Issue 40 May 2025

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Issue 34 November 2023

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Issue 32 June 2023

Issue 31 February 2023

Issue 30 November 2022

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Issue 28 May 2022

Issue 27 February 2022

Issue 26 November 2021

Issue 25 August 2021

Issue 24 May 2021

Issue 23 February 2021

Issue 22 November 2020

Issue 21 August 2020

Issue 20 May 2020

Issue 19 February 2020

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
Parasites in Love –Travis Diehl
To Crush Absolute On Patrick Staff and
Destroying the Institution
–Jonathan Griffin
Victoria Fu:
Camera Obscured
–Cat Kron
Resurgence of Resistance How Pattern & Decoration's Popularity
Can Help Reshape the Canon
–Catherine Wagley
Trace, Place, Politics Julie Mehretu's Coded Abstractions
–Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.: Featuring: Friedrich Kunath,
Tristan Unrau, and Nevine Mahmoud
–Claressinka Anderson & Joe Pugliese
Reviews April Street
at Vielmetter Los Angeles
–Aaron Horst

Chiraag Bhakta
at Human Resources
–Julie Weitz

Don’t Think: Tom, Joe
and Rick Potts

at POTTS
–Matt Stromberg

Sarah McMenimen
at Garden
–Michael Wright

The Medea Insurrection
at the Wende Museum
–Jennifer Remenchik

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Mike Kelley
at Hauser & Wirth
–Angella d’Avignon
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Issue 18 November 2019

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
The Briar and the Tar Nayland Blake at the ICA LA
and Matthew Marks Gallery
–Travis Diehl
Putting Aesthetics
to Hope
Tracking Photography’s Role
in Feminist Communities
– Catherine Wagley
Instagram STARtists
and Bad Painting
– Anna Elise Johnson
Interview with Jamillah James – Lindsay Preston Zappas
Working Artists Featuring Catherine Fairbanks,
Paul Pescador, and Rachel Mason
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Children of the Sun
at LADIES’ ROOM
– Jessica Simmons

Derek Paul Jack Boyle
at SMART OBJECTS
–Aaron Horst

Karl Holmqvist
at House of Gaga, Los Angeles
–Lee Purvey

Katja Seib
at Château Shatto
–Ashton Cooper

Jeanette Mundt
at Overduin & Co.
–Matt Stromberg
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Issue 17 August 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Green Chip David Hammons
at Hauser & Wirth
–Travis Diehl
Whatever Gets You
Through the Night
The Artists of Dilexi
and Wartime Trauma
–Jonathan Griffin
Generous Collectors How the Grinsteins
Supported Artists
–Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Donna Huanca
–Lindsy Preston Zappas
Working Artist Featuring Ragen Moss, Justen LeRoy,
and Bari Ziperstein
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Sarah Lucas
at the Hammer Museum
–Yxta Maya Murray

George Herms and Terence Koh
at Morán Morán
–Matt Stromberg

Hannah Hur
at Bel Ami
–Michael Wright

Sebastian Hernandez
at NAVEL
–Julie Weitz

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Alex Israel
at Greene Naftali
–Rosa Tyhurst

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Issue 16 May 2019

Trulee Hall's Untamed Magic Catherine Wagley
Ingredients for a Braver Art Scene Ceci Moss
I Shit on Your Graves Travis Diehl
Interview with Ruby Neri Jonathan Griffin
Carolee Schneemann and the Art of Saying Yes! Chelsea Beck
Exquisite L.A. Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Ry Rocklen
at Honor Fraser
–Cat Kron

Rob Thom
at M+B
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age
of Black Power, 1963-1983
at The Broad
–Matt Stromberg

