Events Posted Feb 22, 2026

Gus Van Sant Paintings - Discussion and Book Signing at Arcana 2/28, 4:00-6:00

Please join us at Arcana on Saturday, February 28th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome Gus Van Sant to celebrate his beautiful new book Paintings. A conversation between Mr. Van Sant and editor Leah Gudmundson will be followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: * No RSVP is required. * Books will be available for sale at $85 plus sales tax beginning at 3:00 PM on the 28th and will be kept to one per person. We will not be offering pre-sales on this limited item. * If you cannot attend and would like a signed copy of Paintings, please send us an email. Should there be copies remaining after the event, we will fulfill requests in the order in which they have been received.

This first ever published monograph on Van Sant's paintings gathers together a wide overview of his practice. Sequenced in an achronological and associative manner, the book presents different series in surprising rhythms, focusing on recurring motifs and themes throughout widely varied modes accumulated during decades of work.

Bound inside out, this hardcover publication has a unique objecthood that imparts the suggestion of having been intimately handled by its makers. The outside covers feature two test screen-prints and is signed and stamped on the back, alluding to Van Sant's painting practice as literally the flipside of his storied career in filmmaking.

Paintings is the inaugural title from Blue Moon Press, the new artist-book imprint founded by Leah Gudmundson as a cousin to the Paris-based subcultural arts magazine Blue Moon she has helmed since 2015.

Events Posted Feb 17, 2026

Jill Goldman Book Signing Saturday, 2/21!

Please join us this Saturday, February 21st between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome Los Angeles-based artist, activist, and filmmaker Jill Goldman to celebrate the launch of her new Hybrid LLC monograph, Disentanglement / Re-Embodiment.

"Disentanglement / Re-Embodiment documents five years of bold, deeply embodied work at the edge of art and politics. Developed between 2020 and 2025, the work spans video, performance, photography, installation, and political research, unfolding in a single, cohesive publication that investigates how we live inside of – and push back against - patriarchal power and environmental crisis. Its content centers on ten performance works, staged internationally by Goldman and collaborators weaving over two hundred images of performance documentation, film stills, research ephemera, and installation views. The book includes critical essays by Asti Hustvedt and Alex A. Jones, as well as extracts from conversations between the artist and noted thinkers shaping contemporary feminist, abolitionist, eco-critical, and anti-militarist discourse including Amy Ziering, Yasmeen Hassan, Sumaya Awad, Catherine Coleman Flowers, Nina Menkes, Ruchira Gupta, and Tanya Selvaratnam." Jill Goldman is an activist, filmmaker, and artist whose work incorporates dance, performance, photography, and video. Her immersive multi-media installation / performances explore memory, autobiography, the gendered body, and ritual transformation. She received her BA from Bennington College and her MFA from UCLA Film School. She is the director of the feature film Love Is Like That, as well as many award-winning short films, including “fort / da,” “Holding Margie’s Hand,” “Sally Goes Shopping,” the music video for Lenny Kravitz’s “Blues for Sister Someone,” and the short documentary “Genevieve, Girl Before the Mirror."

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday for the opportunity to meet and greet Ms. Goldman - and to pick up a signed example of her engaging new book! If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy of Disentanglement / Re-Embodiment, please place your order here!

In the News Posted Feb 05, 2026

New York Times "Honorable Mention" as one of Los Angeles' Favorite Places for Art!

We’re pleased as punch to be included in Jason Farago’s New York Times round up of his top LA Art spots.

OK, OK we’re an honorable mention, not one of the venerable top 5, but it is very gratifying to be included in such good company.

Thank you, Mr. Farago!

Book of the Day Posted Jan 31, 2026

Book of the Day: Five Footnotes Toward an Architecture by Mark Lee

From the publisher: "Architect Mark Lee presents a body of work on the basis of five considerations: on history, on cadence, on autonomy, on America, and on point. On the occasion of his fifth and final year as Chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, architect and educator Mark Lee strings together five 'footnotes' to assess the relationship between architectural education, research, and professional practice. Evoking a similar position that marked his tenure, Lee delivers a lecture that embraces dialogue, context, and precedent, and rejects the notion of a heroic manifesto in favor of the footnote: 'something ancillary, something used for referencing and providing citations for metanarratives that already exist.' And why five? 'It’s a ubiquitous number in the culture of architecture. Five orders, five architects, five points.' Copublished by Harvard Design Press." Extra credit: Mark Lee designed the entire of our store! Book of the day!

Miscellany Posted Jan 29, 2026

Closed Friday, 1/30/26

We will be closed on Friday, 1/30/26, in solidarity with the Nationwide General Strike.

