13ThingsLA: February 26

Earth Spells for your art calendar

Tau Lewis, The Handle of the Axe (detail), 2024 (Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery)

Well, that was a lot. Last week’s Art Week had us rushed off our feet, but we’re back with fresh REVIEWS at Lisson Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, MAK Center/Schindler House, and David Zwirner Gallery. Plus an essay I wrote for a show at MASH, and PST:Art popping up at the Ebell. The Broad embraces zines, and new shows open at Descanso Gardens/Sturt Haaga Gallery, Shatto Gallery, Regen Projects, Eastern Projects, Leica Gallery, and Trophy Room L.A. P.S. It’s our publisher Heidi’s birthday week!! All the flowers, girl. We love you!

And special for our paid subscribers, I’m working on figuring out the quirks of the Substack Chat thing, where currently, I’m curious as to your opinions on Art Week!

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Feature

Tau Lewis, Spirit Level (installation view), 2025 (Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery)

REVIEW: Tau Lewis: Spirit Level is now open at David Zwirner Los Angeles. Sometimes the materials tell as much of a story as the images of artworks themselves—for example, the evocative prose poem that is a Tau Lewis exhibition checklist. Such a one reads in part, “Steel, enamel paint, acrylic paint and finisher, repurposed leather, suede, shearling, shagreen, fabric, leather, fabric, natural dyes, rawhide, seashells, coral bone, pearl, stones, beads, found objects, gold and silk thread, coated nylon thread, and coated cotton thread…” And indeed the joy of discovery as the monumental sculptures’ unfathomable accumulations of minute, meaningful, metaphorical elements gradually reveal themselves to the curious, amplifies the whole environment’s ancestral, folkloric, magical aura. The gallery space is hushed, gently lit; entering it feels like stumbling upon a coven, as though you’ve interrupted a ceremony—an effect heightened by the monumental figures being arranged in a circle around a huge mandala of found and inherited talismans at their center. But the pageant of parts, patterns, hand-stitching, otherworldly faces, and outstretched hands conveys a benevolent presence of strength, and the invitation to explore is warmly extended. In the lovingly tactile, labor-intensive, intuitive and intentional craftsmanship of Lewis’ sculpture we meet not only an account of her personal and family legacy, but we encounter the towering majesty available to those who understand and embrace their past and its power. On view in Melrose Hill through March 29: davidzwirner.com. —SND

Tau Lewis, The Handle of the Axe, 2024; The Last Transmission, 2024 (Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery)

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