The 9 LA Art Gallery Openings You Need to Know About

Toba Khedoori | Regen Projects

January 9^th – February 13^th

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9^th, 7 pm

Toba Khedoori renders small pictorial scenes on large expanses of paper, using everyday imagery such as park benches, rocks, fences, tunnels, and houses. She dwarfs her imagery to call attention to the literal, blank space of paper around it, providing different metaphors for social dystopia or personal loss. Her surfaces retain the incidents of their physical making, including studio debris like cat hair and dirt as well as the artist’s own footprints.

 Thomas Wachholz | Strike Gently | MIER Gallery

January 15^th – February 26^th

Opening Reception: Friday, January 15^th, 6 pm

Thomas Wachholz has been experimenting with the technical capabilities of industrial printers, testing the limits of what is feasible. His work often encompasses paper as a medium that he manipulates with wooden matches and imprints to create abstract motifs that investigate the limits of paper and painting. Wachholz’s collection of alcohol works are comprised of a series of large-format digital paintings that are then erased with ethanol.

 LA ART SHOW: A New Experience | Los Angeles Convention Center (Hall J & K)

January 27^th – January 31^st

For the exhibition’s 21^st edition, the LA Art Show will entail a fair devoted to only modern and contemporary art, intended to meet the needs and trends of the LA market, and present what is new in today’s art world. For 20 years, the LA Art Show has succeeded in reflecting the trajectory of the vibrant LA art scene and the city’s evolving nature. The show has grown to become the largest and longest-running platform for fine art, bringing in more than 120 galleries representing 22 countries.

Printed Matter | LA Art Book Fair 2016 | The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

February 12^th – February 14^th

Free and open to the public, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair is a unique event for artists’ books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines presented by more than 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers. Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair is the companion fair to Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair, held every fall in New York.

 LUCAS KNIPSCHER | Thomas Duncan Gallery

February 26^th – April 2^nd

Opening Reception: Friday, February 26^th, 6 pm

Lucas Knipscher’s works vary widely in style and composition, often including soft sculptures, upholstered objects, assemblages of both found and made objects, and hand-made and hand-dyed fabrics from India, Japan, and Indonesia. His work attempts to dismantle assumptions about medium specificity, regularly incorporating photographic processes into painting, sewing, assemblages, and installations.

Hito Steyerl | Factory of the Sun | MOCA

February 21^st – September 12^th

​MOCA presents the US premiere of Hito Steyerl’s landmark video installation Factory of the Sun. In this immersive work, Steyerl probes the pleasures and perils of image circulation in a moment defined by the unprecedented global flow of data. Ricocheting between genres—news reportage, documentary film, video games, and internet dance videos—Factory of the Sun uses the motifs of light and acceleration to explore what possibilities are still available for collective resistance when surveillance has become a mundane part of an increasingly virtual world. This video work tells the surreal story of workers whose forced moves in a motion-capture studio are turned into artificial sunshine.

Vivian Maier | Merry Karnowsky

December 15^th– February 27^th

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 16^th, 7pm-10pm

This winter, the Merry Karnowsky Gallery presents Vivian Maier, the Maloof collection. As one of the most iconic street photographers of the 20^th Century, Maier has shot more than 100,000 negatives spanning the globe, but rarely capturing the same moment twice. The Maloof collection has been meticulously reconstructed, cataloging vintage lifetime prints, hundreds of rolls of film, home movies, audio interviews, cameras, documents, negatives, and personal items. The exhibition will showcase over 65 new, existing, modern color, and limited edition photographs.

Islamic Art Now, Part 2 | LACMA

January 24^th – ongoing

Islamic Art Now, a two-part exhibition, marks the first major installation of LACMA’s collection of contemporary art of the Middle East. As the second of a two-part program, this exhibition features approximately 29 works by artists from across the Middle East—Iran, the Arab world, Turkey, and Azerbaijan—who draw inspiration from their own cultural traditions using techniques and imagery from earlier periods in traditional and modern art.

Photo by Ken Ohara

Photo LA | The Reef

January 21st-24th

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 21st, 7pm

The international photographic art exposition—Photo LA— celebrates its 25^th anniversary this January 21-24 at The REEF building in Downtown LA. The internationally recognized exhibit showcases a diverse collection of photographic art ranging from 19^th century works to innovative, contemporary photographers. Galleries, dealers, museums, schools, and non-profit organizations participate to define what photography has been, what it is today, and what it might evolve into. To foster a dialogue, Photo LA presents interactive programming that includes lectures, roundtable discussions, special installations, and docent tours with distinguished members of the photography/arts community.