This Week in LA: May 21→27
In this Edition: Gehry After Gehry, Handwoven Satellite Maps, and Six Decades of Miles Davis — New Exhibitions from Santa Monica to Boyle Heights
This week spans from silvered copper photographs to holographic light etchings on glass, with handwoven satellite imagery, a posthumous Gehry presentation, and six decades of Miles Davis in between. ROSEGALLERY opens My Days at Ray’s, where Elger Esser debuts painted photographs on silver-plated copper — extending his elemental landscapes of open water and sky into singular material objects. The first exhibition of Frank Gehry’s work since his passing arrives at Gagosian, featuring gleaming stainless steel sculpture, the final fish rendered in copper, and drawings that capture the energetic motion of the form woven throughout his architectural legacy.
At Louis Stern Fine Arts, Infinite Horizons brings together Heather Hutchison’s light-trapping Plexiglas constructions and Ruth Pastine’s seamlessly transitioning oil paintings — both artists dissolving materiality into perpetual vistas governed by the constant forces of change. David Kordansky Gallery presents Hilary Pecis’s Love Letters, where snapshots of a friend’s studio, a Bay Area yacht club, and a communal artist lunch become vivid paintings that read as sustained gestures of gratitude for what has been and what is. Sarah Rosalena’s layer by layer at Make Room collapses the distance between weaving and mapping — handwoven works drafted digitally from topographic references and satellite imagery, coinciding with her monumental commission for LACMA’s Geffen Galleries. The Miles Davis Centennial gets its visual due at Musichead Gallery with A Century of Cool, assembling twenty photographers across six decades — from sharing the stage with Charlie Parker in 1948 to genre-defying performances of the late ‘80s. And parrasch heijnen presents August Muth’s Material Light, groundbreaking dichromatic holograms that archive patterns of photons on glass, shaping radiant color fields that shift with the viewer’s body.
The full lineup is below.
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On View Now
ROSEGALLERY | Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
Elger Esser: My Days at Ray’s
On view through July 11, 2026
@rosegallery.official
My Days at Ray’s marks a significant moment in Elger Esser’s practice — presenting his ongoing series of works on silvered copper alongside the debut of a new technique, painted photographs on silver-plated copper, that extends his exploration of nature, landscape, and open water into the territory of singular, material objects where photographs of expansive skies present an elemental world seemingly untouched by human presence.
Nüart Gallery | Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
Julian Brown + Randall Reid: Material Memory
On view through June 6, 2026
@nuartgallery
Material Memory brings together Julian Brown’s large-scale paintings — drawn from Polish folk art, personal memory, and inherited visual traditions — with Randall Reid’s layered compositions of salvaged wood, steel, and weathered industrial fragments, both artists approaching material not only as a physical medium but as a carrier of accumulated experience where surfaces register the passage of time itself.
bG Gallery | Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
Spring is in the Air: Inflorescence
May 28 – June 7, 2026
@bggallery
In a moment marked by global uncertainty and rapid change, Spring is in the Air: Inflorescence centers on a universal, deeply human instinct — the hope for renewal and the belief in better times ahead, weaving together current works and hidden inventory in a group exhibition that reflects both the immediacy of the present and the promise of what lies ahead.
Gagosian | Beverly Hills
Frank Gehry
On view through June 27, 2026
@gagosian
The first exhibition of Frank Gehry’s works since his passing in 2025, this presentation — realized in collaboration with the artist’s family and designed by the Gehry studio — features animal-themed sculptures including the gleaming stainless steel Bear with Us, the last of his fish sculptures rendered in copper, and ink and watercolor works on paper that express the energetic motion of the “perfect form” that reappears throughout his architectural oeuvre.
Louis Stern Fine Arts | West Hollywood
Heather Hutchison and Ruth Pastine: Infinite Horizons
On view through June 27, 2026
@louissternfinearts
Infinite Horizons pairs Heather Hutchison’s plywood and Plexiglas compositions — which trap and revel in ambient light, transfigured by the passage of time like fireflies in a glass jar — with Ruth Pastine’s accumulated layers of oil paint that paradoxically dissolve into seamless color transitions, both artists alchemically transcending their materiality into perpetual vistas and limitless color fields.
CMAY Gallery | Mid-Wilshire
Donnie Molls: Sketches: Life in Landscape
On view through May 30, 2026
@cmaygallery
Donnie Molls’s Sketches: Life in Landscape introduces intimate mixed-media works on paper — photographic images of California’s varied terrains translated through transfer processes that embrace chance, texture, and fragmentation, capturing roadside vistas, quiet horizons, and transitional spaces with a heightened sense of immediacy that emphasizes atmosphere, light, and the passage of time.
David Kordansky Gallery | Mid-Wilshire
Hilary Pecis: Love Letters
On view through June 20, 2026
@davidkordanskygallery
Hilary Pecis’s Love Letters distills everyday sites of connection into vivid odes of affinity — from a friend’s art studio window and the signage of a Bay Area yacht club to a display of marathon medals and a communal lunch among fellow artists, rescuing from obscurity what might otherwise be lost, forgotten, or taken for granted in sustained gestures of gratitude for what has been and what is.
Make Room | Hollywood
Sarah Rosalena: layer by layer
On view through June 20, 2026
@makeroom.la
Coinciding with the unveiling of her monumental textile commission for LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, Sarah Rosalena’s layer by layer transforms topographic references and satellite imagery into handwoven works of shifting dimensionality — drafted digitally and entirely handwoven on the loom as single pieces, with pine needles treated with natural dyes like indigo introducing irregularity and resistance into otherwise calculated systems.
Musichead Gallery | Hollywood
Miles Davis: A Century of Cool
On view through June 13, 2026
@musicheadgallery
In celebration of the Miles Davis Centennial, A Century of Cool assembles an extraordinary range of original vintage prints, rare outtakes, and never-before-seen images from twenty renowned photographers — spanning from a 21-year-old Davis sharing the stage with Charlie Parker in 1948 to his genre-defying performances of the late 1980s, tracing an artist in constant motion who was forever ahead of his time.
parrasch heijnen | Boyle Heights
August Muth: Material Light
On view through June 20, 2026
@parraschheijnen
August Muth’s Material Light presents groundbreaking dichromatic holograms that archive patterns of photons and electromagnetic waves — using uniquely created light-sensitive emulsions on glass to shape radiant color fields where fluid constellations of geometric forms shift, overlap, and disperse in relation to viewer perspective, evolving from the legacy of geometric abstractionists Frederick Hammersley and John McLaughlin into tactile forms of pure light.
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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.
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