Spring Exhibitions / LA Galleries (2026) Part II

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:09][music] >> When you first look at the paintings, you'll notice these bending, twisting figures.

[00:00:25]Bodies stretch, overlap, and sometimes feel like they're merging with the space around them.

[00:00:32]They don't follow normal anatomy, and that's intentional.

[00:00:44]Instead of showing a fixed, stable body, Christina is exploring how identity is constantly shifting, depending on where you are and what you're experiencing.

[00:01:10]You'll see fragments of interiors, patterns and planes that almost feel digital, like multiple worlds collapsing into one.

[00:01:32]Instead of giving us one clear scene, she builds images >> [music] >> where several possibilities seem to exist at the same time.

[00:01:55]This exhibition centers on a feeling many of us recognize.

[00:02:00]Being unsettled, slightly disoriented, or caught in between places.

[00:02:13]For the artist, [music] that feeling comes from a very real experience.

[00:02:18]After losing her home in the Los Angeles wildfires, she spent an extended period moving from place to place.

[00:02:27]These paintings aren't literal depictions of that experience, but you can feel its impact running through them.

[00:02:49]The artist begins intuitively, making loose, spontaneous marks on the canvas, and letting forms emerge gradually.

[00:02:58]It's a very physical process, >> [music] >> guided by movement and instinct.

[00:03:14]At a certain point, she interrupts that flow.

[00:03:19]She photographs the paintings and brings it into the computer, where she experiments with adding more structured shapes >> [music] >> and layered patterns.

[00:03:44]These digital elements are then turned into stencils and brought back onto the canvas.

[00:03:50]So, each painting shifts between something instinctive and physical and something more deliberate and built.

[00:04:14]The show is about holding a set of tensions between stability and instability, body and environment, control and improvisation.

[00:04:25]The figures seem to be negotiating space, [music] trying to find a way to exist within it even as it shifts around them.

[00:04:49]What makes this show special is that it's not just about what we see, but about how things come into being, how materials interact, how time affects them, and how much of the final result is truly in the artist's hands.

[00:05:22]This exhibition explores what painting can become when materials are allowed to behave almost on their own.

[00:05:50]>> One of the most unique aspects [music] of her process is her use of oxidation.

[00:05:56]She works with iron-based pigments and introduces a solution that causes the surface >> [music] >> to rust over time.

[00:06:06]So, instead of color staying fixed, it continues to shift. Reds can deepen into browns [music] or even near black.

[00:06:15]What would normally take years of aging happens much faster here, almost in real time.

[00:06:42]The title of the show references two natural substances that come together to form a pearl.

[00:06:51]Instead of focusing on the finished pearl, Emma's more interested in [music] what it's made of, the structure underneath.

[00:07:18]Each work begins with a poured layer of paint, which the artist describes as completely chance-based.

[00:07:28]Once the canvas is upright, the paint starts to move, pull, and settle in ways she can't fully control. From there, she responds to what appears, guiding it, but never fully dictating it.

[00:07:57]The artist uses the structure of a calendar year to think about how different seasons stay with us emotionally as we move through life.

[00:08:21]This exhibition is made up of 12 large paintings, each connected to a month of the year.

[00:08:28]But rather than simply illustrating each month [music] in a straightforward way, the artist blends together memories from different moments in her [music] life.

[00:08:52]Her paintings focused more [music] on sensations and atmosphere than exact scenes, capturing shifting weather, memory, [music] and the feeling of time moving in cycles.

[00:09:05]Each month [music] feels more like a collection of memories and emotions than a single moment.

[00:09:27]The artist often uses >> [music] >> large fields of soft color where forms seem to appear and disappear. Maybe a moon, trees, flowers, or reflections on water.

[00:09:53]As the exhibition progresses through the months, gold leaf began to appearing more frequently in the paintings, making part of the works feel illuminated from within.

[00:10:14]The artist grew up around nature and landscape design [music] because both of her parents worked in that field.

[00:10:22]She has said that watching gardens slowly change over time shaped the way she sees the world.

