communication in an age defined by fluid and constant contact. Bendix Building, 1206 Maple, downtown; Opening: Thursday, April 14, 6-8pm; On view through May 7; free; tigerstrikesasteroid.com.
PSJM: American Democracy at Building Bridges
PSJM: American Democracy at Building Bridges Art Exchange. An installation of 59 paintings form a portrait of America’s political history rendered as hard-edge geometry. Spanish collective PSJM emphasizes developing its own language within the field of abstraction, a style that PSJM calls “social geometry” in which intensive geometric compositions are generated from scrutinizing statistics and data. These are therefore paintings that can be read. The realization of this project involved rigorous research on the presidential elections throughout United States history, providing a timeline to make a large installation that visually shows the fluctuations of a democratic system. Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica; Opening: Thursday, April 14, 6-8:30pm; free; buildingbridgesartexchange.org.
Jonathan Chapline: Displaced Interior, 2022. Acrylic and flashe on canvas over panel, 60 x 72 inches (The Hole)
Jonathan Chapline: Sprawl at The Hole. The inaugural solo presentation in the NYC gallery’s new 8000-square foot Hollywood location activates the space with several large wall works that explode Chapline’s signature nuanced maximalist style into new dimensions of scale and perspective. His striking polymorphous work is inspired as much by mid-century modern architecture as by early computer software. Though his paintings derive from life studies, they are imbued with the perspectival ingenuity of a computer program, allowing the artist to tilt, drag, and reconstitute the layout from every conceivable angle in meticulously hand-painted works. 844 N. La Brea, Hollywood; Opens Thursday, April 14; free; theholenyc.com.
Joey Feldman: Cubism & Espresso at PAC
Joey Feldman: Cubism & Espresso at PAC (Virtual). A collection of unique and deeply personal new artworks expressing a mix of contradictions — bright and moody, bold and soft, focused and calculated, chaotic and real, all with an essence of tongue-in-cheek humor. Created at a time of great personal loss and growth, as Feldman puts it, “Over the last year and a half, I was trying to take my time. Striving to work at the same pace as my mind which typically moves much faster — all to allow the paintings to grow in an organic and authentic way.” Using a mix of various mediums such as Venetian plaster, pastel, oil, acrylic, metallic pigments, and ink, all presented on either archival clay board, canvas, and paper deepens the patience and thoughtfulness in each one of these paintings and in the stories they have to tell. Live online from April 14 at privateartconsulting.com.
The Growth Eternal
Friday, April 15
Clockshop: Listening by Moonlight at LA State Historic Park. Clockshop’s celebrated quarterly program featuring performances and immersive sound experiences that activate the park with moments of reflection, connection, and joy within the context of a community green space. This edition welcomes The Growth Eternal (jazz bassist, vocodorist, producer/songwriter/composer, artist and activist Byron Crenshaw) and Qu’ran Shaheed, a pianist, poet, singer and songwriter with an innovative, highly personal and experimental style incorporating elements of improvisation as well as neo-classical and neo-soul techniques. 1245 N. Spring St., downtown; Friday, April 15, 5-7pm; $5 suggested donation; clockshop.org.
Tim Biskup: You’ll Never Know, Vol. 2 at Faceguts
Tim Biskup: You’ll Never Know, Vol. 2 at Faceguts. Biskup’s practice is focused mainly on abstract and figurative painting, but extends into sculpture, printmaking, editions, curation, publishing and music. His complex color and design theories pushed forward an aesthetic which has continued to develop and morph over the years, alongside an output that has become increasingly curious and eclectic. In February 2017 he opened a small gallery space called Face Guts in Glassell Park, where he continues to host group shows, spontaneous gatherings, and performances showcasing his own work and that of his artist community. Tonight, it’s Biskup’s turn again, with a new exhibition of haunting graphite drawings and a limited edition zine-format catalog. 4136 Verdugo Rd., Glassell Park; Friday, April 15, 5-8pm; free; timbiskup.com.
Your (Un)Natural Garden at Descanso (Photo courtesy of Art Mafia)
Saturday, April 16
Your (Un)Natural Garden at Descanso. Artist Adam Schwerner asks visitors to please touch the art in Your (Un)natural Garden — an experience like nothing Descanso has presented before. Presented in collaboration with JUST Design, Art Mafia, and Pink Sparrow, the installations at the Sturt Haaga Gallery, Boddy House, and throughout the landscape will engage visitors’ senses and invite participation as archways created with found materials lead to the art gallery and house, where exploring the rooms yields delightful surprises like hundreds of bells playing, silver rooms, audio environments, and feather boas growing from the ceiling. 1418 Descanso Dr., La Canada Flintridge; On view April 18-January 8; free with regular admission, $15; descansogardens.org.
James Griffith: Horn-Lock, Fellow Travelers, tar and titanium white on canvas, 48×36, 2021 (Craig Krull)
James Griffith at Craig Krull Gallery. Griffith creates darkly poetic works that are made with tar rather than paint, and often depict the very flora and fauna most threatened by the climate change exacerbated by our use of fossil fuels. In this series, Griffith examines his “sense of place in the universe, orbiting a small sun, on a tiny planet, as part of a network of life. I ask if we can recognize ourselves in the eyes of other species who are fellow passengers on this elliptical ride. Animals began appearing in my work when I read Darwin’s books about evolution and extinction. I began to see other species with the same importance I afford to human beings.” Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica; Opening: Saturday, April 16, 5-7pm; On view through May 28; artist talk April 30; free; craigkrullgallery.com.
