Erotic Terrains is the inaugural art exhibition from Wienholt Projects that will open its flagship brick-and-mortar space, The Loved One, at 1634 West  Temple Street in Echo Park starting  Friday, June 26, through Friday, July 24.

Erotic Terrains assembles an almost entirely LA-based group of artists working in painting, photography, sculpture, collage, and mixed media. Each artist abstracts and reconfigures landscape and the figure, infusing familiar environments with turbulent emotion. Curated by Aubrie Wienholt, Katelyn Katz, and JC Gabel, the group exhibition features artists Michelle Alexander, Paige Beeber, Jun Fujita, Francesca Gabbiani, Eric Dwight Hancock, Jess Humphrey, Eric Ernest Johnson, Ken Karagozian, Sol Kordich, Amy MacKay, Alex McAdoo, Wyatt Mills, Merrick Morton, Akiko Stehrenberger, Orian Williams, Senon Williams, & Russell Young.

This exhibition marks the official opening of The Loved One, a project by Wienholt Projects and Hat & Beard Press that serves as both a gallery space and an art bookshop in the heart of Echo Park that champions artists across mediums and career stages, bringing together both internationally recognized and emerging voices to draw connections within their practices and contribute to a wider cultural dialogue.

ART

Alta / A Human Atlas for the City of Angels,(Courtesy of Reflect Space Gallery)

ReflectSpace, in partnership with the Getty Conservation Institute, presents Alta / A Human Atlas for the City of Angels, an internationally acclaimed social impact project by UK-based artist Marcus Lyon. The exhibition weaves together portraiture, personal narratives, and ancestral DNA data to map LA’s layered identities through the lives of 100 Angelenos who have made significant contributions to the city. On view through Sunday, July 12, Alta offers a powerful, community-centered exploration of migration, belonging, and the evolving human story of the city. 

Developed over four years, Alta is a research-driven portrait of Los Angeles as one of the most complex and diverse cities in the world. The project began with a year-long, citywide nomination process in which Angelenos identified individuals from within their own communities whose work embodies meaningful contribution and social impact. The resulting 100 participants, spanning artists, activists, educators, scientists, public servants, and community leaders, form a cross-section of the region’s social fabric, each representing a distinct thread in the city’s unfolding narrative.

Through a combination of photographic portraiture, app-based oral histories, and ancestral DNA, Alta constructs a multi-layered map of Los Angeles that extends beyond geography into lived experience. The project reveals patterns of migration, diasporic identity, and intergenerational memory, highlighting the city’s largely unseen intangible heritage, its stories, lineages, and networks of belonging. 

Art

Charlton Heston by Ernie Barnes (Courtesy of The Hollywood Heritage Museum)

The Hollywood Heritage Museum, in partnership with the Motion Picture & Television Fund and the Mary Pickford Foundation, will present The Heart of Hollywood special exhibition honoring the history and mission of the MPTF, an institution that has supported members of the entertainment community for more than a century. Through photos, archival materials, and videos, the exhibit traces the Fund’s evolution from its silent-era origins to its present-day role supporting actors, craftspeople, writers, directors, crew members, and countless behind-the-scenes professionals.

On view Saturday, June 20, through Sunday, August 2, in the Victoria Horne Oakie and Jack Oakie Gallery at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, the exhibition not only highlights MPTF’s more than 100-year legacy but will display artifacts from its archives not normally on view to the public. Some of the featured items include personal mementos of silent film star Mary Pickford, personally owned scripts and astrology reports that belonged to Steve McQueen, one of Paramount’s bankable stars who also once used the Lasky-DeMille Barn as a gym; a painting of Paramount favorite, Charlton Heston by African American artist and former football pro Ernie Barnes (who appeared alongside Charlton Heston in the 1969 Paramount football drama Number One before achieving international acclaim for his celebrated paintings).

Founded in 1921 as the Motion Picture Relief Fund, the organization was conceived by silent screen legend Mary Pickford, alongside industry leaders including Joseph M. Schenck and Reverend Neal Dodd, to assist members of the motion picture community facing illness, financial hardship, or personal crisis.