Anna Sew Hoy & Diedrick Brackens
at Various Small Fires
–Aaron Horst

Julia Haft-Candell & Suzan Frecon
at Parrasch Heijnen
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Shahryar Nashat
at Swiss Institute
–Christie Hayden
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Issue 15 February 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor
Men on Women
Geena Brown
Eyes Without a Voice
Julian Rosefeldt's Manifesto
Christina Catherine Martinez
Seven Minute Dream Machine
Jordan Wolfson's (Female figure)
Travis Diehl
Laughing in Private
Vanessa Place's Rape Jokes
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Rosha Yaghmai
Laura Brown
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Patrick Martinez,
Ramiro Gomez, and John Valadez
Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Outliers and American
Vanguard Art at LACMA
–Jonathan Griffin

Sperm Cult
at LAXART
–Matt Stromberg

Kahlil Joseph
at MOCA PDC
–Jessica Simmons

Ingrid Luche
at Ghebaly Gallery
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Matt Paweski
at Park View / Paul Soto
–John Zane Zappas

Trenton Doyle Hancock
at Shulamit Nazarian
–Colony Little

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Catherine Opie
at Lehmann Maupin
–Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 14 November 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer and Figurative Religion Catherine Wagley
Lynch in Traffic Travis Diehl
The Remixed Symbology of Nina Chanel Abney Lindsay Preston Zappas
Interview with Kulapat Yantrasast Christie Hayden
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Sandra de la Loza, Gloria Galvez, and Steve Wong
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews Raúl de Nieves
at Freedman Fitzpatrick
-Aaron Horst

Gertrud Parker
at Parker Gallery
-Ashton Cooper

Robert Yarber
at Nicodim Gallery
-Jonathan Griffin

Nikita Gale
at Commonwealth & Council
-Simone Krug

Lari Pittman
at Regen Projects
-Matt Stromberg

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Eckhaus Latta
at the Whitney Museum
of American Art
-Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 13 August 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor Julie Weitz with Angella d'Avignon
Don't Make
Everything Boring
Catherine Wagley
The Collaborative Art
World of Norm Laich
Matt Stromberg
Oddly Satisfying Art Travis Diehl
Made in L.A. 2018 Reviews Claire de Dobay Rifelj
Jennifer Remenchik
Aaron Horst
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Anna Sew Hoy, Guadalupe Rosales, and Shizu Saldamando
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews It's Snowing in LA
at AA|LA
–Matthew Lax

Fiona Conner
at the MAK Center
–Thomas Duncan

Show 2
at The Gallery @ Michael's
–Simone Krug

Deborah Roberts
at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
–Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi

Mimi Lauter
at Blum & Poe
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Math Bass
at Mary Boone
–Ashton Cooper

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Condo New York
–Laura Brown
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Issue 12 May 2018

Poetic Energies and
Radical Celebrations:
Senga Nengudi and Maren Hassinger
Simone Krug
Interior States of the Art Travis Diehl
Perennial Bloom:
Florals in Feminism
and Across L.A.
Angella d'Avignon
The Mess We're In Catherine Wagley
Interview with Christina Quarles Ashton Cooper
Object Project
Featuring Suné Woods, Michelle Dizon,
and Yong Soon Min
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Meleko Mokgosi
at The Fowler Museum at UCLA
-Jessica Simmons

Chris Kraus
at Chateau Shatto
- Aaron Horst

Ben Sanders
at Ochi Projects
- Matt Stromberg

iris yirei hsu
at the Women's Center
for Creative Work
- Hana Cohn

Harald Szeemann
at the Getty Research Institute
- Olivian Cha

Ali Prosch
at Bed and Breakfast
- Jennifer Remenchik

Reena Spaulings
at Matthew Marks
- Thomas Duncan
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Issue 11 February 2018

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Museum as Selfie Station Matt Stromberg
Accessible as Humanly as Possible Catherine Wagley
On Laura Owens on Laura Owens Travis Diehl
Interview with Puppies Puppies Jonathan Griffin
Object Project Lindsay Preston Zappas, Jeff McLane
Reviews Dulce Dientes
at Rainbow in Spanish
- Aaron Horst

Adrián Villas Rojas
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
- Lindsay Preston Zappas

