COS and Margaret Qualley celebrate L.A. Dance Project's L.A. Dances

Over the weekend, COS partnered with LA Dance Project on the launch of their Fall festival “L.A. Dances”, celebrating the future of dance in LA. The evening started with a showcase of three performances from the festival at the LADP Theater in Downtown LA. One of these pieces – “Adagio in B Minor” - was choreographed by LADP principal dancer Janie Taylor, and featured costumes by COS. The performances were followed by an after party “L’After”, hosted by LADP’s Creative Director/Founder Benjamin Millepied and actress Margaret Qualley. Photos by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for COS

Autre Magazine Celebrates Its Sixth Issue At Hotel Figueroa In Downtown Los Angeles

Autre magazine celebrated its new issue at the newly redesigned Hotel Figueroa in Downtown Los Angeles. The evening began with a four-course supper by chef Casey Lane at the hotel’s restaurant Breva, which was followed by a soiree by the pool at Rick’s. Madre Mezcal provided libations throughout the night. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Sexy Beast: Bid On Over 40 Works Of Contemporary Art To Support Planned Parenthood Los Angeles

Sexy Beast is a celebratory evening of contemporary art, revelry and performance in support of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA). Bid on works by masters like Robert Mapplethorpe, Barbara Kruger, and Ed Ruscha to support PPLA’s life-saving reproductive health services to 150,000 patients annually. You can bid on works here. There will also be an event to celebrate the auction at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Purchase tickets here. above work by Josh Kline

A Sneak Peek At Cindy Sherman's Major Survey Exhibition "Imitation of Life" @ The Broad Museum in Los Angeles

Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life is the first major museum show of Sherman’s work in Los Angeles in nearly 20 years, and the exhibition will fill The Broad’s first-floor galleries with more than 100 works drawn primarily from the Broad collection. “Cindy Sherman’s work has been a touchstone for the Broad collection since Eli and Edye Broad first encountered it in 1982, and Cindy is the only artist in the collection whose work we’ve acquired so deeply and regularly, for more than 30 years,” said Joanne Heyler, founding director of The Broad. “There are 125 Cindy Sherman photographs in the Broad collection, the largest holding of her work in the world, and inaugurating our special exhibitions with an artist whose work sparked the Broads’ deep commitment to contemporary art could not be more appropriate for us." Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life will open on June 11 and run until October 2, 2016 at The Broad Museum, 221 S. Grand Ave. Downtown Los Angeles, CA. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

James Georgopoulos "The Earth Is Flat" @ MAMA Gallery In Los Angeles

MAMA Gallery presents The Earth Is Flat, James Georgopoulos’ second solo exhibition at the gallery. Buoyed by four new video sculptures that the artist created out of found, fabricated, and handmade materials, The Earth Is Flat is an interrogation of artificial intelligence (AI) and the values and hazards implicit to autonomous computing. The artist‘s four sculptures themselves are superficially interconnected to insinuate that technology has inculcated itself as an indissoluble event in human history. James Georgopoulos "The Earth Is Flat" will be on view until June 11, 2016 at MAMA Gallery, 1242 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles, CA. 

Stoned Immaculate: Read Our Interview With Azalea Lee, A Minimalist Crystal Healer Who Makes Metaphysical Fine Jewelry →

Speaking to Azalea Lee is like talking to that wise aunt who has all those otherworldly insights that she wraps in easily accessible metaphors so that you don’t have to work too hard to arrive at the answers. Whether you actually have that aunt, or you always wished you had that aunt, when you walk into her crystal shop, you immediately feel that sense of comfort and familiarity. Her space is in an old building in the fashion district of Downtown Los Angeles. There’s a weird old elevator that you take to the 9th floor, walk down a short dark hallway, ring the bell and the door opens to a bright, white room with a sweeping landscape of the city and a friendly woman who asks you to take off your shoes. Entering Place 8 Healing is like walking through the pearly gates in a dream where you know you’re not dead, and this isn’t eternity, but somehow you feel lighter and more at ease. There’s a cubby station next to the door with a cushion that you can sit on where we eventually held the interview. She explains that we spend so much time wearing shoes and clothes that we lose our grounding; that removing that barrier between our feet and the ground is an essential part of rooting ourselves with the Earth. Click here to read more. 

