This Week in LA: April 23→29
In this Edition: Love Letters, Mindscapes, and the Space Between Utopia and Dystopia — Painting, Photography, and Installation Across LA
This week stretches from Dutch Golden Age love letters to droplets of paint that ask how one thing becomes two — hyperrealistic canvases, seven decades of reclaimed landscape, and still lifes painted hour by hour in shifting Arroyo Seco light. Anat Ebgi opens Marc Dennis’s Love Letter, where reimaginings of Caravaggio and Ingres sit alongside iridescent bubbles and folded envelopes in a hyperrealistic homage to Vermeer and the nearly vanished art of handwritten correspondence. At Karma, Understory surveys Richard Mayhew’s (1924–2024) luminous “mindscapes” from 1960 through 2023 — paintings that reclaim the American landscape as a psychic space on behalf of his Black, Shinnecock, and Cherokee-Lumbee ancestors, where nature is witness to history but no one’s property.
Wayfaring Stranger at James Fuentes Gallery gathers three painters — Dylan Solomon Kraus, Ned Armstrong, and Zuzanna Bartoszek — around the atmospheric capacities of figurative painting, each filtering memory through retro-futurist storytelling. Wonzimer Gallery presents DegreeZero, thirteen artists navigating the grey area between utopia and dystopia through propaganda, ecological landscape, and reimagined icons. At Luis De Jesus, Melissa Huddleston’s The Drops builds paintings from single droplets of paint — concentric, cellular forms developed during pregnancy that resonate with both the California Light and Space movement and post-1970 feminist art. And at Night Gallery, Michelle Blade’s It’s About Time tracks the ever-shifting California light from her Arroyo Seco home, painting still lifes and landscapes hour by hour on stretched poplin where paint blooms with its own will.
Plenty to take in this week — the full lineup is below.
This week's edition of LA Insider is presented by Curatorial — your partners dedicated to preserving, preparing, and connecting fine art with people around the world. Learn more at curatorial.com
On View Now
The Wende Museum | Culver City
Anton Roland Laub: Mobile Churches in Ceausescu’s Bucharest
April 25 – October 11, 2026
@wendemuseum
Combining recent photographs with archival material, Anton Roland Laub’s Mobile Churches reveals a dramatic and little-known chapter in the urban history of the Eastern Bloc — seven Bucharest churches lifted onto rails and hidden behind housing blocks during Ceausescu’s 1980s “systematization” program, which caused the largest peacetime destruction in European history before the regime’s fall in 1989.
Anat Ebgi | Miracle Mile
Marc Dennis: Love Letter
On view through May 23, 2026
@anatebgigallery
Inspired by an unprecedented exhibition at The Frick uniting three of Vermeer’s Love Letter paintings, Marc Dennis’s Love Letter continues his hyperrealistic reinterpretations of French Neoclassical, Baroque, and Dutch Golden Age painting — with folded envelopes, iridescent bubbles, and reimaginings of Caravaggio’s Bacchus and three Ingres portraits elevating a slower, more tactile form of communication.
Karma | West Hollywood
Richard Mayhew: Understory
On view through May 30, 2026
@karmakarma9
Understory surveys seven decades of Richard Mayhew’s (1924–2024) visionary, color-soaked “mindscapes” — from moody Tonalist thickets inspired by a visit to a former Louisiana plantation to phosphorescent landscapes where foreground recedes and background surges forward, reclaiming the American landscape as a resonant, psychic space on behalf of his Black, Shinnecock, and Cherokee-Lumbee ancestors.
James Fuentes Gallery | Hollywood
Dylan Solomon Kraus, Ned Armstrong, Zuzanna Bartoszek: Wayfaring Stranger
On view through April 25, 2026
@james_fuentes_llc
Curated by Dylan Solomon Kraus, Wayfaring Stranger introduces three painters who share a dialogue around the narrative and atmospheric capacities of figurative painting — Kraus’s crepuscular landscapes unfold as visual riddles, Ned Armstrong’s intimate scenes bleed figures into their surroundings, and Zuzanna Bartoszek filters existentialism through self-portraiture and domestic interiors that become stand-ins for the world at large.