Fight the power and stand strong.

photo by Tina Modotti, 1926

Events Posted Jan 25, 2026

Tom Sachs Signing at Arcana on Saturday, February 7th

The artist Tom Sachs shall appear at Arcana on Saturday, February 7th from 4 until 6 PM to sign his recent Phaidon monograph Tom Sachs Guide. All are welcome; refreshments provided. From the publisher: "The definitive exploration of the prolific material, intellectual, cultural, and commercial output of inimitable artist Tom Sachs. A 21st-century creative force, Tom Sachs’s critically acclaimed practice spans sculpture, installation, painting, film, ceramics, and industrial design. The Tom Sachs Guide is the most comprehensive-to-date look at his work, documenting decades of rigorous and visionary artmaking. Vividly illustrated with more than 650 images and organized into thematic chapters, the book includes work across mediums, as well as longstanding collaborations with Nike and immersive reinterpretations of NASA missions. A rich appendix includes essential lists and charts, offering insights into the artist’s creative process and studio practice. An object direct from the hands of the artist, Tom Sachs Guide is a printed tour through his studio, his body of work, and the unique worlds he creates, designed and written in close collaboration with Sachs himself." Come join us!

Events Posted Jan 23, 2026

Upcoming Events!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
TOM SACHS GUIDE
BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14th. 1:30 PM
FRANK OCKENFELS 3 x DAVID BOWIE
* AT HELMS DAYLIGHT STUDIO *
TICKETED EVENT – DETAILS HERE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21st, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
JILL GOLDMAN: DISENTANGLEMENT/ RE-EMBODIMENT
BOOK LAUNCH + DISCUSSION

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
GUS VAN SANT: PAINTINGS
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH PUBLISHER LEAH GUDMUNDSON

FEBRUARY 26th – MARCH 1st
SHOW LA PHOTOGRAPHIC FAIR
*AT THE REEF*
DETAILS HERE

SATURDAY, MARCH 7th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
BRANDON RUFFIN: MIGRATION PATTERNS
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION

Book of the Day Posted Jan 23, 2026

Book of the Day: Dolly Parton - Journey of a Seeker

From the publisher: "Country Music Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton has enjoyed seemingly effortless success as a singer, songwriter, movie and television actor, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist ever since she first hit the record charts in 1967. The sheer magnitude of her talent and charisma has created the impression that Parton merely fulfilled her destiny in becoming an entertainment icon. But she had to fight for each major step forward. Quite intentionally she broke precedents to follow her instincts, even when music industry veterans advised against her daring moves. This book is a companion to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2025–2026 exhibition on Parton. Like the exhibition, this book focuses on turning points in Parton’s life and career through the decades, where she overcame obstacles and ignored naysayers. It also includes stories behind four of Parton’s most well-known songs, in her own words: 'Coat of Many Colors,' 'Jolene,' 'I Will Always Love You,' and '9 to 5.' Dolly Parton has come a long way from Locust Ridge, Tennessee, and in the process, she’s become one of the most beloved and widely recognized celebrities in the world. Includes 85 archival images and artifact photographs."

Book of the Day Posted Jan 22, 2026

Book of the Day: Luigi Serafini

From the publisher: "The volume Luigi Serafini is an excellent compendium to the exhibition scheduled at the Labirinto della Masone. Widely illustrated with the artist's multifaceted paintings and sculptures, some of which, like the Codex Seraphinianus plates, are already known, others unpublished. The book includes three chapters, written by Pietro Mercogliano, arranged to compose a 'backward' biography of the artist. Moving through time and space, the text restores an artistic trajectory that is always unpredictable and multifaceted as well as the traces of the strange and brilliant world imagined by the artist. Thus, the book presents a network of cross-references and allusions, of ironic and self-deprecating quotations, of jokes and mental pitfalls, of glimpses and winks, of leaps, digs, and glares, which manifest themselves as much in words as in images. In the opening, the introduction by Labirinto della Masone director Edoardo Pepino will focus on the link between Serafini and Franco Maria Ricci, the first editor of his best-known work, the Codex Seraphinianus." Book of the day.

Book of the Day Posted Jan 16, 2026

Book of the Day: Loving II - More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s - 1950s

From the publisher: "A stunning new companion to Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 (2020), featuring all new photographs from the Nini-Treadwell collection. Loving II, the sequel to Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s – 1950s, is a stunning collection of vintage vernacular photographs of romantic male couples. Drawn from the Nini-Treadwell Collection of over 4,000 photos, some as much as 175 years old, the selection conveys the unadulterated joy – longed for by all of us and recognizable to anyone – of being in love. Starting from the earliest years of photography and continuing through the 1950s, this collection comprises daguerreotypes, silver gelatins, tintypes, ambrotypes, snap shots, and many more – a cross section of a century of photographic technique. The subjects come from all walks of life: soldiers, farmers, students, the young and the old, the poor and the affluent. These photographs were taken when being recognized as gay was to risk retribution, ridicule, banishment, imprisonment, and possibly death. They remained locked away during their subjects’ lifetimes for their very survival. The journeys that eventually brought them to the attention of Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell are mostly unknown, with only a few exceptions. Discovered in a variety of ways, sometimes tucked away in antique shops and flea markets, they had slipped into the cracks of photographic history before being added to the Nini-Treadwell Collection one at a time, over a 25-year period. These courageous couples, from so long ago, who took and protected these photos, could not have imagined that one day their mementos of love would appear in a book that has been embraced all over the world. So much so that a second volume was necessary. These couples sent a message to the future. The question now is, what message will we send?" Book of the day.