Laura Krifka: Containment, 2022. Oil on panel, 40 x 40 in (Luis De Jesus)
Evita Tezeno: My Life, My Story; Laura Krifka: Still Point; Nancy Evans: Moonshadow, at Luis De Jesus. Tezeno is known for her depictions of characters in harmonious everyday scenes inspired by her family, friends and acquaintances, as well as personal dreams and moments from her adult life, in richly patterned hand-painted paper and found-object collage paintings. Krifka carefully constructs intimate narratives that deftly employ the power of the gaze in a new series that delves into psychological realms of the self, navigating the relationship between shifting identities. Evans brings together her series of Moon paintings made between 2014-20 for the first time — cosmic paintings that take inspiration from the sublime forces of nature. 1110 Mateo St., downtown; Opening: Saturday, April 16, 5-8:30pm; On view through May 28; free; luisdejesus.com.
Felipe Baeza: Xipe Totec (Adiós a Calibán). Collage on paper, 7×5 inches, 2021 in Border Kindness at Charlie James Gallery (Image Courtesy Maureen Paley, London)
Shizu Saldamando: Respira and Us: An Art Event to Benefit Border Kindness at Charlie James Gallery. Saldamando’s show is organized around a series of eight new portraits made during the Covid period that constitute a breakthrough in Saldamando’s painting practice, supported by a new video piece and a collaborative series of objects made with Los Angeles-based artist Maria Maea Garcia. Border Kindness’ grassroots community-based response on the US-Mexico border includes the Children’s Empowerment Center, a program for vulnerable children in Mexicali providing food, medical and dental care, clothing, technology and tutors, as well as art materials and classes. Artists who have donated to the show & sale include Devendra Banhart, Salomón Huerta, Samuel Levi Jones, Patrick Martinez, Devin Reynolds, Betsabeé Romero, Felipe Baeza, and Shizu Saldamando. 969 & 961 Chung King Road, Chinatown; Opening receptions: Saturday, April 16, 6-9pm; Saldamando on view through May 28; Us open this weekend only; free; cjamesgallery.com.
Phoebe Hart: Where Will She Go? at Automata
How Light Enters My Home at Automata. Six Los Angeles-based artists present a series of works over the course of two weekends. The first weekend features a collection of projection/video installations by Erica Sheu (徐璐), Phoebe Hart, Gavati Wad, Nehal Vyas, and 莫茹杰 (Rujie Mo); while the second weekend focuses on a single live overhead projection/video workshop performance currently being devised by Brooke Harbaugh with Gavati Wad and Olivia Xing 邢淅璇. All pieces pair film/video with an element of liveness, merging pre-recorded work with the spontaneity of a moment. 504 Chung King Ct., Chinatown; Saturday-Sunday, April 16, 5-8pm, Sunday, April 17, 3-6pm; Saturday, April 23, 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm; free w/ timed-entry rsvp; automatala.org.
Ed Ruscha: Main Street, 1990 (Gemini GEL) in the Venice Art Walk Auction
Sunday, April 17
Venice Art Walk + Auction Opening Weekend Celebration. For more than 40 years, Venice Family Clinic Art Walk & Auction has been an iconic community tradition in Los Angeles, harnessing the power of the local, national and international art community to advance greater health equity. This year’s event has been reimagined to incorporate both in-person and online ways to engage with the artworks and support the Clinic’s mission. The contemporary art silent auction, which will be live at artsy.net from April 15 to May 1, features over 200 art works by established, mid-career and emerging artists, including Gary Baseman, Andrea Bowers, Rosson Crow, FriendsWithYou, Lauren Greenfield, KAWS, Ed Ruscha, Analia Saban, Brenna Youngblood and many more. But this year they offer an in-person experience to view and bid on art works at a gallery exhibition space in Santa Monica. 395 Santa Monica Pl., Santa Monica; Opening weekend events with coffee, treats, and free goodies for the first 50 visitors on each day: Saturday-Sunday, April 16-17, 2-5pm; On view: April 15 – May 1, noon-6pm daily; free; venicefamilyclinic.org.
Zoe Beloff’s The Tramp’s New World at 2220 Arts + Archives
Wednesday, April 20
The Tramp’s New World at 2220 Arts + Archives. A special screening of Zoe Beloff’s The Tramp’s New World (2021, 62 min.) followed by an in-person Q&A with the filmmaker. Beloff’s latest film is about the American writer and film critic James Agee and an unrealized screenplay he wrote in 1948 for his lifelong hero, Charlie Chaplin. Based on Agee’s original notes, Beloff’s interpretation of his “thought experiment” focuses on the writer’s imaginative journey and the possibility of imagining a peaceful, post-capitalist society arising out of devastation. Also screening is In the Street by Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb and James Agee (1948, 16 min.), featuring images of street life in New York City’s Spanish Harlem in the 1940s. 2220 Beverly Blvd., Westlake; Wednesday, April 20, 7:30pm; $12; 2220arts.org.
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