LA Examiner

Tag: exhibition

  • One Hundred Percent Exhibition Displays Artists’ Resilience Amid Wildfires

    One Hundred Percent Exhibition Displays Artists’ Resilience Amid Wildfires

    Image credit: Unsplash

    Just over three weeks ago, curator Aram Moshayedi issued an open invitation to visual artists and other creatives directly impacted by the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. The resulting exhibition, called One Hundred Percent, is donating all proceeds to the participating artists in a display of solidarity. To support the event, Moshayedi’s team is working entirely on a volunteer basis.

    A Remarkable Number of Participants

    More than 80 artists responded to the invitation, ranging from college graduates to preeminent figures like Diana Thater and Paul McCarthy, who lost their homes in the fires. The show is taking place at 619 N. Western Avenue from now until February 22, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.

    Artists Included in the Exhibition

    Some of the artists who will be featured in the One Hundred Percent exhibition include Marwa Abdul-Rahman, Kelly Akash, Kathryn Andrews, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Lisa Atkinson, Ronna Ballister, Seth Bogart, Peter Bonoff, Maura Brewer, Fiona Yun-Jui Chang, Ching Ching Cheng, Alma Cielo, Kevin Cooley, Steven V. Correia, Beatriz Cortez, Petra Cortright, Akina Cox, Moira Cue, Rhea Cutillo, Calethia DeConto, Lou Dillan, Matt Doolin, Victoria Franklin-Dillan, Devyn Galindo, Howard Goldberg, and many more.

    Whether these artists are well-known or not, their work holds great value in such difficult times.

    “I’m honored to be part of One Hundred Percent,” said Pomonis, “an exhibition curated by Aram Moshayedi that brings together artists impacted by the Eaton and Palisades Fires. This show is an act of resilience—a space for collective reflection on loss, transformation, and the enduring power of art… Let’s assemble in community and art.”

    An Emotional Event

    In anticipation of the February 13 opening, Moshayedi had this to say about the unique event: 

    “I think there will be a lot of emotions. It’s a convergence of people who have been affected either directly or indirectly by the fires, and will hopefully offer an opportunity for some kind of release.”

    Art in the Face of Fire

    There is a wide variety of work on display at the exhibition, and much of it was created in direct response to the fires. Whether through photographs taken in the aftermath or resilient artworks that withstood the flames, the exhibition speaks volumes about the disaster. It’s easy to overlook just how much art has been lost in wildfires, but viewing what survived carries a deep significance.

    “As soon as the fires started,” Moshayedi continued, “I started collecting PDFs of available works by artists I knew to send around to collectors, donors, board members and others who I thought might be able to buy work in that moment of need. But I realised there were a lot more artists I didn’t know. I wanted to find a way to tap into that community of artists, who were anonymous to me, and lend whatever support and services I could as a curator.”

    Making the One Hundred Percent Exhibition Happen

    It was real-estate broker Geoffrey Anenberg who helped Moshayedi find the right space for the One Hundred Percent exhibition. After securing a venue on Western Avenue across from Zwirner, Moshayedi worked with Grief and Hope to send out the open invite. Working with an organization that raises emergency relief funds for artists and art workers proved to be an effective method, reaching numerous artists across Los Angeles.

    “Keeping in mind that your various capacities may be limited,” the invite read, “the idea of what constitutes a contribution or participation is completely open-ended and at your discretion.”

    Supporting Artists in Trying Times
    For those interested in supporting artists impacted by the Altadena, Eaton, and Palisades fires, Moshayedi’s One Hundred Percent exhibition offers the perfect opportunity to do so.

  • The Broad’s “Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature” Exhibition

    The Broad’s “Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature” Exhibition

    Image credit: Unsplash

    Joseph Beuys produced nearly 600 multiples during his lifetime, almost 400 of which are included in The Broad’s current exhibition, Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature, which opened on November 16. Consisting of found objects, sculptures, photographs, and other materials that relate to his political life, the collection is representative of Beuys himself.

    “For him, all manner of things mattered,” said Andrea Gyorody, a Beuys scholar and one of the show’s organizers. “He put great effort into enshrining simple base materials with value, preserving their longevity as art objects.”

    A Vision for Transforming Social Reality

    Primarily, the multiples are concerned with the restoration of individual wellness and how the conditions of social reality might be transformed. “Capri-Batterie” (1985) features a yellow light bulb plugged into a lemon, which must be replaced as the fruit gradually rots. This is the kind of social participation that Beuys encouraged, an active regeneration of his own work. 

    “Beuys understood objects as holding a kind of stored meaning, an eternal potential that could be resurrected or recognized as a cue for action,” Gyorody said. “He hoped they could function as prompts or reminders of his political actions in a future when they were no longer talked about, and once referred to them as ‘memory props.’”

    Never Stop Planting

    Another of Beuys’ most famous works is the 1982 piece “7000 Eichen (7000 Oaks),” consisting of oak trees planted alongside basalt stone steles in Kassel, Germany. Of course, this piece could not be featured in The Broad’s exhibition, but the project has inspired a similar initiative called “Social Forest: Oaks of Tonvaangar,” named for the Tongva people whose homeland is located in Los Angeles County.

    “Beuys said to never stop planting,” Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibition manager at The Broad, explained, “and we’ve taken our inspiration from that prompt because, unfortunately, his concerns about the environment are just as relevant today as they were four decades ago.”

    Carrying a Tradition to LA

    The Social Forest will be The Broad’s first permanent off-site project and will feature 100 Quercus agricola (coast live oaks) planted alongside sandstone boulders in the Chávez ridge of Elysian Park. An additional five trees will be planted in the sacred Tongva site of Kuruvungna Village Springs. To achieve this goal, The Broad partnered with community-based environmental justice nonprofit North East Trees, as well as Tongva (Gabrielino) archaeologist Desireé Reneé Martinez and artist Lazaro Arvizu Jr.

    “Social Forest is about environmental activism and ecological repair, of course, but there’s also a social aspect: a collective reckoning and reconciliation that needs to happen here in L.A.,” Loyer said.

    Purposeful and Poignant

    North East Trees director Aaron Thomas stated that no part of the reforesting process was inherently symbolic, explaining, “We can calculate for every one of these oaks what the real and important environmental benefit will be, like how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses like methane and ozone will be sequestered or the volume of rainwater that will be absorbed through their roots, trunks, and canopies. The coast live oaks are native to Southern California, so they’re a byproduct of this soil, and the sandstone is native, and when the boulders erode, they’ll become a part of the soil that nourishes the tree.”

    The Hope for Social Sculpture

    This initiative is intended to continue Joseph Beuys’s idea of social sculpture and human and ecological initiatives, which he hoped would continue after his death in 1986. Through the action of creating spaces that may be consciously or passively learned from, Beuys envisioned that everyone would unlock their unique creative and intellectual potential.

    “He really lived out his belief that everything we do is sacred,” Gyorody said, “that every action, every decision is shaping and reshaping the world around us. It’s like the butterfly effect where the flap of the wing changes the weather halfway around the world.”