California | 4 October 2012 - 8 February 2013

For its forthcoming exhibition, Charles Riva Collection will present the works of seminal Los Angeles-based artists. Works already housed in the collection bare witness to an artistic community which echoes its own city: sprawling and at times disconnected, but with an enduring energy.

Three individual yet overlapping eras in L.A. art scenes are explored here, indicating sometimes reluctant but ultimately cohesive themes throughout the 50-odd year period in which the works have been produced. Themes of sub-culture, American materialism, post-apocolytic, absence and sprawl, garbage, nihilism.

The Los Angeles art scene is inherently driven by its attachment to American pop culture, the sprawling nature of its city-scape, and the murky undertones of its skate, punk, graffiti, and other teenage subcultures. A city obsessed by material beauty and youth is shown in a strange state of decay by these artists.

Museum-quality works from the collection will be augmented by a selection of works on loan, in order to further the aforementioned narrative. In this way, the viewer glimpses the sensibility of Charles Riva as a collector while profiting from a broad sense of the art historical value of Los Angeles.

This exhibition features work by -

John Baldessari

Sam Durant

Richard Jackson

Paul McCarthy

Mike Kelley

Raymond Pettibon

Sterling Ruby

Jason Rhoades

Ed Ruscha

Jim Shaw