PRESENTATION:California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version)

“California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version)” brings together a distinguished group of artists whose practices reflect the vitality and diversity of Los Angeles’s contemporary art scene. Rather than revisiting the historic Light and Space movement, the exhibition examines how the city’s unique geography, atmosphere, and cultural landscape continue to shape artistic production in the twenty-first century. Borrowing the concept of terroir from viticulture—the idea that a particular environment gives a product its distinctive identity—the exhibition explores how Los Angeles imparts an unmistakable sense of place to the work created there.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive

Long associated with the pioneering Light and Space artists of the 1960s and 1970s, whose investigations of perception relied on industrial materials, immaculate surfaces, and optical effects, Los Angeles remains a city where light itself functions as both subject and medium. Nestled within a basin framed by the Santa Monica, Santa Ana, and San Gabriel Mountains and bordered by the Pacific Ocean, the city’s exceptional environmental conditions continue to inspire artists working across painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and mixed media.

Together, the participating artists offer a multifaceted portrait of Los Angeles, revealing its neighborhoods, histories, communities, and constantly shifting light through deeply personal and locally grounded practices.

EJ Hill’s “just let the flowers bloom (for Baldwin Hills)” transforms the annual Southern California wildflower bloom into a powerful meditation on resilience and renewal. Set against the sprawling urban landscape of Los Angeles, the paintings feature luminous clouds and floral forms rendered in the artist’s signature pink alongside vivid oranges, blues, greens, and purples. Created during periods of mourning and personal reflection, the works channel grief into expressions of hope, transcendence, and liberation.

Noah Davis’s “Pueblo del Rio: Prelude” (2014) belongs to a series inspired by the historic Pueblo del Rio housing community in South Los Angeles. Designed in 1941 by architects including Richard Neutra and Paul Williams, the development represented an ambitious vision for public housing. For Davis, it also embodied the transformative potential of art, culture, and performance within working-class communities, making the paintings both historical reflections and celebrations of collective life.

Lauren Halsey’s “LODA PLAZA III”, from her ongoing “plaza sign “series initiated in 2024, celebrates the visual language of Black- and Brown-owned businesses in South Central Los Angeles. Combining hand-painted signage, vernacular typography, neighborhood iconography, and references to Black beauty culture, ancient Egyptian imagery, and everyday urban objects, Halsey creates vibrant compositions that function as monuments to community memory and cultural identity.

In Catherine Opie’s “Hollywood Blvd. (Moon and Sunrise)” (2026), the artist photographs the changing skies above Hollywood Boulevard from her apartment balcony. The resulting images capture subtle transitions of light across dawn and dusk, transforming the familiar Los Angeles skyline into luminous fields of shifting colour. These atmospheric photographs continue Opie’s longstanding engagement with landscape while offering a contemporary meditation on the city’s defining quality: its extraordinary light.

Although the original Light and Space movement explored perception through minimalist forms and optical phenomena, the artists assembled here approach place from a markedly different perspective. Their work is deeply embedded in the everyday realities of Los Angeles, embracing its cultural diversity, urban complexity, and social histories. Smog-filtered sunsets, expansive freeways, residential neighborhoods, and Pacific coastlines become recurring motifs through which a distinctly contemporary sense of place emerges.

Manuel López paints intimate portraits of East and South Los Angeles by carefully observing the streets, buildings, and interiors that define his daily environment. His compositions often merge multiple viewpoints gathered while driving through the city, producing layered spatial experiences that reflect both movement and memory. Through these carefully constructed perspectives, López reveals the architectural rhythms and lived textures that give Los Angeles its unique visual identity.

Lari Pittman’s “The Remedy of Analog Space & Time” (2025) exemplifies the artist’s highly detailed and meticulously crafted approach to painting. Working without preparatory sketches, Pittman constructs densely layered compositions that combine corporate logos, bold typography, botanical imagery, psychedelic motifs, and references to popular culture, Mexican folk traditions, and modern design. Despite their visual complexity, the paintings remain firmly rooted in Southern California, capturing the exuberance, contradictions, and creative energy that define everyday life in Los Angeles.

“California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version)” demonstrates how a new generation of artists has reimagined the legacy of the historic Light and Space movement. Rather than focusing exclusively on perception and formal experimentation, these artists investigate identity, community, memory, and landscape, revealing how the physical and cultural environment of Los Angeles continues to shape contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition presents the city not simply as a backdrop, but as an active force whose light, geography, and social fabric remain inseparable from the art it inspires.

Participating Artists: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Sonia Boyajian, Noah Davis, rafa esparza, Jennifer Guidi, Lauren Halsey, EJ Hill, Thomas Houseago, Manuel López, Rodney McMillian, Mr. Wash, Catherine Opie, Hilary Pecis, Lari Pittman, Jason Rhoades, Cauleen Smith, and Lily Stockman

Photo: Sonia Boyajian, Tray of Organic Hot Dogs; Pitcher with Dixie Cups & Lemons; Fruit Bowl with Linen; Weiner Dog & Organic Hot Dogs; Guacamole & Chips with Linen & Dixie Cup; Flower Trio; Eggs with Linen; Blue Cheese & Little Bird; Gouda, Brie, & Mouse; Bread & Butter; Raspberry Cake with Linen & Flowers; Basket of Legumes; Brie with Utensils and Linen; Bird Totem, Cheddar Cheese and Linen; Golden State Set; Cat & Mouse; Champignons, Cheese & Bread; Trout with Scallions & Meyer Lemons; Tulips with Fruit Plate; Navel Orange, Blueberries, Tea Bag with Spoon & Cup; Bunny with Carrot; Pug with Bowls; iPad & Navel Oranges; The Wind Chime Table Cloth with Leg Cozy, 2026, Linen, table, porcelain, terracotta, earthenware, and stoneware with multicolor glaze and silver, gold, and mother of pearl lusters, Overall: 41 1/2 x 91 x 74 inches (105.4 x 231.1 x 188 cm), © Sonia Boyajian, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Info: Curator: Helen Molesworth, David Zwirner Gallery, 606 N Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Duration: 4/6-1/8/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com/