Shana Nys Dambrot
Artists and playwrights investigate generational legacies of hope, trauma, classical experimentation and revival, the once and future avant-garde, and pioneering personalities in film, theater, music, and performance art; a proliferation of big, bouncy summer group exhibitions; dancing for joy in a gallery, institutional deconstruction in a museum, seeding nature and home-cooking as metaphors for tending the soul.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen 2023 (Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York)
Thursday, July 6
Artist Film Series: Tuan Andrew Nguyen at MOCA. A screening of The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon followed by a post-screening conversation between artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi. The film explores the ways in which material contains memory and holds potential for transformation, reincarnation, and healing. It was inspired by the people of Quang Tri, on the North Central Coast of Vietnam, which was one of the most heavily bombed areas in the history of modern warfare and where, for multiple generations, its residents have lived with the physical residue and lingering trauma. 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown; Thursday, July 6, 6pm; free w/ rsvp; moca.org.
The New Hollywood String Quartet
The Da Camera Society presents The New Hollywood String Quartet: Summer of Paris at Doheny Mansion. A four-concert chamber music festival featuring 16 chamber music works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel—two French composers at the forefront of impressionist music whose legacies continue to shape our musical landscape today. The New Hollywood String Quartet—violinists Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, violist Robert Brophy, and cellist Andrew Shulman—will be joined by celebrated musicians from around the world at the magnificent Pompeian Room of the Doheny Mansion at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Doheny Campus. 10 Chester Pl., University Park; Thursday-Sunday, July 6-9; $40-$110; dacamerasociety.org.
Romy Nordlinger in Garden of Alla at Theatre West (Photo by David Wayne Fox)
Friday, July 7
Garden of Alla: The Alla Nazimova Story at Theater West. The 1920s was the time of flappers, flamboyance, and the face of Alla Nazimova. Now Nazimova—Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia, Broadway and silent film superstar, visionary Hollywood director and producer, and LGBTQIA trailblazer—lives again in playwright and performer Romy Nordlinger and director Lorca Peress’ new production, using immersive video and original music to invoke the era in a panoramic, live silent-film experience. Late-night screenings of classic Nazimova films celebrate the play, and particularly the 100th anniversary of her revolutionary Salomé. 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Hollywood Hills; Performances July 7-23; Screenings July 8 & 15 following the 8pm performances; $35-$30 includes any screenings, screenings only, $5; theatrewest.org.
Kenrick McFarlane: A Love Letter to Travis II, 2023, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches (Courtesy M+B)
Kenrick McFarlane: META at M+B. At the heart of McFarlane’s work lies a profound exploration of representation, power dynamics, archetypes, and relationships. In META, male and female figures come together in psychologically-charged dreamlike sequences. These enigmatic scenes and figures engage in a complex negotiation with the viewer, erecting barriers that restrict the extent of our voyeuristic gaze, serving as conduits for the ways in which the mind processes the world and how it reconciles with one’s own fantasies, suppressed desires, and unsettling thoughts. 612 N. Almont Dr., West Hollywood; Opening reception: Friday, July 7, 6-9pm; On view through August 12; free; mbart.com.
Grace Brooks, 1-900-HOT-TALK, 2023, Oil on canvas 12×12 (Courtesy of La Luz de Jesus)
Saturday, July 8
Everything But The Kitchen Sink at La Luz de Jesus. The world-famous annual open-call group exhibition opens a glorious new edition this weekend, featuring new work by 100 artists selected from almost 1000 applications. If you think 230 pieces of vibrant, eclectic, adorable, transgressive, materially inventive, stylistically outrageous, surreal, surreptitious, subversive, sexy-time, politically engaged, street- and Pop-infused art is a lot, they saw 2300 to make it happen. 4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz; Opening reception: Saturday, July 8, 4-9pm; On view through August 28; free; laluzdejesus.com.
Derek Fordjour: Anniversary, 2023, acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, oil pastel, and foil on newspaper mounted on canvas, 62 1-4 x 92 1-4 in (Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery)
20th Anniversary Group Show at David Kordansky Gallery. An up-to-the-moment snapshot of the gallery’s program, highlighting the dialogues, correspondences, and distinctions between the members of its diverse community of artists. Featuring many works created especially for this occasion, the exhibition provides windows into the minds of artists who interact with the world, their chosen materials, and their ideas and impressions in singular ways; it also provides a window into a collective experience of artmaking at this particular time, when the world of art has undergone profound structural, geographic, economic, and social changes. 5130 W. Edgewood Pl., Mid-Wilshire; Opening reception: Saturday, July 8, 6-8pm; On view through August 19; free; davidkordanskygallery.com.