Wonzimer Gallery | Lincoln Heights
DegreeZero: Utopia/Dystopia in Contemporary Art
April 24 – May 22, 2026
@wonzimer
DegreeZero brings together thirteen artists operating in the grey area between utopia and dystopia — taking its title from Roland Barthes’s proposal for a neutral, unbiased method of language, with works spanning propaganda, ecological landscape, surveillance, and reimagined icons by Liz Cohen, Keith Walsh, Mark Steven Greenfield, Umar Rashid, Ben Jackel, and others.
Keystone Art Space | Lincoln Heights
Krista Machovina: Entanglement Theory
On view through May 3, 2026
@keystoneartla
Krista Machovina’s Entanglement Theory finds meaning where the celestial and human spheres appear to meet — observing intersections between skies and power lines that frame and stand between us and the infinite, creating a skyward game of cat’s cradle where utility wires recall lifelines etched into a palm and quantum physics describes how once-linked particles continue to affect one another across distance.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles | DTLA
Melissa Huddleston: The Drops
April 25 – June 6, 2026
@luisdejesuslosangeles
Melissa Huddleston’s The Drops introduces paintings on paper made from single droplets of paint layered one after another — developed while pregnant with her son, these concentrically formed works resonate with the California Light and Space movement and post-1970 feminist art, considering a fundamental question: how does one thing become two?
Night Gallery | DTLA
Michelle Blade: It’s About Time
On view through May 23, 2026
@nightgallery
Michelle Blade’s It’s About Time began with a simple constraint — painting still lifes and landscapes in and around her Arroyo Seco home from different hours of the day, working wet-on-wet on stretched poplin where paint blooms with its own will. The resulting works meditate on time as the architecture that holds both emergence and loss, drawing from Vuillard’s atmospheric interiors, Hockney’s California clarity, and Burchfield’s mystical charge.
Aabee Bleue Project | DTLA
Aynaz Najafi: Unveiled
On view through May 16, 2026
@aabeebleueproject
Working within the visual language of Persian miniature, Aynaz Najafi’s Unveiled reinterprets its aesthetic and symbolic traditions to address the identity of Iranian women — their resilience, resistance, and acts of defiance — drawing from personal memory and the influence of Botticelli to create layered spaces where past and present intersect.
Diversions Fine Arts | Manhattan Beach
Transformations: Amy Thornberry, Connie Saddlemire and Sharon Weiner
On view through May 3, 2026
@diversionsfinearts
Transformations brings together three uniquely vibrant artists — Amy Thornberry manipulates mixed media into ethereal portals drawn from Buddhist tonglen practice, Connie Saddlemire constructs mesmerizing geometric abstractions like brilliantly ordered wonderlands, and Sharon Weiner’s lush, light-filled abstracts give form to lived experience and a profound sense of awareness itself.
Support LA Insider
Help us continue bringing you thoughtfully curated weekly coverage of LA's vibrant art and culture scene.
Become a paid subscriber for less than the price of a monthly cappuccino and support our mission to connect you with the city's most compelling exhibitions, cultural events, and creative experiences.
Follow us on Instagram at @lainsiderofficial for real-time updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses of LA's cultural landscape.
Your support makes all the difference in keeping LA's essential art guide independent and thriving.
Thank you for being part of our community!
Brought to you with ❤️ from the LA Insider team.
LA Insider is the weekly newsletter that connects you to LA's vibrant art and culture scene. From the Hollywood Hills to downtown, Malibu and beyond, we uncover a curated selection of standout exhibitions, cultural events, and creative experiences that define the City of Angels.
Delivered weekly by the editorial team of Fabrik Magazine, connecting LA's art community since 2008.
Want to share your exhibition or cultural event with LA's art community?
LA Insider reaches over 30,000 engaged subscribers weekly – collectors, curators, artists, and cultural influencers who actively seek out meaningful art experiences. From solo announcements to group listings, we offer flexible options to amplify your reach.
Learn more about our announcement services and join the galleries, museums, and cultural organizations that trust Fabrik to connect them with LA's vibrant art scene.