Shana Nys Dambrot
Artificial biology, anti-gravity clowning, the everyday absurd, melt with you magic, prehistoric futures, ancestors in community, critical satire, pop- and tradition-infused cryptoart, activist classical, reclaimed material constructions, Warhol’s late automotive paintings and more arts for your heatwave — er, calendar.
Sofia Crespo at Vellum LA
Thursday, July 21
Sofia Crespo: Brief Histories of Simulated Lifeforms at Vellum LA. When most people think of artificial intelligence, they imagine inorganic hardware and machines. Sofia Crespo has established herself as a pathbreaking artist working with AI through an alternative approach: asking how algorithms might let us explore biology, nature, and evolution with fresh eyes. 7673 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood; Opening reception: Thursday, July 21, 7-9pm; On view through August 7; free; vellumla.com.
Acrobuffos: AIr Play (Photo by Florence Montmare)
Acrobuffos: Air Play at the Broad Stage. Umbrellas fly, fabrics soar over the audience, balloons swallow people and snow swirls, filling the stage. A visual poem, using no words, brings to life the very air we breathe. With stunning images and gales of laughter, Air Play bounces on the edge of definition: part comedy, part sculpture, part circus, part theater, all while transforming ordinary objects into uncommon beauty. 1310 11th St., Santa Monica; Performances July 21-31; $35-$65; broadstage.org.
Loser Angeles at Green Street Collective (Courtesy of Thinkspace)
Loser Angeles: Bowls at Green Street Collective. Using a variety of mediums, Loser Angeles’ work features common subjects and characters spontaneously throughout his works, which explore and emphasize what he describes as “the oddness of the ordinary.” His frequent use of bright and primary colors, bold graphics and text in his work are inspired by the primitive desire to see harmony in discord. 718 S. Hill St., downtown; Opening reception: Thursday, July 21, 6-9pm; free w/ rsvp; 718southhill.com.
Inside Mark Dion’s Urban Wildlife Observation Unit installation in Madison Square Park, New York
Friday, July 22
Fossilized and Realized: Tar Pits Video Festival at La Brea Tar Pits Museum. A selection of videos submitted by the public, a screening of a new film about La Brea Tar Pits by moderator and host Nic Cha Kim, and a discussion on the Tar Pits’ significance in art and popular culture with the Natural History Museum’s Archivist Yolanda Bustos and artist in residence Mark Dion, whose work examines how dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. 5801 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; Friday, July 22, 8:30pm (food trucks and live music start at 5pm); free; tarpits.org.
Emilia Cruz at Art Share LA
The Observer and the Observed at Art Share LA. A group exhibition of mixed media artists, painters, and photographers Michael Massenburg, Emila Cruz, Gabor Ekecs, and its curators Juliane Backmann and Eloy Torrez. These artists have spent decades observing and documenting the people and historical events of Los Angeles, and as history moves forward and repeats itself they continue to chronicle their ever changing environments. 801 E. 4th Pl., downtown; Opening reception: Friday, July 22, 5pm; On view through August 27; free; artsharela.org.
Off-Kilter at USC PAM
Sandra Low, Keiko Fukazawa, and Kim-Trang Tran: Off-Kilter at USC Pacific Asia Museum. The exhibition highlights the artists’ shared adventurous and experimental attitudes towards their chosen mediums and uncanny ability to address socio-political issues with immediacy, power, and pathos. Using satire and critical commentary, their work underscores the power of women of color in shaping social change. 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena; On view July 22 – September 4; $10; pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu.
Morteza Khakshoor at Five Car Garage
Saturday, July 23
Morteza Khakshoor: Stubbly Numbness at Five Car Garage. Khakshoor works with a range of subjects, but it’s his attention to the male — in all his foibles, struggles, and pathos — that remains a salient feature of his output. As frequent protagonists in his paintings, like all of his subjects, they result from circuitous paths through found images and memories, seen and remembered, or invented from whole cloth. Opening reception: Saturday, July 23, Noon-4pm; Santa Monica address provided with rsvp; free; emmagrayhq.com.
Siavash Jaraiedi at Advocartsy
Iranian Mint at Advocartsy. An inaugural launch event with the emerging NFT marketplace MetaMural, bridging the gap between physical fine art and blockchain spaces. The group exhibition addresses themes of heritage, fairytale, identity, and memory within a curation of works by artists of Iranian origin — Pouya Afshar, Kourosh Beigpour, Ali Dadgar, Siavash Jaraiedi, Mobina Nouri, Hadi Salehi, Shadi Yousefian, Xâmuš, and NFT veteran Z-Hovak. 434 N. La Cienega, West Hollywood; Opening reception: Saturday, July 23, 7-10pm; On view through August 6; free; advocartsy.com.