Esraa Warda
Raï Dance Performance at Oxy Arts. Artist and educator Esraa Warda and percussionist Fella Oudane perform in conjunction with the current exhibition, for the sake of dancing in the street. Raï is a popular, grass-roots music of West Algeria associated with social protest. Raï music is rebel blues – it challenges the religious, the colonial, the social, and the acceptable status quo and therefore has been historically disenfranchised by colonialists and local Algerian nation-state. Despite its marginalization, it has been a symbol of soulfulness, freedom, and groove. Prior to the performance, Esraa Warda will be teaching a free Raï dance workshop for participants of all experience levels. 4757 York Blvd., Eagle Rock; Saturday, July 8, 6pm; free; oxyarts.oxy.edu.
Gala Porras-Kim at the Fowler Museum
Gala Porras-Kim: The weight of a patina of time at the Fowler Museum. Porras-Kim’s in-depth explorations of the uncertain histories of ancient objects reimagines their pasts while charting new possibilities for their present and futures. The exhibition will feature a combination of existing large-scale pieces and new smaller works, some making their Los Angeles debut. All address the challenges of maintaining knowledge over centuries in shifting institutional contexts, documenting Porras-Kim’s interventions into systems of classification and knowledge production. 308 Charles E. Young Dr., Westwood; Opening reception: Saturday, July 8, 6-9pm; On view through October 29; free; fowler.ucla.edu.
Paper doll, about 1940s, Barbara T. Smith (Getty Research Institute)
Happy Birthday, Barbara! at the Getty Center. Celebrate legendary performance artist Barbara T. Smith’s 92nd birthday! Artists and friends—Dark Bob, Nancy Buchanan, Sigrid Burton, Cheri Gaulke, Michael Masucci, Glenn Phillips, Lisa Williamson, Barbara T. Smith (herself!) and more—will honor Smith with stories, films, and memories to accompany their experiences shared in Smith’s autobiography The Way to Be: A Memoir (2023). This program complements the exhibition Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be, on view at the Getty through July 16. The program will be followed by a reception with cake and champagne. 1200 Getty Center Dr., Brentwood; Saturday, July 8, 4pm; free w/ rsvp; getty.edu.
Jess Gudiel, Paviinokre (Fluidity : We Flow) (still), 2021 (Courtesy of LACE)
Sunday, July 9
Seed Exchange Workshop with Jess Gudiel at LACE. The Broadcasting Seeds of Resistencia: A non monetary exchange honoring Seed Sovereignty seed exchange workshop takes place during the closing of LACE’s 2023 Emerging Curator exhibition, Of Seed, Soil, and Stars: Meditations on Land, Body, Resistance, and Regeneration. The seed swap will follow a viewing of Paviinokre (Fluidity / We Flow), a film narrating the Tongva creation story of The Seven Sisters. Paviinokre is a collaboration between Gudiel and Tina Orduno Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Yoeme). Bring your non-GMO seeds to trade and share (horti)cultural knowledge. No one will be turned away for lack of seeds. USC Roski Studios Building, 3001 S. Flower St., downtown; Sunday, July 9, 1-3pm; free; welcometolace.org.
Wednesday, July 12
Stew at Pasadena Playhouse. Mama’s in the kitchen early preparing her famous stew for a big event, but even as her daughters and granddaughter help, she still feels like time is running out. Soon these three generations of Black women begin to feel their past and present closing in. A finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Zora Howard’s hilarious, haunting, and taut 90-minute drama has a lot more cooking underneath the surface. 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Performances July 12 – August 6; $35; pasadenaplayhouse.org.
Ari Nichol, Reflector, 2023, Oil on wood panel, 12 x 12 in (Courtesy of La Luz de Jesus)
Bibi Davidson, Thumbelina, 2023, Acrylic on wood, 12 x 12 in (Courtesy of La Luz de Jesus)
Andrea Hooge, Kitty Puppeteer, 2023, Oil paint on cradled panel, 12 x 12 in (Courtesy of La Luz de Jesus)
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