EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
GALLERY EDITION, 2020
NOAH DAVIS
DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 2020
Background Story:
For the last four years, I have spent a great deal of time at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles. This is a museum that was founded by the late artist. Noah Davis. During my time there I have seen life-changing exhibitions and works, yet had never seen a full body of work by Davis himself. In late 2019 I heard the gallery, David Zwirner, would finally change that. I was excited my first time seeing Noah Davis' work would be in New York City, the city of art and the nonstop buzz of energy --- even in the winter. During the night of the opening, the air was extra crispy, cold, and windy. This would not stop the overflow of people in the three-room gallery. This opening would be the last opening I would attend in 2020, which made this exhibition even more special.
I couldn't believe how this young artist had such an impact on his community and how his vision would transcend beyond his own work and death. The belief he had in himself and the future is something I will always hold in my heart and memory. This opening wasn't like other openings. This one was filled with love, admiration, excitement, and happiness from friends, family, artists, art lovers, and so on. In this mixed crowd of people, I felt like I belonged. I felt loved. I felt seen. In those few hours, I was just happy and from what I saw, everyone else was too. Noah has taught me how to be an artist, a curator, a community member, and most importantly, he taught me how to dream...how to believe, despite the doubt from others. And I can't thank him enough.
About the Paintings + Reflection
Unlike the other exhibitions I highlight, Davis' isn't about a specific theme, instead, it is an exhibition that celebrates his work throughout his life. These figurative paintings are from both Noah Davis' estate and private collections. When I saw his paintings I was in awe. Davis' use of colors, composition, content, patterns, and titles engulfs you. His paintings are thought-provoking, layered in meaning, and overall compelling to look at. Each painting tells a story paired with a title that guides you through the story that Davis, maybe, intended to tell.
His ability to paint black bodies and black life is nothing like I have seen before and it truly made me miss my family. I revisited this show twice and both times I felt the energy of the works and the energy of Davis. Noah Davis is an artist gone too soon, but his legacy, memory, and energy will live forever through his work, family, friends and The Underground Museum.
Noah Davis exhibition is my choice for the #1 exhibition of 2020.
A REFLECTIVE LOOK
NOAH DAVIS, PAINTING FOR MY DAD, 2011
WATCH THIS FILM about noah davis and READ more about the exhibition here
LAUREN HALSEY
DAVID KORDINSKY, LOS ANGELES, MARCH 2020
Background Story:
L.A. loves Lauren Halsey because she loves them back and that is evident through her work and the crowds she brings out in her home city. More specifically, Halsey's work brings crowds of people from South Central L.A. into fine art spaces, - the same spaces that holds a long history in excluding people of color. Halsey has been changing that with her larger than life installations that embodies Black culture and the energy from her neighborhood. Beyond the symbolism in her work what is most important (in my opinion) is her ability to bring her community into her work and into the place her works exists in.
From the looks of it (s/o to Instagram), to say Halsey's exhibition was packed, would be an understatement. The line was around the block for hours, filled with people from all over L.A. Line-out-the-doors exhibitions rarely happen in L.A. The last two times I witnessed openings like that was Kerry James Marshall's 2016 retrospective at MOCA and Hammer's 2018, Made in LA, exhibition, which also included Halsey's work and would end up winning the $100,000 Mohn Award.
I ran into the gallery days before Mama Covid shut the country down and on the last day of the exhibition. Even in its final hours her exhibition was still flowing with people.
About the Work + Reflection
This was my third time seeing Halsey's work and it never fails to amaze me. Her vision is undeniable. Her roots in South Central are deep and her loyalty to her community is admirable and inspiring. Like her other large scale works, this exhibition placed you into another world - for some at least. As for others, it was a world they already knew, a world that was familiar from the sign's designs, names, artifacts, installations, and imagery. They were colorful, they were reflective, they were B L A C K. This show was a reminder that gentrification may try to erase the culture and memory of the Black communities that have lived in and built up these neighborhoods in L.A., but the community will not let that happen without a fight.
Halsey's work continues to circle around the massive problem South Central LA faces: gentrification. As small mom and pop businesses are pushed out and large corporations takes over, Halsey "creates structures that ask us to see how she remembers what’s being erased."
What I love about her work, she creates space for Black people in the same environments that excludes them. For those who do not see how communities of colors are effected and impacted by gentrification, this exhibition puts it in view. Her work allows viewers to see themselves both literally and figuratively.
