Shana Nys Dambrot
But in a way, art lovers, isn’t every weekend Gallery Weekend? In addition to the highlighted art shows below, this week Gallery Association Los Angeles throws its 2nd annual Gallery Weekend Los Angeles, which actually starts on Wednesday. Each day July 27–30 spotlights a different part of town, whose galleries then have extended hours and in many cases, special programs and artist receptions. Elsewhere, there’s food-themed creative exploration, conceptual architectural sculpture, a well-heeled benefit for reproductive rights that is also a really great party, classic photographs, modern dance, contemporary art on film, and an art-themed swap meet.
Steve Keene: The Apples in Stereo, Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Thursday, July 28
Steve Keene at Palm Grove Social. People love to call Steve Keene the “assembly line Picasso” for his signature style of post-folk serial painting, prolific output, interpretive but legible rendering, and schematic palette. His work has been exhibited at venues and collected by fans at all walks of life and across diverse cultural milieu. In honor of his hefty new book, he returns to L.A. for a major new and classic, and partly crowd-sourced, survey exhibition. Opening night features Allah-Las guitarist Pedrum Siadatian’s band PAINT performing tunes from their latest LP. 4660 W. Washington Blvd., West Adams; July 28, 7-11pm; on view through August 12; free w/ rsvp; instagram.com/palmgrovesocial.
Akiko Strehenberger: detail of The Dodgers’ Game Just Finished, 2022. Acrylic on canvas (The Lodge
L.A. Landscapes & Other Pleasures at the Lodge. A group exhibition of 16 artists considering iconic Los Angeles through painting, photography, textiles and ceramics, with works reimagining an alternative Los Angeles where inhabitants laconically and non-sequentially coexist. Much like when one views a film shot in Los Angeles and the actors walk into a building in Santa Monica and then exit the scene in Downtown. 1024 N. Western Ave., Hollywood; Gallery Weekend LA Reception: Saturday, July 28, 5-8pm; On view through August 21; free; thelodge.la.
Francisco Palomares: Francisco’s Fresh Paintings (The Armory)
Friday, July 29
At the Table at The Armory. A group exhibition exploring our intimate and communal relationships with food and investigating the many ways these connections were severed or challenged during the 2020-21 lockdown. Through artworks, documentary photography, recorded narratives, and ephemera — as well as a series of innovative and creative food-themed artist workshops — this exhibition creates space for reflection on the role food plays in our lives as individuals and in our communities and traces the effects of the pandemic on the ways we interact with and consume food. 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; On view July 29 – December 4, programming begins July 30; free; armoryarts.org.
Intentionally Opaque at SCI-Arc
Brash Collective, William Virgil, + Majeda Alhinai: Intentionally Opaque at SCI-Arc. A sculptural piece that promotes mindfulness, imagination, and self-reflection through an externalist perspective, Intentionally Opaque presents the visitor with a labyrinth, a space of otherness simultaneously physical and mental, an analogy for life. However, it is not a maze or a puzzle to be solved. Instead, it is a path to meaning to be experienced. The labyrinth places us in a realm to explore imagination. Its muted, opaque walls give space to those who need it. 960 E. Third St., downtown; Opening reception: Friday, July 29, 6pm; On view through September 11; free; sciarc.edu.
Irving Penn: Girl with Fruit, Shoe, and Butterflies, 1946 (Pace Gallery © Condé Nast)
Saturday, July 30
Irving Penn: Burning Off the Page at Pace Gallery. Photographing for Vogue for nearly 70 years, Penn’s inventive fashion photographs transformed American image-making. The artist was also highly accomplished and experimental in the darkroom, and Burning Off the Page centers on the formal strategies and experimentations that shaped his distinctive style, which he termed “photographism,” and which entailed the translation of drawing, painting, and sculpture, among other art forms, into photography—a hybridization that presciently blurred the line between high art, graphic design, fashion, and photography. 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Mid-City; On view July 30 – September 3; free; pacegallery.com.
Pottery by Seth Rogen in the Sexy Beast benefit auction at Night Gallery
Sexy Beast at Night Gallery. With a host committee that includes Barbara Kruger, Andrea Bowers, Catherine Opie, Derek Fordjour, Melanie Schiff & Sterling Ruby, Jeffrey Deitch, David Kordansky, Arthur Lewis (UTA), Johanna Burton (Director, MOCA), and more, the art world is banding together to help raise funds for Planned Parenthood. Sexy Beast’s outdoor event in Night Gallery’s courtyard will include food, live music, comedy, a silent auction with art, design objects, limited edition clothing, and a goopy Seth Rogen vase, plus a major painting donated by Andrea Marie Breiling. As longtime supporter Barbara Kruger said in 2016 about Sexy Beast, “I wanted to be involved because sexuality, race and gender can determine what you have and what you don’t, how long you live or how soon you die, whether you speak or whether you’re silenced, whether you’re allowed to laugh or can only fear, whether you use power or power uses you.” 2050 Imperial St., downtown; $200; Saturday, July 30, 5-8pm; weareplannedparenthood.org.
