The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) is pleased to present Open Call: Apophenia. In celebration of the gallery’s 70th year anniversary, LAMAG revisits its popular open call exhibition format, featuring 350 artists living and/or working in Southern California. Founded as the All City Outdoor Festival in 1950 and dispersed throughout nine LA city parks, the recurring program evolved into Open Call, a non-juried opportunity for youth, students, professional, and non-professional artists to present their artwork side by side at LAMAG. This year, in lieu of a cash prize and honorable mentions, LAMAG will invite between two to four artists to develop an exhibition in the gallery’s project space. The selection will be made by newly appointed LAMAG Curators Nancy Meyer and Hugo Cervantes. 

This year’s Open Call, subtitled Apophenia (the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things, such as objects or ideas) is derived from an artwork included in the exhibition. The curatorial approach speaks to the show’s ethos of creating connections among artists and practices that celebrate the differences across Southern California. Organized by theme, medium, and color, Open Call: Apophenia generates a conversation mediated by artistic differences to create points of connection. Open Call: Apophenia includes painting, photography, works on paper, and sculpture made by artists living within Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.

BOOKS AND THINGS
Group Exhibition
Curated by Cameron Masters
September 10 - October 22, 2022
Opening Reception: September 10, 5-7 PM

Helen J Gallery is pleased to present BOOKS AND THINGS, a group exhibition of works by Hiejin Yoo, Bowei Yang, Keanu Kemar Wynter, Sophie Varin, Ben Tong, Shin Kyungchul, Sarah Pater, Park Junghae, Eun-Ha Paek, Pia Ortuño, Alex Nguyen-Vo, Sarana Mehra, Adam Lovitz, Jung Yoory, Jeon Hyunsun, Han Sungwoo, Alex Delapena, Max Cleary, Heather Cleary, Michelle J Chun, Mitsuko Brooks, and David Aipperspach.

Objects lead double lives, moonlighting as surrogates for their owners. Some, such as artworks, personify eagerly, becoming almost inextricable from their makers and collectors. Others are more reticent, like the belongings that populate studios, libraries, and workshops. What they share is their disinterest in mimicry, instead approaching portraiture through backstories and innuendos.

This observation is underpinned by a historical anecdote. Behind the desks of private studies and offices in Joseon-era Korea were painted folding screens, each with panels depicting shelves stocked with classic literature, art supplies, and rare artifacts. To visitors, the purpose of Chaekgeori (‘books and things’) screens was straightforward: these still lives reflected the professions of the officials by whom they were commissioned. But these images also channeled hidden intimations and critiques through careful selections of items. Eyeglasses and empty cups placed next to documents, and leopard pelts draped across the room alluded to late-night drinking and flamboyant hunts, forbidden under the rigid austerity of the time. While serving as decorative backdrops, these arrangements were also indirect likenesses of peoples’ inner worlds.

The Chaekgeoris’ context is over a century out of date. But the artworks that fill this space are similarly imbued with emotional interiority and coded commentaries, with one eye on their social and historical backgrounds and the other facing inwards. Every piece is accompanied by possessions selected from their corresponding studios, placed on low shelves that trace the perimeter of the walls. A book about the moon, a music box, two dried cicadas, a chunk of celadon clay, a discarded ink brush, all usually cloistered off for personal contemplation, make rare public debuts. Just as these objects offer vivid characterizations, they also resist easy analysis, mirroring the artists they portray.


Helen J Gallery is a contemporary art gallery based in Los Angeles. Specializing in Asian art and design, the gallery features vibrant programming and exhibitions geared towards embracing Asian culture and the diaspora. Our program aims to promote artists from various geographic locations and diverse backgrounds, foster cross-continental dialogue, and broaden the understanding of Asian culture in the Los Angeles area and beyond.

For press inquiries, please contact info@helenjgallery.com.

L.A. Stories is curated by Paul Paiement, a California-based artist and tenured professor in the Art Department at Cypress College in Orange County, California.

Paiement first visited Brenau a little over a year ago to discuss a show of his own work, at which time he toured the campus and was impressed with the university’s Permanent Art Collection.

“It’s interesting how the collection evolved and what it offers to students at Brenau,” Paiement said. “A lot of times, that’s really overlooked at a lot of universities. I was really impressed by how Brenau’s collection is being displayed for all to see. It’s not being warehoused or in just a few select places. That was very impressive to me, and artists especially see the importance of that.”

While touring, he noticed how many of the artists were from the East Coast, and he remarked to university staff that it would be great if there was more West Coast representation.

“Traditionally, the art world has been so New York-based,” he said. “But times are changing and things are shifting. I don’t think everything is happening in Los Angeles, but there is a lot happening there. I hope this brings a basic kind of exposure to all the really wonderful things that are happening here. There is a really amazing collection of artists here.”

Paiement said an exhibition of West Coast artists should reflect Los Angeles’ vast demographics.

“The show is about diversity, but about not only the diversity of the artists — that’s a buzzword — but the approaches to artmaking here are incredibly diverse. The works don’t fit into a style or a school.”

Paiement said the show doesn’t even fully capture that artistic diversity — “We’ve just cracked a door here,” he said — but there is something that ties all the works together, too.

“If I were to describe that, I’d say it’s very much a reflection of Los Angeles,” he said. “There’s a certain polish that artworks produced in LA have. Even though there are all these different approaches, it comes down to a certain finish, a polish, an aesthetic. And I think it’s optimistic. It reflects our 340 days of sunshine.”

Paiement said finding that unity was the greatest challenge in curating the show and credited Brenau Galleries Director Nichole Ferguson for tying it all together.

Paiement chose 30 artists for the show, all of which reflect that vast artistic spectrum and are recognized and well-respected by the international art community.

Ferguson said the university’s Permanent Art Collection has a long history tied to the New York art scene. John S. Burd, a former Brenau president, befriended Leo Castelli for whom the gallery is named. Castelli was one of the greatest art dealers of the 20th century and went on to become a supportive member of the university’s Board of Trustees and pivotal agent in Brenau’s galleries.

Today, many of the works of artists Castelli represented — including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol — are part of the university’s Permanent Art Collection.

Ferguson said she’s thrilled the university can now share with the greater community what is happening artistically on the other side of the country. An opening reception for the show will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in the Castelli Gallery, located in the John S. Burd Center for the Performing Arts on Brenau’s Gainesville campus. Paiement and several of the exhibiting artists will be in attendance.

The artists in the show are: Abel Alejandre, Cherie Benner Davis, Andrea Bersaglieri, Justin Bower, Todd Brainard, Gary Brewer, Cole Case, Kendell Carter, Martin Durazo, Frido Evers, Samantha Fields, Phyllis Green, Lisa Ikerd-Carradine, Ben Jackel, Dion Johnson, Yoory Jung, Virginia Katz, Jerome Lagarrigue, Aline Mare, Siobhan McClure, Robert Miller, Hagop Najarian, Deborah Roberts, Greg Rose, Leigh Salgado, Molly Schulps, Phumelele Tshabalala, Ernest Velardi, Stephen Wozniak and Andre Yi.