Jessica Koslow

Amy Kaps and Kaye Freeman are both over 60, but — in their opinion — they may not act like conventional older adults. In fact, in one of the accompanying performances to their art show, “Origins of Matter,” which opens Aug. 16 at Matter Studio Gallery, they will be dressed as gods of metal.

“I’m 63, and what a 63-year-old woman looks like or should be doing is still pretty pervasive,” said Freeman, who works out of a shared studio with Kaps at Allied Crafts Building in the Fashion District. “It’s important that if you can stand up and be true to who you are and be the best that you can be at this age, we have a lot to show and share.”

“I’m not into anti-aging,” she added. “Aging is important, and we need to reclaim the value of aging instead of trying to be youthful all the time. Because it’s creepy. We have to step up. Let’s become national treasures. We still have a lot of vitality and a lot to give.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Adler\Smith Gallery in Santa Monica is considered a cultural hub for surf, skate and music-driven art, thanks to the hard work and stellar reputation of Charles Adler, its co-owner. Adler had been an illustrator for advertising firms, an art director for Quiksilver and a curator for art exhibitions like the South Bay Film, Art and Music Festival when he crossed paths with Mark Smith, Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam’s manager, and his wife, Laurie — they are the Smith in the gallery’s name.

In the three years since the gallery opened, they have melded visual art with skate and surf history in a string of exhibitions, including “Collaboration: Tom Blake + Outerknown” and Stacy Peralta’s “The Joy of Decay.” Last weekend, “Dogtown: 50 Years of Fun” opened, marking the 50th anniversary of Dogtown Skateboards.

According to the gallery’s Instagram, “It’s a celebration of one of the most influential movements in modern skate culture. Born out of the raw, creative energy of 1970s Venice and Santa Monica, Dogtown redefined what skateboarding could be: fast, aggressive, expressive, and deeply rooted in surf style and street culture.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Earlier this year, while speaking with teachers at the National Art Education Association conference, Ann Ruhr Pifer learned that today’s students seem hungry for craft activities in a new, different and more intense way.

“One teacher said she had a bunch of art activities in her room, and all the students go for the sewing activity, especially the ninth-grade boys,” shared Pifer. “She didn’t see that coming. We talked about how we feel it’s a reaction against—or perhaps a counterbalance to—the pervasiveness of digital experience in their lives.”

As of January 2026, Pifer, along with Robyn Hollingshead, is the co-executive director of Craft in America, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization that promotes original handcrafted work through programs in all media. The group is responsible for 35 episodes of the Peabody Award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary series, “Craft in America,” on PBS, a YouTube channel and multi-disciplinary educator guides. The Craft in America Center in Los Angeles hosts exhibitions, talks by artists and scholars, workshops and K-12 school tours. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

It was a total fluke and an unfortunate and sad coincidence that the Fowler Museum at UCLA debuted its “Fire Kinship” exhibition on Jan. 22, 2025 — 15 days after the tragic LA Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted.

But as Silvia Forni, Shirley and Ralph Shapiro director at the Fowler, explained, the exhibition was in-the-making for over three years.

“The coincidence was devastating, and we were traumatized when thinking about opening this exhibition, knowing about the pain and destruction that our community was living,” said Forni. “But when we went back to the exhibition text, and we asked ourselves, do we need to rewrite the text, thinking about what is happening in LA now, we did not change a word. The message was not that fire is great. The message is: You have to respect the environment; you have to think of yourself as being in a relationship with the environment. If you think in those terms, then you go about your life and your your relationships in a way that ultimately is more respectful of the land.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

At any moment, architect and designer Gregg Fleishman is probably thinking about how geometry influences collectible design and inhabitable structures. One look at his work, which is on display at Sky Portal X in DTLA as part of Los Angeles Climate Week, and visitors can view his answers.

ANTIDOTE, his solo exhibition, presents large-scale geometric installations and sculptural furniture. Since 1975, Fleishman has been crafting chairs. Works such as “New Wave” and “Skyrocker” demonstrate his signature interlocking “panel puzzle” system, in which precision-cut plywood components assemble without nails, screws, or glue. The furniture is lightweight and structurally resilient, crafted from Baltic and European birch plywood.

