LAXART to Reopen as the Brick

Los Angeles contemporary art nonprofitLAXARTis set to reopen in itsfirst-ever permanent homeasthe Brick. Hamza Walker, the organization’s director since 2016, told theArt Newspaperthat the name is meant to conjure the exposed-brick interiors of its new digs, a 5,000-square-foot former furniture showroom on Western Avenue in LA’s up-and-coming Melrose Hill neighborhood. As well, it is meant to suggest the process of community building and also revolution. The name LAXART, said Walker, required explanation, “and that’s not a good thing.” Walker went on to decry the public’s propensity to pronounce it “lax” as in “relaxed” or, more unfortunately, “laxative.”

Founded in 2005 by curator Lauri Firstenberg as an arts incubator, LAXART elevated the careers of artists such as Mark Bradford, Sarah Cain, and Glenn Kaino, and gave curators including César García-Alvarez, Amanda Hunt, and Aram Moshayedi their start. The nonprofit led a peripatetic existence, most recently having temporarily occupied a disused recording studio dating to 1928 that has since been taken over by Jeffrey Deitch.

The Brick will open June 16, greeting visitors with a mural on its exterior painted by Indigenous and Chicano artists 3B Collective depicting Pope.L performing his iconic crawl piece. During its first month open, the Brick will offer wide-ranging programming, including a two-night performance led by saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and a weeklong garage sale of books and memorabilia that belonged to late photographer, filmmaker, and writer Allan Sekula and his wife, art historian Sally Stein. The nonprofit’s inaugural exhibition, a solo show of the work of Gregg Bordowitz, opens July 14 and runs through August 24. September will bring “Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism,” curated by the Brick’s deputy director, Catherine Taft, as part of the Getty’s PST (formerly Pacific Standard Time) initiative.