Adrian Piper, Zoe Leonard, Ivan Morley, and More Must See Los Angeles Shows

Zoe Leonard at Hauser & Wirth
Now—January 20, 2019
Coinciding with her retrospective at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Zoe Leonard’s “Analogue,” is now on view at Hauser & Wirth. A landmark decade-long project, this 412-image exhibition was shot entirely on a vintage 1940s Rolleiflex camera. Starting as a chronical of the quickly changing Lower East Side, where Leonard once worked, the project evolved into a story of globalization, expanding from the declining mom and pop shops of New York City to stores and roadside markets of Mexico, Cuba, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Meleko Mokgosi at Honor Fraser
Now—December 19
For Meleko Mokgosi’s exhibition “Objects of Desire: Reflections on the African Still Life,” the artist chose to turn to the still life, which is often considered the lowest tradition in painting. After looking into exhibitions like MoMA’a “’Primitivism’ in 20^th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern” and “Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life,” Mokgosi included the African body and culture in his classical paintings, thus exposing the limitations of traditional Western approaches. With an unusual spin on the genre, Mokgosi includes two-dimensional objects like photographs and posters, seen in works like a painting of two ceramic dogs against a wall, sitting in front of a hanging poster of Jesus and a photo of an African woman in a bikini.

Aaron Fowler at M+B and Ghebaly Galleries
Now—December 22
“Exceedingly and Abundantly Blessed” is a two-part exhibition of new works by Aaron Fowler, which stretches across the spaces of M+B and Ghebaly Galleries. Merging the categories of painting and sculpture, Fowler has created a number of spatial interventions and large-scale assemblages out of materials like LED string lights, shards of glass, and motorized barber chairs. With these materials, the artist pays tribute to the people in his life, creating each image as a physical manifestation of a future free of limitations, depicting his goals through the art.

Ivan Morley at David Kordansky
Now—December 15
Ivan Morley’s “Olvera St.” is a selection of new works on canvas from his Fandango series, which depicts the artist’s take on the cultural shifts that have taken place in Los Angeles over the last 200 years. Known for employing a variety of unusual techniques and materials, Morley’s “Fandango” paintings are no exception. For some of the works, the artist applies embroidery and ink on large canvases. For one, he paints a complex composition on glass before removing it with a razor and applying it to a panel. And for another, acrylic paint and ink dyes are meticulously applied to pieces of hand-tooled leather.

Merce Cunningham at LACMA
Now—March 31, 2019
“Clouds and Screens” presents two video projections of early dances choreographed by Merce Cunningham presented alongside immersive installations by Andy Warhol and Charles Atlas. Adapted from the exhibition “Merce Cunningham: Common Time,” presented by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, visitors at LACMA will experience a piece of Cunningham’s 60 year career, which put a special focus on cross-disciplinary collaborations throughout the areas of movement, décor, costumes, and music. In February 2019, a special commission responding to the exhibition will also be presented by dancer and choreographer Jennie MaryTai Liu.

Adrian Piper at Hammer
Now—January 6, 2019
The most comprehensive West Coast exhibition to date of works by Adrian Piper, “Concepts and Intuitions, 1965-2016” is a major retrospective featuring over 270 works gathered from collections around the world. Known for exploring a large number of mediums, the show features a range of Piper’s works, spanning across the areas of drawing, sculpture, sound, performance, painting, video, multimedia installations, and works on paper. In the exhibition, viewers will see the way the artist addresses issues of gender, xenophobia, and race, while drawing from her knowledge of yoga and philosophy with a sharp and witty humor.

“Worshipping Sticks and Stones” at Anat Ebgi
Now—December 8
In this group exhibition, artists Frederik Næblerød, Angela Dufresne, Penny Slinger, Jay Stuckey, and Pierre Knop focus on collective memory and social and historical myths to call on the existential desires that so often exist in the contemporary void. “Worshipping Sticks and Stones” features a range of media and styles, including Knop’s crayon, graphite, and oil painted tableaus, Stuckey’s plush dolls, and a stoneware work cast in 14 karat gold, entitled Four Seasons, created by Næblerød.

Tavares Strachan at Regen Projects
Now—December 22
Tavares Strachan’s debut solo exhibition at Regen Projects, “Invisibles,” is a tribute to the unacknowledged history hidden by hundreds of years of colonialism, before the age of Google made information readily available worldwide. Throughout the gallery, fragments of once concealed knowledge come together, creating a collage-like map of post-colonial possibility. On view are works like a neon illumination of names gone unnoticed through time and Strachan’s Encyclopedia of Invisibility—a work of 15,000 entries describing people, objects, concepts, places, artworks, and scientific phenomena that are difficult to see and comprehend.