Nevine Mahmoud
at M+B
- Angella D'Avignon

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960- 1985
at the Hammer Museum
- Thomas Duncan

Hannah Greely and William T. Wiley
at Parker Gallery
- Keith J. Varadi

David Hockney
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (L.A. in N.Y.)
- Ashton Cooper

Edgar Arceneaux
at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (L.A. in S.F.)
- Hana Cohn
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Issue 10 November 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Barely Living with Art:
The Labor of Domestic
Spaces in Los Angeles
Eli Diner
She Wanted Adventure:
Dwan, Butler, Mizuno, Copley
Catherine Wagley
The Languages of
All-Women Exhibitions
Lindsay Preston Zappas
L.A. Povera Travis Diehl
On Eclipses:
When Language
and Photography Fail
Jessica Simmons
Interview with
Hamza Walker
Julie Wietz
Object Project
Featuring: Rosha Yaghmai,
Dianna Molzan, and Patrick Jackson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McLane
Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Reviews
Regen Projects
Ibid Gallery
One National Gay & Lesbian Archives and MOCA PDC
The Mistake Room
Luis De Jesus Gallery
the University Art Gallery at CSULB
the Autry Museum
Reviews Cheyenne Julien
at Smart Objects

Paul Mpagi Sepuya
at team bungalow

Ravi Jackson
at Richard Telles

Tactility of Line
at Elevator Mondays

Trigger: Gender as a Tool as a Weapon
at the New Museum
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 9 August 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women on the Plinth Catherine Wagley
Us & Them, Now & Then:
Reconstituting Group Material
Travis Diehl
The Offerings of EJ Hill
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
Interview with Jenni Sorkin Carmen Winant
Object Project
Featuring: Rebecca Morris,
Linda Stark, Alex Olson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McClane
Reviews Mark Bradford
at the Venice Biennale

Broken Language
at Shulamit Nazarian

Artists of Color
at the Underground Museum

Anthony Lepore & Michael Henry Hayden
at Del Vaz Projects

Home
at LACMA

Analia Saban at
Sprueth Magers
Letter to the Editor Lady Parts, Lady Arts
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Issue 8 May 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kanye Westworld Travis Diehl
@richardhawkins01 Thomas Duncan
Support Structures:
Alice Könitz and LAMOA
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Penny Slinger
Eliza Swann
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
taisha paggett
Ashley Hunt
Young Chung
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Alessandro Pessoli
at Marc Foxx

Jennie Jieun Lee
at The Pit

Trisha Baga
at 356 Mission

Jimmie Durham
at The Hammer

Parallel City
at Ms. Barbers

Jason Rhodes
at Hauser & Wirth
Letter to the Editor
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Issue 7 February 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Generous
Structures
Catherine Wagley
Put on a Happy Face:
On Dynasty Handbag
Travis Diehl
The Limits of Animality:
Simone Forti at ISCP
(L.A. in N.Y.)
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
More Wound Than Ruin:
Evaluating the
"Human Condition"
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Brenna Youngblood
Todd Gray
Rafa Esparza
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Creature
at The Broad

Sam Pulitzer & Peter Wachtler
at House of Gaga // Reena Spaulings Fine Art

Karl Haendel
at Susanne Vielmetter

Wolfgang Tillmans
at Regen Projects

Ma
at Chateau Shatto

The Rat Bastard Protective Association
at the Landing
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Issue 6 November 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kenneth Tam
's Basement
Travis Diehl
The Female
Cool School
Catherine Wagley
The Rise
of the L.A.
Art Witch
Amanda Yates Garcia
Interview with
Mernet Larsen
Julie Weitz
Agnes Martin
at LACMA
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Analia Saban
Ry Rocklen
Sarah Cain
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews
Made in L.A. 2016
at The Hammer Museum

Doug Aitken
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Mertzbau
at Tif Sigfrids

Jean-Pascal Flavian and Mika Tajima
at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Mark A. Rodruigez
at Park View

