This April brings several shows that highlight the power of the ineffable, the pedestrian, and the overlooked. A 60-year retrospective of pioneering LA print publisher Gemini G.E.L. and a 500-year survey of the Gruenwald Center at the Hammer Museum showcase the breadth and depth of works on paper. At ArtCenter, Dave Muller underscores the importance of social connection and the handmade in his oeuvre. Two LA performance art icons — Rachel Rosenthal and King Moody, and Bob & Bob — are celebrated in shows that gather performance documentation with physical ephemera and artworks. And a newly discovered collection of matchbook miniatures by the late Joe Brainard shows him turning the abandoned stuff of everyday life into tightly compressed jewels, rife with meaning.
Shuhūd (Witnesses)
Monte Vista Projects, 1206 Maple Avenue #523, Downtown, Los Angeles
Through April 19
The Israeli military has killed over 250 journalists in Gaza since October 7, 2023, making it the most dangerous conflict zone for journalists in history. Curated by Seanna Latiff, Shuhūd (Witnesses) features portraits of roughly 150 of these Palestinian journalists, putting human faces to this grim statistic. In doing so, it memorializes those who dedicated their lives to documenting and publicizing the genocide and the staggering destruction of their communities. Over 35 artists contributed to the group show, including Rachid Bouhamidi, Molly Segal, Karim Shuquem, Michael Hambouz, and others. All proceeds from an online fundraiser will be donated to the Sameer Project’s “Rebuild Gaza” campaign, which supports families who want to return home to Gaza by clearing rubble from streets and repairing infrastructure.
Impressions of Los Angeles: 60 Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.
Gemini G.E.L., 8365 Melrose Avenue, Beverly Grove, Los Angeles
Through May 1
Since its founding in 1966, Gemini G.E.L. has played a major role in LA’s artistic development, collaborating with numerous notable artists, including John Baldessari, Roy Lichtenstein, Julie Mehretu, and Vija Celmins. Spanning the first 60 years of the venerated print publisher and workshop, this retrospective is divided into two thematic sections exploring the city’s natural atmosphere and its urban environment. The first features David Hockney’s ukiyo-e-inspired Weather Series (1973) and Tacita Dean’s lithographs capturing LA’s unique light, while the latter includes Ed Ruscha’s 2001 screenprint depicting the iconic intersection of Pico and Sepulveda and Robert Rauschenberg’s LA Uncovered series (1998), whimsical collages of heterogeneous street scenes.
Bob & Bob: 50 Years of Art | lost and found
Craig Krull Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue #B3, Santa Monica, California
Through May 9
Bob & Bob emerged from the transgressive performance art scene of mid-1970s Los Angeles, alongside Chris Burden, Suzanne Lacy, Paul McCarthy, Rachel Rosenthal, and others. Wearing slick suits and working out of a rented Beverly Hills office, they humorously critiqued systems of power, money, and fame with absurdist glee and a subversive, punk energy. lost and found showcases the duo’s works on paper — expressionistic drawings and mixed media collages — alongside video documentation of their performances and associated ephemera. A talk with Bob & Bob, moderated by Craig Krull, will be held on April 25 at 4pm.
David Alekhuogie
Commonwealth and Council, 3006 West 7th Street, Suite 220, Koreatown, Los Angeles
April 4–May 16
David Alekhuogie explores how photography can reinforce or challenge traditional power dynamics of representation, specifically regarding Black people and figuration. His work featured in the recent Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum included selections from his Pull_UP series that respond to Barack Obama’s infamous suggestion that Black men “pull up their pants” in 2008 with luminous, abstract color fields made from layered waistbands. Commonwealth and Council will showcase his recent series titled A Reprise, which reinterprets American photojournalist Walker Evans’s 1935 photographs of African art, confronting questions of objectivity and the colonial gaze.
