Los Angeles
March 8, 2023

The Palestinian-American Artist Getting Cheeky With Corporate Logos

Integrating techniques of Islamic art with branding, Saj Issa examines globalization’s impact on intersecting identities. | Sarah Quiñones Wolfson

FROM OUR CRITICS

A Brush With the Californian Sublime

Using grand scale, lush color, and time-intensive labor, Hayley Barker creates artwork that magnifies the sublime in that which is often overlooked. | Jennifer Remenchik

Hayley Barker: Laguna Castle
Feb. 18–Mar. 18, 2023
Night Gallery, 2276 East 16th Street and 2050 Imperial Street, Arts District (nightgallery.ca)

On the Same Frequency as Milford Graves

The jazz drummer’s polymathic experimentation also spanned visual art, botany, and even an improvisational martial art he invented called Yara. | Anne Wallentine

Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency
Feb. 11–May 14, 2023
ICA LA, 1717 East 7th Street, Arts District (theicala.org)

How Art Helps Politicians Soften Their Image

Hande Sever’s latest installation explores how leaders in the US and Turkey have used visual art and film to project, modify, and erase history. | AX Mina

To Thread Air
Feb. 11–Mar. 11, 2023
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, 709 North Hill Street, Suite 104-8, Chinatown (lacarchive.com)

WHAT TO SEE THIS WEEK

Benjamin Asam Kellogg: Hidden Pathways
Through March 17
Murmurs, 1411 Newton Street, Downtown (murmurs.la)

Benjamin Asam Kellogg’s work is filled with symbols — snakes, flames, stars, crowns — that reappear in wide-ranging mythological and mystical traditions, including the Bible and tarot. In his second solo show at Murmurs, he connects these symbolic archetypes through an architectural installation anchored by a compass on the ground, inviting viewers to navigate through the web of arcane mysteries he has conjured.

Luis Garza: The Other Side of Memory
Through March 19
Riverside Art Museum, 3425 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside (riversideartmuseum.org)

Luis Garza got his start as a photographer at the seminal Chicano magazine La Raza in the late 1960s, while still a student at UCLA. In the ensuing five decades, he won acclaim for his photographs, and branched out to become a producer-director of documentary film projects and an exhibition curator. The Other Side of Memory presents 66 black-and-white silver gelatin prints from his archive, many never exhibited before, documenting life in the South Bronx in the 1960s, East LA in the 1970s, and his iconic images of the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros taken in 1971. Curator Armando Durón juxtaposes photographs from different eras and locations to suggest new stylistic and thematic threads.

Visual Language: The Art of Protest
Through March 25
Subliminal Projects, 1331 West Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park (subliminalprojects.com)

Some of the most influential radical movements — from the Russian revolutionaries of a century ago to the Black Panthers of the 1960s — spread their message with equally radical and eye-catching graphics. Visual Language: The Art of Protest features over two dozen artists who aim to push culture forward through their artwork, whether it be exhibited on the museum wall, wheat-pasted on the street, or unfurled as a protest banner. Artists include Andrea Bowers, Barbara Kruger, Robbie Conal, Emory Douglas, Guerrilla Girls, Renee Cox, Pussy Riot, and others.

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MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

Can LA’s Arts Sector Become More Equitable?

A new report by Arts for LA calls for “solidarity-based approaches” to secure studio spaces, educate civic leaders, and secure living-wage jobs for artists. | Matt Stromberg