Your Concise Los Angeles Art Guide for October 2020

Art spaces across Los Angeles are busy putting together both virtual and in-person exhibitions this fall. Below is our selection of 10 shows open throughout October (and for those who might’ve missed our September guide, a few of the shows in that list are still open, as well). Take a peek at our suggestions to educate yourself on voting, revisit California’s historic Chicano murals, and enjoy a film screening from the sidewalk.

—Elisa Wouk Almino, Senior Editor, Los Angeles 

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Aaron Garber-Maikovska: 4 from 4 dancers

When: September 12–October 24
Where: Blum & Poe (2727 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City) (open by appointment)

As the title of his new exhibition suggests, 4 from 3 dancers, Aaron Garber-Maikovska’s paintings are inseparable from the performative nature of their creation. His gestural abstractions are the result of public performances that take place in fast-food restaurants or parking lots, video documentation of which is included in the show. This exhibition, his first with Blum & Poe, is the fourth in a series exploring family, fatherhood, and the births of his daughter and son.

Eddie Rodolpho Aparicio / Jen Smith with Liberated Arts Collective

When: September 18–October 24
Where: Commonwealth & Council (3006 W. 7th Street, Ste 220, Koreatown, Los Angeles) (open by appointment)

A pair of exhibitions at Commonwealth & Council explores methods of solidarity and resilience. Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio’s first show with the gallery, Espinas Amorosas/Loving Thorns, features rubber casts of trees from the Pico-Union neighborhood, adorned with glass, graffiti, and fabric, alluding to a history of trauma and rebirth, both in Los Angeles as well as El Salvador, where Aparicio’s father hails from. For their exhibition Take Care, Jen Smith and the Liberated Arts Collective — composed of artists impacted by incarceration — have created 100 tote bags filled with a face mask, cutlery, tea, and flower seeds. In order to receive a tote, participants must send a postcard to an incarcerated individual, alongside a copy of the collective’s zine, How to Survive a Quarantine, which itself includes work by those in prison.

Stanya Kahn: No Go Backs 

When: September 26, 2020–January 10, 2021
Where: Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (1717 E. 7th Street, Downtown, Los Angeles) (open by appointment)

Stanya Kahn: No Go Backs features three videos by the Los Angeles-based artist: the debut of the titular film, as well as two earlier works that address our politically, economically, and culturally tumultuous era with humor, improvisation, and intimacy. Shot on Super 16mm film and featuring no dialogue, No Go Backs is a teen travelogue through California, giving voice to a new generation with an uncertain future. 

Aram Han Sifuentes: The Official Unofficial Voting Station

When: October 1–November 30
Where: Skirball Cultural Center (virtual exhibition)

At no other time in recent memory has the ability to vote seemed more important or more imperiled. With her online exhibition The Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting for All Who Legally Can’t, Aram Han Sifuentes has created a truly democratic and inclusive polling place for everyone to cast a symbolic ballot, especially for the millions of Americans who are legally prohibited from doing so. Participants can choose their candidate for president and sound off on the issues they feel are most important to them and to the nation. This project is one in a series of collaborations with the Skirball that began last summer with political banner-making workshops.

Signs from the Heart: California’s Chicano Murals

When: Opens Thursday, October 1
Where: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) (virtual exhibition)

The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) is home to the largest archive on public art and muralism in Los Angeles, and it will be sharing some of those images in the virtual exhibition Signs from the Heart: California’s Chicano Murals. The show features photos from the golden age of the Chicano Art Movement in the 1960s, and extends to the 2000s, including shots of works in progress, artists at work, and completed murals. Artists include Willie Herron, Francisco Letelier, Josefina Quezada, and SPARC co-founder Judy Baca.

Ser todo Es ser parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part 

When: October 3–November 22
Where: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) (6522 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, Los Angeles)

This bilingual exhibition, curated by Selene Preciado, features drawings, illustrations, prints, street art, and murals by Demián Flores, Rurru Mipanochia, J.Chavez, and Celia Herrera Rodríguez. Preciado chose these artists for their “shared aesthetic language,” which draws on pre-Columbian iconography to imagine a “futuristic post-colonial utopia.” Due to COVID-19, the exhibition was redesigned to be installed in LACE’s storefront windows.

Womxn In Windows 2020

When: October 15–November 15
Where: Windows along Chung King Road (Chinatown, Los Angeles)

For its second year, Womxn In Windows is showcasing video art by eight women artists in storefronts along Chinatown’s Chung King Road. The videos will play 24 hours a day and you can access the audio of each film through QR codes. Founder and curator Zehra Ahmed chose films that illustrate “how womxn have relied on faith and on each other.” The featured artists are Christine Yuan, Everlane Moraes, Ja’tovia Gary, Kilo Kish, Kya Lou, Remie Akl, and Sylvie Weber; their respective works often speak to their varied backgrounds in the United States, Brazil, Lebanon, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, and Germany.

Patty Chang: Milk Debt 

When: October 19, 2020–January 22, 2021 
Where: 18th Street Arts Center (1639 18th St, Santa Monica) (open by appointment)

Back in March, the artist Patty Chang put out an open call for fears. It’s easy to imagine she had plenty of material to work with. The result, a new five-channel film, will be the centerpiece of her solo exhibition. In each of the videos, lactating women pump breast milk as they recite the submitted lists of fears, speaking to our political, environmental, and personal anxieties. Chang sees lactation as a deeply “empathetic act” that can help us cope and relate to others.

45 at 45

When: October 20, 2020–January 16, 2021 
Where: LA Louver (45 North Venice Blvd., Venice) (open by appointment)

Venice gallery LA Louver has been a mainstay of the city’s art scene since Los Angeles was a one-horse town, artistically speaking. 45 at 45 honors the gallery’s 45th anniversary with a group exhibition of 45 artists from throughout its long history. These include influential Angeleno artists like David Hockney, Ed and Nancy Kienholz, and Alison Saar, alongside those from younger generations including Carmen Argote, Gabriella Sanchez, and Gajin Fujita. The gallery’s largest group exhibition ever, it will highlight LA Louver’s commitment “to champion LA artists within an international program,” featuring works by Jimmie Durham, Marcel Duchamp, Alice Neel, and many others.

Rachel Rosenthal: Thanks: Collage Works from the 1970’s 

When: October 24–December 12
Where: Roberts Projects (5801 Washington Blvd, Culver City) (open by appointment)

If you don’t know the visionary performance artist Rachel Rosenthal, we recommend reading Diana Rico’s reflection published shortly after Rosenthal’s death in 2015. This upcoming exhibition will showcase some of her earliest works: her never-before-exhibited collage works from the 1970s. Like her performance work, these collages are intimate and personal, exploring her relationship to both sexuality and home.

With contributions by Matt Stromberg and Elisa Wouk Almino