Five Centuries of Works on Paper: The Grunwald Center at 70
Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles
Through May 17
Established in 1956 and located at the Hammer Museum since 1994, the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts is one of the country’s preeminent collections of works on paper, comprising over 45,000 drawings, prints, photographs, and artist books from the Renaissance to today. The Grunwald Center at 70 highlights the chronological and creative breadth of the collection, featuring almost 100 works by over 90 artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, José Guadalupe Posada, Käthe Kollwitz, Ansel Adams, Charles White, Sister Corita Kent, Toba Khedoori, and many more.
Instant Theatre: Rachel Rosenthal and King Moody
Roberts Projects, 442 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park, Los Angeles
April 4–May 23
If there is a single godmother of performance art in Los Angeles, it is Rachel Rosenthal. After moving here from New York City in 1955, Rosenthal founded the Instant Theatre, an experimental movement that celebrated improvisation and absurdity. She was joined by her husband, King Moody, the following year. Drawing on influences as disparate as Zen Buddhism and Antonin Artaud’s writings, the pair collaboratively ran the Instant Theatre until 1966, staging immersive performances that were constructed in real time but rarely documented. This exhibition brings together photographs, paintings, invitations, masks, and other archival materials, with one gallery space transformed into a stage set filled with props, costumes, mannequins, and theatrical lighting, recreating a glimmer of the Instant Theatre’s radical, innovative spirit.
Hannah Tishkoff: Beginning of a Poem
Ochi, 605 North Western Avenue, East Hollywood, Los Angeles
April 11–May 23
Hannah Tishkoff’s work resides at the intersection of information, intuition, and experience, where various systems of understanding the world rub up against each other. In their playful mixed-media works, the LA-based artist layers found objects, modes of measurement, bits of text, colorful abstraction, and evocative depictions of figures and bodies. The exhibition takes its name from a 1938 work by Paul Klee, in which a jumble of letters represents creative potential rather than confusion, underscoring Tishkoff’s expansive approach to art-making that welcomes both idiosyncrasy and logic.
Dave Muller: Proto Typical
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, ArtCenter College of Design, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, California
Through August 8
Dave Muller’s sprawling practice is defined by community, generosity, and a scrappy DIY spirit that bridges the world of fine art and the egalitarian sphere of independent music. A crucial part of this was Three Day Weekend, a series of nomadic art events he organized from the late 1990s to the early aughts that suggested alternative modes for organizing and exhibiting outside of traditional networks. He created watercolor posters to promote these events and his friends’ shows, bucking the trend toward digital professionalism with hand-made idiosyncrasy. Proto Typical features more than 20 years of Muller’s drawings, watercolors, murals, and installations — including the reinstallation of an actual record shop, Record Pavilion 2.0 (2022–25) — highlighting how art and music can reinforce curiosity and social connectivity in an age of increasing cynicism and alienation.
Convergence: Contemporary Artists of Armenian Descent
Forest Lawn Museum, 1712 South Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California
Through August 9
Convergence assembles the work of more than 20 artists of Armenian descent, presenting a multi-faceted portrait of this diasporic community. It underscores their diversity of background — including those born in the United States and immigrants from several countries — and of media and creative approaches. These range from the painterly explorations of Hagop Najarian, Rouzanna Berberian, and Gagik Vardanyan and photography by Liana Grigoryan, Sossi Madzounian, and Ara Mgrdichian to the works of Ara Oshagan, Alysse Stepanian, and the She Loves Collective that delve into the complexities of identity and politics.
A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit
Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs, California
Through October 18
A Queer Arcana explores the links between spiritual practices and queer culture, identity, and art throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition looks at how queer artists have delved into a broad range of arcane and esoteric knowledge — including Western mysticism, witchcraft, Eastern philosophies, and Indigenous traditions — to create alternative systems free from repression and shame. Notable works include Devan Shimoyama’s painting “Le Monde” (2024), which reimagines a Tarot card through queer, Black subjectivity; Clarify Haynes’s “Altar for Laura Aguilar” (2022), a painted homage to the late Chicana photographer; and Edgar Fabián Frías’s “Give US Home Spider” (2017), rituals inspired by Wixárika customs to combat environmental racism.
