As August settles in, a number of Los Angeles exhibitions shift attention away from large-scale artistic statements and toward the intimate, the personal, and the ordinary. Lisson presents Spencer Finch’s torn-envelope interventions, offering small fragments of painted and collaged surprise. Textiles as Monument at the Fowler Museum brings together three artists who use soft materials to honor those left out of mainstream historical recognition. And a show devoted to the longtime, recently demolished Echo Park restaurant Taix seeks to evoke its offbeat appeal as a gathering place for neighborhood regulars and Gen-Z bohemians alike.
At Roberts Projects, another exhibition turns to the garment, jewelry, and costume design of the late assemblage pioneer Betye Saar, illuminating a significant but often overlooked part of her work. Saar, who died last week at 99, was a groundbreaking force in LA assemblage, known for sharp combinations of found objects that championed Black and female representation through wit, humor, and pointed social critique.
Let’s Get it On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar focuses on a lesser-known strand of her practice: costume design. The exhibition features more than 200 garments, photographs, and drawings dating from the 1950s through the 1970s. Included are costume designs for productions at the Inner City Cultural Center, a multicultural performing arts space established after the 1965 Watts Rebellion.
The show also includes clothing Saar created for her daughters to wear at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire at the Paramount Ranch in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Drawing heavily on archival research, the exhibition adds an essential piece to Saar’s expansive legacy.
