If you are one of the cool kids (or artists or gallerists), then most likely you were at 3rd street in DTLA last Saturday for a jam-packed and super festive opening. We aren’t talking Hauser, rather its newish next-door neighbor Over the Influence. OTI—with its Hong Kong lineage—has stormed onto the Los Angeles art scene as one of the new/hot/hip/cool places since its debut in early 2018.

Lauren Every-Wortman

To follow up on their uber popular exhibition of new works from Cleon Peterson—OTI and curator Lauren Every-Wortman present an all-woman group exhibition. “How They Ran” is the sixth exhibition for their LA gallery and takes its title from the 2nd chapter of the feminist writer Germaine Greer’s book, The Obstacle Race. Diving into this ethos—the show is a mix of both emerging and very well-established female Angeleno artists such as Barbara Kruger, Uta Barth, Kerry Tribe and Jo Ann Callis.

Megan Whitmarsh with her fake art-cover magazines.

At the opening we saw several of the artists in the exhibition—including Megan Whitmarsh, who presently is enjoying accolades from her “Made in L.A.” installation with collaborator Jade Gordon. She posed for us in front of her fake magazine covers (embroidery on canvas) that imagined female artists on the covers back then when they were making tons of art, but not getting tons of recognition, compared to their male counterparts.

Guy Rusha in front of artist Kelly Brumfield-Woods’ glitter paintings.

We also ran into gallery dealer Anthony Cran. How rare is it to see an art dealer at another gallerists’ opening? OTI Director Guy Rusha was in high spirits with the great turnout, texting us the address of the after party, which we’ll get to later.

Megan Geckler, Maura Bendett, Phyllis Green, Martin Durazo, Claudia Huiza.

Kim Schoenstadt with Pamela Hudson

Other artist sisters who showed up in support were Phyllis Green, Claudia Huiza, Laura London and Maura Bendett. Gallerists Eva Chimento and Liz Gordon made an appearance (more art dealers showing up at other openings…take note!). Kelly Brumfield-Woods, Kim Schoenstadt and Pamela Hudson were also included in the exhibition who made it to the after-party. 

Thinh Nguyen partying to white power!

Cole Case

The after-party at Bar Mateo was a smashing success, and how do we know that? Because the food and quality cocktails never stopped being paraded out (there were even to-go boxes of the amazing veggie sliders.) Partygoers Thinh Nguyen, Martin Durazo, Peter Shelton, Cole Case were along for the ride while we took our smoke outside with Megan Geckler. Now that’s what I call the end to a fun evening on the scene.