[00:10:29]That connection to nature became central to her painting practice.

[00:10:34]Rather than trying to paint exact landscapes, she focuses brief moments in nature that are difficult to hold on to.

[00:10:44]Fleeting shifts in light, climate, and emotion.

[00:11:04]>> [music] >> What makes the exhibition especially engaging is that the paintings sit somewhere between recognizable landscapes and abstraction.

[00:11:19]You recognize pieces of nature and landscape, but they remain dreamlike and open-ended. [music] The artist leaves space for viewers to bring their own memories and emotions into the work, making the exhibition feel personal, atmospheric, [music] and deeply connected to the experience of time passing.

[00:11:45]>> [music] [music] >> Saints of Good Evening Street looks at how society judges women, especially women who live outside of traditional expectations.

[00:12:26]This show is inspired by a real street in Lagos, Nigeria, where the atmosphere changes completely from day to night.

[00:12:38]During the day, the street is filled with book vendors and everyday activity, but by evening, women who sell sex gather there to survive and make a living.

[00:13:03]Over time, people in the area began calling it Good Evening Street, a nickname layered with irony, gossip, and judgment.

[00:13:26]The paintings create emotional atmospheres.

[00:13:29]Many of the works feel dreamlike, shadowy, and nocturnal. [music] Faces sometimes disappear into shadow, while gestures, clothing, and body language become more expressive.

[00:13:43]It creates a sense that these figures are slipping in and out of visibility, reflecting the way society often overlooks certain lives.

[00:14:15]The artist is not approaching these women from a distance, or painting them as symbols of scandal.

[00:14:23]Instead, she asks viewers to look at them with empathy and humanity.

[00:14:30]She suggests that a person's value cannot be reduced to the labels society places on them.

[00:14:50]The show is not entirely heavy or tragic. There are moments of softness, intimacy, pleasure, and connection.

[00:14:58]Tanya paints these women not simply as victims, but as fully human people who experience friendship, exhaustion, humor, desire, and brief moments of escape.

[00:15:27]>> Rather than telling straightforward stories, >> [music] >> these paintings work more like emotional fragments or sensations.

[00:15:37]The exhibition is asking viewers to stop looking [music] for one clear answer and instead pay attention to what the work brings up >> [music] >> inside themselves.

[00:15:55]>> [music] >> One of the main ideas running through the show is that memory is not always [music] neat or easy to explain.

[00:16:13]Some experiences >> [music] >> live in the body before they can even be put into words.

[00:16:25]>> [music] >> June's paintings >> [music] >> seem to come from that place.

[00:16:36]The paintings feel worked through physically with surfaces that appear scraped, reworked, and repeatedly built up.

[00:16:46]Almost if [music] the artist is digging through emotions, instincts, and memories while painting.

[00:16:57]>> [music] >> The exhibition title, [music] All Top Teeth Knocked Out at Once, immediately creates a feeling of [music] shock and impact. It sounds violent and unsettling, but also strangely specific, [music] almost like a memory replaying itself.

[00:17:27]Throughout the show, the artist explores this idea of living with instability and preparing for worst-case scenarios.

[00:17:47]>> [music] [music] >> In her written statement, the artist moves through thoughts about survival, financial stress, >> [music] >> family responsibility, fear, and uncertainty.

[00:18:12]>> [music] >> The writing feels intentionally scattered [music] and non-linear, almost like anxious thoughts moving rapidly through someone's mind late at night.

[00:18:30]Instead of presenting a polished narrative, >> [music] >> she allows viewers into a more raw psychological space.

[00:18:40]>> [music] [music] >> This show [music] is less about decoding symbols and more about paying attention to emotional reactions. A shape may remind one person of safety and another person of fear.

[00:19:03]A dark atmosphere may feel threatening to one viewer and comforting to another.

[00:19:11]June's paintings leave room for all those interpretations to exist.

[00:19:25]Thank you for joining me. I'll see you again.

[00:19:32]>> [music] [music]