13ThingsLA: December 25
Boxing Day for your art calendar
Rebecca Campbell, Greenhouse, 2023, oil on canvas, 96 x 144 in. (Courtesy of L.A. Louver)
The holidays are arriving all at once this week, and whichever one you celebrate, we hope it’s beautiful and kind to you. We’ll be back with a new issue just in time for New Year’s Day, but in the meantime, please enjoy this look back at our 12 favorite and most popular Featured Reviews, from our first issue to our last, plus a bonus Boxing Day pick for a different kind of stoner. These reviews were always already free, so there’s no paywall today, just relax and enjoy the reading. And if you think it’s the sort of thing your loved ones might enjoy, remember that per LAist a gift subscription makes a great present—right up until the last minute, which it pretty much is at this point! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us on this journey to keep independent arts journalism alive in Los Angeles. With love, Shana & Heidi.
Our 12 Most Popular Featured Reviews of 2024 (not necessarily in order)
Eli Russell Linnetz at Jeffrey Deitch, from the July 10 issue.
Narcissus Quagliata at Forest Lawn Museum, from the October 16 issue.
Siri Kaur at Galerie XII, from the November 6 issue.
Rebecca Campbell at L.A. Louver, from the June 5 issue.
Genevieve Gaignard at Vielmetter Los Angeles, from the October 9 issue.
Isabelle Albuquerque X Robert Therrien Estate, from the December 4 issue.
Umar Rashid at BLUM, from the November 13 issue.
Lee, from the September 25 issue.
Nancy Baker Cahill at COSM, from the July 24 issue.
Firelei Báez at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, from the December 11 issue.
Jim Isermann at the PDC Gallery, from the May 29 issue.
Gregory Siff at Praz Delavallade, from our very first issue, May 1, 2024.
One More 13th Thing
Courtesy of the Huntington Library
Viewing Stones exhibition Thursday, December 26-30 at the Huntington. Forget the Breakfast Club, meet the Viewing Stone appreciation club—the California Aiseki Kai has been meeting monthly to share and discover treasures from their collections and research in the world of philosophical rocks. Specially chosen according to cognitive and aesthetic precepts to perfectly foster contemplation, insight, and individual memory-surfacing revelation, such stones are as eclectic and unique as snowflakes, but all share a special magnetism of attention and a nearly magical aura. My favorite (obviously) is the apparently pink mountain, but the pareidolia, landscape echoes, and terrestrial cloud-game energy of, as the club says, “the subtle, graceful forms of nature’s artistry in stone,” makes for a perfect blend of beauty and stillness at the cusp of a new year. Free with general admission, $29; huntington.org.