Los Angeles Art Week continues with an array of fibers, sculptures, and stunning paintings by leading artists. Whitewall explores the harmony of creatives after a time of devastating destruction in Los Angeles by celebrating ten years of Rele Gallery, showcasing thrilling group exhibitions at Albertz Benda, and debuting new works by iconic artist by Lisa Yuskavage.
“Saddle Up”
Albertz Benda
West Hollywood
Art by Julian Pace, courtesy of Albertz Benda.
Raven Halfmoon, Star Woman, 2024. Stoneware, glaze 16 x 12 x 8 inches | 40.5 x 30.5 x 20.5 cm.
“SADDLE UP: Artistic Journeys Through Cowboy Culture” is galloping into Albertz Benda, rounding up a fresh posse of artists redefining what “western” means today. Curated by Los Angeles based artist Devon DeJardin, the exhibition is an ever evolving exploration of the American West. The show features artists Chloe Chiasson, NH DePass, Drew Dodge, Raven Halfmoon, Julian Pace, Robert Peterson, Taylor Marie Prendergast, Levi PiHers, Ken Taylor Reynaga, Sol Summers, Connor Tingley, Kayla WiH, and Jess Valic portraying their personal takes on cowboysim through a variety of mediums. In response to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, albertz benda, Friedman Benda, and the participating artists are donating a portion of proceeds to the L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, aiding local artists in need.
What we love: The modern cowboy is present in the beautiful set design by Jalen Colbert.
Saddle up: Artistic Journeys Through Cowboy Culture for Albertz Benda
February 20th – March 29rd, 2025
Jon Rafman
Sprüth Magers
Miracle Mile
Jon Rafman
Main Stream Media Network, 2025 (still)
© Jon Rafman
Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers.
Emerging into the digital scene of art, Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present, Proof of Concept by Jon Rafman. Stepping into the digital age, Rafman utilizes AI to reinterpret television. He reinterprets the golden age of MTV through AI, distorting and reshaping its imagery into a haunting reflection of today’s digital world. Canvases become screens, weaving technology, memory, and the overwhelming nature of digital consumption into a mesmerizing experience. Proof of Concept is displayed at Sprueth Magers until April 12, you don’t want to miss this digital story unfold.
What we love: Through a variety of AI generated images Rafman walks us through an uneasy yet captivating story of our current digital age.
Jon Rafman at Sprueth Magers
February 15th – April 12th, 2025
Manyaku Mashilo
Southern Guild
Melrose Hill
Manyaku Mashilo Her return to Saturn., 2024 Acrylic, ink, red ochre on canvas 51.1 x 55.1 in. | 130 x 140 cm.
Manyaku Mashilo
Re go file leena., 2024 – Manyaku Mashilo
Acrylic, ink, red ochre on canvas
55.1 x 51.1 in. | 140 x 130 cm
Step into “The Laying of Hands,” Manyaku Mashilo’s first U.S. solo exhibition presented by Southern Guild. This stunning series of paintings traces the matrilineal transfer of knowledge, weaving together Sepedi rituals, family histories, and imagined futures into a world where past, present, and possibility collide. Born in Limpopo and now based in Cape Town, Mashilo reimagines a future where she participates in the “koma” coming of age ritual for young Spedi women. Every canvas pulses with energy, built with many hands, where Black women take up space, reclaim history, and create new futures. Diving deep into her personal life, Mashilo tells a deeply rich story of history, emotion, and culture through her paintings.
What we love: This wonderful exhibit is running alongside “Taama” by Cheick Diallo, two thrilling shows presented by Southern Guild.
Manyaku Mashilo for Southern Guild
February 15th – April 12th, 2025
Claire Tabouret
Night Gallery
Downtown Arts District
Courtesy of Night Gallery.
Courtesy of Night Gallery.
Claire Tabouret’s exhibition “Moonlight Shadow,” celebrates the artist’s third solo show with Night Gallery, inspired by sleep, and the lack of it. Drawing off the song Moonlight Shadow by artist Mike Oldfield, Tabouret reflects on grief, nocturnal mysteries, and the shifting of time. Nostalgia emanates from the rich blue, purple, and earth tone color palette dancing on the canvases. Influenced by Mary Cassatt, Helene Schjerfbeck, and the haunting visions of Edvard Munch, Tabouret blurs the boundaries between art and life. In one near life-size piece, she steps into her own creation, cradling a sleeping child, merging motherhood with artistry in a dreamlike embrace.
What we love: The show celebrates Tabouret’s newest commission by French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich to design six new stained glass windows for the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Claire Tabouret for Night Gallery
February 15 — March 29, 2025
Lisa Yuskavage
David Zwirner
Melrose Hill
Lisa Yuskavage, The Artist’s Studio, 2022
© Lisa Yuskavage
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.
Lisa Yuskavage returns to Los Angeles for the first time in 30 years with a dazzling new exhibition at David Zwirner. One of the most influential painters of the past three decades, Yuskavage blends abstraction and figuration, inviting viewers into fictionalized studio spaces where past, present, and art history intertwine. Curated by Helen Molesworth, on view are both large and small-scale paintings that blur the boundaries between artist and subject, creation and reflection. In Painter Painting (2024), Yuskavage envisions herself at work in front of a monumental grisaille, weaving together self-portraiture, past works, and nods to her Bad Habits sculptures. Her luminous monochrome canvases lean against walls, both displaying study in color theory and a glimpse into her process.
