Ten Must-See Picks At 2016 LA Art Show, January 28 To 31

The Los Angeles Art Show at the LA Convention Center features over 200 international galleries. In no particular order, here are ten must-see picks, ranging from the historic to the modern.

Greg Escalante, used by permission

You may not have been able to see Banksy's Dismaland last summer, but the Littletopia section features works by Jeff Gillette who created installations at Banksy's "bemusement park."

Lisa Derrick

Incredibly strong and sexy paintings by Haleh Mashian at Red Pipe Gallery vibrate with layered intensity. By focusing on the natural world, Mashian creates deep, hypnotic, transcendent works that recall the lyrical mysticism of Walt Whitman and the eroticism of Georgia O'Keefe.

Lisa Derrick

Chicago's Galerie Fledermaus presents works on paper by artists including Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele. "Pater Noster" (above) is a page from Mucha's book "Le Pater," which the artist created from a perspective that combined Catholicism and occultism.

Lisa Derrick

Catherine Coan created a parlor of curiosities and strange beasts--all ethically sourced taxidermy--for a disturbingly elegant installation.

Lisa Derrick

For "Wilting Point," artist Millie Brown will spend every day the LA Art Show is open lying in a bed of flowers as they wilt and die. Prone in isolation and silence, subsisting only on water, Brown will focus on on the decomposing beauty around her and her evolving inner changes, entering a deeply meditative state while the public viewing this installation can use her durational art explore the concept of impermanence.

Lisa Derrick

In their booth, the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles showcases artists who have made L.A. the mural capital of the world. This mural, "The Modern Muralist" was created by Willie Herrón III, Evan Skrederstu, Steve Martinez, and Christopher Brand.

Leslie Lanxinger, a guest on "Modern Art Blitz," the weekly online art talk show program hosted by Mat Gleason (full disclosure, I am the co-host), works in charcoal to create haunting monochromatic portraits. For the LA Art Show, she is part of a portraiture exhibition hosted by the Los Angeles Art Association.

Lisa Derrick

It took artist Robert Burden approximately 2000 hours of studio time over an 18 month period to create his monumental mural, "The 20th Century Space Opera" (the above image is a detail of the painting). Burden worked on a single oversized canvas using traditional brushes and oil paints, drawing on decorative elements from Eastern mandalas, French tapestries, Gothic stained windows, illuminated manuscripts, and Moroccan and Persian rugs. The painting features images of over 150 Star Wars toys, primarily from the original trilogy.

Lisa Derrick

The Russian Icon Shop showcases long standing pop stars: God, his mom, the saints and the archangels. The entire booth is devoted to antique Russian religious icons that range from small personal icons mounted in silver cases to larger scale pieces, all of which are at least a century old.

Lisa Derrick

Fittingly, Robert Williams, the co-founder of Juxapoz Magazine, is featured in the Littletopia section of the LA Art Show. Williams' exquisitely executed subject matter--he is a master draftsman with mad painterly skills--and love of history and pop culture ushered in a new movement, Low Brow (now commonly known as Pop Surrealism), which spread from Southern California across the globe, and which is the focus of the LA Art Show's Littletopia area. On Thursday, January 28, Williams will be honored by the LA Art Show with a Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by a party on historic Chinatown's gallery walk street Chung King Road.