The yielding of time signals a consciousness of how little space and agency we are granted – and the importance of leaving some for those who too often go unheard. Three weeks into nationwide protests against police brutality brought on by the murder of George Floyd, the Los Angeles Police Commission hosted a virtual community meeting via Zoom. After six hours of citizens decrying the police department’s violence and most recent misconduct towards demonstrators, Jeremy Frisch wasted none of his 30-second time limit. This exhibition takes its title from Frisch’s eloquent tirade turned viral rally cry.

In moments of revolution we might locate clarity through distance from our prior consciousness. 2020 has offered arguably the most refined example of such an opportunity in our collective lives. Works exhibited six months ago might find radically different meaning within our new social context. With that in mind our exhibition proposes juxtapositions between different artist methodologies regarding societal collapse and social upheaval. Models of representation for these types of historical fulcrums can pull from a spectrum of sources, ranging from future fantasy aesthetics to something more closely resembling documentary. The reverberation between different methodologies is where the crux of the exhibition lies.

This exhibition is on view at the gallery through December 19th. To make an appointment to visit in person please use this link or email us at info@altmansiegel.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Recent Paintings, an extensive exploration of light, color, and composition through the medium of paint. Whether it be whimsical abstraction or meticulous realism, the paintings juxtapose one another to open dialogues regarding how artists render their surrounding world. This show features a dynamic and diverse group of artists from several different countries, from the United States to South Korea to the United Kingdom.

“Revolution is not a one time event.” – Audre Lorde

On the occasion of CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions’ Seven Year Anniversary, we are delighted to present an exhibition that draws from the gallery’s past seven years and offers a glimpse into its next seven. Much has shifted since CULT was born: public optimism collapsed under the weight of emboldened racial bigotry, anti-globalist populism, and policy decisions that have wrought untold harm on the environment and marginalized individuals. On this occasion for reflection we consider Janus, the two-headed Roman deity presiding over the future and the past, transitions and doorways. As we navigate thresholds, at once cultural, political, and biological, the duality of Janus allows us to envision a stronger, more equitable future fueled by a cognizance of our shared responsibility to the planet and to each other. Works by Pardo Ariza, Hantehzadeh, and Chew investigate care and belongingness and the role language plays in building our realities and communities. Photographs by Loewenthal re-imagine our relationship and responsibility to the land; sculptures by Miki investigate wisdom in trans-pacific indigenous traditions and how objects function as figures and collaborators rather than items for exploitation and instrumentalization. Finally, the works of Goldstein, Nathan, and Santiago reconsider the illusionistic permanence of our current structures—retrieving histories of the past to build new systems for a new world, one that prioritizes and benefits us all. Janus is a talisman for optimism in light of a polarized cultural climate; this exhibition meditates upon the opportunities, rather than challenges, that arise from the ‘new normal’ we are collectively living.

To schedule an appointment to see works, or Troy Chew’s solo exhibition Yadadamean at the gallery, please contact info@cultexhibitions.com

To speak to these turbulent times, Haines Gallery presents The Art of Protest, a group exhibition that finds inspiration in the vital and creative acts of dissent registered by artists through their work. Always on the vanguard of social change, the artists included here offer new forms of resistance to injustice, dare to speak truth to the mendacity of power, and remind us that many of the concerns we face today are not new—and are all the more urgent for enduring. 

Featuring artworks by Shiva Ahmadi, Ai Weiwei, Kota Ezawa, and Mike Henderson. 

To view any of these works in person, please contact kira@hainesgallery to schedule a visit.

Jenkins Johnson presents eight paintings by Dewey Crumpler, San Francisco Art Institute Associate Professor. His new Visual Rhythm series examines powerful structures that frame social interpretations. He also exposes the malleability that leads to empowerment and liberation. Re-contextualizing symbols such as the tulip and top hat, Crumpler examines Black consciousness, transforming space and time.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the top hat was a symbol of intelligence and means. Mimicking this symbol of white sophistication, ex-slaves developed a dance called the Cakewalk which transformed this elitist symbol into an avenue for mockery. This dance was adapted by whites, unaware of its sarcastic intent. This started the dance craze that led to the Lindy Hop and the Charleston. Crumpler’s series is also influenced by rhythm and blues, rock and roll, bebop, hip hop and jazz greats including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane.

The grids in Crumpler’s Visual Rhythm paintings reflect the skeletal structures that metaphorically hold our world together. His grids transform from barrier to agents of change, as symbolic elements create rhythms of endless angles, perspectives, and shadows. While we rely on the “grid” to interpret our world, Crumpler reminds us of its instability.

The genesis of this group of collages began when Holley noticed a piece of old plywood in the studio during a visit to Paulson Fontaine Press. Lonnie grabbed our jigsaw and started cutting out figures, exposing his predilection for nested and overlapping human forms, chambered nautiluses of ancestry, community, and the promises of a future within the past.

Paul Arnett writes, “Within this process, Holley references his art-making roots: woodblock prints were made from jigsawed plywood forms pieced together into a single wood “plate.” (Holley’s original outdoor art environment, constructed in the 1980s and ’90s in Birmingham, was ringed by cutout wooden forms much like these.) With these understatedly autobiographical prints, he has reimagined a staple of yard art—the plywood cutout—as the basis for a distinctly fine-art medium—the print—while referencing an ancient civilization that existed (like American music) at the boundary of Europe and Africa.”

Born in Alabama, Lonnie Holley is an internationally renowned artist and performer whose three-decade-long career has encompassed drawing, painting, sculpture, and music. Holley’s paintings, found-object sculptures and environments are made of both natural and manmade elements. The densely constructed pieces reference current events and African American history and, like his musical lyrics, refer to slavery, the church, and universal ecology. Holley’s work is included in numerous museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. He is represented by the James Fuentes Gallery, NY.

Rena Bransten Gallery is pleased to present Figural Effects, 8 works by 8 Artists. Long engaged with figurative traditions, the Gallery looks at representation and portraiture through the lens of authorship, authenticity, and history.  Each of these artists approaches storytelling in their own way, and on their own terms. T.J. Dedeaux-Norris uses various personas, performances and materials in a multi-iterative process. Dawoud Bey and Hung Liu have had decades long careers with their chosen mediums and a commitment to representing the present through communion with the past. Oliver Lee Jackson and Sydney Cain use spirituality, ancestry, and other worldly realms, while Calm turns the focus on himself and tracing the path of the Green Book.  Vik Muniz recreates then photographs iconic images using (in this case) postcards, looking at collective memory, perception, and ephemera.  Lewis Watts has found an interstitial concentration between street photography and formal portraiture – celebrating the moment with the subjects of his photographs.

All of these works are the artists’ singular representations of a deep investigation into racial, spiritual, and societal systems; the sheer creative force is the telling of the story.