The LA art scene plays mind games this week with psychedelic scenes reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut, string theories and highly complex mathematical concepts. If you're not having your own psychedelic experience at Coachella, you should check out these five events.
1. Emanuel Rossetti: Hems at Karma International LA. Emanuel Rossetti is a Switzerland-based artist whose recent work delves into the concepts of an all-encompassing experience being presented as an exhibition. Drawing inspiration from the torus, a geometric form consisting of only a single surface, he uses carpeted structures and a self-composed sound piece to fill the room and create an intervention of the space. (Thursday 6-8pm)
2. Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal at Otis College of Art and Design. This is a group exhibition of painting, photography, sculpture and video by 28 internationally renowned contemporary artists. The works examine concepts of political repression, individual isolation and the collective melancholy experienced during the decline of the industrial revolution. There will be a walk-through with exhibition curator Richard Rinehart at 4:30pm. (Saturday 4-6pm)
3. Tomoo Gokita: Bésame Mucho and Max Maslansky: Jouissance at Honor Fraser Gallery. Referencing vintage postcards, magazines and classic film stills, Tomoo Gokita creates surreal portraits of his subjects by distorting their hands and faces. He replaces the painted figures’ facial features with gradients and obscured shapes, imbuing them with an eerie, ghostlike quality. Max Maslansky’s works are hypersexual, psychedelic scenes of entangled abstracted figures painted on old bed sheets, pillows and curtains. Much of his source material is selected from found images of cringe-worthy esoterica or pornography of the 70s and 80s. Influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, the paintings in Jouissance play with a similar fantasy-turned-nightmare motif. (Saturday 6-8pm)
4. Gong Show at Eastside International. Eastside International, an alternative art space located at the Brewery Art Colony, will open its doors every Sunday night of April to host Gong Show. This is a self-proclaimed “sleazy” game show where pre-selected participants are invited to share bizarre talents, musical performances and stand-up acts in front of an audience and panel of judges comprised of curators, writers, critics and D-list celebrities. (Sunday 7:30pm)
5. The Elegant Universe at The Pit. A group exhibition inspired by the science of string theory. Curated by Gladys-Katherina Hernando, The Elegant Universe explores ideas of multiple dimensions and challenging viewers’ perceptions through a physical navigation of the gallery space. (Sunday 4-7pm)
Want to know a secret? Check out the hidden art across the city.