Love Letters

LOVE LETTERS

Micro essays on artists we can’t stop thinking about

Wedged into a large gash in a curved wall, matte gold, geometric crystallings pile up, at once coming out of and crowding into this opening in a wall.

Love Letter to Paige Smith

Crystalline urban sculptures remind us that the earth has something to say.

by Jason Keil April 13, 2021April 13, 2021

A painting of a "Chase" bank on fire, the storefront pristine and seemingly untouched with flames roaring out from the roof with gushes smoke just behind it.

Love Letter to Alex Schaefer

In an ode to LA, a painter blends his sardonic cityscapes with capitalist critique.

by Lexi Lane April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

Full-body painting on found material of a woman standing upright, her hair short and lips painted the same bold red as the rest of the outline of her body. She wears little clothing and balances a large, round object on her head.

Love Letter to Margaret Kilgallen

A San Francisco street artist teaches men to be better femimists.

by Jeff Alessandrelli March 30, 2021March 30, 2021

Small, handwritten text reading "This is WHERE THE REVEREND LIVES" is etched beneath a rendering of a small house, swallowed up by a sea of white paint. Gouging across the center-right of the canvas, a mass of black and an abutting mass of warm pink hover.

Love Letter to Anne Carmack

Santa Monica-based painter cracks open the ordinary, starting a conversation between image and language, seen and unseen.

by Natalie Warther March 23, 2021March 22, 2021

A dog rears on its hind legs, a snarl on its face. Its coat is multicolored and impressionistic, set against a deep blue backdrop.

Love Letter to Rick Bartow

Examining identity, struggle, and trauma through vivid and chaotic abstraction.

by Keisha Raines March 16, 2021March 15, 2021

An amorphous cloud of color and movement made up of various brushstrokes, including dabbed lines of purposeful drops of paint and more subtle, curved lines that weave and meander around, over, and with each other. The piece is sparse, the color choices bold and earthy.

Love Letter to Alexa Grambush

An LA-based painter’s evocative, abstract works explore the mysterious nature of being alive.

by Justin Duyao March 11, 2021March 10, 2021

Photograph of a row of seven tall, rectangular hedges lining the edge of what seems to be a parking lot, each with slightly different amounts of stray, untrimmed branches. Behind the shrubbery, industrial walls of various heights and colors compose the background. A single, blurred tire track is streaked across the concrete.

Love Letter to Rachelle Mendez

An LA-based photographer’s vivid portraits of suburban Southern California.

by Alison Tam March 2, 2021

A film still showing a view through a window. Behind the window, a white sculpture of a man's head in the style of Ancient Greek sculpture lies on its side on a table covered in a taupe, satiny cloth. A large, shiny, gold object that could be a sculpture of a sun shape sits below it, cut off by the bottom of the frame. The scene outside the window reflects in it, creating a surreal compression of space.

Love Letter to Nathaniel Dorsky

A San Francisco filmmaker’s intimate vision of the city.

by Chiara Reynal Brown February 25, 2021February 25, 2021

A ceramic sculpture in the shape of a torso, from clavicle to hips, made out of leaves. The warm brown leaves are layered, but don't entirely cover the torso, leaving gaps where you to see into the sculpture.

Love Letter to Linda Litteral

Processing trauma through painting and sculpture.

by Taylor Griggs February 9, 2021February 9, 2021

A painting of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The painter used large, evocative brushstrokes to create a portrait that is both painterly and immediately recognizable as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Love Letter to Eel Costello

A time lapse video of portrait in process reveals the painting’s emotional undercurrents.

by Nora Noone January 26, 2021January 26, 2021

A room with brown walls and grey cement floors filled with headless female mannequins wearing various outfits for a range of seasons. The colors are primarily black and white, with a few yellow, brown, grey, and red garments.

Love Letter to Andrea Zittel

On finding comfort in simplicity.

by Bethy Squires January 19, 2021January 19, 2021

A black and white photograph of Laetitia Sonami crouching, viewed from above and at an angle so Sonami's body fills the space from the upper left and bottom right corners. Sonami holds her left hand over her face, wearing a glove with electronic circuits and wires extending past the wrist like mechanical tendons. Her dark hair is messy and pulled back.

Love Letter to Laetitia Sonami

Sparkling aural textures tangle with a narrative of tragedies and triumphs.

by Zeny May Recidoro January 12, 2021January 12, 2021

A painting of a lounging nude woman on the backs of other canvas paintings aligned into a grid. The woman is depicted reclined on a chaise longe, propped up on pillows, with a small dog at her feet. The woman wears a mask made of collaged brain scans, and has the white and red cane often used by blind or visually impaired people at her side.

Love Letter to Katherine Sherwood

Providing space and care for people with disabilities through references to historical painting.

by Elizabeth Rooklidge January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

An abstract landscape painting with thick brushstrokes describing overlapping, rolling hills. The artist used ochre, pale pink, moss green, Kelly green, taupe, and vermillion for the different hills, with geometric highlights in white and pale yellow. Light blue hovers over the horizon, fading upward into pale yellow.

Love Letter to Bernice Bing

On falling in love with a painter through one photograph.

by Caroline Tracey December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

A round woven basket seen from below. The basket is covered with intricate black and white beads creating a swirl pattern emanating from the center, which is a small circle of white beads.