Taliha Abdiel and DaEun Jung at LA Dance Project
Taliha Abdiel and DaEun Jung at L.A. Dance Project. LAUNCH: LA artists, Taliha Abdiel and DaEun Jung, present new work created during their residencies. Abdiel’s “Echo’s Answer” explores expanding human consciousness and universal understanding using exercises based in sound frequency hemisphere-synchronization, solo and group astral projection, auto-suggestion, transcendental meditation and more. DaEun Jung’s work “Norri” is a group dance practice inspired by the principle, form, and mode of Korean folk dance as a communal performance in the language of contemporary movement. 2245 E. Washington Blvd., downtown; Friday-Saturday, July 30-31, 4pm & 8pm; $20; ladanceproject.org.
Portrait of Gary Simmons (Photo: Tito Molina, HRDWRKER)
Fowler Films: HRDWRKER at the Fowler Museum. A screening of short films by HRDWRKER, the LA-based production company headed by JJ Anderson & Tito Molina, whose work in the contemporary art world has been gaining attention. Anderson and Molina reflect on films made over the past eight years including the premiere of Allensworth: A Temple of Black Possibilities; and talk about their dedication to principles of purpose, community, determination, and connection. They will discuss projects created in partnership with the California African American Museum, Shondaland, and Hauser & Wirth, among others. A Q&A and reception will follow the program. 308 Charles E. Young Dr., Westwood; Saturday, July 30, 1-3pm; free w/ rsvp; fowler.ucla.edu.
Pol Kurucz at Superchief
10-Year Anniversary Mega Summer Group Show and Swap Meet at Superchief. To mark their 10-Year anniversary and celebrate their recent move to a grand new space, Superchief hosted a sprawling group salon of physical and NFT pieces by over 100 different creators, marking the first time the gallery showed painting and sculpture alongside crypto art on a major scale in a single show. As the show wraps up the gallery hosts its first-ever Swap Meet featuring art, food, clothing, merch, and plenty of celebrating. 1965 S. Los Angeles St., downtown; Saturday, July 30, noon-7pm; free; superchiefgallery.com.
Sharon Louise Barnes: Where Chilly Winds Don’t Blow (detail), 2022 (Courtesy of the artist)
Sunday, July 31
Sharon Louise Barnes: Resistance, Resilience, and Radical Beauty, With Readings from Gwendolyn Brooks at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (Virtual). A COLA 2022 Design/Visual Artist Fellow, Barnes interweaves culture, historic context and ancestral memory to explore journeys of resilience and beauty. Drawing from the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, Barnes’ latest project powerfully expounds the history and experiences of a Black woman living in America, boldly standing to honor the survival and flourishing of African American culture in the winds of challenging times. In this virtual public program, Barnes will read selections from Gwendolyn Brooks that inspired her new work. A Q & A with the artist will follow the reading. Sunday, July 31, 2pm; free; lamag.org.
Bert Stern: Elizabeth Taylor at the Beverly Hills Hotel (Courtesy of the Bert Stern Trust)
Monday, August 1
Bert Stern’s Elizabeth Taylor Photographs at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The hotel is partnering with the Bert Stern Trust and the House of Taylor to showcase striking images of Elizabeth Taylor, including several never-been-seen photos taken during the fiery Cleopatra years. The hotel served as a backdrop to Taylor’s life in California dating back to her childhood. Her father Francis, who inspired her love of art, had a gallery in the hotel’s promenade and she went on to be a frequent guest of the hotel throughout her life, including several of her honeymoons. 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills; On view August 1 – September 30; free; dorchestercollection.com.
Cy Twombly: Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves (IV) (detail), 2009. Acrylic on canvas. (Private collection. Courtesy Gagosian. © Cy Twombly Foundation)
Tuesday, August 2
Cy Twombly: Making Past Present at the Getty Center. American artist Cy Twombly’s engagement with the art and poetry of ancient Greece and Rome played a central role in his creative process. This exhibition explores Twombly’s lifelong fascination with the ancient Mediterranean world through evocative groupings of his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture made from the mid-20th to the early 21st century, tracing an imaginative journey of encounters with and responses to ancient texts and artifacts. The presentation includes sculpture from the artist’s personal collection, on public display for the first time. 1200 Getty Center Dr., Brentwood; On View August 2 – October 30; free; getty.edu.
Gary Polonksy at TAG Gallery
Wednesday, August 3
Karen Fiorito: Political Animals, Gary Polonksy: Trees, and Svetlana Shmulevich: Fragments, at TAG Gallery. Fiorito uses her colorful, surreal art to create debate and awareness about the future of our planet through such themes as human rights, animal rights, climate change, war and environmental issues, combining personal gestures with pop and commercial visual culture. Polonsky is all about trees at the moment, replicating their innate fractal harmony and healing powers for the planet and the psyche. Shmulevich witnesses and preserves that which might be overlooked as mere coincidence — accidental juxtapositions of shape, texture, material, architecture and nature that speak in a new language about the abstract and poetic dimensions of ordinary life. 5854 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; On view August 3-27; Reception: Saturday, August 6, 5-9pm; Artist talk: Wednesday, August 27, 11am-3pm; free; taggallery.net.
Svetlana Shmulevich at TAG Gallery
Steve Keene: I Miss the Earth So Much (1996)
Bert Stern: Elizabeth Taylor at the Beverly Hills Hotel (Courtesy of the Bert Stern Trust)
Scott Greenwalt at Superchief
Michael Marras at Superchief
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