8 EZ Steps by Gusmano Cesaretti at These Days in Downtown Los Angeles

"Eight pinups in a portfolio laced with perfume. Wallet-sized: a barber's New Year's gift slipped into the hands of loyal customers. The secret currencies of men in suits. The kid searches his father's jacket pocket for the prize. Any thumbnail memento promises to make real his world of fantasy. He smells the perfume. In his studio, an artist photographs a friend. The photographs are transferred to screen prints. Her body is abstracted in close-up, her figure fractured by halftone dots. Glossiness is displaced by the rough grain of uncoated paper. A fuzzy sensation becomes direct. The coy touch gets confrontational. Gratification becomes something less certain. As the kid finds pleasure in obscenity, the artist finds it in disorientation and dissonance. They agree on the urge. Peeking and seeing are two different acts, but no one should refuse the right to look. Satisfaction only takes a few steps." A poem by Sam Sweet. 

These never-before-displayed photographs by Italian-born Los Angeles photographer Gusmano Cesaretti represent a departure from the gritty, black-and-white documentary pictures and portraits of Los Angeles subcultures for which he is mainly known. By contrast, this 1979 series delves into the artist’s experiments in abstraction and eroticism. Cesaretti took a progressive series of eight tightly cropped black & white photographs of a woman shaving her pubic hair. He made traditional silver gelatin prints which were then turned into high contrast half tones eliminating any grey scale from the images and rendering them purely in black and white. He furthered the mutation by running the halftones through a mid-70s photocopy machine and adding only the color red or green to the images. The result was a combination of pop art and abstraction, producing a voyeuristic view of an intimate, yet anonymous, grooming ritual. Gusmano Cesaretti "8 EZ Steps" will be on view until January 17, 2016 at These Days in Los Angeles. You can also purchase a monograph of the works here. 

 

Autre Exclusively Debuts New Song From Kisses’ Upcoming Album That Comes With A Delicious Limited-Edition Plum Jam

photograph by John Michael Fulton

We’ve been following Los Angeles based pop duo Kisses for a long time. It’s a cliché thing to admit, but they have been a regular soundtrack to our life for the last five years – since their extremely cool and sexy debut album, The Heart of the Nightlife. Sexy is the perfect way to describe Kisses – it’s their name, but it’s also the sound. Combining Jesse Kivel’s nonchalant, vintage-hued timbre and lyrics of youthful abandon and Zinzi Edmundson’s disco-inspired instrumentation, Kisses make undeniable magic for your ears and the dance floor. So, it was beyond exciting when we were asked if we wanted to exclusively premier a track off their upcoming album, Rest In Paradise (out October 9th), which sees Kisses collaborating with a live backing band, Midnight Magic, for the first time. This move from synth to live composition makes the record literally levitate with a new kind of aural luminance that harkens back to early Talking Heads, Orange Juice or even The English Beat. Below, we offer the first listen of the incredible track, entitled “Jam.” In what may be a first, the band has collaborated with L.A. based preserves company and eatery Sqirl to create a custom-made plum jam for the debut of the track. Lead singer Kivel describes the track as “…a song best served with a piece of Chloe Sevigney "toe-ast" – which is why we paired with our friend Jessica at Sqirl to debut this song and a limited edition, literal jam. The tune takes you on a complex and flavorful journey, much like our tasty jam. Fun fact, Erika Spring adds some vocal harmonies on this tune.” This weekend, you can get a taste of this delicious jam and a taste of Kisses’ new album at a special listening party held at Formerly Yes in Downtown Los Angeles – you can RSVP here. The jam is also available for purchase with Hit City USA, the label that takes these tasty grooves from the studio, to your earbuds, and straight down to your dancing feet. Turn up your speakers and press play below. 

Alex Hubbard "Basic Perversions" At Maccarone Gallery's Brand New Complex In Los Angeles

Maccarone gallery presents “Basic Perversions,” an exhibition of new paintings by Alex Hubbard. Comprising eleven large-scale works in pigmented urethane, resin, and fiberglass, this exhibition inaugurates the gallery’s new 50,000 square foot West Coast complex at 300 South Mission Road in the Downtown L.A. Arts District. The exhibition also coincides with the release of the artist's first comprehensive monograph, entitled Eat Your Friends. "Basic Perversions" will be on view from September 19 until December 19, 2015 at Maccarone Gallery, 300 South Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper