Shana Nys Dambrot
They say tragedy plus time equals comedy, but while we’re waiting, we still have some jokes to tell, and stories, and wisdom to share, and ghosts to stir, and art to celebrate. New exhibitions, books, screenings, and conversations investigate our dysfunctional urban relationship to water, AI’s relationship with painting, the legacy of a literary exile, how weird people get when they fall in love, the beauty and power of abstract landscapes, sculptural explorations of light and dark, new Black film-making, hip hop poetry, ancestral botanical healing witchcraft, unsettling beach bodies, Asian excellence in culture and entertainment; plus funny business by Ilana Glazer and Aussie laughs sensation Sooshi Mango.
Conduit at Ontario Museum of History & Art
Thursday, February 15
Conduit at the Ontario Museum of History & Art. Guest curated by Debra Scacco, Conduit uncovers how the diversion of water has shaped the way we live through a critical examination of the tension between urban growth and the natural world. Cities world-wide are built around water sources, and the same is true of our own city. The rivers, lakes, wetlands and streams that sustained Indigenous peoples have undergone dramatic transformations, and have been dammed, piped and diverted beyond recognition. Through contemporary art works and archival materials, Conduit examines the ongoing impacts of colonial water diversion, and dares to speculate that a different future is possible. Artists include: christy roberts berkowitz, Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio, Gerald Clarke, Noé Montes, Stuart Palley and Lorene Sisquoc. 225 S. Euclid Ave., Ontario; Opening reception: Saturday, February 17, 6-9pm; On view February 15 – May 19; free; ontariomuseum.org.
Sonya Schönberger at USC Doheny Memorial Library
Sonya Schönberger: Marta at USC Doheny Library. In 1943, German-Jewish anti-fascist and exiled writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta fled Europe and settled in Pacific Palisades, where their house, Villa Aurora, became a haven for fellow exiles. In 2022, Berlin-based visual artist Sonya Schönberger—whose work primarily focuses on autobiographical challenges caused by political change—was a fellow at Villa Aurora, and spent three months sleeping in Marta’s former bedroom, seeking to understand who this woman was, and what her life was like—creating an installation of contemporary photographs paired with rare archival materials. 3550 Trousdale Parkway, USC; Opening reception: Thursday, February 15, 6pm; On view through May 31; free; vatmh.org.
Nicelle Davis
Love-ish Galentine’s Day Poetry Party at Book Soup. In celebration of Nicelle Davis’s collection of offbeat and awkward love poems, The Language of Fractions, fellow poets Amy Gerstler and Cecilia Woloch join Nicelle to read from their own latest releases. Davis’ collection explores the question of whether we love wholly or only in parts. Employing found poetry, juxtaposing images and writing styles, Davis shows how love can be fragile and can often fail. Gerstler’s books of poems include Index of Women (Penguin, 2021), and Scattered at Sea, (Penguin, 2015)—in between which she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018. Woloch is the author of six collections of poems and a novel. Her honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the NEA. 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; Thursday, February 15, 7pm; free; booksoup.com.
Ilana Glazer
Ilana Glazer Live at the United Theater on Broadway. Co-creator and co-star of the critically acclaimed series Broad City, Glazer’s debut stand-up comedy special, The Planet is Burning is on Amazon Prime, and her film False Positive which she co-wrote and starred in, is available on Hulu. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit Generator Collective, which was founded in 2016 to humanize policy through people-powered stories on social media. Amid it all, her national stand-up tour hits the United Theater (formerly known as the Theater at the Ace Hotel), and Glazer arrives with plenty to say. 929 S. Broadway, downtown; Thursday, February 15, 8pm; $35-$75; acehotel.com.
Wang Yeul at Shatto Gallery
Friday, February 16
Wang Yeul: Wind that Blows from the East—Utopia at Shatto Gallery. Painter Wang Yeul’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles sees Wang, a pioneer of Korean traditional landscape painting, reinterpreting traditional landscapes and reconstructing them with modern means, to create a new form of expressive landscape painting while embracing its distinctive, meditative elements. 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Koreatown; Opening reception: Friday, February 16, 4-6pm; On view through February 24; free; shattogallery.com.
