Between 1974 and 1975, American photographer John Divola – then in his mid twenties and without a studio of his own – traveled across Los Angeles in search of dilapidated properties in which to make photographs. Armed with a camera, spray paint, string, and cardboard, the artist would produce one of his most significant photographic projects entitled "Vandalism". To produce this visceral black and white series of images Divola vandalized vacant homes with abstract constellations of graffiti-like marks, ritualistic configurations of string hooked to pins, and torn arrangements of card, before photographing the results. The project vigorously merged the documentary approach of forensic photography with staged interventions echoing sculpture, performance, and installation art. Serving as a conceptual sabotaging of the delineations between such documentary and artistic practices at a time when the ‘truthfulness’ of photography was being called into question, "Vandalism" helped to establish Divola’s highly distinctive photographic language.

Please join us Saturday, May 12th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM for a conversation between John Divola and The Getty Museum Department of Photographs curator Amanda Maddox followed by a book signing of his stunning new MACK publication. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy signed by Mr. Divola, please place your order here or call us at 310-458-1499.

Please join us Thursday, May 3rd between 6:00 and 8:00 PM to celebrate the West Coast launch of Creative Director Alexander McWhirter's brand new Fashion journal, Public. The beautifully designed, large-format first issue features five portfolios photographed by Glen Luchford, Nadine Fraczkowski, Vivien Solari, Benjamin Lennox, and Greta Ilieva along with images by McWhirter and Alice Neale.

Notes the publisher: "The obvious is all around us. It is a void in which everything has been fine-tuned to such an extent that indistinctiveness prevails. 'Cool' has become inoffensive and predictable, and taste is easy to place a pulse on. Issue 1 of Public breaks this pattern of democratized cool, bringing together a body of work that covers a unique perspective on subjects in life."

Originally from London, Alexander McWhirter began his career in New York as the Art Director at V Magazine before founding McWhirter Studio. His projects focus on working closely with distinctive collaborators to present a narrative that observes human interaction, be that with our environment or with each other. The story is woven together with elements from art and fashion, the resulting idea is unmistakable and inclusive to all. He has collaborated with Visionaire, Suzanne Geiss Gallery, Cultural Traffic, and most recently Calvin Klein, where he worked closely with Raf Simons and Pieter Mulier on 2017 campaigns for Calvin Klein Jeans, Underwear, and the 205W39NYC RTW Collection Book.

Come meet Alexander McWhirter and contributor Glen Luchford who will be in attendance for a rare weeknight event here at Arcana this coming Thursday between 6:00 and 8:00 PM. Issue 1 of Public is limited to a mere two-hundred and fifty copies, and will soon be gone for good. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy signed by both, please place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

Jessica Antola’s first monograph entitled Circadian Landscape is a vibrant journey through Sub-Saharan Africa. Traveling mostly by car, she captures the distinctive style and beauty of everyday life in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Togo. Her striking portraits, landscapes, and vignettes offer an intimate view of life lived in rural villages, big cities and along the remote roadways between the two. Men dressed head to toe in elaborate African wax textiles share a motorcycle; ancestral spirits bridge earthly and supernatural worlds in masked dances; the rich red soil dusts the lush tropical jungle; a girl in an over-sized straw hat steers her boat with a boldly patterned patchwork sail; and a gold jewelry-clad Kumasi King performs a warrior dance. Antola is captivated by how people around the world express themselves in relation to their environments, and her images reflect the astonishing variety of ways people create and define themselves daily through dress and ritual, work and play.

Come to Arcana this Saturday between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to meet photographer Jessica Antola and celebrate the publication the drop-dead-gorgeous Circadian Landscape. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a signed copy, please place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.

Saturday, April 21st, 4:00 - 6:00 PM 

JESSICA ANTOLA: CIRCADIAN LANDSCAPE

Thursday, May 3rd, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

PUBLIC, Issue 1 launch celebration

Saturday, May 19th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL CODE ALPHABET BY CORITA KENT

Saturday, May 26th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

JASON LEE: A PLAIN VIEW

Sunday, June 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

CURATORIAL HUB Exhibition

Watch this space for details or sign up for our emailing list here.

GO! THIS WEEKEND!: The Los Angeles 'Zine and Art Book Bazaar.  It's a grassroots, local, and independent event; "an experiment with fellow artists in the  community. It's about taking a bunch of interesting beautiful things, merging them together for a weekend, and sharing that experience with the public." Called a "weirder, more radical alternative" to the Printed Matter Art Book Fair (which is on hiatus this year), we encourage you to go forth and revel in the home-grown fun. You can find details at lazaabb.com. 

UPCOMING EVENTS!  Sign up for our mailing list to be in the know.

