‘What Builds’, a 2026 Durden and Ray Fellows Exhibition
Opening reception:
7-10 p.m. Saturday,
June 6, 2026
Run of show:
June 6 - July 11, 2026
Hours: Saturdays, noon-5 p.m.
Closes: July 11, 2026
Artists: Luis G. Hernandez, Ben Jackel, Brian Thomas Jones, Alanna Marcelletti, Carolyn Mason, Christopher Mercier, Nano Rubio, Jesse Standlea
Durden and Ray are pleased to present the 2026 Fellows exhibition, What Builds, which centers work from eight emeritus members of the collective, who continue to support this dynamic community. Working across the fluid boundaries of sculpture, painting, and drawing these artists mine both the political and geological strata of Southern California as they layer material and imagery to better unearth how structures around us both foster and frustrate growth.
Throughout the gallery, a tension persists between rigid supporting systems and the unruly, oozing energy of the materials and ideas they attempt to contain. For some, the constructions on which matter hangs seem up for the challenge, relying on a symbiotic relationship of shared goals and bottom-up support while in others, it’s a matter of time before gravity’s endless pull reduces the tower to a pile. There is strength in numbers, not because of simple arithmetic but because accumulation creates weight and energy, compacting many into one, forming strong foundations on which we can build a more liberated, manifold future.
Durden and Ray Fellows are respected former members of our collective who continue to be affiliated with us, and work to keep our collective strong
Unstable Tongues
Opening Reception
Saturday, May 2, 7-10 pm
Show runs through May 23, 2026
Curators:
Dena Novak, Jenny Hager, Valerie Wilcox
Artists:
Nick Aguayo, Xixi Edelsbrunner, Flower Arrangement, Jenny Hager,
Michael Harnish, Benjamin Heiken, Agnes Hong, David Lloyd,
Sara Mehrinfar, Dena Novak, Max Presneill, Levon Riggins, Valerie Wilcox
Unstable Tongues: The Instability of Language examines abstraction as a living linguistic system—one that fractures, reformulates, and resists clarity. The exhibition brings together artists who use gesture, surface, and structure as communicative tools, exploring how meaning emerges from instability rather than coherence.
Grounded in Jacques Derrida’s concept of différance, the exhibition approaches language as a perpetual act of deferral—never fixed, always in motion. Roland Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text and Jorge Luis Borges’ The Library of Babel further frame this instability as fertile terrain for visual and emotional meaning. The works in Unstable Tongues do not illustrate theory; they perform it. Through layering, erasure, and transformation, they articulate the limits of language and reveal the material body as a site of communication.
The exhibition proposes that abstraction is not silence but a language of its own—physical, fragmented, and sensorial. Meaning here is built through gesture, through repetition, and through the pleasure of disintegration.
Gallery hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm, and by appointment
Bendix Bldg: 1206 Maple Ave #832, 8th flr, Los Angeles, CA 90015
‘UNSEATED’
The Chair as Metaphor
Opening reception:
7-10 p.m. Saturday,
March 21, 2026
Run of show:
March 21 - April 18, 2026
Hours: Saturdays, noon-5 p.m.
Closes: April 18, 2026
Curated by Atilio Pernisco
Artists: Marinés Adrianza, Fiona Baler & Pablo Baler, Mariano Cinat, Gioj De Marco, Meghan DeRoma, Stanley Edmondson, Regina Herod, Pablo Holocwan, Carmine Iannaccone, Ben Jackel, Raghubir Kintisch, Keith Lord, Eva Malhotra, Krishna Rajendra Malhotra, Barry Markowitz, Carolie Parker, Arnie Saiki, Diane Silver, Ruth Trotter, HK Zamani
Durden and Ray presents UNSEATED: The Chair as a Metaphor which explores the web of symbols generated by one of our most familiar objects: the chair. This exhibit invites the visitor to engage with the chair not merely as a piece of furniture, but as a metaphor at the center of human experience. Inspired by works such as Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Chairs, this exhibition examines how language, representation, and embodied interactions converge to imbue this ubiquitous object with unexpected meanings.