The Weeping Line
Organized by Alter Space
at Four Six One Nine
(S.F. in L.A.)
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Issue 5 August 2016

Letter form the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Non-Fiction
at The Underground Museum
Catherine Wagley
The Art of Birth Carmen Winant
Escape from Bunker Hill
John Knight
at REDCAT
Travis Diehl
Ed Boreal Speaks Benjamin Lord
Art Advice (from Men) Sarah Weber
Routine Pleasures
at the MAK Center
Jonathan Griffin
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Fay Ray
John Baldessari
Claire Kennedy
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Revolution in the Making
at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

Carl Cheng
at Cherry and Martin

Joan Snyder
at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery

Elanor Antin
at Diane Rosenstein

Performing the Grid
at Ben Maltz Gallery
at Otis College of Art & Design

Laura Owens
at The Wattis Institute
(L.A. in S.F.)
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Issue 4 May 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Moon, laub, and Love Catherine Wagley
Walk Artisanal Jonathan Griffin
Reconsidering
Marva Marrow's
Inside the L.A. Artist
Anthony Pearson
Mystery Science Thater:
Diana Thater
at LACMA
Aaron Horst
Informal Feminisms Federica Bueti and Jan Verwoert
Marva Marrow Photographs
Lita Albuquerque
Interiors and Interiority:
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Char Jansen
Reviews L.A. Art Fairs

Material Art Fair, Mexico City

Rain Room
at LACMA

Evan Holloway
at David Kordansky Gallery

Histories of a Vanishing Present: A Prologue
at The Mistake Room

Carter Mull
at fused space
(L.A. in S.F.)

Awol Erizku
at FLAG Art Foundation
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 3 February 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Le Louvre, Las Vegas Evan Moffitt
iPhones, Flesh,
and the Word:
F.B.I.
at Arturo Bandini
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women Talking About Barney Catherine Wagley
Lingua Ignota:
Faith Wilding
at The Armory Center
for the Arts
and LOUDHAILER
Benjamin Lord
A Conversation
with Amalia Ulman
Char Jansen
How We Practice Carmen Winant
Share Your Piece
of the Puzzle
Federica Bueti
Amanda Ross-Ho Photographs
Erik Frydenborg
Reviews Honeydew
at Michael Thibault

Fred Tomaselli
at California State University, Fullerton

Trisha Donnelly
at Matthew Marks Gallery

Bradford Kessler
at ASHES/ASHES
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Issue 2 November 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Hot Tears Carmen Winant
Slow View:
Molly Larkey
Anna Breininger and Kate Whitlock
Americanicity's Paintings:
Orion Martin
at Favorite Goods
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal
Layers of Leimert Park Catherine Wagley
Junkspace Junk Food:
Parker Ito
at Kaldi, Smart Objects,
White Cube, and
Château Shatto
Evan Moffitt
Melrose Hustle Keith Vaughn
Max Maslansky Photographs
Monica Majoli
at the Tom of Finland Foundation
White Lee, Black Lee:
William Pope.L’s "Reenactor"
Travis Diehl
Dora Budor Interview Char Jensen
Reviews Mary Ried Kelley
at The Hammer Museum

Tongues Untied
at MOCA Pacific Design Center

No Joke
at Tanya Leighton
(L.A. in Berlin)
Snap Reviews Martin Basher at Anat Ebgi
Body Parts I-V at ASHES ASHES
Eve Fowler at Mier Gallery
Matt Siegle at Park View
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Issue 1 August 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
MEAT PHYSICS/
Metaphysical L.A.
Travis Diehl
Art for Art’s Sake:
L.A. in the 1990s
Anthony Pearson
A Dialogue in Two
Synchronous Atmospheres
Erik Morse
with Alexandra Grant
SOGTFO
at François Ghebaly
Jonathan Griffin
#studio #visit
with #devin #kenny
@barnettcohen
Mateo Tannatt
Photographs
Jibade-Khalil Huffman
Slow View:
Discussion on One Work
Anna Breininger
with Julian Rogers
Reviews Pierre Huyghe
at LACMA

