*preview for against the grain in flavorpill. (christopher took up painting and didn't tell me?)

Against the Grain

Known for its progressive, boundary-pushing performances and interdisciplinary bravado, LACE's lofty space transforms into a clean, white gallery for Against the Grain, perhaps this summer's most anticipated group show. Curated by painter and LA art-world impresario Christopher Russell, this exhibition responds to the trangressive 1988 show Against Nature: A Group Show of Work by Homosexual Men, which upped the ante on engagement in a restrictive political climate. Invited artists include DIY anti-monumental sculptor Anna Sew Hoy, urgent magic marker-wielding pictorial historian Ami Tallman, and the meticulous, cross-cultural allegorical painter Wendell Gladstone. It's not a bid to re-stage the original show, but rather to examine what words like "bohemian," "subversive," and "decadent" mean in the here and now.
– Shana Nys Dambrot