A wide range of lively openings dotted the city this past weekend, including openings at Launch and KP Projects on La Brea, the closing of a terrific exhibition at Keystone Art Space, and the intensely beautiful “Carbon” at Fellows of Contemporary Art in Chinatown (FOCA).

Let’s start at FOCA. “Carbon,” curated by artist Lauren Kasmer is a dramatic 10-artist show based on the artists’ response to the element of carbon. From Terry Arena’s delicate graphite drawings on metal to Tam Van Tran’s ceramic Sanskrit Alphabet, each piece dazzled, and the art-centric crowd buzzed about the works and posed for selfies by a dramatic, large-scale Horse and Dog (Biophilia), created in tar and white oil on canvas by artist James Griffith.

They were also impressed by the carbon-colored goodies at the buffet table on the walkway outside the second-floor gallery: black sesame bread sticks, tiny black cakes, chocolate covered hazlenuts and even cheeses encased in black wax.

Greg “Craola” Simkins

Mid-city, a cheerful crowd surged between KP Projects downstairs and Launch Gallery upstairs in the same building, sipping craft cocktails that combined rosemary and vodka in a light, refreshing drink. At KP, many guests viewing the “The Escape Artist”—vivid surrealist works by Greg “Craola” Simkins—sported exotic high heels and hair color as primary as the feathers on some of Simkins large-scale acrylic bird paintings. Simkins joked, mingled and signed the gallery’s hardcover catalog of his works.

Holly Tempo

Lauren Holland

Upstairs, Launch hosted solo shows by Holly Tempo and Loren Holland. Tempo’s abstract pinks, blues, and golds matched her own attire; Holland willingly explained her figurative myth-based works livened with trenchant wit. Many viewers were already fans of the artists, who generously posed for photos with their paintings and gallerist James Panozzo.

Over at Keystone Art Space, curator Kim Abeles held court for the closing weekend of “Mothers, Eggshells, and the People Who Birth Us,” a 92-artist exhibition that included the made-on-site “Mother – Portraits in Petri Dishes.” Abeles served tea, cookies, apples and—gave haircuts to viewers, claiming she had no training but new scissors. Art lovers took advantage of the unconventional cuts, and also of Abeles’ offer for advice about life questions. The exhibition’s take on the mother/child relationship was fresh, feminist, and political; viewers came prepared to love the show, and they did. Reactions to haircuts were more cheerful but more muted.

Photos by Genie Davis