5 Artists Who Represent the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Scene

While Los Angeles’ arts district, located between downtown and the L.A. While River is home to some huge, legendary galleries, a slew of newer locations are sprouting up throughout the city’s palm-studded expanse. Parker Gallery, located in a Tudor home in Los Feliz and focusing on under-recognized Bay Area artists, to Murmurs, a brand-new project space whose performance and installation-focused repertoire fills a warehouse in Downtown L.A., are just a few of the emerging galleries changing the contemporary art gallery Los angeles art landscape for the better.

• Matthew Brown Los Angeles

633 North La Brea Ave, Suite 101, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 90036

In January 2019, the twenty something Matthew Brown established his namesake gallery on a popular La Brea strip, just south of Melrose Avenue and Pink’s, the renowned Los Angeles hot dog stand. Brown developed journals with concepts for his own home while working at several galleries in Los Angeles. These thoughts influenced the rich programming that has already filled his large two-room gallery in its first year.

• Parker Gallery

2441 Glendower Ave, Los Feliz, Los Angeles CA 90027

Parker Gallery founder Sam Parker shifted his attention to home spaces after investigating several “expensive and uninspired” stores across Los Angeles. Parker inaugurated his program in May 2017 in a historic 1924 home in the Los Feliz hills, near Griffith Park and Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Ennis House. The exhibition began with “Nut Art,” a joyful, in-depth look at the Northern California movement of the same name. Parker displayed work by the movement’s pioneers, including Clayton Bailey, Roy De Forest, David Gilhooly, and Maija Peeples-Bright, as well as current artists such Peter and Sally Saul, Hannah Greely, and Calvin Marcus.

• Murmurs

1411 Newton Street, Downtown LA, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Morgan Elder and Allison Littrell, both Los Angeles residents, grew up watching the city flourish. They envisioned a complex art place that “appeals to all types of individuals, not just seasoned art enthusiasts,” in an email. Prior to collaborating on this project, Elder obtained her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and launched the Chicago-based gallery Born Nude, while Littrell received her master’s degree from USC and founded the art periodical Third Magazine. A focus on new approaches including social practice and partnership

• AA LA

7313 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 90046

“One Arm Bandit,” by Detroit-based artist Bailey Scieszka, explored the concept of the American Dream via an immersive combination of painting, film, and sculpture at AA LA. The show, like the rest of the art presented by creator and Los Angeles resident Alex Ahn at his gallery, which launched in September 2015, called into question deeply rooted political and cultural institutions.

• Kristina Kite

3400 W. Washington Blvd, Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, CA 90018

Kristina Kite launched her own gallery after a successful stint with Los Angeles galleries Overduin and Kite. The gallery launched in February 2017 with a solo show by L.A.-based artist Nancy Lupo, and is located amid a rising string of galleries and non-profit facilities on the main strip of Arlington Heights’ Washington Boulevard.