1. Simone Forti at MOCA

Simone Forti, a new eponymous exhibition that highlights the artist’s innovative six-decade career, is Forti’s first West Coast institutional retrospective — long overdue since the 88-year-old, who was born in Italy, has spent much of her life as an Angeleno. As an artist, dancer, and teacher, Forti made a career out of pushing the boundaries of movement. Classically trained as a dancer, her oft-quoted resistance to having to suck her stomach signifies the type of renegade artist that she is, always pushing against conventions.

Among drawings and experimental holograms are her News Animations, performances in which Forti interprets a news story with bodily and verbal exploration. The highlight of the show is the restaging of three of Forti’s Dance Constructions—Slant Board, Hangers, and Huddle—which will be performed by a troupe of dancers on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the run of the show.

Particularly moving is Huddle, a performance in which a group of dancers huddles together, legs braced, heads turned inward, with each performer breaking out to acrobatically climb over the group before rejoining the circle. The performance is physical, repetitive, and mesmerizing while highlighting trust, cooperation, surrender, and play — cornerstones of Forti’s practice.

Dance Constructions Performance Schedule:
Thursdays, 3:30pm, 4:45pm, 6pm, and 7:15pm
Saturdays and Sundays, 12:30pm, 1:45pm, 3pm, and 4:15pm 

On view: January 15–April 2, 2023 | Open map

2. Alma Allen at Blum & Poe

In 2017, Alma Allen moved from Joshua Tree to Topoztlán, Mexico. His practice previously consisted primarily of carved wood sculptures (made often with the aid of a bespoke robotic arm), the material readily abundant in California. Yet, upon moving to Mexico, Allen’s sculptures have shifted in both material and form — his new studio contains a bronze foundry and is in close proximity to stone quarries.

Allen’s current exhibition at Blum & Poe is small (in the garden gallery), but packs a punch. Several large bronze pieces span the walls—the works are scaled-up and cast from small clay models that the artist makes, containing delicately frayed edges that nod to their humble beginnings in clay. When translated to metal, thumbed indentations and casually sculpted swoops give the pieces an urgent vivacity not often seen in bronze. Each work is also given a bespoke finish, which Allen creates using various chemicals to enhance the sculpture’s organic form.

One work installed in the gallery’s garden, Not Yet Titled (a name that all of the works share), is meant to be viewed in the round, its shimmering surface morphing and shifting as one ambles around it—the shape both bodily and alien.

On view: January 14–February 25, 2023 | Open map

3. Caleb Lyons at HARPER'S 

Caleb Lyons wants to buy your house. Or, his paintings say he does. His show title, I’m Surprised You Haven’t Called, refers to one work that reads “I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE NOW CALL ME 323 417 8999.” Throughout the show, similar text demanding that you sell your home NOW is painted in bold, expressive typefaces along with imperatives like “START PACKING NOW,” “BE A MAN,” and “TAKE ACTION.”

The text on each painting, always in cheerful bright colors, often feel like witty exaggerations, though they are in fact lifted from signage that Lyons has seen around Los Angeles, often most present in lower-income neighborhoods. Their recent proliferation speaks to the larger socio-economic shifts within our city and impending gentrification.

Interspersed throughout is a second series of paintings, titled Fountainheads, in which drain pipes cartoonishly spew sewage out across the canvas. These apocalyptic landscapes, while also playing with wit and humor, pair with the text works to present a wry picture of our modern day in which development at all costs often tramples over people and the environment.

On view: January 14–February 11, 2023 | Open map

George Clinton at Jeffrey Deitch

You may know him for his massive contributions to funk and R&B and work with Parliament/Funkadelic, but at Jeffrey Deitch, a solo exhibition of renowned musician George Clinton gives us a rare inside look at the visual work of the artist, which he has made alongside his music career for decades.

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Clinton's iconic song “Atomic Dog,” the exhibition is also accompanied by a stage designed by artist Lauren Halsey (who has been profoundly influenced by Clinton’s music and Afrofuturist ideology). I joined Greater LA’s Steve Chiotakis to discuss the exhibition and how Clinton transfers his energetic Afro-futurist funk into the gallery space.

Building Trust and Community

At the press preview of Simone Forti’s exhibition, I watched in awe as performers restaged the dance construction Huddle. Afterward, I rushed over to the group to ask them what it’s like to trust each other so completely as they fling their bodies atop one another.

“It's honestly inspiring to see the first day of rehearsal and the hesitation that still exists in all of our bodies as we’re climbing over each other,” says performer Chelsea Gaspard. “[We have to learn to trust] that we can take each other’s weight, and also trusting that our teammates, our fellow performers, can take our weight as well. It’s inspiring and reinforces the capacity of the human body and community.”

“I was one of the people that was very nervous about that part, so it's really cool to be here today and feeling reassured by each other and by Simone Forti’s work,” adds another performer, Rodrigo Arruda. “You know, this is why it exists. I feel throughout rehearsals the effort was really to become one body, and I felt that happening today.”

Turning to his performers, he says, “I really appreciate you all.”