Hauser & Wirth is showcasing a love letter to the City of Angels in a new group exhibition at its newly minted West Hollywood location. Named after Steve Martin’s 1991 romantic comedy, L.A. Story presents sculptures, paintings and installations from an expansive list of contemporary artists who comment on the surreal idiosyncrasies that LA is known for through their respective practices.
Perhaps more than any major city, including New York, London and Paris, most understand LA primarily through entertainment. Sun-kissed palm trees, celebrity sightings, drives along PCH, the perfectly trimmed hedges of Beverly Hills — there is a romanticism that tourists come to the city expecting, which is inevitably countered by the reality of navigating LA’s sprawling streets without a well-designed metro or its general sleepy vibe that is much more akin to suburban life, rather than fast pace of a major European metropolis.
While typically overshadowed by the art scene in New York, LA has shown to a beacon for the creative community over the past 70 years. Ed Ruscha, one of the father’s of LA contemporary art and the recent subject of a major retrospective at LACMA, has been chronicling the visual lexicon of the city’s landscape and architectural makeup since the late ’50s. David Hockney has long been enamored by the City of Angel, emblematic of his series of swimming pool compositions, including the mural he painted on the plaster of the Roosevelt Hotel’s pool in Hollywood.
There are a number of works on view that allude to scenes from the show’s film counterpart, including Vija Celmins’ close-up of a hand firing a gun, a reference to classic noir and Westerns, but also the scene where a shootout breaks out along the highway in Martin’s film. “I’m thrilled that L.A. Story is the focus of so many wonderful artists and a wonderful gallery, Hauser & Wirth, which is just across the street from the Troubadour, where I first stepped foot on Santa Monica Blvd., which began my L.A. sojourn,” Martin said on the show.
L.A. Story will be on view in West Hollywood until January 4, 2025. See the full list of exhibiting artists below.
Hauser & Wirth
8980 Santa Monica Blvd,
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Exhibiting Artists:
Carlos Almaraz, Kevin Appel, John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Eric Fischl, Mark Grotjahn, David Hockney, Luchita Hurtado, Friedrich Kunath, Florian Maier-Aichen, Catherine Opie, Hilary Pecis, Ken Price, Richard Prince, Calida Rawles, Jennifer Rochlin, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Paul Sietsema, Henry Taylor and Lesley Vance
