Melrose Botanical Garden is not actually a garden, but it might as well be. Tucked between thrift shops and piercing parlors on the avenue, the narrow gallery feels like an oasis. “a field once more,” a group show drawing upon Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s essay In Praise of Shadows, lets the whisper of nature join the city’s chorus. Some works, like Sean McFarland’s Desert Sage (2024)—which flaunts the dainty outlines of petals, made with sagebrush trichomes and Great Basin Desert dust—show how darkness can illuminate rather than obscure. Others, like Jenna Garrett’s Fires (2024), hung high in a corner and folded over (such that studying it requires the viewer to crane their neck and squint as if observing a real-world spectacle), subvert archaic paradigms, presenting dark as stillness and light as chaos. Not only does the exhibition provide respite from the Hollywood sun—it leads visitors on a stirring journey through shades of shade.

a field once more
Melrose Botanical Garden x Jane Galerie
7406 Melrose Ave.,
Los Angeles, CA 90028