UNSEATED features 20 contemporary artists working in various media: sculpture, installation, photography, and painting, selected for their innovative approaches to the theme while ensuring a cohesive yet diverse exploration. Included are unique reinterpretations of a physical and emotional relationship with space, isolation and connection, instability, balance, fragility, and transformation.
By positioning the chair as a lens through which these skeins of narratives are explored, UNSEATED invites you to consider broader socio-political, cultural, and historical contexts that bring to the fore personal and collective questions of identity, power, and belonging.
TIEZE!
2/14-3/8
1206 Maple Ave #832, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Soft opening:
7-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026
Opening reception in conjunction with Bendix Building openings:
7-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026
Open hours:
Saturdays noon-5 p.m.
Closes: March 8, 2026
Organized by Arezoo Bharthania, Reed van Brunschot, Dani Dodge, Max Presneill and Curtis Stage.
Featuring:
Ismael de Anda III with Eugene Ahn, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, Arezoo Bharthania, Jorin Bossen, Reed van Brunschot, Gul Cagin, Sijia Chen, Joe Davidson, Dani Dodge, Vita Eruhimovitz, Jenny Hager, David Leapman, Atilio Pernisco, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Hagop Najarian, Ty Pownall, Max Presneill, Dylan Ricards, Stephanie Sherwood, Curtis Stage, Valerie Wilcox, and Steven Wolkoff.
While February may be all about the prestigious Frieze Art Fair in Los Angeles for some, Durden and Ray is making its annual play on that idea with TIEZE. TIEZE features the Durden and Ray artists and shows what working artist curators are creating in the City of Angels.
Founded in 2009, Durden and Ray is made up of artist/curators who work together to create tightly curated exhibitions at their downtown Los Angeles gallery as well as in concert with artist groups and galleries around the world. The shows are organized by the members, and host international artists as part of a commitment to global exchange and alternative networks. The members share in the fiscal support of its programs to further the influence of art, here and abroad. The annual TIEZE show is the only show each year dedicated to highlighting the Durden and Ray artists’ work as a group.
Chlorophilia
Exploring the importance of the green hue.
Chlorophilia is an exhibition that explores the complexities of green and the spectrum of colors that relate to it. From the moment we are born we engage with greenness and learn about the natural world around us. Green calms with a freshness and vitality that reminds us we are alive and is often the first sign of life.
The show is curated by Alexandra Baraitser and David Leapman
Artists: Nick Aguayo, Alexandra Baraitser, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, Trevor Burgess, Simon Callery, Clem Crosby, David Leapman, Heather Gwen Martin, Ty Pownall, Jane Pryor, Evan Thomas, and Steven Wolkoff
Opening reception: 7-10 p.m. Saturday, January 10, 2026
Run of show: January 10 - February 1, 2026
Hours: Saturdays, noon-5 p.m.
Closes: February 1, 2026
More about the show: The pigment chlorophyll is essential to photosynthesis, the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water. It is this extraordinary science (the miraculous process of photosynthesis, plus the beauty of the tint and the aura of green that is the focal point for the artists here.
Chlorophilia brings together a group of artists who present a new perspective of their relationship with the green hue. From Heather Gwen Martin’s powerful greens to the nebulous opacity of greens dominating Evan Thomas’s abstracts, the contemporary artists in this show explore their own version of green, embracing all its attributes good and evil. After the uncertainty of Covid lockdowns, green can speak to us in reassuring tones of hope and peace. Indeed green is symbolic of stability, endurance and growth, and through the harnessing and utilization of green the artists can demonstrate that this color is worth celebrating.
Image: Jane Pryor, Green Room, Phthalo 4, 2025, oil on linen, 12x16 inches