Mr. Wash at Jeffrey Deitch
Mr. Wash at Jeffrey Deitch. Current works and a group of paintings made while Mr. Wash was incarcerated show his increasing skill and reflect his faith and his resolve. He never gave up on his struggle to get his conviction reversed. Many of the prison paintings show his affection for his family and the pain of his not being there for them. Other paintings are meditations on the passage of time, featuring clocks and hourglasses. With an old master-like attention to detail, Mr. Wash draws the viewer into his interior world. 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; Opening reception: Friday, February 16, 6-8pm; On view through March 3-; free; deitch.com.
Tavares Strachan: Inner Elder (Nina Simone as Queen of Sheba), 2023, ceramic (Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery)
Saturday, February 17
Tavares Strachan: Magnificent Darkness at Marian Goodman Gallery. This immersive exhibition will feature several new bodies of work across six diverse and site-specific environments. Through an interconnected array of works comprising ceramic, bronze, marble, hair, neon, sound, and painting, Strachan—who is making art world headlines with his monumental sculptural installation at the Royal Academy of Arts, London this week—professes a visual allegory toward the overarching exploration of light and darkness. 1120 Seward St., Hollywood; Opening reception: Saturday, February 17, 5-7pm; On view through April 13; free; mariangoodman.com.
Crenshaw Dairy Mart Film Festival
LACMA presents the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Film Festival at Miracle Theater. The Crenshaw Dairy Mart organizes at the intersection of art and abolition; and their first festival asks: how does film play a role in the visual interpretation of this intersection? CDM seeks to explore how filmmakers of color shift narratives on creativity and the representation of our local community while utilizing imagination and storytelling to envision new worlds and opportunities challenging systems that were not built to sustain our creativity. 226 S. Market St., Inglewood; Saturday, February 17, 3-8pm; $15; cdmfilmfestival.com.
Def Sound and Sunni Patterson
Poetry Uncut Part III: J Ivy Hosts Def Sound and Sunni Patterson at the Nimoy. Spoken-word artist J. Ivy hosts the third program in our Poetry Uncut series. Get Lit starts us off with a raucous spoken word session. L.A.’s Def Sound traverses the worlds of hip-hop and poetry; and Sunni Patterson explores the poetic and spiritual traditions of her native New Orleans. The evening is scored by Emmy Award-winning DJ Niena Drake. 1262 Westwood Blvd., Westwood; Saturday, February 17, 8pm; $32; cap.ucla.edu.
Bianca Turner: LOVEWITHOUTBORDERS
Bianca Turner: Deeper Than AI at CadFab Creative. Human-created-art is fueled by emotions and magical, perhaps flawed lines. There is a palpable human connection. There is texture. There is imperfection muddled in with unbridled spontaneity. There can be the use of unconventional mediums. In her new painting show, Turner explores human expression and the creation of Art vs what Artificial Intelligence programs have to offer. Tech developers tout AI as something beyond the limits of imagination, but is it really? 6023 Washington Blvd., Culver City; Opening reception: Saturday, February 17, Artist Talk: 4:30, reception 5:30-8:30pm; On view through March 9; free; cadfabcreative.com.
Karen Lofgren: emBRUJAda (Set Margins)
Karen Lofgren: of emBRUJAda: Charms for the Living at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth LA. Artist Karen Lofgren pursues curative pathways through science, sexuality and spiritualism, with a fierce feminist and decolonial perspective, investigating botanical healing, psychedelic insight, cosmic eroticism, interspecies communication, witchcraft, ritual, and precepts of folk and contemporary art. Her new book builds on this foundation, contextualizing her findings art within voluminous field and studio notes, diagrams, spells, observations, advice, and dialogues with a cohort of like-minded women from the worlds of performance and music, art history, curation, ecology, activism, mythology and consciousness. Lofgren will be in conversation with experimental vocalist Carmina Escobar, with book signing to follow. 917 E. 3rd St., downtown; Saturday, February 17, 3pm; free; artbook.com.
