1. Hugh Hayden at Lisson

When I walked into Hugh Hayden’s exhibition at Lisson Gallery in Hollywood, I was confronted with wall-to-wall bathroom stalls akin to a large airport bathroom. The art remained discreetly hidden within each stall, and after some prodding from a gallery worker, I began to venture in, discovering sculptural and photographic works installed within each cubicle –– each, a private viewing room for one. 

Behind door number one: a toilet carved out of wood and outfitted with protruding branches. The next door however housed a small vitrine featuring two interlocked rings, though rather than diamonds, a blue Descovy pill is set into each. One stall contained the only photographic works in the show (pictures of Hayden and his partner –– both male –– holding each other shirtless while one wears a prosthetic belly as if pregnant). Toilets and urinals feature heavily, and in many of the sculptures guns are swapped for male genitalia –– a commentary on power and sexual dynamics. One row of stalls features functioning urinals in various sculptural configurations (that apparently gallery-goers have been utilizing). Much of the work centers on the body (and navigating various bodily positionalities). The craft of Hayden's wood, bronze, resin, and flocked objects are exquisite, their materiality acting as another entry point when paired with the dynamic and intimate viewing experience. Together, Hayden's array of objects elicits intersecting themes of pleasure, privacy, violence, intimacy, and chosen family. 

On view: November 18–January 13, 2024 | Map

2.

Cielo Félix-Hernández at Sargent’s Daughters

Cielo Félix-Hernández’s paintings at Sargent’s Daughters are all rendered in vibrant sunset hues of pinks and oranges that make way for greens and blues –– ombres across the gallery that suggest changing light and the passing of time. In several of the paintings, femme figures are depicted in domestic scenes or landscapes going about their day, their backs often turned away from the viewer in an act of refusal. In one, the figure sits in profile, gazing in a hand mirror, her reflection staring back as chickens flock around her. Many of the works feature string fringe protruding from the side of the canvas; a celebratory and decorative gesture that adds a sense of levity and celebration to the (at times) contemplative works.

Many of the scenes in the paintings recall Puerto Rico, where the Brooklyn-based artist was born –– sun-dappled banana trees and free-ranging chickens populate many of her works. The more pensive figurative pieces are met with smaller paintings that hone in on various aspects of the landscape (the horizon of the ocean, chickens drinking water out of a low dish, a single banana tree), yet together the set of works have a dreamy quality. In one, titled concrete reprise, a line of chickens marches up a floating set of stairs that seem to levitate against a pink-lemonade-colored wash. Together they march off into the sunset, refusing the viewer’s gaze.

On view:  November 4–December 21, 2023 | Open map

3. Cohort: LA Abstraction in Conversation at SHRINE

For a newcomer to the city, L.A. art scene can feel dominated by its academic art programs (I experienced this as a transplant to the city in 2013 after finishing my MFA in another state). This was also an experience curator Thea Smolinski also shared upon moving here from NY –– she notes how the L.A. institution an artist had gone to would often be uttered in the same breath as their name. In Cohort, Smolinsky gathers a group of artists that have loose academic ties to L.A. art schools –– one taught another at ArtCenter, several went to UCLA –– yet all are dedicated to abstract painting practices that seem to eclipse their academic pedigrees. 

Loose similarities can be traced across the works; many works feature textured surfaces using unconventional materials like marble dust (Nick Aguayo), safety pins (Allison Miller), or salt, ash, and incense (Claire Collete). Others (Megan Reed, Nick Aguayo, Math Bass, Heather Brown) traffic in flat geometric shapes that layer to create dynamic surfaces. Gracie DeVito and Pui Tiffiny Chow both use smaller delicate brushwork to build up their surfaces. What’s clear is that influence can happen outside of classroom walls, and a cohort can be defined by genre as much as education. 

On view:  November 4 – December 21, 2023| Open map

Hands and glass that materialize stories of internment

San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD) reopened last year after a major renovation. The museum more than quadrupled its exhibition space, allowing for vast collection shows to sit alongside larger feature exhibitions. If you make the trip down the coast in the next couple of months, you’ll find L.A.’s Kelly Akashi’s work in the galleries in an extensive exhibition featuring a decade of the artist's work.

After visiting the museum, I talked to Greater L.A.’s Steve Chiotakis about Akashi’s exhibition which features casts of the artist's hands made of bronze and glass –– casting her hands is an ongoing practice in the artist's work that tracks time and aging. Chiotakis and I also discuss how in the newest work in the show Akashi turns to her family history of internment (at a Japanese internment camp in Poston, AZ), and how Akashi used natural artifacts from the site to rebuild a material memory of her family’s experience. 

It's about the American Dream

Although Hugh Hayden’s sculptures take on a range of subjects, he told W Magazine that all of his work is “about the American dream, whether that’s a table that’s hard to sit at or a thorny school desk. It’s a dream that’s seductive, but difficult to inhabit.” As a Black artist, he’s resistant to his work being labeled by his identity. “A skeleton has no race or gender,” he says. “Just like a tree branch without leaves, you don’t know if it's an oak tree or a cypress tree. The leaves on the tree are associated with the bark, feathers, hair, clothing, skin –– what I call the organs of identity.”