Frieze Los Angeles has wrapped up for this year, and we’ve curated the best LA exhibitions still on view in the city, including at Anat Ebgi, François Ghebaly, Jeffrey Deitch, and more.
“Vampire::Mother” at Anat Ebgi’s Wilshire Boulevard Gallery
Mickalene Thomas, “Silken Lady #1,” 2023, 68” x 50” x 3”, rhinestones and acrylic paint mounted on wood panel with mahogany wood frame; courtesy of Anat Ebgi.
January 27 – March 2, 2024
For the exhibition of Vampire::Mother at Anat Ebgi, curator Jasmine Wahi guided fifteen contemporary artists with a set of evocations—including words, terms, feelings, and quotes—to inspire works that reacted to stereotypes affiliated with women and femmes. The result, in Wahi’s words, is “an ooey-gooey smorgasbord that reflects the gushy messiness of our multiple selves.” Vampire::Mother simultaneously embraces and subverts the binary framework of femininity, presenting works that showcase indefinable and intersectional identities. The installation at Anat Ebgi’s Wilshire Boulevard gallery is flooded with pink light, invoking a girlish and simultaneously eerie atmosphere for visitors as they explore the works on display, most of which were made specifically for this exhibit. A digital and VR replica of the exhibition will run until May 22, exclusively on vortic.art.
Ann Leda Shapiro and Trulee Hall at François Ghebaly
Installation view: Trulee Hall, Three Flavors (Painting), 2024. Acrylic, oil, and collage on panel, 72 x 98 x 3 inches (183 x 249 x 8 cm.). Courtesy of the Artist and François Ghebaly Gallery. Photo: Paul Salveson
February 22 – March 30, 2024
François Ghebaly is showcasing two exhibits until March 30: Trulee Hall’s She Shells and Ann Leda Shapiro’s Light Within Darkness.
She Shells is Trulee Hall’s first presentation with François Ghebaly. Tied together with the motif of water, She Shells explores sexuality, fantasy, reality, and the blurred boundaries between humanity and nature. The collection of multimedia installations feature the artist’s hallmark fantastical sets, costumes, puppetry, claymation, kinetic scenographies, CGI, and original musical compositions.
Light Within Darkness gathers eighteen of Ann Leda Shapiro’s paintings from 1976 to 2023. Shapiro deconstructs and reconstructs the human form, imbuing her figures with anatomical elements and components of the natural world. The earliest piece on display, Out of the Web (1976), embodies the scientific, psychological, and spiritual undertones of her early works. Shapiro’s focus in her more recent works extends to the landscape, where trees and celestial bodies mirror the complexities of human existence.
“At the Edge of the Sun” at Jeffrey Deitch
Courtesy of the artists and Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles. Photo by Joshua White.
February 24 – May 4, 2024
Jeffrey Deitch will be showcasing At the Edge of the Sun at its 925 N. Orange Drive gallery through May. In a collectivized turn away from the mainstream story of Los Angeles, At the Edge of the Sun is the brainchild of twelve closely connected artists who stage an artistic discourse on their vision of the city. The exhibition creates an intensely personal constellation of Los Angeles’ underground economies, landscapes, systemic architecture, surveillance, youth culture, public transportation, backyard kickbacks, and other cultural nuances. A book with an introductory essay by Dr. Rose Salseda is available for view as well, featuring interviews and photos with the artists who include Guadalupe Rosales, Diana Yesenia Alvarado, and rafa esparza.
“Magnificent Darkness” at Marian Goodman
Installation view, Tavares Strachan “Magnificent Darkness” Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo credit: Elon Schoenholz
February 17 – April 13, 2024
Marian Goodman Gallery Los Angeles is hosting a solo exhibition of Tavares Strachan’s Magnificent Darkness. Magnificent Darkness features several new bodies of work comprising ceramic, bronze, marble, hair, neon, sound, and painting. Strachan delves into light and darkness and creates connections with his celebrated, ongoing research project, The Encyclopedia of Invisibility, an encyclopedia of overlooked histories, concepts, artworks, and scientific phenomena. Major inspirations of Strachan’s showcased work include James Baldwin, Matthew Henson, and Andrea Crabtree. The exhibition is divided into six environments, collectively conceiving a visual allegory toward the exploration of light and darkness.
“harmony is fraught” at Regen Projects
Installation view of Catherine Opie harmony is fraught at Regen Projects, Los Angeles January 11 – March 3, 2024. Photo: Paul Salveson. Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
January 11 – March 3, 2024
Catherine Opie’s harmony is fraught at Regen Projects presents over sixty photographs in and of Los Angeles, never shown publicly before. The photographs, taken over the span of over thirty years, trace a personal story of the complex city Opie made her home, a city ever-evolving yet eternally familiar. From shaving to protesting, freeways to beaches, harmony is fraught captures moments of everyday life alongside the city’s perpetual motion. Altogether, the images plot a ghost map of sites and personae that embody Los Angeles’ past and present.
