Here are Whitewall’s recommendations for the shows and exhibitions you’ll want to see in Los Angeles this week.
Mimi Lauter at Blum & Poe
Now–June 23
Mimi Lauter’s “Sensus Oxynation” is a 24-piece collection of colorful oil and soft pastel on paper, arranged in an installation that serves an interior to a chapel. The Los Angeles artist’s debut exhibition at Blum & Poe explores a secular relationship with spirituality in painting based around the concept of “prison of my senses,” which came to Lauter in a dream. Also on display in the adjacent galleries are Lauter’s “Devotional Landscape” and “Devotional Flowers” collections.
Martin Basher at Anat Ebgi
Now–June 23
“Strawberry Coconut Cream Pie” revisits Martin Basher’s ongoing conversation on the sublimated desires intertwined with consumer display. The collection of paintings on burlap, cardboard, and canvas are paired with an arrangement of goods, posing questions like, “If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then what of the department store’s glass coffin in which they are displayed?”
Lauren Halsey at MOCA Grand
Now–September 3
MOCA Grand is showing Lauren Halsey’s site-specific installation, “we still here, there.” The immersive, cave-like piece is made of newspaper clippings, mix CDs, and figurines, meant to act as an archive of the diversity of everyday black cultural experiences in South Central Los Angeles (where Halsey’s grew up). The piece is reimagined by the artist every other week during the museum’s operating hours, which allows visitors to experience a transformation in real time.
Marilyn Minter at Regen Projects
Now–June 23
Marilyn Minter’s third solo exhibition with Regen Projects is now on view, displaying a number of new photographs, paintings, and the video project My Cuntry, Tis of Thee. Minter’s work explores themes of glamor, power, desire, and beauty. The New York-based artist’s distinctive voice is charged with ideas of feminism and sexual politics and focuses on reframing the way today’s visual culture discusses the female figure.
Sol LeWitt at Honor Fraser
Now–May 26
Honor Fraser is showing a series of Sol LeWitt’s sculptures and drawings made between 1966–2000. The exhibition focuses on LeWitt’s exploration of the cube as a unit, with works like Serial Project ABCD 5, which demonstrates how a square can be repeatedly divided, almost to the molecular level.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn at M+B
Now–June 23
Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s “Soundtrack” is a suite of 11 abstracted portraits rendered in a variety of mediums including charcoal, gouache, and oil paint on both paper and canvas. A key element of “Soundtrack” is its accompanying playlist, which includes songs like Kendrick Lamar’s Duckworth and Donny Hathaway’s A Song For You. Each piece is complimented by a corresponding song that acts as an agent of memory and emotion, displaying the joys, sorrows, and highs and lows in life.
David Hockney at LACMA
Now through July 29
“David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life” is currently on view at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show features recent portraits, made between 2013 and 2016 by the artist in his Hollywood Hills studio. His subjects include John Baldessari, Larry Gagosian, Frank Gehry, Jacob Rothschild, Rita Pynoos, Edith Devaney, the artist’s staff, and even his siblings Margaret and John. It’s an intimate look into the artist’s life, featuring friends and family who were asked to sit for three days in order to be captured on 48 x 36 inch canvases.