Shana Nys Dambrot
It feels like the Summer of What? It’s kind of a weird one, right? Almost everything is “back” but it all feels so different — and you can see it in the art. This week we get cheeky time travelers, an homage to a gone-too-soon great, a somatic exploration of digital anxiety, a celebration of next-gen photographers, immersive ephemeral sculpture, live spoken word memoir, virtual theater about restorative justice, a group show about how fubar the water situation is, a group show of women piercing the veil, a group show of women finding the world within, a west side sculpture walk, and more.
Gianluca Galtrucco at Leica Gallery
Thursday, August 4
Gianluca Galtrucco: Time Traveler at Leica Gallery. The Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker immerses himself in the spirit of cinema even when working with a still camera. His new book of photographs, Time Traveler, is a playful, even absurd cosmos that upends science as we encounter UFOs, an astronaut in a diner or in bed, eerie machines, interplanetary colonies, and other unlikely scenes that collapse time and space. Some of these scenes Galtrucco has staged, others he has found in reality, but all hover in a gray area of fantasy and disbelief. What is actual, what is virtual, what is science fact, what is science fiction? 8783 Beverly Blvd; West Hollywood; Opening reception: Thursday, August 4, 6-8pm; On view through August 19; free; leicagalleryla.com.
Kaari Upson at Sprueth Magers
Kaari Upson: never, never ever, never in my life, never in all my born days, never in all my life, never at Sprüth Magers. The first solo show in Los Angeles by Kaari Upson in over a decade, and the first since her death in 2021. Titled by the artist, the exhibition debuts a remarkable series of sculptures and works on canvas created between 2020-21, in which Upson’s stirring characters, symbols and marks materialize through an array of painterly gestures; as well as examples from other recent series and installations that will receive their US premiere. Together, the works demonstrate the artist’s unwavering urge to interpret the psyches and psychoses of our complex contemporary lives. 5900 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; On view August 4 – October 8; free; spruethmagers.com.
Ian Kline at UTA Artist Space
Friday, August 5
The dark, too, blooms and sings at UTA Artist Space. New work from the Yale School of Art Photography MFA Class of 2022, curated by artist and program alum Genevieve Gaignard, featuring photography, sculpture, and video from Emily Barresi, Dylan Beckman, Amartya De, Anabelle DeClement, Eileen Emond, Ian Kline, Chinaedu Nwadibia, Brian Orozco, Rosa Polin, and Jessica Tang. Gregory Crewdson, Director of Graduate Studies in Photography, writes, “There is something beautiful, sad, and simultaneously inspiring and hopeful, in witnessing this particular group of young artists, at this time in history, grappling with a restrictive screen reality, and expressing something inherently internal about the world, its landscapes and inhabitants, and their own identities within that.” 403 Foothill Rd., Beverly Hills; Opening reception: Friday, August 5, 6-8pm; On view through August 13; free; utaartistspace.com.
MOUTHBRAIN at ICA LA
MOUTHBRAIN at ICA. An hour-long two-person performance written and directed by artist Barnett Cohen that documents and disassembles our pixelated present of anxious forces and neurotic tendencies through a combination of poetry, stylized movement, sonic play, and cinematic lighting. Originating out of a long-form poem, the performance synthesizes a range of urgent themes: climate grief, state violence, reparative justice, systems of bodily surveillance, cishet fundamentalism, the meme-ification of political mood, and the use of found language — from personal conversations, poems and theory, words overheard, or experiences encountered online. 1717 E. 7th St., downtown; Friday-Saturday, August 5-6, 8pm; free; theicala.org.
Installation by Daniela Soberman
Daniela Soberman: Points of Intersection at Long Beach Museum of Art. Brimming to the rafters, Points of Intersection by Serbian-American artist Daniela Soberman references the architecture of her family’s first home in former Yugoslavia. Made of contoured interlocking panels that jut hard edges from the connecting axes, the site-specific installation bears a tremendous presence. Despite its monumental dimensions, the artist’s edifice is light as a feather. The scale, the fragility, and the nature of its construction determined by the hands who came together to build it, speak to the worlds we create. LBMA Downtown; 356 E. 3rd St., Long Beach; Opening reception: Friday, August 5, 7-9pm; On view through November 5; free; lbma.org.
From Number to Name at East West Players
From Number To Name: Back To Life at East West Players (Virtual). What is incarceration? What is freedom? What is forgiveness? Following East West Players’ original streaming production in April 2021, artist and activist Kristina Wong once again devises a work that is the culmination of a writing and performance process exploring incarceration, undoing prison politics, and restorative justice in Asian Pacific Islander Communities. Laugh, cry and listen as this ensemble of performers share real stories from life on the inside while re-imagining the future of the criminal justice system and freedom for our communities. Livestreams August 5-7; On demand August 12-29; pay what you can; eastwestplayers.org.
Gabrielle Civil at Beyond Baroque
Saturday, August 6
Gabrielle Civil: the déjà vu Live at Beyond Baroque. Join Civil as she activates her black feminist performance memoir the déjà vu with flashbacks and premonitions: black dreams and black time. Incorporating reading and storytelling, movement and moving images, the performance blurs boundaries between the page and the stage, embodying memory, grief, and love; then and now. 681 Venice Blvd., Venice; Saturday, August 6, 7pm; free; beyondbaroque.org.
Emma Robbins: LA River Paper. 2018. Naturally occurring paper (algae leaves bird materials), thread (Track 16 Gallery)
Confluence at Track 16. If water is life, how long can we survive a drought? How do we balance our present built environment against the dynamics of nature? Despite entering the 22nd year of a megadrought caused by our concrete commitment to impermeable landscape redesign, by and large, business continues as usual. We need not look farther than DTLA to observe a river in its afterlife, a foundation for a crisis poured long ago. Curated by Debra Scacco and featuring work by Lane Barden, Lauren Bon, Bridget Delee, Blue McRight, AnMarie Mendoza, Kori Newkirk, Alicia Piller, Scacco, and Emma Robbins. Bendix Building, 1206 Maple, downtown; Opening reception: Saturday, August 6, 7-10pm; On view through September 3; free; track16.com.
Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA
ArtMuse presents the West L.A. Outdoor Sculpture Summer Festival at UCLA and in Beverly Hills. Los Angeles is home to incredible public art by the world’s leading artists. This festival of events features art walks in two lush greenspace garden settings and are designed for all to enjoy the rich array of outdoor sculpture each venue has to offer. Family friendly games and activities like a treasure hunt, a highlights tour, and art-making are on offer, or visitors can explore sculpture on their own using the West LA Outdoor Sculpture Guide. Saturday, August 6, 10am-1pm: Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA; Sunday, August 7, 10am-1pm: Beverly Gardens Park; free; artmusela.com.
D*Face at Corey Helford Gallery
D*Face: Painting Over the Cracks at Corey Helford Gallery. D*Face seeks to pick up where the masters of 1980’s American Pop left off, to establish a very real, albeit tongue-in-cheek criticism of our consumer dominated world. By re-appropriating media from decades of materialistic over-consumption — advertising, comic books, and on-screen romance — and subverting the images and icons of the everyday, the artist encourages the eye of the beholder not just to see but to carefully consider that which they may otherwise take for granted. 571 S. Anderson St., downtown; Opening reception: Saturday, August 6, 7-10pm; On view through September 10; free; coreyhelfordgallery.com.
Georganne Deen at rdfa
John Geary: Negative Sheep, and Georganne Deen: The Lyric Escape at rdfa. A graduate of UCLA’s MFA program in the 1990s, Geary belongs to a generation that ushered in a new era of California-based art. Geary’s oeuvre crosses media and genres freely but his studio practice revolves around drawing. Deen is a kind of mater familias to a post-punk generation of abject renegades whose gothic, ethereal rock n roll vision raised the bar on confessional cultural critique and feral sexuality with dodgy scenes, dangerous narratives and darling, damaged characters. 3209 W. Washington Blvd., West Adams; Closing reception: Saturday, August 6, 3-5pm; free; rorydevinefineart.com.
(L) Unknown, Jar with Dragon and Clouds, 1700–1800. (R) Steven Young Lee, Jar with Tiger and Clouds, 2019 (Photos courtesy of Museum Associates/LACMA)
Sunday, August 7
Conversing in Clay: Ceramics from the Permanent Collection at LACMA. Conversing in Clay explores the medium through 14 case studies, placing historical works in visual dialogue with contemporary examples to illuminate symbolic meanings, technical achievements, and resonances throughout time. The exhibition examines how artists working today relate to international artistic traditions of the medium, both through deliberate references to the past and by engaging with aspects of clay’s materiality that have inspired makers over the centuries. Drawing from LACMA’s wide-ranging collections, the exhibition also highlights many recent contemporary acquisitions, including works by Nicholas Galanin, Steven Young Lee, Courtney Leonard, Roberto Lugo, Mineo Mizuno, Elyse Pignolet, and more. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; On view August 7 – May 21, 2023; $20-$25; lacma.org.
Claire Chambless and Sessa Englund at Tufenkian Fine Arts
Ongoing
Dreams in Deixis: The Women’s Show at Tufenkian Fine Arts. A group exhibition curated by Ava Burnes featuring artworks by Claire Chambless, Sessa Englund, Lara Joy Evans, Rosemary Holliday Hall, Isabella Kressin, Amelia Lockwood, Carlotta Lücke, and Kira Scerbin, the title takes inspiration from the theory of Deixis am Phantasma, which translates “to point at an empty space (or to the ghost).” Through a spectrum of idioms and lexicons, from folkloric mysticism and religious symbology to the metamorphosis and organization of natural and architectural forms, the artists in Dreams in Deixis re-examine the interpretations of femininity, identity, and the human experience. 216 S. Louise St., Glendale; On view through August 20; free; tufenkianfinearts.com.
Meike Legier at Ladies’ Room
Salamanders Use The Stars To Find Their Way Home at Ladies’ Room (Virtual). A diverse compendium of artists whose works focus on humor, intimacy, introspection, and sustainability, the exhibition includes digital media, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture created in a post-pandemic reality. With works by Amina Cruz, Carey Coleman, Karen Kuo, Kate Harding, Kim Schoenstadt, Krysten Cunningham, Margarete Hahner, Mary Anna Pomonis, Meike Legler, and Yi Gao, the show’s ethos is derived from a work by poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, which reads in part, “To everything, there is a season of parrots. Instead of feathers, we searched the sky for meteors on our last night. Salamanders use the stars to find their way home.” On view through October 22; ladiesroomla.org.
Mary Anna Pomonis at Ladies’ Room
Carey Coleman at Ladies’ Room
Kim Schoenstadt at Ladies’ Room
Who knew they could see that far…” Through October 22; free; ladiesroomla.org.
Amina Cruz at Ladies’ Room
D*Face at Corey Helford Gallery
D*Face at Corey Helford Gallery
D*Face at Corey Helford Gallery
John Geary at rdfa
Claire Chambless at Tufenkian Fine Arts
Chinaedu Nwadibia at UTA Artist Space
Anabelle DeClement at UTA Artist Space
Amartya De at UTA Artist Space
Jaume Plensa: Endless V (detail), 2012. Stainless Steel (Collection of the City of Beverly Hills Public Art Fund)
Deborah Butterfield: Pensive (detail), c. 1997. Bronze (Collection of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA)
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