LACA

Checking In is a collection of art ephemera and personal mementos that share ways we use art to inform each other about harm reduction during moments of rest, leisure, stress and joy. These include visual materials related to rave care artist books, ticket stubs, Fentanyl test strip brochures, doodles on Narcan packaging, text messages, venmo request collateral, lost and found items, oral histories and journaling related to overdose, loss, and grief, and other materials that offers insights into how we take care of each other on and off of the dance floor.

Checking In was informed by artists who have contributed to this conversation about harm reduction with materials from Nacho Nava Jr’s of memorial (Mustache Monday), items from the alley, and artist books about Jewels Catch One. We have now organized an open call inviting people to grow the conversation and contribute their ephemera related to overdose prevention and the ways we take care of each other. 

Raw, Cooked, and Leftover

Opening: May 12, 7-10 pm
May 12-June 23

From The Cremation of Care – Nick Angelo’s Models, Scott Benzel

“What does it mean for a painter to think?” – Hubert Damish

The hedge is perfectly manicured, the expensive-looking wood planters a shade somewhere between bourgeois respectability and denuded avant-garde. The finishes, materials, and layout suggest refinement, a mashup of ozempaic Hollywood Regency and clear-cut mid-century Modern – this is the lobby of a luxury building. The penthouse, having slashed through all of that intervening “immaterial” matter (the floors separating the lobby from the penthouse significant only in their elevatory capacity), sits directly atop the lobby, floor-to-ceiling windows framing a fiery sunset cresting the megapolis. Next door – another aberration in the heartland of this real – a destroyed room, twisted furniture smashed into its center as if spontaneously sucked into one of the pocket black holes that scientists have recently warned permeate our universe.

The Cloud Still Doesn't Love You

March 21, 7-9 PM

The Cloud still doesn’t love you looks at digital storage and how artists can use it to meet their needs. Led by Los Angeles-based artist, Christopher Richmond, the lab addresses strategies for artists in different disciplines, from painting to photography to video. Other topics will include the pros and cons of specific storage options, including the Cloud, external drives, optical disc, and tape. The lab will be in a conversational format, and attendees are encouraged to ask questions about their unique digital storage needs during the presentation.

Organized by Christopher Richmond

Hande Sever
To Thread Air

Opening February 11, 7-9 PM
February 11-March 10 2023

Hande Sever’s To Thread Air brings together a series of photographs and a film essay to reveal the media-based materialities which undergird histories affected by the Cold War. The work is primarily structured around a montage of footage excavated during the artist’s research at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. Sever began producing To Thread Air in 2019 after coming across the archival remnants of a ceremony held in the White House in which Kenan Evren—the right-wing leader of the 1980 Turkish coup—received the legion of merit from President Ronald Reagan.