Three Artists in a Tortured Love Affair with Los Angeles

In a group exhibition with a trio of subtitles, contemporary artists Glenn Barr, devNgosha, and William Wray take stock of the state of their city with various styles and media. Considered as a whole, a picture emerges—of a city at once glittery and grim, full of promise, allure, and problems.

“Glitterland,” a play on Hollywood’s moniker “Tinseltown,” is the title given to Glenn Barr’s suite of moody paintings and sketches of glamorous women. His first showing at the gallery, this suite of compositions is inspired by ’60s and ’70s cult films. Painted expressively, and in muted tones, the perfectly coiffed and made-up female protagonists are captured in the middle of phone conversations. We can only imagine who might be on the other end of the line by the looks on their faces, which range from subdued to pained, and suggest a complex inner life beyond their masks of perfection.

William Wray, who grew up seeing aspiring actors and models dressed as pop culture icons lining Hollywood Boulevard, also tries to dig beneath the surface of his subjects. In his paintings, here titled in “Fortress L.A.,” he focuses on revealing the struggle and exhaustion in the human beings behind the costumes. His canvases are filled with slumped superheroes and lonely princesses—real people in what the artist calls “their unguarded moments.”