An innovative exhibition that ups the ante on the big summer group show format, the Armory Show and Tell invites artists not to be in the show but to be the show themselves. Over the course of July and August, individual artists have been coming to the armory and welcoming the first 20 people through the door on any given day to witness and/or participate in one-hour performances and/or workshops speaking to the nature of their art. A total of 35 artists, including Tracy Nakayama, Ruby Osorio, Gina Osterloh, Shirley Tse, Matt Wardell, Alice Könitz and Edgar Arceneaux, have been taking part; David Earle designed an expanding system for exhibiting the results. The workshops ended Aug. 31 but the exhibition will continue to grow, culminating in a closing party Sept. 21 that also features a live petting zoo and a presentation by artist/scholar Micol Hebron on the nature of the “cute” aesthetic and its unsettling applications in our social and sexual discourse. But first, the final week of participatory sessions starts Aug. 28 with Stephanie Allespach's Tainted Love: Totem, a collaborative sculptural project examining our shared tech fetish. Later in the week, Hugo Hopping's The Rich Legacy of an Elegant Problem examines the risks inherent in the creative process, with a performance dramatizing the impossible choices artists make at every creative turn. The last is with Olga Koumoundouros, who will enact one-on-one interviews and collaborative drawings with audience members examining private aspirations for their home and future lives. Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; closing party Sat., Sept. 21, 7-9 p.m.; free. (626) 792-5101, armoryarts.org.

Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Aug. 28. Continues through Sept. 21, 2013

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