Mernet Larsen
at Various Small Fires

John Currin
at Gagosian, Beverly Hills

Pat O'Niell
at Cherry and Martin

A New Rhythm
at Park View

Unwatchable Scenes and
Other Unreliable Images...
at Public Fiction

Charles Gaines
at The Hammer Museum

Henry Taylor
at Blum & Poe/ Untitled
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Distribution
Central
1301 PE
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Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth
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Baert Gallery
Bel Ami
Billis Williams Gallery
BLUM
Canary Test
Charlie James Gallery
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Chris Sharp Gallery
Cirrus Gallery
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Commonwealth & Council
Craft Contemporary
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D2 Art (Westwood)
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FOYER-LA
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Giovanni's Room
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Heavy Manners Library
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Lisson Gallery
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Reparations Club
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater)
Roberts Projects
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SHRINE
Smart Objects
SOLDES
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Stroll Garden
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The Box
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The Poetic Research Bureau
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Tiger Strikes Astroid
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Track 16
Tyler Park Presents
USC Fisher Museum of Art
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Various Small Fires
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Libraries/ Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD)
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Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD)
Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, MN)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA)
NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, NY)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
University of California Irvine, Langston IMCA (Irvine, CA)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN)
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
Yale University Library (New Haven, CT)

Interview with Erin Christovale

Image courtesy of the
artist. Photo: Adam Davis.

I first met curator Erin Christovale in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, I was a Getty Marrow intern at the Hammer Museum working with Erin on her 2022 exhibition Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation. In the months that followed, the power and prescience of Jenkins’ work was undeniable amid Zoom calls and Black Lives Matter protests. I admired his radical sensibility homegrown in Los Angeles, and I soon realized that Erin also embodied this very spirit.

The ensuing years that I’ve known Erin have only confirmed this belief. Los Angeles, with all of its enigmas and edges (including Long Beach, where we were both raised), is inextricable from her ways of working and being. Her curatorial work—from the 2018 edition of Made in L.A., to Jenkins’ long- overdue survey, to the 2022 Sylvia Wynter-inspired exhibition No Humans Involved—is grounded in the intergenerational practices of Black radical imagination, archival preservation, and local experimentalism.

Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal (February 9–May 4, 2025), which Erin recently curated at the Hammer with Nyah Ginwright, is her latest imagining brought to fruition. The multimedia exhibition brings together the visionary musician and spiritual guru’s music and archives alongside works by 19 multi-generational artists. What emerges is a dual portrait of a dynamic life and legacy.

For this interview (which took place on Valentine’s Day), I asked Erin to reflect on her sense of place, and her answers unfolded into a love letter to the L.A. region. Our conversation opened up into a larger continuum of histories: collectively understood, spoken, carried—and intimately interconnected.

CJ Salapare: How did your personal relationship with L.A. come to be?

Erin Christovale: I’ve lived in L.A. County for practically my entire life. I grew up in Long Beach and the city has always been a cornerstone to my existence, to the way that I think, the way that I move, the way that I navigate spaces. […] I always think of L.A. as, like, this sort of B [or] C-list actress who had that one breakout role and her career didn’t really take off after that. She’s a glamour girl, but she’s also very raw and gritty and seedy. [L.A. is] ruled by the entertainment industry. […] It’s also a city that has very deep political and racial underpinnings. I think about the LAPD being one of the most militarized police departments in the country. I think about a history of uprisings from Watts to South Central.

I think about a city that’s always sunny… To say that imbues some positivity or beauty, but actually what it means is the city [rarely] gets rain. What does it mean if the city is never sort of replenished in that way. There’s so many layers to this incredible city. I love just being in the thick of all of that… and also incorporating that into what I do as a curator.

CJS: Can you expand on this dissonance between the region’s associations with Hollywood’s glitz and glamour and these more visceral layers of meaning that inform your curatorial work?

