COUNTERPROGRAMMING: ARTS CALENDAR FEBRUARY 10-16

An art fair road trip to Palm Springs, interdisciplinary conversations and films for Black History Month, dance for the camera, cheerful misanthropy for Valentine’s, multimedia feminist mythology, experimental cinema, conceptual melodrama, the first of the imminent art fairs, and a host of galleries opening anticipated shows fit for the thousands of local and international culture seekers arriving for Frieze Week. Speaking of which, get ready steady now if you plan on attending the marquee art fairs rolling through town next week: Spring/Break starts Wednesday, while poolside Felix and Westside Frieze Los Angeles officially begin Thursday.

Thursday, February 10

Intersect Palm Springs at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The return to in-person iteration of the always-lively Intersect Palm Springs will feature 50 emerging and established contemporary and modern art and design galleries, offering an eclectic range of contemporary work across all mediums, as well as a sculpture spotlight, three special curated exhibitions digging deeper into the unique history and new generations of regional art and ideas, a series of group and individual conversations and tours, and a whole universe of off-site satellite and collateral exhibitions, programs and events. Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs; Opening night: Thursday, February 10, 5-9pm; Fair hours and programs continue through Sunday, February 13; $25-$100; intersectpalmsprings.com.

Intersecting Identities at Gallery Arushi. Curated by Arushi Kapoor and Tina Tangalakis, the show investigates a shared experience beyond physical boundaries. Through different mediums, textures and techniques, the show juxtaposes the works of 12 international artists to showcase their unique identities as influenced by environments across the global African diaspora: Annan Affotey, Glenn Hardy, Tosin Kalejaye, Victor Ubah, Adulphina Imuede, Jupiter Lockett, Clarence James, Rufai Zakari, Michelle Okpare, Chiderah Bosah, Ametefe Kukubor and Idris Habib. 1243 W. Temple St., Angelino Heights; Opening reception: February 10th, 6-10 pm; on view through March 15; free; instagram.com/arushigallery.

Jimmie Allen with Wayne Brady at the Grammy Museum. Current Grammy nominee for Best New Artist, Jimmie Allen in an intimate conversation on his rising career followed by a performance. Multi-platinum recording artist and songwriter Jimmie Allen has been blazing trails since the beginning of his breakout career. In July 2020, Allen released his collaboration project Bettie James that garnered critical acclaim for the music and its subsequent place in country music history. The conversation will be moderated by Emmy award-winning actor, producer and musician Wayne Brady. L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown; Thursday, February 10, 7:30pm; $25; universe.com.

Friday, February 11

100 Years From Mississippi at Caltech Movies that Matter (Virtual). 100 Years From Mississippi is a true story of resilience, forgiveness, memory, and hope. Mamie Lang Kirkland still remembers the night in 1915 when panic filled her home in Ellisville, Mississippi. Her family was forced to flee in darkness from a growing mob of men determined to lynch her father and his friend. Mamie vowed to never return to Mississippi—until now. After 100 years, Mamie’s youngest child, filmmaker, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, takes his mother back to Ellisville to tell her story, honor those who succumbed to the terror of racial violence, and give testimony to the courage and hope epitomized by many of her generation. Friday, February 11, 7:30pm; free; events.caltech.edu.

Saturday, February 12

Linda Besemer: StrokeRollFoldSheetSlabGlitch at the Kleefeld Contemporary. This exhibition emphasizes Besemer’s ongoing commitment to exploring alterity through conscious “othering” of abstraction and reflects upon the artist’s search for new meaning in painting over the past 35 years. Surveying 23 works produced between 1993–2021, the exhibition showcases key moments in Besemer’s career, taking visitors on a journey through the evolution of their practice, starting with early traditional gestural abstraction and culminating with their most recent glitch series. CalState Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach; February 12 – June 25; free; csulb.edu.

Dimitris Papaioannou: NOWHERE at CAP UCLA (Virtual). Papaioannou gained early recognition as a painter and comic illustrator before his focus shifted to the performing arts as a director, choreographer, performer and a designer of sets, costumes, makeup and lighting. NOWHERE was conceived as a site-specific project, where the space itself was choreographed by programming new stage mechanisms. A group of humans confront the spatial challenges created, measuring space with their bodies. A meditation on the very nature of theater, NOWHERE explores the concept of performance as a machine that mirrors human life. Saturday, February 12, 7pm; free; cap.ucla.edu.

Roya Farassat: Rendezvous at Hamzianpour & Kia. An exhibition of new works on paper that furthers the artist’s ongoing exploration of heteronormative sexual politics, Rendezvous reflects on what Farassat describes as “relationships of convenience,” romance that is more of a practical agreement than a bond of trust. This series of macabre, satirical portraits draw from the artist’s personal observations of gender performance. In each portrait, gender is exaggerated in a manner that makes desire legible, highlighting the masquerade necessary to make relationships of convenience workable without intimacy. 5225 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile; Opening reception: Saturday, February 12, 5-9pm; On view through March 12; free; hamzianpourandkia.com.