From what I saw, the children and people who came to this exhibition saw themselves in her work. Isn't that what art is about?
RODNEY MCMILLIAN
Vielmetter, LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 2020
Background Story:
On my birthday my best friend and I made our way downtown to view the highly anticipated exhibition, Body Politic, by Los Angeles-based artist, Rodney McMillian. I was semi-familiar with McMillian's work, having only seen one of his sculptures in the main area of MoMA's lounge in New York. I had no idea what this show was about or the context of these works and nonetheless, I was not prepared to walk in.
This was an emotional show. When I saw his piece, White House II, my first thought was, "Mr. President, do you give a fuck yet?" Activated by the facts McMillian lays onto us about Black bodies and the history of America's medical system, I couldn't help but get emotional, especially in a time where Black people are dying left and right from covid. At this moment in history, it has been made clear the discrimination and lack of care people of color face in the medical system. This show was powerful and upsetting, reminding me of America's dark and evil history when it comes to Black bodies.
About the Work + Reflection
McMillian's Body Politic featured both paintings and sculptures about the use and abuse of Black bodies in America's medical systems. His works featured abstract paintings with a hue of colors and thick paint, overlapped by disturbing texts about the violence Black bodies have encountered in the name of medicine. His sculptures haunt you with their largeness, material, and misshape.
In one of his sculptures, he has these huge black objects dangling from a meat hook, looking like human intestines. In another, on a white sheet of paper, there is a black, round-like sculpture that looks like a pregnant belly that reads under it, “Race is not a risk factor. It is the lived experience of being a black woman in this society that is the risk factor.”And then there is his White House II sculpture-like piece, that made you feel small and questions the representation of our "White House." This exhibition was thought-provoking, engaging, and powerful. It made me feel sick, yet I am grateful it was art like this that made me feel like that.
untitled, 2020
untitled, 2020
untitled, 2020
LUCHITA HURTADO
hauser & wirth, NEW YORK CITY, september 2020
Background Story:
In August, at the age of 99, artist Luchita Hurtado moved onto the next world. Before her passing Hurtado was still making work. At 99 she was still making work! That was the kind of artist she was. In September I found myself gallery hopping in Chelsea, running from one gallery to the next. I ran into Hauser & Wirth surprised to find her exhibition, Luchita Hurtado, Together Forever, featuring over 30 works from 1960 to 2020. In the last year, I have fallen in love with Hurtado's work and truly appreciated this show, especially in a time of isolation, self-reflection, and her recent passing.
About the Work + Reflection
Luchita Hurtado, Together Forever, is about "exiting the earth," as her son put it. It represents living and the relationship between, life, death, nature, and the soul. Hurtado herself helped curate the show in early 2020. Seeing multiple works from over six decades of her life was moving. I loved her self-portraits, some with details of her face, while others appeared as shadows of herself. Her use of colors and her brush strokes were somewhat childlike and reminded me of innocence and of my own childhood. I loved how she painted child birth in front of trees, which allowed the viewer to make their own connection to the life of a person and the life of trees.
I am attached to Hurtado's work because she used herself as the subject and her relationship with nature, like myself. She loved trees and life and you can instantly feel that when you look at her work. Hurtado not only painted and drew herself, she painted and drew child birth, from the perspective of a woman giving birth (herself)...which I find fascinating. Before Hurtado, I had never seen a painting or a drawing of child birth from a first person perspective. Her work is extremely intimate and beautiful and this show would only introduce me to more of it.
This exhibition made me feel warm. I felt Hurtado's spirit in that room. Her energy was present in every piece of work. That is true art.
Rest in power to an artist who loved art so much she made it up til her death.
SUzAN FRECON
DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK CITY, September 2020
Background Story:
After a long summer and the months of quarantine before, I was finally able to step foot into a gallery and it happened to be Suzan Frecon's exhibition at David Zwirner's second gallery in Chelsea. When I was reviewing the exhibitions of 2020, Frecon's exhibition did not jump out as a top one, but when I looked through my photographs of these paintings, I questioned why I didn't take more photos! I was not familiar with her work prior to this show and I wondered why....
I just remember how I felt when I was in that gallery and what I felt in the presence of Frecon's work. My experience here reminded me of the beauty of abstract work, a genre of art I have found myself revisiting time and time again during this pandemic.
About the Paintings + Reflection
Suzan Frecon is known for her abstract, geometric shapes on monochrome backgrounds. Frecon has said she does not like to talk about her paintings. She has said she rather the viewer feel them. I can't give you too much background info about the actual paintings and I like that. Her work isn't about some deep meaning, it's about feeling. Her abstract paintings do just that: make you feel. Her color choices and shapes kept my attention and sucked me right in. It was an experience I wanted to be present for. I didn't want to be in my head but wanted to be with the work. I love Frecon's use of colors and shapes.
I felt happy, calm, and again, I felt present, something that had been hard to do in 2020. I did a few laps around the gallery and I could tell other viewers felt the same as I did. I love these paintings. That was the first time in a long time, I didn't think about COVID, I didn't think about the world, I was simply present and I am grateful Frecon's work was able to take over my body and mind and let me sit in some positive feelings.
WATCH Susan Frecon speak about the paintings and
read more about the exhibition here
ROBERT LONGO
jeffery dietch, los Angeles, December 2020
Background Story:
Robert Longo's Storm of Hope was another exhibition I did not expect to make my list, but when I looked over my photos from the exhibition again, it easily became a duh moment. I had to include this show. After gallery hopping for a few hours, Jeffery Deitch was the last on my list, and what a moody, serious exhibition to step into at the end of my day.
About the Drawings + Reflection
Storm of Hope is definitely a political show, which is easy to assume viewing these massive drawings. Yes, these larger-than-life pieces are drawings made from charcoal. They are not photographs, which is what I thought when I first entered the gallery. There was little light in the space, which added to the feeling of heaviness and darkness of the work and world. When speaking about his work Longo said, “My work is like ripping chunks of the world out and offering to the viewer to contemplate.”
That it did. I loved standing in front of Longo's drawings of The Capital, White House, and The Supreme Court. I have stood in front of all these buildings in Washington D.C. and like in person, I still felt the intimidation and power these buildings hold and represent. As I reacted to Rodney's McMillian, White House II, my reaction was no different in front of these drawn-out buildings. "Do you (the US government) give a fuck yet?"
In a time of crisis, the US government has made it clear they do not give a fuck about us and they'd rather us die off instead of supporting us during a pandemic. The feelings of the outside world were inside the gallery too. It was dark, it felt unhopeful, and it made me angry. Unlike Frecon's work, I was not able to escape the outside world, Longo's work reminded me of this moment in history and that is important to recognize. This exhibition truly reflects the time and that is why it had to be included in my list of top exhibitions in 2020.
read more about Storm of hope exhibition here
glen wilson
various fires, los Angeles, November 2020
Background Story:
I met Glen Wilson in 2017. He was subleasing the studio of the artist I was working under at the time, Lisa C Soto. There were a few times I'd come in looking for something for Lisa and would end up chatting with Glen. He was working on a few pieces and I was blown away by each of them. Aside from Lisa, Glen was the first artist I saw making work in their studio. Three years later, those same pieces would be in his solo exhibition, Slim Margins, at Various Small Fires gallery. I had just returned to LA a few days prior and Wilson's exhibition was first on my list.
About the Work + Reflection
Like Halsey's exhibition at Kordinsky, Wilson's, Silm Margins, examines gentrification and how it impacts Black communities in Los Angeles, specifically the Venice, Oakwood area. Wilson uses the fences and realtor signs from these gentrified neighborhoods where he then photographs the people in that same neighborhood, weaving them (the photos) into those fences. When speaking about the exhibition to jill moniz Wilson shares the story of a conversation he had with a man in Leimert Park where he is asked, "What does it look to see us in this neighborhood in the future?"
It seems that this was the question that stuck with Wilson as he made this bodywork. It is a question that has stuck to me as well. Gentrification is easy to look away from when you're not in those neighborhoods or seeing the rapid change in them. Wilson's Slim Margins is something you can't look away from and forces you to think about the people and businesses that are being pushed out and erased.
I loved the setup of this exhibition, both inside and out and I loved the viewers' ability to walk around each sculpture seeing the different images on both front and back of the fences. Like Halsey, I believe Wilson's works are alive. They offer you space to reflect on this serious problem our country faces. His work points out who is being pushed out, who was once there, and who occupies that space now. I am glad Slim Margins was my first exhibition back in LA and one of the lasts in 2020.