LA Art Show To Do

Here's our top picks from the LA Art Show.

Lúcio Carvalho's work is inspired by scenography as well as Baroque, Rococo, and Renaissance art. He uses painting, photography, and sculpture to explore the past and future, memory and imagination. See his work at the 2020 LA Art Show with Georgia gallery Chic Evolution in Art. pic.twitter.com/IxUS6NtEzL

— LA Art Show (@LAArtShow) January 28, 2020

𝘈𝘓𝘗𝘏𝘈𝘛𝘠𝘗𝘌, created by Lorenzo Marini and curated by Sabino Maria Frassà, seeks to literally upend the contemporary art paradigm of the white cube by making it the a part of the artwork. Inside Marini's white cube is a new, immersive space animated by artistic brilliance. pic.twitter.com/bLyDVtfspg

— LA Art Show (@LAArtShow) January 25, 2020

The M.C. Escher Experience
By M.C. Escher

Presented by Walker Fine Art

Exploring the intersection of art, mathematics, science and poetry, Escher’s work has fascinated and astounded generations of artists, architects, mathematicians, musicians and designers alike. Over 40 years, Walker Fine Art has assembled the largest collection of Escher works in the world, and will showcase the “rarest of the rare” at the 25th Annual LA Art Show. The M.C. Escher experience runs the span of his entire career, and will include rarely seen lithographs, wood cuts, engravings, and mezzotints, as well as the artist’s iconic custom furniture. Many of these will be shown in California for the first time ever. In addition to seeing the artist’s work up close, LA Art Show attendees will have the opportunity to become Escher. A special photo-booth will recreate his iconic sphere
self portrait with you in the reflection. 

IF YOU DRINK HEMLOCK, I SHALL DRINK IT WITH YOU or A BEAUTIFUL DEATH; player to player, pimp to pimp.
(As performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade): Daniel Joseph Martinez
Curated by Chon Noriega
Presented by LACMA and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

Daniel Joseph Martinez’s immersive environment references Jacques-Louis David’s seminal portrait The Death of Marat (1793), painted and also reproduced shortly after Marat’s assassination during the French Revolution. Whereas David’s painting represents a single moment, both sanitized and accurate in its details, Martinez creates a mise en scène using three life-like sculptures modeled after the artist’s own body. These depict Marat in his bath as well as assassin Charlotte Corday and Martinez himself both standing behind Marat (each with a bloodied dagger in hand).

Martinez stages Marat’s assassination as a public spectacle surrounded by bleachers, although viewers can also immerse themselves within the scene, no doubt taking selfies. In this way, Martinez connects David’s painting with our present moment, giving a historical dimension for modern politics as a form of theater, sport, and business. But Martinez pushes even further. The Death of Marat quickly became iconic of the French Revolution, not because it depicted a public spectacle, but rather because it circulated a political image that focused attention on the personal and private. Once that happened, politics-as-spectacle was no longer dependent on public space – it was in our minds.

Art Lives Here: S. C. Mero
Presented by Art Share L.A.

Art Share L.A. has partnered with skid-row based, emerging guerrilla artist S.C. Mero to bring a taste of the streets of Downtown Los Angeles to LA Art Show. Embodying the nature of downtown, the onsite installation pieces are just a teaser to the larger site map of her work – which guides attendees into downtown to explore our community under the guise of a pseudo street art scavenger hunt. Each of her site-specific, clever creations calls attention to issues surrounding homelessness, gentrification, drug use, global warming, and more. The goal of this project is to encourage further exploration of underground art, arts activism, and social justice in the Downtown community in a way that is inviting and accessible for everyone.