The unimaginable losses of the L.A. firestorms: L.A. arts and culture this week

If you live in the Los Angeles area, we may have something in common. You, like me, have stepped out of your house and stared at the smoky, ash-filled sky, your mind reeling at the enormity of what is taking place in your beloved metropolis. The scale of the loss is staggering, and beyond all accounting. You know friends who have lost everything but the clothes on their backs. And they have likely asked you how you’re doing — even in the midst of their trauma and grief.

Throughout these horrific days — when the sun is a glaring red eye in the sky, and one evacuation alert after another floods my phone — the kindness of others has kept me afloat. The way neighbors have checked in on me, and family has called to see what they can do to help. Information has been shared, and sorrow filtered through many group text chains and phone calls.

“Are you OK?”

“What can I do?”

“My home is open if you need somewhere to stay.”

“Hi, I’m thinking of you. Are you and your family safe?”

Words, filled with love and concern, often translated to action when aid is selflessly given.

As the fires continue to rage, I have been glued to my computer, trying to take down as many stories as I can in order to document what we are collectively living through. Stories about museums being saved and cultural treasures in danger. And, just recently, the harrowing tale of one couple in Altadena who had just bought a new home, only to lose it, as well as the house they were about to put on the market, in a single night. They, too, stopped to wish me and my family well.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, struggling to put into words what we have lost — and knowing it will never be enough. My colleague Ashley Lee and I are here to give you whatever arts news we can find. Please take good care.

Due to the fires, many events may be postponed or canceled. Please check with individual organizations for updates.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Olafur Eliasson’s “Kaleidoscope for Solar Amplification,” is a stainless-steel, colored glass sphere with paint.

(Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles)

‘The sky we stand on’
Times art critic Christopher Knight recently wrote a rave review of “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN,” “a visually, conceptually and perceptually thrilling survey of the Berlin-based, Icelandic Danish artist’s work from the last 20 years” that’s on view through July 6 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo. “Eliasson strives to keep perception from closing down, flattening out into the dull familiarity of debilitating habits — which applies to varieties of experience, whether emotional, political or social. The generosity of such a project can’t be overstated, and it’s nothing short of exhilarating.” The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo. moca.org

What a bounty that Olafur Eliasson also has multiple works in a group show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, along with Mark Dion, Jónsi, Laura Lima, Charles Long, Yuko Mohri, Lisa Oppenheim, Dana Powell, Analia Saban, Tomás Saraceno and Sarah Sze. Amid a diverse range of mediums, these artists explore an intersection of art and science; Eliasson offers a perception-centric kaleidoscopic sculpture as well as a painting inspired by an Icelandic landscape, the composition of which includes layers of pure pigment mixed with melting sea ice from that region. The PST Art exhibition is on view Tuesdays through Saturdays until Feb. 8. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 1010 N Highland Ave, L.A. tanyabonakdargallery.com

‘Eleanor’
Kandis Chappell reprises her portrayal of formidable First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at the Laguna Playhouse, following a 2023 run at Solano Beach’s North Coast Repertory Theatre. The lauded one-woman bioplay, written by Mark St. Germain and again directed by David Ellenstein, spans the heroism and heartbreaks of her tough upstate New York upbringing, her famed marriage to president Franklin D. Roosevelt and her continued legacy long after his death. Performances begin Wednesday and run through Feb. 2; the Jan. 25 matinee will be followed by a talk-back (with tea) with Mary Roosevelt, a direct descendant of Eleanor. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. lagunaplayhouse.com

Margaret Morgan’s “Sea of Glass” is ink and colored pencil on Canson Infinity Arches Aquarelle Rag.

(Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles)

‘Margaret Morgan: Love Must Be Reinvented’
In the 1965 Jean- Luc Godard crime drama “Pierrot le Fou,” the unhappily married protagonist recites a few lines from Arthur Rimbaud’s extended poem “A Season in Hell” — particularly, the mention in which, when it comes to women, “love has to be reinvented” because it’s often sacrificed to adhere to bourgeois society’s hetero norms of marriage and family.

Margaret Morgan is all for love’s reinvention but disagrees with the poet when it comes to motherhood and caregiving. Luis De Jesus Los Angeles presents a solo exhibition of the L.A.-based artist’s works inspired by the scene in the film: three series of framed works on paper and text installations developed through her praxis of walks in Griffith Park and her fascination with pareidolia, or the ability to perceive patterns and meaning out of random objects. The exhibition, which opened this past weekend, is on view Tuesdays through Saturdays until Feb. 22. Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, 1110 Mateo St, Arts District. luisdejesus.com

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

TUESDAY

Neruda Songs Nicolás Lell Benavides’ new work for oboe, string quartet and vocals, performed by LA Phil musicians and tenor Joshua Blue.
8 p.m. Tuesday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

THURSDAY
Janna Ireland In “Even by Proxy,” the photographer presents 21 photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, Los Angeles’ only World Heritage site.
Through Sept. 27. Hollyhock House, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. hollyhockhouse.org

Mark Laita The photographer focuses on humanity’s most vulnerable communities in the exhibit “Soft White Underbelly.”
Through March 1. The Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 N. La Brea Ave. faheykleingallery.com

Night Miracles Ten original 10-minute plays written, directed and performed by the Actors’ Gang ensemble.
8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, through Feb. 8; 2 p.m. Jan. 26 and Feb. 2. The Actors’ Gang, 9070 Venice Blvd, Culver City. theactorsgang.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Actor Betty Gilpin discussed in an interview with Times staff writer Meredith Blake how “we are all overlooked, unique geniuses and delusional mediocre idiots at the same time.”

(Victoria Will / For The Times)

Betty Gilpin will make her Broadway debut later this month as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!,” taking over for Cole Escola in the bawdy hit that reimagines the doleful first lady as a batty aspiring cabaret star. She told Times staff writer Meredith Blake that the comedy captures how “we are all overlooked, unique geniuses and delusional mediocre idiots at the same time. … I will probably be both in the show.”

Meanwhile, Escola praised Gilpin to Blake as “a capital-A actress with her own unique palette as an artist. I don’t know how [the character] will change yet but it will. She understands comedy and cares deeply about the heart of this character, that’s all that matters.”

A painting submitted through Christie’s online appraisals service has been found to be a valued watercolor by J.M.W. Turner, according to the Art Newspaper. The piece — now known to be “The Approach to Venice” or “Venice from the Lagoon” from approximately 1840 — depicts an incoming storm and will come to auction on Feb. 4 in New York for between $300,000 and $500,000.

A Chinese appeals court upheld a previous ruling requiring Chinese artist Ye Yongqing to pay upwards of $670,000 in damages and issue an apology in a major publication for plagiarizing the work of Belgian artist Christian Silvain, reports ArtDependence. The decision marks the conclusion of a five-year legal battle that began in 2019 when the similarities between the two artists’ works were outlined in a Belgian newspaper.

Raquel Rabinovich, the Argentinian-born artist who became known for her monochromatic paintings and drawings, as well as her large-scale glass sculpture environments and site-specific stone sculpture installations along the Hudson River, died of cancer on Jan. 5 in her home in upstate New York, according to Hyperallergic. She was 95.

— Ashley Lee

And last but not least

A future item for our to-do lists: this monthly country karaoke night.