Exhibitions — LA Design Festival

2023 Exhibitions: 10am-4pm, Daily

Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, curated by Sekou Cooke

Helms Bakery District | 8707 Washington Blvd. Culver City
Opening in Los Angeles at LADF is Curator Sekou Cooke’s exhibition Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, an exhibition surveying the movement of Hip-Hop Architecture at the AIANY Center for Architecture in October 2018. The exhibition exhibits the work of students, academics, and practitioners at the center of an emerging architectural movement. It includes work by over 20 participants representing seven countries, with projects ranging across a variety of media and forms of expression: from experimental visualizations and installations, to façade studies, building designs, and urban development proposals.

JIMMY MARBLE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION & DRAWING PARTY

ROW DTLA | GARAGE 120

Jimmy Marble is a Director & Photographer living in Los Angeles, Ca. His work is characterized by its use of color, irreverent aesthetics, modern surrealism, and pop. With a prolific photography career already in full swing, he got his start directing in 2010 by helping launch Flaunt Magazine’s Flaunt TV channel while simultaneously making his first narrative shorts. Jimmy has shot for top brands in advertising like Coca-Cola, Nike, Tinder, and Apple among others. Recently he has premiered films at Tribeca Film Festival, Nowness, and Vimeo Staff Picks. His first book, a collection of photography entitled ‘Dream Baby Dream’, was published by Chronicle Chroma in October 2019.

Join the artist for a gallery opening Friday, June 23rd at 7pm and A Drawing Party Saturday June 24th at 1pm. Support by Gilbert Cellars, Simply Framed & Waka Waka.

Cymatic Oscilloscope by Lachlan Turczan

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 3-190
‘Cymatic Oscilloscope’ is a kinetic light artwork that forms iridescent projections generated by wave patterns. A shallow pool of vibrating water acts as a liquid prism, shaping reflected light into an ever-shifting network of caustic patterns. The component colors of white light are separated by the water to form a prismatic display of colors. This artwork is inspired by the work of Thomas Wilfred and the Light and Space movement which began in Southern California in the 1960s.

MDAP Neurofeedback Project

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 2-198
Musician, composer and creative programmer Mario D. Alvarado (MDAP) combines technology and art to generate music using body movement, brain waves, heart rate, and breathing. Through various software algorithms and biofeedback sensors, the human body and its biological processes become the composer of an audiovisual performance. The MDAP project’s objective is to bring awareness to the effects of music therapy, giving rise to meditation, mindfulness and psychomotor exploration.

UMAGUMA

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 3-194
Umaguma is a Chicana owned, ethically-sourced textile studio based in Mexico City offering unique custom designs and organic shapes that transform spaces.

Umaguma was born from a feeling, an awakening of personal identity and freedom. It is a reclamation of ancestral roots that were severed and lost. Paving our path as children of immigrants, we reimagine what's possible outside the confines of societal standards and stereotypes. There is duality in the cross-cultural experience, of being a chicana strung between two different countries and identities.Woven into the fabric are the colors and textures of pain, anxiety, resilience and freedom that represent the stories of our abuelos y madres. This is expressed in the processes and materials of traditional textiles combined with the contemporary ideas y la libertad de nuestra generación.

Umaguma will showcase traditional Mexican textiles meld with fluid designs that represent the contemporary ideas and freedom of my generation as a first generation Chicana.

Susan Maddux Exhibition

Helms Bakery District | Helms Design Center | 8745 Washington Blvd, Culver City
Using origami-inspired folding and collage, Los Angeles-based artist Susan Maddux transforms paintings into wall sculptures with powerful, totemic quality. A 4th generation hapa Japanese-American born and raised in Hawaii, her work explores reconnection with personal history and place through the transformation of material and the ritual of gesture.

Susan Maddux work will be open to view at Helms Bakery District Design Center [8745 Washington Blvd, Culver City] on Thursday, June 22 - Sunday, June 25, from 12-6pm daily.

PEOPLE POWERED: A SCREEN PRINTING WORKSHOP

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 3-170 [EXTERIOR]

What happens when art, resistance, and intention meet? Join designer Schessa Garbutt for a screen printing demo and short talk about Black, queer, and Indigenous (Otomi) histories of using graphics and sigils as a means to manifest abundant futures. Bring up to three cotton garments of your choosing (t-shirt, tote bag, hoodie, etc). Cotton swatches will also be provided for those who want to make patches! Print your own wearable talismans of resistance with a Firebrand design.

Tickets are $25 per person

Croft House SIGNATURE ‘Sierra Chair’ Exhibition

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 2-162
View Croft House’s 10th anniversary signature Sierra Chair collection during LADF 2023. The Los Angeles-based furniture brand has partnered with 10 top interior designers to reinvent and refresh the iconic Sierra Chair in honor of the product’s 10th anniversary. Each designer put their own spin on the classic, from fabric selection for the cushion to powder coat color for the chair’s frame. Participating designers include JSN STUDIO Co-Founder Adair Curtis, Jeff Andrews Design, Studio AHEAD, LH.Designs Principal Linda Hayslett, Studio Faith Blakeney, Brooke Wagner Design, Studio Munroe, Tali Roth Interior Design, Noz Design Founder Noz Nozawa, and Max Humphrey.

Flowerboy Project Installation by Sean Knibb

Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles | Mezzanine above Loam
Flowerboy Project Creative Director Sean Knibb unveils a dried flower installation at The Mezzanine above LOAM restaurant at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. The installation will remain on view through the end of June.

