"The exquisite amount of tenderness he takes, with each tendril of her hair, the exact purse of her lips, even the wisps of her lower eyelashes, is a reminder that paying attention to others is sometimes the most radical act of all."

"Lia Halloran, in her sprawling studio in Eagle Rock, showed me her latest deep blue cyanotypes. She creates these works on paper by painting on semi-transparent film, then placing this film on top of paper coated with light-sensitive emulsion—the film and paper are then exposed to direct sunlight. These magical artworks make you feel that you are travelling through the universe."

"Viewing Tezeno’s lively colored work replicates a leisurely drive through a small Black town, encountering its most fascinating figures, passing by shotgun houses and acres of green landscape or leafing through an old family photo album and seeing mixed-media collage versions of beloved relatives on page after page."

“If you are curious enough, and you get close, you will see that there’s more to the work than just the fence.”

Artist Federico Solmi joins curator, educator, and Rail Editor-at-Large Dan Cameron for a conversation. Concluding with a poetry reading from Urayoán Noel.
Tuesday, April 6th
10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern

"Evita Tezeno's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, Better Days, features colorful collage paintings that depict a cast of black and brown characters in harmonious and joyful everyday scenes inspired by the artist's life, memory & dreams."

An immersive installation based on children's book "Goodnight Moon" curated by art and design collective Fort Makers. 

Zackary Drucker is participating in group show Radical Tenderness: Trans for Trans Portraiture. Timed to coincide with the International Day of Transgender Visibility on March 31, Radical Tenderness highlights photographic work from four trans and non-binary artists whose portrait photography exudes tender intimacy and calls for a radical shift in visibility politics. 

"As the planet enters the beginning of a post-pandemic, post-Trump administration era, it was wonderful to be baptized in optimism from Evita Tezeno’s exhibition, “Better Days” at the Luis De Jesus Los Angeles gallery. One sweeping taste of these works results in a single message: Tezeno’s unique voice reflects a masterful synthesis of several groundbreaking aesthetic approaches that pay tribute to Black culture ..."

"This is one of the best shows I have had the pleasure to see since the start of the pandemic. It is definitely one not to be missed."

This year's prize focused on awarding binational artists in San Diego's artistic community. 

"There can be moments of discovery or ahas down the road,” Reames says. “All the artwork that I live with, I typically will discover new things in it down the line, and that’s a really important experience for me — the kind of experience I want other people to have with it.”

The gallery is excited to announce that Federico Solmi will be participating in the centennial exhibition of The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. His piece, The Great Farce, in a portable theater edition, will be part of this incredible show that celebrates the impact of artists from the 19th century to the present.

Adams focuses his visual language through the intersectional lens of the complexities, pleasures and perils of being a Black man in this world, now and otherwise. For example, Lost Trophy (Apollo) (2012) depicts the Greek god of truth, creativity and healing as a young Black athlete. Adams uses his own experiences as well as African and mythological allegories and parables—all made visual through rich colours, sacred geometries, real and metaphorical portals, land/space-scapes and portraits. Together, they suggest that the lineage of Black people and our creative vitality is as nimble as ever.

Illuminate Coral Gables (ICG) focuses on the intentional use of light and technology to transform public art by day into magical and mysterious work at night. Her piece Yes/No uses barricades as a symbol of global climate of resistance. 

Interview is also available in Spanish on "Pan y Sal" podcast conducted by Griselda Rosas.

The common thread that runs through the work of multimedia artist and producer Zackary Drucker is a commitment to telling stories of trans resilience, whether that’s through her photography, her work as a producer on the award-winning series Transparent, or as co-director of the new HBO docuseries The Lady and the Dale. “I never want to do the same thing twice. I am led by curiosity, by anything that I don’t understand,” Drucker says. 

Lia Halloran will be presenting work with The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens and Ken Gonzales-Day will be working with The Wende Museum. 

Hugo Crosthwaite's piece, A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez (2018), was the 2019 winner of the Outwin and marks the first Latinx winner of the award since its founding in 2006. The show can be viewed in person, or online on their site. After the show concludes in April, it will then travel to The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kentucky, Missouri. 

"In Celestial Bodies, Harris uses narratives of kinship, creation, and myth as tools to understand, undo and build anew. Cloaked in a firmament of stars and sumptuous red fabrics evocative of Mt. Olympus, the protagonists in Celestial Bodies exist in a contemplative and meditative dimension outside of our own reality- a utopian black society that we can look to for inspiration. "

The nine-channel installation, painting, drawing and motion-capture images are stitched together using digital technology to create a surreal universe. The work can be presented as an immersive gallery installation with nine projections, or a sculptural “portable theater” with embedded video that represents the content, spirit and aesthetic of the larger installation.

Drawn entirely from the Mead’s collection, the group exhibition Founding Narratives raises questions about representation and the absence of representation in national narratives and in the establishment of a national art, about the significance of “firsts,” and about the interpretative frameworks that museums offer about artists and artworks.