An explosion of art along L.A.’s newest arts corridor—Western
As recently as 2019, the intersection of Melrose and Western avenues was a sleepy blend of discount furniture stores and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, sprinkled with too many vacancies.
Cut to 2025 and the area around the once moribund intersection has exploded, filled with people enjoying the varied eateries, new retail and commercial businesses and possibly the largest concentration of galleries in Los Angeles, many with stunning wood bow-truss ceilings.
From those with an international presence to homegrown galleries, it’s time to take a walk along L.A.’s newest arts corridor.
Fernberger, 747 N. Western Ave.: Gallerist Emma Fernberger, who established her gallery in January 2024, has found her represented artists in unusual ways. She explains that she signed an artist after she “saw a painting in the background of a Zoom call.” The gallery focuses on intergenerational and overlooked artists, particularly women artists. Showing now through June is “3 a.m.,” Greta Waller’s sensitive paintings of ephemeral subjects, which include melting ice cubes.
OMBRE ICE by Greta Waller. Courtesy of the artist and Fernberger
Southern Guild, 747 N. Western Ave., which is based in Capetown, South Africa and Los Angeles, presents contemporary art and collectible design from Africa and its diaspora. For Pride Month in June, they have two exhibits: “Faces and Phases 19”—photographer Zanele Muholi’s 19-year journey to document those in the Black LGBTQAI+ community; and “In Us is Heaven,” a group show of 17 artists.
Tiara Kelly, Los Angeles, 2024 by Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist and Southern Guild.
Hannah Hoffman, 725 N. Western Ave., Suite 105, (in addition to a larger space in MacArthur Park), is tucked into a gated courtyard, along with high-end furniture and clothing stores. Those who buzz to enter will find a tiny gallery whose purpose is to concentrate the viewer’s attention on just a few works of art. The gallery represents over 25 artists, with an emphasis on the estates of women artists who hadn’t earned the acclaim they deserved.
DINERS, 2023-2025, by Hannah Lee.
Courtesy of the artist and James Fuentes LLC
Rele, 711 N. Western Ave., also has galleries in London, England and Lagos, Nigeria. In Los Angeles, the current exhibits address memory and the emotional connection to home.
EARL’S COURT by Alan Lynch. Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Chateau Shatto
James Fuentes, 5015 Melrose Ave., one block west of Western, also has a 17-year-old gallery in New York. Representing 21 artists, the gallery specializes in rediscovering major artists and in diverse, out-of-the-mainstream art. Hannah Lee’s hyperrealist paintings of intimate and dreamlike interior scenes will go on view Sat., June 7.
PINK PANTHER in “Butter Butter Butter Butter Butter” (2024) by Katherine Bernhardt. Courtesy the artist, David Zwirner and Canada
Moran Moran, 641 N. Western Ave., specializes in emerging and mid-career artists and encourages artists to collaborate on creating work together. Through Sat., July 5, the exhibit “Play” showcases the work of 24 artists.
Wilding Cran Gallery, 607 Western Ave., is the newest art space on the street, having opened March 1. Gallerist Naomi deLuce Wilding chose to locate the gallery on Western because, “It’s great to be on a vibrant street.” She adds, “We’re most interested in L.A.-based emerging artists.” Filling the gallery May 31-July 5 will be “Night Lights,” long-exposure photographic images by Austin Irving, which deLuce Wilding explains, “transforms ceilings and walls into luminous records of insomnia, jet lag and circadian disruption.”
David Zwirner, 606 N. Western Ave., is the largest and most well-established of the galleries in the neighborhood, with a 30-year history; galleries here and in New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong; and a roster of over 80 artists including art world heavy-hitters Yayoi Kusama, Ruth Asawa, Richard Serra and Gerhard Richter. On view in the three adjacent gallery buildings through Sat., June 14 is “Sidewalk Chalk,” by Katherine Bernhardt, large canvases depicting a fun-house version of her childhood toys and obsessions. Through Sat., June 21, is “Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited.” The exhibition recreates the singular artist’s 1972 posthumous photographic retrospective.
Chateau Shatto, 540 N. Western Ave. represents 14 idiosyncratic artists, one of whom, Alan Lynch, has the solo show “Surface of this Teardrop World” in June. Lynch withdrew from the art world in the 1950s. Although he continued to paint in private, he studied Buddhism and became an ordained monk. Gallery cofounder Olivia Barrett is happy to rediscover and present the artist’s oil paintings and watercolors.
C L E A R I N G, 530 N. Western Ave., also has a New York gallery. The Los Angeles gallery is showing “Rome is no longer in rome,” an exhibition of jewel-toned energetic figurative paintings by Henry Curchod, a young California-born artist of Iranian descent.
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