What we love: Yuskavage palette is filled with vivid pinks and electric greens using color theory and surrealism to intertwine her body of work.
Lisa Yuskavage for David Zwirner
February 18–April 12, 2025
Ethan Cook
Megan Mulrooney
West Hollywood
Courtesy of Megan Mulrooney.
Motion and movement take form in stunning steel sculptures and woven canvas paintings in The Arc Between Two Deaths by Ethan Cook. Curated by Megan Mulrooney, the exhibition draws inspiration from Doris Humphrey’s 1920s dance principle, which explores the rhythm between standing and falling. Cook’s Primary Accumulation I & II paintings, referencing Trisha Brown’s choreography, feature forms that repeat and evolve, with curved rectangular compositions evoking the fluidity of bodies caught between structure and collapse. The brightly woven canvases seem to dance out of their frames, their soft, brushed-out fabrics inviting the viewer into a world of tension and transformation. Throughout the show, Cook encourages us to engage with the ever shifting nature of form, where stability is constantly in motion, breaking, and reforming.
What we love: The unique interpretation of movement in static art on canvas and in sculpture.
Ethan Cook at Megan Mulrooney
February 19 – March 29, 2025
Nate Lewis
Vielmetter
Downtown
Nate Lewis
“Syncopated Current I,” 2024
Hand sculpted inkjet print and ink
40″ x 40″ [HxW] (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
44″ x 44″ x 2″ [HxWxD] (111.76 x 111.76 x 5.08 cm) framed
Inventory #LEW1009
Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
Nate Lewis
“Syncopated Current VII,” 2024
Hand sculpted inkjet print, ink, graphite, frottage of musical score
40″ x 40″ [HxW] (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
44″ x 44″ x 2″ [HxWxD] (111.76 x 111.76 x 5.08 cm) framed
Inventory #LEW1011
Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
Nate Lewis is debuting his exhibition Tuning the Signals at Vielmetter Los Angeles, featuring twelve sculpted pieces on paper alongside a new video. Renowned for his intricate figurative works, Lewis blends photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, and paper sculpting to create textures that evoke the organic forms of cellular tissue and topography. Drawing on his background as a critical care nurse, his works evoke the aesthetics of X-ray imagery, with a monochromatic palette that conveys emotional depth. A new video, A Clandestine Exchange, features paper doll capoeiristas in motion, manipulated by Lewis’s training partner. The video explores themes of movement, and clarity, connecting dance, science, and cultural history through Lewis’s unique interdisciplinary approach.
What we love: Lewis incorporates his studies of capoeira using frottaged musical scores, including William Still Grant’s Symphony No. 1 Afro-American Symphony, to symbolize cultural resistance.
Nate Lewis at Vielmetter
February 8 – March 29, 2025
Bruce Nauman
Marian Goodman Gallery
Hollywood
From left to right: Bruce Nauman, Justine Nauman,
Marcia Tucker, and Nauman’s son, Erik, 1970.
“Pasadena Years” by Bruce Nauman debuts at Marian Goodman Gallery reflecting the creative decade that established one of the most important contemporary artists. Spanning across the garden and gallery, sculptures, installations, sound works, videos, works on paper, and editions are all on view. The show marks Nauman’s first Los Angeles exhibition in over 30 years, featuring Text for a Room, 1973-2025, recreated for the first time since its debut in 1972 at LACMA. Organized by Philipp Kaiser and Samantha Gregg in collaboration with Nauman and his studio, the exhibition celebrates his influential career and interdisciplinary approach to art.
What we love: The exhibit features standout piece Performance Corridor (1969), demonstrating Nauman’s early engagement with the phenomenological aspects of space.
Bruce Nauman at Marian Goodman Gallery
19 February – 26 April 2025
Social Fabrics: Magic & Memory
Rele Gallery
Melrose Hill
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
Curated by Los Angeles Director Jac Forebes, artists Shinique Smith and Marcellina Akpohotor unite in the exhibition “Social Fabrics: Magic & Memory” displayed at Rele Gallery. Alongside Frieze Los Angeles, this exhibition celebrates Rele’s 10th anniversary, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing dedication to elevating African and Diasporic voices in contemporary art. The exhibit features Akpohotor’s collaging technique using patterned fragments of Ankara fabric. Utilizing textiles her art explores the histories and lived experiences with women connecting past with present and modern with traditional practices. In contrast, Smith creates captivating fabric sculpture and collage paintings using vintage pieces collected throughout twenty years. Her work explores the importance of discarded material and the personal history they hold. Together these works honor the dedication to craftsmanship and African and Diasporic art Rele Gallery continues to support.
What we love: Sculptures from Smith’s recently acclaimed solo exhibition Parade at The Ringling Museum, including Mitumba Deity II, are displayed on her grandmother’s dresser.
Social Fabrics: Magic and Memory at Rele Gallery
February 13 – March 22, 2025