“When I started at my first studio, I was working on structures,” said Fleishman. “I added furniture in 1975 and after four years, I had 11 chair designs. After another five years or so, I had three more chair designs. European birch plywood is very strong, which allows flexibility, and the chairs can be assembled in different ways to reduce the number of different parts. The chairs were the bulk of what I showed publicly in my early efforts. I showed at functional art galleries.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

On Saturday, April 11, Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles (PAC LA), based in Downtown Los Angeles, invited the LA arts community to hear about its latest initiative, PAC LA Partners, and its inaugural project with the photo department at Pasadena City College (PCC): Second Sight photography festival.

One of speakers at the launch event was a student winner from the first contest in 2023. They told the crowd gathered on the ocean-view terrace of Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica that the prize money they had won changed their life.

They did not have health insurance, and the money they received enabled them to complete their hormone replacement therapy as a transgender person. In addition, after submitting their winning portfolio to UCLA, they were accepted into the photography program. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Taylor Wilshire’s mother was a classical master teacher, “a true artist” as Wilshire referred to her, and her father worked for the United Nations. This might explain why Wilshire is both an executive working in global funding for projects with the UN’s Economic and Social Council and an award-winning illustrator and artist.

“I was born into that environment of having art all over the house,” Wilshire shared.

“I was taught technique. Doodling, painting, drawing, it was just this natural thing, and yet I was really self-conscious about it.”

Wilshire never took her painting serious.

She contributes her self-critical nature to being around classically trained artists and growing up in New York where she was exposed to some of the best galleries and museums. Then Wilshire was discovered. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

On a Saturday afternoon in early March, guests entering the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City could see and experience Adrian Cox’s art. As part of his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, titled “The Well of Dreams,” Cox hosted a one-hour, free creative wellness event and live performance by the artist, titled “The Ritual of Unknowing: A Surrealist Meditation Experience.”

“As a surrealist artist, I’m always looking for ways to engage with my subconscious mind and outmaneuver that logical part of my brain that wants to decide what a thing’s going to be before I’ve made it,” Cox explained. “One of the techniques that I started using a number of years ago is, I bought a cheap podcasting microphone and a little MIDI keyboard that I could hook up to my laptop, and I started making DIY hypnosis tracks.”

Guests were invited to bring their own yoga mats and pillows so that they could lay down comfortably. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

The idea for an art exhibition recognizing Noni Olabisi’s (1954 -2022) extraordinary career came to Karen Rapp, director and curator of Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery, 15 years ago. She was introduced to the artist and muralist’s work through a slide presentation.

“Noni had applied for a visual artist grant, and I was a reviewing panelist,” Rapp said. “When I came to her images, I was completely spellbound by her murals. I didn’t know about them at the time, and I went and looked at them in person. She ended up getting the award from the California Community Foundation, and I had a chance to meet her and tell her what an impact her work had made on me. I talked to her about having a show.” 

Olabisi’s works have become defining centerpieces in neighborhoods and communities in South Los Angeles. The exhibition, “Noni Olabisi: When Lightning Strikes,” which hosted an opening reception this past Saturday and runs through March 28, includes more than 40 works created from 1984 to 2022. Olabisi is best known for three murals in Los Angeles: “Freedom Won’t Wait” (1992), “To Protect and Serve” (1995) and “Troubled Island” (2003). . . .

Read the entire article in The Argonaut.

First Thursdays in DTLA might possibly be the liveliest night in all of L.A. It’s when galleries, vendors, exhibitions and street performers pop up throughout the Historic Core.

“It’s creativity. It’s community. It’s culture,” said Diana Barillas, the director of operations and creative strategy of DTLA ArtNight. “We highlight the creatives downtown and also the businesses. The more people we can bring down here through art, the more our community as a whole can expand and get better.”

The only exceptions are Fourth of July and New Year’s: “We will switch it out depending on how close it gets to the date,” she said. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.