Julius Eastman (Photo by Ron Hammond)
Julius Eastman and Wild Up at the Broad Museum. A live concert of Femenine by maverick composer Julius Eastman, co-presented with and performed by acclaimed classical music ensemble Wild Up. Eastman challenged the exclusionary foundations of European classical music and organized his compositions as tools for social change. Much like the artists featured in The Broad’s special exhibition, This is Not America’s Flag, Eastman was also an activist who deployed his life experiences as a gay African American as the impetus to question what it means to be American and an artist. 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown; Saturday, July 23, 8pm; $20; thebroad.org.
Kalli Arte at Self-Help Graphics
Kalli Arte: Sueños Real at Self-Help Graphics. Kalli Arte (artists Adriana Carranza and Alfonso Aceves) are known for impactfully transforming two-dimensional prints into large-scale environments, deeply influenced by their ancestral and contemporary traditions, their neighborhood, culture, and social justice issues. Paying homage to the cultural ecosystem that is Boyle Heights, the exhibition will be grounded by a symbolic installation of the artists’ home. This central sculpture will connect like roots and branches, to various images of elements, people, and iconographies that are core to their creative practice and family unit. 1300 E. 1st St., Boyle Heights; Opening reception: Saturday, July 23, 5-8pm; On view through September 23; free; selfhelpgraphics.com.
Andy Warhol: Mercedes Benz C111 Experimental Vehicle, 1970 (1986) © 2022 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Andy Warhol: Cars: Works from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Commissioned on the 100 anniversary of the motor car, Warhol’s uncompleted 1986/87 Cars series was to include 80 pictures recording the history of the motor car from the Daimler Motor Coach and Benz Patent Motor Car, both dating from 1886, to the present day. The last series of pictures to be undertaken in his lifetime, only 36 silk-screen paintings and 13 drawings representing eight different Mercedes-Benz models were completed. These are those pictures and it’s a rare thing indeed — Warhols you might actually not have seen before. 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; On view July 23 – January 22; $19 general museum admission; petersen.org.
Susan Feldman: Road to Everywhere (Courtesy Matter Studio Gallery)
Sunday, July 24
Susan Feldman: Moving Through Matter at Matter Studio Gallery. Feldman is a mixed media artist, working with scrap wood, found objects, plexiglass, paint, photographs, and various other upcycled materials to create works that are both sculptural and architectural, referencing landscapes, passageways, and reflections. As viewers move through the spaces of her installations, Feldman’s work engages and transforms our own physical boundaries while referencing fragments of experiences. 5080 W. Pico Blvd., Mid-city; Opening reception: Saturday, July 24, 4-7pm; On view through August 21; free; matterstudiogallery.com.
Sean Higgins: Second Talisman Vase, Mount St. Helens, 2022, glazed ceramic, 10 x 7 in (Courtesy of LA Louver)
Wednesday, July 27
Sean Higgins at L.A. Louver. L.A. Louver’s newest Rogue Wave Project presents new photography and sculpture by the Los Angeles-based artist Sean Higgins. In his new series of photographic works, Higgins seams together multiple views of real landscapes to create imaginary terrains. A form of digital cubism, in each of his compressed images, Higgins conjures the experience of moving through and existing within the landscape. 45 N. Venice Blvd., Venice; Opening reception: Wednesday, July 27, 6-8pm; On view through September 2; free; lalouver.com.
Krystyn Lambert at Wende Museum
Krystyn Lambert at the Wende Museum (Virtual). The seventh program in the Wende’s In Search of Truth series is a conversation about magic and sorcery. Krystyn Lambert, mentalist, medium, and mystic, will speak about alternative dimensions of reality. Lambert has been a well-known figure in the world of magic since age twelve, known for her solo acts in Criss Angel’s live Vegas show, and currently performing a showcase blending witchcraft with demonstrations of her uncanny ability to delve into the minds of audience members, Lambert has a unique perspective on what truth is, and what it means to truly search for it. Wednesday, July 27, 4pm; free w/ rsvp; wendemuseum.org.
Ali Dadgar at Advocartsy
Hadi Salehi at Advocartsy
Pouya Afshar at Advocartsy
Shadi Yousefian at Advocartsy
Mobina Nouri at Advocartsy
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