The seven young(ish) LA artists here offer a snapshot of the new wave of work taking shape now. What do these artists have in common? Almost nothing! Is their style quintessentially LA? Not really. And that’s the beauty of it. LA’s scene has reached a level of richness where no one style, approach, or school-of-thought dominates. What you have instead, is a plethora of artists taking interesting risks, making a diverse array of work across every conceivable medium, and sometimes, even re-imagining mediums altogether. And that, gentle art goer, is the surest sign that something really good is afoot.
Dianna Molzan
Edie Fake
Edie Fake draws on Chicago Imagism, the Hairy Who, and diverse forms of outsider abstraction to create intricate, enchanting drawings that suggest early video games spliced together with carnival funhouses that the artist conceives as queer spaces. Fake made waves in 2015 as a member of a group known as the USC7, resigning from the school in protest to corporatization measures. He is also a respected graphic novelist, winning awards for his Gaylord Phoenix collection, which follows the danger-fraught journeys of its namesake, “a creature willing to sacrifice anything for love and self-knowledge.”
Andrew Norman Wilson
Norman Wilson works in an almost absurd array of mediums, from narrative video essays to construction equipment. With a sprawling sense of adventure and what art can be, he explores the interplay of technology and psychological states. A prime example: his notorious 2009-2011 video, Workers Leaving the Googleplex, in which he attempts to interview elite workers at Google, thereby exposing the subtle meta-hierarchies of the company. The project resulted in his firing from a job as a contract employee, but it also put his name on the LA art world map.
Lee Relvas
Relvas has produced an
impressive catalogue of experimental pop albums, as well as projects under the
names Rind and Dewayne Slightweight. Her most recent work is a kind of performative,
fluid drawing in wood joined with epoxy putty. Referencing the body as muse,
Relvas sands wood down to the smooth texture of skin. The sculptures seem to
bend to her will suggesting gestures and movement. Her writing is key to
understanding her practice, the sculptures seen through an evolving narrative.
Liz Glynn
Milano Chow
Paul Mpagi Sepuya
Now that you've been introduced to some of LA's emerging artists, get out there and see the art...
The Standard Guide to Gallery-Going in LA