Join artist and writer Eames Demetrios for an intimate storytelling experience and exclusive first book signing in honor of his most recent book Kcymaerxthaere: The Story so Far...(Folio 1) at Arcana!

This Folio shares and highlights the Kcymaerxthaere stories that exist so far with an intimate experience through imagery, text, artwork and global community that makes the project possible. 

For over the past decade, artist Eames Demetrios has been traveling our linear world installing markers and historic sites that honor events from a parallel world he calls Kcymaerxthaere.  This global project is a vast, interwoven work of 3-dimensional fiction–like a novel with every page in a different place.  Even where one reads such a page influences how one visualizes that particular story.  Kcymaerxthaere also connects communities through shared interpretations of the stories in drawings, weavings and other crafts. Currently, there are 133 markers and historic sites installed in 27 countries on 6 continents.  When Demetrios is not found as the Geographer-at-Large he is found exploring film, art and preserving the design legacy of Charles and Ray Eames as Director of the Eames Office.  He currently continues his exploration of the parallel world in the hope to inspire people to see the world fresh–to see new possibilities in the world around them.  

Saturday, March 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00pm

Join artist and writer Eames Demetrios for an intimate storytelling experience and exclusive first book signing in honor of his most recent book Kcymaerxthaere: The Story so Far...(Folio 1) at Arcana!

This Folio shares and highlights the Kcymaerxthaere stories that exist so far with an intimate experience through imagery, text, artwork and global community that makes the project possible. 

For over the past decade, artist Eames Demetrios has been traveling our linear world installing markers and historic sites that honor events from a parallel world he calls Kcymaerxthaere.  This global project is a vast, interwoven work of 3-dimensional fiction–like a novel with every page in a different place.  Even where one reads such a page influences how one visualizes that particular story.  Kcymaerxthaere also connects communities through shared interpretations of the stories in drawings, weavings and other crafts. Currently, there are 133 markers and historic sites installed in 27 countries on 6 continents.  When Demetrios is not found as the Geographer-at-Large he is found exploring film, art and preserving the design legacy of Charles and Ray Eames as Director of the Eames Office.  He currently continues his exploration of the parallel world in the hope to inspire people to see the world fresh–to see new possibilities in the world around them.  

LYLE ASHTON HARRIS: TODAY I SHALL JUDGE NOTHING THAT OCCURS
 

JOIN US SATURDAY, JANUARY 27th 4:00 - 6:00 PM 

FOR A LYLE ASHTON HARRIS BOOK LAUNCH

 AND CONVERSATION WITH WALEAD BESHTY,

CHARLES GAINES, AND NAIMA J. KEITH

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, a radical cultural scene emerged across the globe, finding expression in the galleries, nightclubs, and bedrooms of New York, London, Los Angeles, and Rome. In Lyle Ashton Harris: Today I Shall Judge Nothing That Occurs, the artist’s archive of 35mm Ektachrome images are presented alongside journal entries and recollections by additional contributors coalescing in a presentation of what Harris has described as “ephemeral moments and emblematic figures... against a backdrop of seismic shifts in the art world, the emergence of multiculturalism, the second wave of AIDS activism, and incipient globalization.” The Ektachrome Archive "constructs collective and private narratives to comment on identity, desire, sexuality, and loss" and was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

Born in the Bronx in 1965, Lyle Ashton Harris received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Studies Program. His work has been exhibited worldwide including at the Whitney Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 52nd Venice Biennial, and São Paulo Biennial. He currently is an associate professor of art at New York University, and is represented by New York's Salon 94.

Born in London in 1976, Walead Beshty is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. Beshty was an Associate Professor in the Graduate Art Department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and has taught at numerous schools including UCLA, UC Irvine, CalArts, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the MFA Program at Bard College. He is renowned for his unique conceptual approach to photography and sculpture and emphasis on the conditions of the production and circulation of images and artworks.

Charles Gaines received his MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1967. In 2013 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and presented the critically acclaimed solo exhibition Notes on Social Justice at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. In 2012, Gaines was the subject of a mid-career survey at the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Pitzer College Art Gallery in Claremont, California. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been a full-time faculty member of the School of Art at CalArts since 1989. He currently resides in Los Angeles, and is represented by Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects and Paula Cooper Gallery.

Naima J. Keith joined the California African American Museum (CAAM) in 2016 to guide the curatorial and education departments as well as marketing and communications. During her tenure at CAAM, Keith has also curated Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space (2016), Genevieve Gaignard: Smell the Roses (2016) and Kenyatta Hinkle: The Evanesced (2017). She is the 2017 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize in recognition of her contributions to the field of African American art history.

Join us Saturday, January 27th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to celebrate Mr. Harris' new Aperture monograph Today I Shall Judge Nothing That Occurs with what is sure to be a lively and engaging presentation. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy please place your order here, or call us at 310-458-1499.