Love Letter to Mabel McKay

Intricate baskets blur the line between functional objects and artistry.

by Katie Kheriji-Watts December 1, 2020December 1, 2020

A photograph of a square format spiral bound sketchbook with a sketchy drawing in black graphite. The drawing depicts a person bent over and walking through a crowded space. Perpendicular to the drawing horizon, cursive handwritten text reads: "A man in searching for his belongings between the..." followed by two illegible words. In the bottom right corner, the artist wrote "Jacques Francois Leroy" and crossed the words out.

Love Letter to Norma Cole

Marvelous and strange drawings pose questions about the visual world.

by Paul Maziar November 24, 2020November 24, 2020

A marble sculpture that resembles a benign, almost blooming flower, but the pointed tips of the spiraled corolla mimic fingers pressed together to quickly, sharply pursue an object. Finally, above the base of the piece, there's a small hole.

Love Letter to Yoko Kubrick

Abstracting myths and archetypes in evocative marble.

by Kennedy Horton November 17, 2020November 17, 2020

Two photographs displayed site by side in thin, cobalt blue frames. Both are identical black and white portraits of a woman, but the left image is negative and the right image is positive. Shown from the shoulder up, her body is perpendicular to the camera and her face turns toward the camera. Her arms cross in front of her body, with her right hand placed over her left shoulder. Her right hand is raised to cover most of her face, and holds a cigarette.

Love Letter to Natalie Krick

A new blue is just one of the reasons to love Krick’s latest series.

by Tom Winchester November 10, 2020November 10, 2020

A video still of a recording of Ron Athey's performance "St. Sebastian." Athey is suspended by ropes hooked into his flesh, another person wearing latex gloves inserts a long, thin metal rod into his bicep. Athey has an expression of entranced semi-consciousness.

Love Letter to Ron Athey

On the radical queer embodiment of Ron Athey’s performances.

by Sam Moore October 27, 2020October 27, 2020

Love Letter to Bean Gilsdorf

The stiff gravitas of US politicians made floppy and satirical.

by Elizaveta Alexandrovna Shneyderman October 20, 2020October 22, 2020

A watercolor painting of a ghostly white river winding through colorfully painted, angular rocks and trees.

Love Letter to Dr. Qinqin Liu

Painting California’s watersheds as a way to cope with the climate crisis.

by Alison Tam October 13, 2020October 22, 2020

A portrait of painter Leonora Carrington with blue morning glory flowers draped around her shoulders. A bright white orb shines through a grey haze behind Carrington.

Love Letter to Katherine Ace

Exploring fantastical and surreal subjects in masterful portraits.

by Sheila Regan October 6, 2020October 22, 2020

A woman with medium length wavy brown hair is on her hands and knees on a custard yellow couch, as though caught in the act of rising from a lying position. She looks up into the camera.

Love Letter to Laida Lertxundi

The pleasure of finding ways to describe a filmmaker’s roving vision.

by Kaitlyn A. Kramer September 29, 2020October 22, 2020

a cartoon chicken at a table looking forlornly at a plate of sunny-side up eggs. The scene is comically absurd, made sinister by its sparse backdrop and message; the subdued, mustard-colored background complements the pair of potential chicks served up on a platter.

Love Letter to Luke Chueh

On feeling guilty enjoying a Luke Chueh painting.

by Sylvie Soulet September 22, 2020October 22, 2020

A shallow, rectangular box containing a figurine of the racist caricature Aunt Jemima. In one hand she holds a broom and a pistol, in the other hand she holds a rifle. A postcard of the racist "mammy" caricature holding a white baby covers the Aunt Jemima doll's lower body. A Black power fist covers the lower body of the mammy figure in the card. The Aunt Jemima doll stands on a bed of fluffy white cotton. The back of the box is covered with a grid Aunt Jemima logos.

Love Letter to Betye Saar

Betye Saar’s found object assemblages visualize the possibility of liberation.

by Ann C. Collins September 15, 2020October 22, 2020

A digital drawing of the anime character Sailor Moon, reimagined as a young Black woman. She has full lips, curly blond hair, hoop earrings, and piercing eyes.

Love Letter to Jazmin Anita

The power of Black women portraying themselves as diverse and beautiful.

by Kennedy Horton September 8, 2020October 22, 2020

An image of composer and musician Pauline Oliveros performing. The orientation of the image is skewed, so the floor is slanted and angles down to the right. Oliveros sits on a chair with a large accordion, her head is tilted down, her eyes are closed, and she has an expression of deep concentration. Oliveros sits in a large gallery room, and behind her there is a giant white ear on the wall with a huge, brass ear horn.

Love Letter to Pauline Oliveros

Listening to music as an act of kinship.

by Zeny May Recidoro August 31, 2020October 22, 2020

A bright and colorful pastel and graphite drawing with one, neon pink person reclining horizontally next to a pale pink person with short green hair

Love Letter to Pace Taylor

Conflicting desires in fields of soft pastel and leaden graphite details

by Amelia Rina May 14, 2020October 22, 2020

Love Letter to jayy dodd

A glitchy, intimate escape during quarantine questions value systems

by Amelia Rina May 5, 2020October 22, 2020