23 July 2026
Scarlet Topley and Ed Ruscha at Interval: had to ask the gallerist what Topley's association to L.A. is and was surprised to learn that she doesn't have any direct ties to the city other than being fascinated by it, because her work carries a very distinct LA-ness that makes me wonder what form it takes to non-Angelenos; to me it has something to do with internalizing a collective confusion from lack of access in the face of the city's unrelenting, shining promise (LA is half hidden). Or how desire there warps into hazy symbols pinged back and forth between its inhabitants at such a speed that they detach from their source and kick up into a kind of omnipotent mania. So the Ruscha pairing is a sensible, if obvious pairing. Which makes me glad that the show itself allows connections to take less distinct shapes. Topley's work Vox lux (2025, plastic mirror, etched aluminium, copper phosphate 3D printed pleaser) above the staircase leading to the basement was a particularly strong moment for me—its floating position, mirrored components, deconstructed-diorama form, and tiny 3D-printed heel warp scale and light and space and material density into something lovely and elusive, which plays nicely off of Ruscha's characteristic bluntness (two 1991 lithographs, If and Question & Answer are included in the show). The magic of his work comes from that bluntness simultaneously embracing and resisting a declarative quality, which is something I've been aware of in my own studio recently—there's real abundance to be found in wholeheartedly honoring and honing and concretizing unforeseen slips into ungraspable territory.