EC: I’ve always been interested in the study of film. […] I remember so clearly one of the classes at USC that really had an impact on me was a class taught by Professor Kara Keeling on the history of African-American cinema, and one of the first films that she showed was The Birth of a Nation.

I’m thinking, what does this film have to do with African-American cinema? But you come to understand that [this 1915] film—by D.W. Griffith, who’s actually one of the founders of Hollywood—was in part made to convince people, and mainly new immigrants to the country, that Black people were savage, bad, and not to be messed with or engaged with. […] So I’ve always been fascinated by the way that moving image has been deeply instrumentalized to sway the opinions and ideas of the collective.

CJS: I’m curious about what or who gets brought along from your approach to the moving image, specifically in terms of the archival and social impulses central to your practice, in shows like Ulysses Jenkins or Alice Coltrane.

EC: I formed this project Black Radical Imagination [with filmmaker Amir George] and the title of that project ties directly back to…Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination [2002] by Robin D.G. Kelley. He does this brilliant job of outlining all of these Black liberation movements over the years and [is] always coming back to the simple idea that if someone wasn’t courageous enough to radically imagine another way of existing, a new future, that none of these movements would have been in place. Amir and I applied that philosophy to the moving image space, particularly experimental video.

My curatorial practice is deeply tied to this notion of Black radical imagination and if you look at any
of my projects [or] exhibitions, there’s always a nod or [a] direct tie back to a Black cultural figure, back to Black scholarship, back to an essay or a person. And what I find important about [this] excavating is my intention to…offer up an extension of those thoughts or ideas…through the art space, but also point at the fact that these thoughts are universal and Black radical thought is actually global and is a cornerstone for many liberation movements.

CJS: The exchange that an exhibition can make possible, that transmission of knowledge, also feels fundamental to the way that you think. If we framed the exhibition space as a matrix—art, artists, and audiences as the trifecta—is there anything specific or singular about these three coalescing in L.A.?

EC: I think that’s a really beautiful question… Just the way that L.A. artists have come together, regardless of

the institution, regardless of the validation of the larger art world, regardless of the market, has always been deeply inspirational to me and a reminder that art happens and exists beyond the framework of the art world. Art happens every day in the smallest of moments and in the strangest of places.

I’ve been so proud and have loved the fact that the L.A. art scene has these historical roots. It’s not about the gallery or the fair or the institution. […] I think L.A. has always been a city of artists for artists. The L.A. art
scene has always been doing its thing regardless of these other powers that be, and there’s something very punk and rebellious and almost anarchist about that, [which] I love. […] Historically, the artist in L.A. has always needed the collective, as opposed to other art centers.

Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal (installation view) (2025). Image courtesy of the artists and Hammer Museum. Photo: Joshua White.

No Humans Involved (installation view) (2021–22). Image courtesy of the artists and Hammer Museum. Photo: Jeff McLane.

CJS: I wonder how the collective manifests through [trailblazing] spaces in LA, like Self-Help Graphics & Art and the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, or the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.

EC: Those spaces raised me. I could not exist as the person that I am now, in the institution that I’m very consciously aware of that I exist in now, without those spaces. I think those spaces are actually the most important spaces within [this] ecosystem because those are where deep experimentation and innovation are still alive and well and accessible… I often feel they don’t get the credit that they deserve, or the deep labor that goes into making those spaces possible is never really praised.

Human Resources has always been an incredibly important space for me and for young curators who have the opportunity to put on shows. LACE [Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions] has always been an incredible space that has a very rich history and was started by artists and I think still has that sort of flair. The Echo Park Film Center [Collective] is another space [where] I could screen films or friends of mine learned how to shoot on film for the first time.

CJS: You mentioned that you carry L.A. around with you wherever you go. How do you feel that your community in L.A. informs this belief?