Sunday, February 13

Sheila Darcey: Sketch by Sketch: A Creative Path to Emotional Healing and Transformation at Diesel Bookstore (Outdoor). Sketch by Sketch will help anyone create a daily sketching practice that shifts them from negative thinking and spiraling emotions into the realm of possibility. Using art to connect the left brain and right brain, we can unlock our basic human need to create, express, and feel — regardless of whether we think of ourselves as artistic. As Darcey writes: “there is no need for training in the arts or for any artistic ‘talent.’ We are all creators.” 225 26th St., Santa Monica; Sunday, February 13, 2pm; free; dieselbookstore.com.

Monday, February 14

Candidates for Humanity at REDCAT (Live & Virtual). A miscellany of shorts ranging from obscure internet musings to institutional cartoons to experimental documentary to musical numbers, this program offers a meditation on the probationary and pending, acting and reflecting on the comedy of the “appeal” — a qualification to prove a bona fide existence to an authority. An appeal for what? To humanity, to comedy, to basic existence within our own bodies, within country lines. An appeal to whom? To our real community: to those who see us and know us, to those who don’t, to those who put us in danger. 631 W. 2nd St., downtown; Monday, February 14, 8:30pm; $10-$12; redcat.org.

Tuesday, February 15

Flux, Spring 2022 at the Hammer. The Flux screening series brings the creative community together to celebrate outstanding short films and music videos from around the globe, with wildly inventive filmmaker presentations and performances — so radical they’ve yet to announce the program. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Tuesday, February 15, 7:30pm; free; hammer.ucla.edu.

Four Poems: Korean Abstraction at Helen J. Gallery. A group exhibition bringing together works by four renowned South-Korean artists: Oh Sufan, Park Seo-bo, Shim Moon-seup, and Yeesookyung. Curated by veteran Asian art curator Sunhee Kim, this museum-scale exhibition offers a unique look at the ongoing dialogue between tradition and abstraction in Korean contemporary art. Alluding each artist’s practice to a poem, Four Poems celebrates each artist’s innovative approach to art-making and their remarkable contribution to art history. Coinciding with Frieze Los Angeles 2022, the exhibition provides a glimpse of the robust art scene in Korea prior to the inaugural Frieze Seoul in September. 929 Cole Ave., Hollywood; Opening reception: Wednesday, February 15, 4-8pm; On view through March 5; free; helenjgallery.com.

Wednesday, February 16

SPRING/BREAK Art Show at Skylight Culver City. An internationally recognized exhibition platform using underused, atypical and historic exhibition spaces to activate and challenge the traditional cultural landscape of the art market, the show offers both known and unknown artists a no-cost exhibition space, where they can showcase their visionary perspectives under a unifying theme. This year’s Los Angeles Art Show curatorial theme is HEARSAY:HERESY and promises to maintain its reputation as the wildest and arguably most memorable, experimental and experiential of the Frieze Week fair cluster. 5880 Adams Blvd., Culver City; Wednesday, February 16 – Sunday, February 20; $30-$150;  springbreakartshow.com.

Trulee Hall: Ladies’ Lair Lake at LAND. An uncompromising experience brought to life through video, sculpture, painting,and installation, Ladies’ Lair Lake narrates a creation myth that begins not with man but with woman. The installation explores themes of disobedience and loss of innocence; the clash between patriarchal religion and matriarchal goddess worship; the complexities and loss of autonomy that accompany motherhood; and the interplay of free will and fate, of human desire and divine intervention. The mythological narrative takes place in an edenic forest setting, using a variety of techniques and mediums including CGI, claymation, video, live action, painted sets, costumes, makeup and original music. 530 N. Western Ave., East Hollywood; Opening reception: Wednesday, February 16, 6-9pm; On view through March 27; free; nomadicdivision.org.

Enrique Martínez Celaya: The Rose Garden at UTA Artist Space. A new immersive environment by Martínez Celaya brings together new paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, garments and writing, inviting viewers to consider the self — both its promise and its threat — through the mystical divination of memory. Immersive environments, including a room of tears overlooked by a blood moon, photographs of gardens and bodies, a burnt figure on a seat of roses, a garment worn by love champions, and many other luminous moments mined from life are concerned with existential hunger, crisis, chaos, order, time, redemption, reality, and love. 403 Foothill Rd., Beverly Hills; Opening reception: Wednesday, February 16, 6-8pm; On view through March 12; free; utaartistspace.com.

Raqib Shaw: Tales from an Urban Garden presented by Jeffrey Deitch at The Little House. Tales from an Urban Garden brings the enchanted world of Raqib Shaw’s London studio garden to Dries Van Noten Los Angeles. Inspired by his memory of his mother’s garden in Kashmir, where he grew up, Raqib Shaw transformed the concrete parking lot adjacent to his South London studio into “a world in miniature that could be magnified on canvas… a perfect theatre setting for my paintings where my life is re-enacted and recorded.” His opulent and astonishingly detailed paintings transport the viewer into the artist’s world. 451 N. La Cienega Blvd, WeHo: February 16 – March 26; free; deitch.com.