Billy Al Bengston (b. 1934, Dodge City, Kansas, lives and works in Venice Beach, California and Honolulu, Hawaii) moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948. He studied painting under Richard Diebenkorn at California College of Arts, Oakland, California. In 1957, Bengston began showing with the legendary Ferus Gallery (founded and run by Walter Hopps, Edward Kienholz and Irving Blum) until the gallery closed in 1966. Bengston has had major solo presentations at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; the San Francisco Museum of Art, California; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; and a three person retrospective with Ed Ruscha and Ed Moses at the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut. His work is included in a number of important permanent collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Ashley Bickerton (b. 1959, Barbados, West Indies; lives and works in Bali, Indonesia) received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and continued his education in the independent studies program at the Whitney Institute of the Arts and continued his education in the independent studies program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at Newport Street Gallery, London; The FLAG Art Foundation, New York; and Palacete del Embarcadero, Autoridad Portuaria de Santander, Spain. Select group exhibitions include FLAG Art Foundation, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Le Consortium, Dijon; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate St Ives, Cornwall; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; New Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; Milwaukee Art Museum; and the Whitney Biennial. His works are in numerous international public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Vancouver Art Gallery; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Tate Britain, London.
Diedrick Brackens (b. 1989, Mexia, Texas, lives and works in Los Angeles, California) received a BFA from University of North Texas, Denton, Texas and an MFA in textiles from California College of the Arts, Oakland, California. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; New Museum, New York; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles; Sewanee University Art Gallery, Tennessee; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas; and Johansson Projects, Oakland, California. Recent group exhibitions include Made in L.A. 2018 at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; California African American Museum; Jewish Contemporary Art Museum, San Francisco; Dimensions Variable at Miami; Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; and Denny Gallery, New York. He is the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant; Los Angeles Artadia Award; American Craft Council Emerging Artist Award; and the Wein Prize. Brackens is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Oakland Museum of California.
Jessie Homer French (b. 1940, New York, New York, lives and works in Mountain Center, California) is a self-taught, self- proclaimed “regional narrative painter” who routinely, perhaps even obsessively, paints archetypes of death, nature and rural life. She has held solo exhibitions including Independent New York; Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin and London; Art Basel Hong Kong; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, California; the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California; Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California; Winchester Gallery, Victoria; and Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Palm Springs Museum, California; Laguna Art Museum, California; and at Samuel Freeman Gallery, Santa Monica, California. French’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Palm Spring Art Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Joshua Nathanson (b. 1976, Washington, D.C., lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY and an MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. He has held solo exhibitions at Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Downs and Ross, New York; Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo; Luce Gallery, Turin; and at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles. Recent group exhibitions include Van Doren Waxter, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Yokohama Museum; ARNDT, Gillman Barracks, Singapore; and 356 S. Mission, Los Angeles. Nathanson’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai.
Sojourner Truth Parsons (b. 1984, Vancouver, Canada, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) received a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Foxy Production; Downs & Ross; New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; and Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto. She has been included in group exhibitions at Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY; Lyles and King, New York, NY; Galerie Sultana, Paris, FR; and Galleri Benoni, Copenhagen, DK. The artist is in the permanent collections of the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank and various private collections in North America and Europe.
Amy Yao (b. 1977, Los Angeles, CA, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received her BFA at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, her MFA at Yale University, New Haven, CT and is lecturer in Visual Arts at Princeton University, NJ. She has had solo exhibitions at venues including Goton, Paris, FR; Indipendenza, Rome, IT; 47 Canal, New York, NY; VI, VII, Oslo, NO; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY; Edouard Montassut, Paris, FR; Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; New Jersey, Basel, CH; and Mathew Gallery, Berlin, DE. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at galleries and institutions such as MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Swiss Institute, New York, NY; Honolulu Biennial 2019, HI; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ; Rob Tufnell, Cologne, DE; Sommer Contemporary, Tel Aviv, IL; Air de Paris, FR; Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Lisa Cooley, New York, NY; Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY; MAB Society, Shanghai, CN; and Andrew Kreps, New York, NY.
Pentti Monkkonen (b. 1975, Minneapolis, Minnesota) lives and works in Los Angeles. Recently, the artist had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Truth and Consequences, Geneva; High Art, Paris; and Jonathan Viner, London. Monkkonen's works have been the subject of various group exhibitions at Prague Biennial; Marianne Boesky Gallery; Gavin Brown Enterprise; Bortolami, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles and more.