EC: So many of the artists that I have worked with are my peers, and we’ve grown up together, and I’ve been in and out of their studios over years. […] These spaces are the genesis of the work that I bring to the Hammer now and the group of artists that I’m constantly in conversation with.

CJS: In creating a sense or form of the collective, there needs to be a kind of magnetism, or this ability to connect with others that you undeniably possess.

EC: Thank you for seeing that in me… This is something I can’t overthink. I just do, it’s just intuitive. […] I’ve always understood that to be a human is to be in constant connection, refraction, reflection, projection, a collective of others that are all working through this notion of the human condition.

I think also that space always reminds me that we are all still learning… and when you enter other people’s spaces [you] come in those spaces with an open mind, come in those spaces knowing that these people are the authority, the legacy keepers of what those spaces mean to them, and what your contribution is from there.

CJS: Can you elaborate on being in this learning mindset? Especially in terms of the curator historically being a bastion of expertise, or a gatekeeper.

EC: I think being a curator now in this contemporary world is so vast and it has truly broken from those early constructs. I consider myself to be a part of a larger group of specifically Black contemporary curators who
for the first time en masse have come into these institutional spaces. What that has meant for me and so many of my colleagues is these spaces don’t always know what we need [and] how to treat us. I’ve had to be deeply creative and I’ve had to take care of myself in these spaces in order to survive. I think with that labor in mind, I have to be open, I have to be receptive, I have to learn from others because I too am sort of learning on the spot as I go about what I need, what I want, how to advocate for myself. Shout out to our elders and our mentors who [didn’t have] the network that we have now.

I think being a good curator in this contemporary world calls you to be…a person of the world. You’re constantly in the flux and flow of society and culture, and you’re moving between so many different spaces and classes and types of people. I think in order to do that well, you kind of have to be fluid, you have to have an open mind, you have to be willing to learn, or else you miss the point of what this incredible job and position can be.

Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal (installation view) (2025). Image courtesy of the artists and Hammer Museum. Photo: Joshua White.

CJS: I think what you’re describing so profoundly is the reality that the curator isn’t solely in the business of aesthetics anymore. I want to focus on the ethics that come with such a position of responsibility.

EC: This…notion of care has to extend beyond the object. At least that’s how I feel. The Latin word for curator [cūrātor] stems from this idea of caring… if you don’t care about or for the objects and the people and the audience that you are hoping to manifest in these spaces, then what are you actually gaining from this experience? This is the rhetorical question that I always toy with.

I remember one of the most brilliant things that the artist Martine Syms said. She was like, “I make shows for my mom.” It’s so simple, but so profound. Because what she is getting at is if grandma doesn’t feel it, if my little niece is not engaged, if my mother is not interested, who am I doing this for? I acknowledge not everyone thinks like this or has this set of priorities or even ethics, but the community of art people and workers that I keep close to me are those that feel similarly and do similarly.

I also just want to shout out certain art workers and curators in the city who have laid the groundwork for me to exist in this space, like Alma Ruiz who was at MOCA, or Rita Gonzalez who is at LACMA now, or Essence Harden, who’s curating the next Made in L.A. biennial. So many of these people who are often women of color have been the foundation of these institutions in this city, and I think that just needs to be reiterated over and over again.

CJS: Naming these people and spaces, calling to mind these different sensibilities and ideas—these are ways of keeping memories and archives alive, of making sure that they don’t fade away.

EC: Yeah, absolutely. I think that is part of the work. That’s…why oral history too is so deeply important. Saying those names, getting those names in print, circulating those names in digital spaces. […] These are the blueprints. These are the thought partners. These are the people who have made the L.A. art world what it is and what it will be. That is incredibly important to me.

belonging (installation view) (2019). Image courtesy of the artists and Hammer Museum. Photo: Jeff McLane.

Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation (installation view) (2022). Image courtesy of the artist and Hammer Museum. Photo: Jeff McLane.

CJ Salapare is a Filipino-American arts worker and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. He currently works in the Modern and Contemporary department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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