As spring is in full swing, these 10 shows focus on new beginnings, old friends, and transformations. The Hammer Museum opens its new gallery, 20 years in the making, with a laser light installation by Rita McBride, while Lisson opens its new LA space with a solo exhibition by the late Cuban-born painter Carmen Herrera. Make me feel powerful and real at Honor Fraser chronicles the long history of avatars in queer culture, from underground to digital spaces, and Robert Russell at Anat Ebgi reveals darkness beneath a surface of kitsch. At prjctLA, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio share documentation from their latest LA River project, showcasing a model for reconnecting the waterway to its natural floodplain, a forward-looking proposal rooted in history.
Patrisse Cullors and Noah Olivas: Gates of Freedom
Freedom Portals is a duo exhibition featuring the work of artists noé olivas and Patrisse Cullors, also known as one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. The exhibition is inspired by Ifá, a Yoruba religion from West Africa, which communicates wisdom and teaching through a series of 16 Odu or books. Cullors’ textile works incorporate Malian mud cloth, yarn and cowries to interpret 12 of these Odú. the sculptures of olivas made from garden shears, glass and fragments of satellites refer to portals used to communicate with those in the afterlife. Their spiritually grounded collaborative practice can be seen in the context of Crenshaw Dairy Mart, a community enterprise arts-space founded in 2020 by cullors and olivas with alexandre ali reza dorriz which links art, activism and ancestral knowledge.
Charlie James Gallery (cjamesgallery.com)
961 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles
Until April 15
Olivia Mole: A bear shits in the woods
A bear shits in the woods is a low-rent phantasmagoria created by London-born, Los Angeles-based artist Olivia Mole. Through installations, performances, sculptures, drawings and videos, we follow three characters drawn from his stable of schlock and pop-culture heroes: a bear, similar to mascot Charmin in a toilet paper shilling; Skeletor, or Skelly, the 80s cartoon villain He-Man; and a tree, or rather a person in a dime tree costume. Located in a cabin in the woods, the trio have fun, play drums and merge into each other as a striptease reveals costumes within costumes. From common archetypes, Mole creates something fresh and indefinable.
Gattopardo (gattopardo.la)
2626 Nortj Figueroa Street, Unit C, Cypress Park, Los Angeles
Until April 15
Lisa Alvarado: Pulse Meridian Foliation
Chicago-based artist Lisa Alvarado draws on a wide range of visual traditions to realize the potential of abstraction to interact with memory, geography, and politics. Her work draws inspiration from Native American textiles, Chicano muralism, her own frontier identity, and her musical practice within the Natural Information Society group. Pulse meridian flipping reflects this sense of creative hybridity, with two-sided paintings, a new mural, photographs and a sound installation.
RED CAT (redcat.org)
631 West 2nd Street, Downtown, Los Angeles
Until August 20
Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio: Underland
Environmental artist Lauren Bon and her Metabolic Studio are involved in exploring the landscapes beneath the asphalt and concrete of Los Angeles, the city’s ecological infrastructure. Projects range from transforming a former industrial site into a 32-acre cornfield to a 240-mile performance leading to the source of the waters that feed the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The studio’s current project, bend the riverprovides a model for freeing the LA River from its concrete channel, starting with dispersing a small amount of water in several public parks, representing the original floodplain of the river. underground earth showcases the Studio’s work on this project, comprising three triangular sections of the LA River bottom that were removed in 2021, repurposed here as screens on which to view evocative and documentary material.
PRJCTLA (prjctla.com)
1452 East 6th Street, Arts District, Los Angeles
Until April 22
Robert Russell: Porcelain Manufaktur Allach
Behind the seductive surfaces of Robert Russell’s kitsch porcelain figurine paintings lies a sinister story. The ceramic dogs, rabbits and sheep it depicts are based on wares produced by the Allach Porcelain Manufacturing Company, a German factory founded in 1935. As German labor became scarce during World War II, they moved the production to the Dachau concentration camp, where prisoners were forced to create these objects that represented the purity of Aryan culture. Russell enlarges these once delicate works to A monumental scale, emphasizing the link between the banal and the evil.
Anat Ebgui (anatebgi.com)
6150 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles
Until April 22
Jochen Lempert and Lin May Saeed
German artists and longtime friends Jochen Lempert and Lin May Saeed explore the relationship between humans and animals, albeit in very different practices. Saeed’s sculptures, carved in polystyrene or cast in bronze, represent flora and fauna caught between paradise and precariousness. Its roughly carved surfaces are reminiscent of ancient Egyptian or Greek relief friezes. In contrast, Lempert’s formally rigorous black-and-white photographs are calmer, contemplative images that encourage absorption in the details of the natural world.
Chris Sharp Gallery (chrissharpgallery.com)
4650 West Washington Boulevard, Mid-City, Los Angeles
Until May 6
Barbara T. Smith and Friends: Treasures
treasures brings together the work of LA artist Barbara T. Smith, along with contributions from over 20 other artists drawn from her personal collection. Spanning over five decades, the exhibition highlights the artistic and personal threads that have shaped his life and work, painting a portrait of the creative community. The disparate group of featured artists includes George Herms, James Lee Byers, Sister Corita Kent, Fred Eversley and Channa Horwitz.
The box (theboxla.com)
805 Traction Avenue, Arts District, Los Angeles
Until May 13
Carmen Herrera, The 1970s: Part 2
Lisson Gallery will inaugurate its new Los Angeles space with an exhibition of works by Cuban painter Carmen Herrera, who died last year at the age of 106. The exhibition will feature geometric abstract paintings from the 1970s, the second half of a partial-exhibition that opened in 2022 at their New York location. On sight will she Days of the week paintings, a series of seven works displaying dynamic shapes in bright colors against a black background.
Lisson Gallery (lissongallery.com)
1037 North Sycamore Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles
April 15–May 26
Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar
make me feel powerful is an intergenerational group exhibition featuring over 40 artists who explore the role of avatars as a form of queer liberation. The exhibition traces a journey from drag to virtual reality, and from the dance floor to the chat room, illustrating how technology has helped realize dreams of desire, community and freedom. Featured artists include Andy Warhol, Charles Atlas, Jacolby Satterwhite, Dynasty Handbag, Ryan Trecartin and many more.
Honor Fraser (honorfraser.com)
2622 South La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, CA
Until May 27
Rita McBride: Particles
Last month, the Hammer Museum unveiled its long-awaited transformation, two decades of preparation. To inaugurate his new gallery, a former bank vault, he put on a presentation of the work of Rita McBride Particles, a laser light installation first shown in 2016. High-intensity laser beams interact with water and dust in the air, forming a hyperbolic parabola spanning the full width of space. The work is visible night and day, visible to passers-by on the street after museum opening hours through tinted windows.
Hammer Museum (hammer.ucla.edu)
10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, Los Angeles
Until November 5