Natural Forms | Chair Exhibit

ROW DTLA | BUILDING 2-162
A group show from LA based designers with a focus on chairs that are created from natural materials, altered through natural and unnatural forces. Exhibitors: Tristan Marsh, James Mitchell, Caleb Engstrom / Rest Energy, Sam Klemick, Alper Nakri, Alex Hsu

Silas MunrO | On the Consideration of a Black Grid

ROW DTLA | ‘BLACK LIGHT’ EXHIBIT | BUILDING B2-132
Graphic designer Silas Munro presents his latest work, a brief visual essay that charts a series of experimental meditations on how grids can shape Black liberatory forms. Accompanying the exhibit will be a talk at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 24, 2023 at ROW DTLA.

The Reckoning and The Aura, presented by ARRAY Alliance Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP)

ROW DTLA | ‘BLACK LIGHT’ EXHIBIT | BUILDING B2-132
An initiative commissioned by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s non-profit, ARRAY Alliance’s LEAP presents The Reckoning, a dance film by choreographer Francesca Harper, and The Aura, an audio drama experience by multimedia artist Julian Stephen.

CarbonShack’s CasaZero Home Tour

11 a.m. Sunday, June 25
1359 Killarney Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065 (Mt. Washington)
*limited street parking; rideshare recommended
Join ecopreneur Stephen Pallrand, founder of CarbonShack and Home Front Build, for a tour of CasaZero, an all-electric home in Mt. Washington that produces more energy than it consumes. The main innovation is the use of materials––either salvaged within the City of Los Angeles or produced within 100 miles––to create an artful, beautiful home that resonates with the environment without harming it. Collaborating with one of the homeowners, Rachel Mayeri––an artist working at the intersection of science & art and full professor at Harvey Mudd College––the CarbonShack team infused the home with design elements inspired by nature, specifically the microbiome. By focusing on the invisible, the microbiome, CarbonShack sought to celebrate the diversity and complexity of the natural world and what’s hidden in the environment. The microbiome narrative is woven throughout the custom light fixtures, tilework, fabrics and furnishings, and cabinetry and millwork to help keep the idea of nature front of mind, day to day.

RAD Furniture x Lander Skateboards Furniture Installation

ROW DTLA | ‘THE END’ TREE AMPHITHEATER
Los Angeles-based RAD Furniture hosts a temporary furniture installation during LADF 2023 with the brand’s sister skateboard company, Lander. Setting up at ROW DTLA, RAD and Lander will showcase two very different uses of the same design philosophy: a skateboard made from recycled fishing net next to the furniture that inspired it.

Olfactory Haptic Therapeutic Objects: A Fusion of Senses and Design

Helms Bakery District | Room and Board
[Therapy sessions with invited neurodivergent participants Thursday, June 22 @ 12–2pm]
LA-based international artist Marcos Lutyens collaborates with behavioral therapist Elizabeth Fraines, M.A., BCBA to create Olfactory Haptic therapeutic forms, combining tactile and olfactory stimulation. These sculptures aim to provide therapeutic benefits to neurodivergent participants, enhancing their engagement with the environment and aiding in recovery. By activating multiple senses, these sculptures have the potential to evoke emotions, trigger healing responses, and contribute to overall mental well-being, with prospects for further development and application in treating various mental health challenges.

Burntsienna Reading Room

Helms Bakery District | Cisco Home
Focus of Study: California Design
A third-space of artbooks and design furniture, programmed for casual research, new discoveries, and a restful space to recharge the mind amidst the festival. a space for introversion and minor decompression, inside of Cisco Home, a three-decade furniture practice rooted in Los Angeles. Burntsienna will programme the space with a curated selection of art and design books and periodicals in the theme of ‘California Design.’ Jason E.C. Wright will be on hand to welcome guests into the space with the hospitality of an attendant librarian or a warmly engaged concierge.

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‘CRISS CROSS,2023’ by STUDIO LEFT

ROW DTLA | BUILDING B2 - 126
Criss Cross is a contemporary take on the traditional art of 'anyaman', the Indonesian weaving/wickering art. In its native country, this art form is utilized everywhere, from the smallest to the largest scale, including walls for huts and other sheltering structures. In this installation, the idea of weaving is integrated into the tessellation modules, in the form of felt patterns that loop and link together to form a skin on a dome structure. The patterns were created in such a way where they are able to be cut entirely out of the remnant materials from previous projects.

Dyan Jong Light Installation

ROW DTLA | ‘THE NARROWS’ DURING DESIGN BLOCK PARTY
By repurposing film lights, Dyan Jong creates large scale, immersive light installation art with relevance to Los Angeles. The film lights are a nod to her origins as an image-maker in music & entertainment, openly present to acknowledge their role in shaping Hollywood “movie magic.” Light is transformed into a lived experience for the audience to encounter and document themselves “on set” as both consumers and creators.

The Radical Practice of James H. Garrott: Civil Rights Activist and Modernist Architect

ROW DTLA | ‘BLACK LIGHT’ EXHIBIT | BUILDING B2-132
This is the first major exhibition to feature the work of the Los Angeles-based African American architect James H. Garrott whose prolific career spanned the 1920 to the 1970s. He is credited with designing more than two hundred buildings including several hundred homes, twenty-five churches, and numerous schools, as well as some of the key cultural monuments in the Black community of Los Angeles. Garrott’s body of work is distinguished by its prewar and postwar periods, the former marked by an exploration of various styles while the latter was decidedly modern. At mid-century Garrott was one of the few Black modernist architects in the United States.

CURATOR | Anthony Fontenot, Professor, Woodbury University School of Architecture

EXHIBITION DESIGNER | Anali Gharakhani

international poster exhibition by poster territory

Downtown Long Beach Design District This international poster exhibition for the Los Angeles Design Festival, had more than 400 posters submitted from 33 countries, features 70+ posters by designers and graphic artists from all over the world to celebrate design, creativity, inclusiveness, freedom and love to coincide with this year’s theme of ‘Design for the People’. Sponsored by Velvet Hammer.