As a curator who has done big group exhibitions, like the Hammer Museum’s Made in LA biennial, Aram Moshayedi is used to spending at least two or three years organising an exhibition. This time, he did it in three weeks.
Soon after the wildfires tore through Altadena and Pacific Palisades, he issued an open invitation to visual artists and other creatives directly impacted to each contribute one work to a pop-up show. More than 80 chose to participate, from emerging artists who just graduated from college to internationally known figures such as Diana Thater and Paul McCarthy, both of whom lost their homes in Altadena.
The exhibition’s title, One Hundred Percent, is a nod to its business model: all proceeds will go directly to the artist, with Moshayedi’s team working on a volunteer basis, taking nothing and charging nothing. The show will take place at 619 N Western Avenue, across from David Zwirner gallery, 14-22 February, so it overlaps with the Frieze Los Angeles fair.
J. Bradley Greer, Bob and Marilyn, 2024 Courtesy of the artist
The opening, Thursday evening (13 February), promises to be one of the first big art-world gatherings after the fires. “I think there will be a lot of emotions,” says Moshayedi. “It’s a convergence of people who have been affected either directly or indirectly by the fires and will hopefully offer an opportunity for some kind of release.”
Expect a wide variety of works, from ceramics that survived in some form because the medium could withstand the extreme heat of the fire to new work made for this occasion. One young artist, Jeffrey Sugishita, is showing a photograph he made of himself standing amid the still-smouldering ruins of his home, wearing all black except for a helmet fashioned from flowers. Prices will range from $50 to $30,000.
Moshayedi, who is the interim chief curator at the Hammer Museum but developed this project independently, has worked with a few of the participating artists before, including Kelly Akashi, Kathryn Andrews, Asher Hartman, McCarthy, Jon Polypchuk and Analia Saban. He had the idea for the show after realising how many artists were devastated by the wildfires that he did not know at all.
Kira Hawkins, Hate It, 2024 Courtesy of the artist
“As soon as the fires started, I started collecting PDFs of available works by artists I knew to send around to collectors, donors, board members and others I thought who I thought might be able to buy work in that moment of need,” he says. “But I realised there were a lot more artists I didn’t know. I wanted to find a way to tap into that community of artists, who were anonymous to me, and lend whatever support and services I could as a curator.”
The art-world-friendly real estate broker Geoffrey Anenberg helped Moshayedi find a space to use on Western, across from Zwirner, that was most recently a furniture showroom. The curator then worked with the grassroots group Grief and Hope, which has been raising emergency relief funds for artists and art workers, to send out the open invite. His invite acknowledges the enormity of the loss for many and expresses a desire not to burden the participants. “Keeping in mind that your various capacities may be limited, the idea of what constitutes a contribution or participation is completely open-ended and at your discretion,” it says.
At press time, Moshayedi had collected over 60 of the 80-plus works and was busy installing. He has also secured a donation of sound equipment from Dublab that could be used for performance or live music, yet to be scheduled.
- One Hundred Percent, 14-22 February, 619 N Western Avenue, Los Angeles