Amalia Angulo at The Trophy Room LA
Amalia Angulo: Sweethearts at The Trophy Room LA. Inspired by L.A.’s beach culture, Angulo transmutes psychological turmoil into uncanny beach bodies in this new series of provocative paintings, which explores the tension between expectation and desire to offer a mode of being beyond social constraints. The Sweethearts are coquettish but frightening figures who smile as they burn under blue skies, flaunting their swollen, visibly wounded bodies on incongruously comic beaches. Southern California’s ethos of idyllic vanity saturates these scenes, and these blonde, blue-eyed beachgoers stare at viewers, perfect teeth in high contrast against charred flesh, tight and tender. 4134 Verdugo Rd., Glassell Park; Opening reception: Saturday, February 17, 5-9pm; On view through March 23; free; thetrophyroomla.com.
Jackson Wang (Photo: Nabil Elderkin)
88rising Moonrise Gala at Milk Studios. Pioneering global music and media company 88rising is throwing its first Moonrise Gala honoring global Asian talent. The inaugural event will celebrate entertainer, entrepreneur and fashion icon Jackson Wang; Indonesian singer-songwriter and producer NIKI; Filipino-American dance-pop singer Jocelyn Enriquez; hip-hop turntablists group Invisibl Skratch Piklz; and Destin Daniel Cretton, the American filmmaker behind Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The Lunar New Year tradition aims to unite the brand’s closest collaborators and community for an evening of togetherness, music, and discovery. Breaking free from the conventional awards show format, the Moonrise Gala harnesses the spirit of the New Year to showcase 88rising’s accomplishments while setting the stage for the future. 855 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood; Saturday, February 17, 6pm-midnight; For information visit: moonrisegala.com.
Lily Gladstone
Sunday, February 18
An Evening with Lily Gladstone at the Wallis. Join Film Independent and The Wallis for a rewind through Gladstone’s life and career—from her early days in theater, to her breakout role in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, to the present moment which is inarguably hers. You’re familiar with her unforgettable Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon; her film The Unknown Country is nominated for a Spirit Award in the John Cassavetes Award category, and you’ll soon be talking about her newly minted Sundance hit, Fancy Dance. 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; Sunday, February 18, 5pm; $35; thewallis.org.
Sooshi Mango
Tuesday, February 20
Sooshi Mango at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Eight years ago, Melbourne brothers Joe Salanitri, Carlo Salanitri and their best mate, Andrew Manfre came together for what started out as a random comedy hobby that has now turned into a veritable comedic phenomena—the only comedy act ever to sell out Rod Laver Arena three times in a row, and an internet sensation with 800+ million views online and over 2 million subscribers to their platforms. Known for their loveable and relatable characters, Joe, Carlo and Andrew pay homage to our beloved, quirky elders and the pure love and enjoyment they provide to the world by just being themselves. There’s also a restaurant, merch obviously, a podcast, and now, an international theatrical tour. Get ready. 4401 W. 8th St., Wilshire Park; Tuesday, February 20, 7pm; $45; sooshimango.com.
Julie Mehretu at Oxy Live
Wednesday, February 21
Oxy Live! Presents: A Conversation with Julie Mehretu. Mehretu is a world-renowned painter whose work is informed by a multitude of sources including politics, literature and music. Most recently her paintings have incorporated photographic images from broadcast media which depict conflict, injustice, and social unrest. Time magazine named her to its 100 Most Influential People in 2020, and in 2023 Sotheby’s named her their Top-selling African Artist of all Time. The internationally acclaimed artist discusses the sociopolitical inspiration behind her work with cultural interlocutor Paul Holdengräber. Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd., Northeast Los Angeles; Wednesday, February 21, 8pm; free; oxy.edu.
Julie Mehretu: Congress, 2003, ink and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 in. (Collection of the Broad Museum, © Julie Mehretu)
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