Chez Coronado
Founded by Andy Little and Calli Webb and nestled in an unused portion of a basement under an apartment building, Chez Coronado specializes (so far) in works that, like the space, are small, intimate, personal and eccentric. Their most recent offerings include witty, crafty work from Joachim Castañeda, and a moose-themed show from Molly McDonald.
Devout
Many tattooists learned to draw in the same spaces and for the same reasons as the gallery artists they tattoo, and in the pop-art positive land of Los Angeles the difference between the hip low-brow and the street-savvy highbrow begins to seem no more than academic. Formerly known as Raking Light Gallery and recently relocated to Echo Park, Taylor Lee’s Devout Gallery exists in this overlap of tattoo culture and contemporary art, and specializes in paintings and drawings by tattoo artists using the history of sacred imagery in their work.
These Days
A visual-art extension of downtown LA’s somehow indestructible punk rock scene, These Days is the brainchild of Stephen and Jodi Ziegler. It began life in 2008 as 118 Winston—a second floor project space named after its own address—and has since grown into a full-time endeavor. Half gallery, half coolest-bookstore-in-the-city, exhibitions of local artists appear alongside everything from Noboyushi Araki monographs to old issues of Flipside to These Days’ own zines and books made in collaboration with artists.
Last Projects
It is impossible to spend any time in LA’s art underground without ending up at Last Projects. Originally started on the second floor of an old Hollywood Boulevard corner by Andrew Wingler and Ilona Berger, Last—now in east LA—quickly became a meeting place for everything under-exposed, marginalized and scrappy with a dedication to spotlighting first-time artists, and a willingness to experiment with a variety of event and exhibit formats.
TLALOC
