In January 2000, when I opened the doors of the gallery for the first time, the work that was being highlighted by the most prominent galleries in Los Angeles reflected the discourse of an astoundingly narrow cultural group. I felt this was starkly at odds with the incredibly rich and culturally layered reality that I experienced here. It seemed to be a strangely inaccurate representation of the city’s vibrant art community and a missed opportunity to bring attention to the wide range of powerful voices from the different cultural contexts Los Angeles had to offer. As a result, the gallery’s main goal at that time was not to find the best or most successful artists, because I didn’t trust the parameters according to which those categories were defined. Rather, the goal was to invite artists from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to bring their practices and viewpoints to the gallery. The hope was that this would lead not only to a much richer and more complex cultural experience, but that this approach would disturb the ingrained hierarchies prevalent in the Los Angeles art world and beyond. What has remained at the heart of the gallery until today is this need to question the metrics by which artists are valuated and to challenge the hierarchies we bring to art and to most other areas of cultural life.
We acknowledge that we have a lot of work still to do, that in fact this work will never be finished. This year, we invite you to celebrate what the gallery has accomplished so far. — Susanne Vielmetter
Vielmetter Los Angeles celebrates twenty years with the first iteration of a remarkable group show, up through the end of the month.
The exhibition includes works by Laura Aguilar, Nick Aguayo, Edgar Arceneaux, Math Bass, Whitney Bedford, Andrea Bowers, Sarah Cain, Patty Chang, Kim Dingle, Sean Duffy, Genevieve Gaignard, Liz Glynn, Karl Haendel, Stanya Kahn, Hayv Kahraman, Raffi Kalenderian, Mary Kelly, Dave McKenzie, Rodney McMillian, Shana Lutker, Wangechi Mutu, Ruben Ochoa, Pope.L, Deborah Roberts, Steve Roden, Arlene Shechet, John Sonsini, Amy Sillman, Stephanie Schneider, Monique Van Genderen, Tam Van Tran, Esther Pearl Watson, and Patrick Wilson.
VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES—20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION
Through August 29, by appointment only.
Vielmetter Los Angeles
1700 S Santa Fe Ave #101, Los Angeles.
Vielmetter Los Angeles, 20 Year Anniversary Exhibition, July 18, 2020–August 29, 2020, from top: Kim Dingle, for the occasion should the current president drop dead, 2019, oil on canvas; Monique Van Genderen, Untitled, 2020, oil on linen; Deborah Roberts, Stinney (Nessun Dorma Series), 2019, mixed media collage on paper; Pope.L, Trophy (Hedgehog), 2007, wood, stuffed animal, oil paint, acrylic paint, acrylic medium, peanut butter, screws; Arlene Shechet, Cure, 2020, glazed ceramic, steel, photograph by Eva Deitch; Wangechi Mutu, I am Speaking, Can you hear me?, 2020, paper pulp, wood glue, soil, charcoal, bone, feathers, shells, wood, metal stands; Edgar Arceneaux, In Between The Steps, #1, 2020, shoes, grass, weeds, sticks, acrylic paint, oil paint and resin on canvas; Esther Pearl Watson, The Strangeness Zone, 2020, acrylic, glitter and foil paper on panel; Stanya Kahn, Dusk Falls Fast on the Eve of the End, 2018, Ink and gesso on canvas; Andrea Bowers, The Tyranny Over Women Is Interlinked to the Oppression of Nature (Ecofeminist Sycamore Branch Series), 2020, archival marker on cardboard; Nicole Eisenman, Tea Party, 2012, 2-color lithograph on Saunders-Waterford HP watercolor paper, published by Jungle Press Editions, New York; Karl Haendel, How long will it be until I’m forgotten?, 2020, pencil on paper; Tam Van Tran, Divinations Jar ll, 2019, high fire ceramic; Shana Lutker, Hands(G), 2017, stainless steel; Rodney McMillian, two Suns, 2016, latex on bedsheet, photograph by Jeff McLane. Photographs, unless otherwise credited, by Robert Wedemeyer. Images courtesy and © the artists and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
