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The Pit

@thepitla

The Pit is a Contemporary Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Open: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm On view: Anna Kunz & Maryam Yousif through June 17
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The Pit is pleased to present Maryam Yousif: Above Earth, Under The Rays of the Sun, a solo exhibition of new ceramic sculptures opening May 9, 2026!⁠ ⁠ There will be opening events on Saturday May 9 with an artist walkthrough at 2pm and a reception from 3-5 pm. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠After the opening head to Night Gallery for CARLA's annual fundraiser!⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠For more information email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ ----------⁠ ⁠ Press release excerpt:⁠ ⁠ Habibti figures in yellow, green, and tangerine are each swathed in hand-formed ceramic rosettes, their faces composed and directly above the accumulated blooms. Various objects – a teal Dallah with a cascading drip glaze, a stone-like bird vessel paired with a small pomegranate bottle, small harps, Pazuzu figures, and pomegranates in various glazes – populate the room like an inventory of talismans. ⁠ ⁠ “Above Earth, Under The Rays of the Sun” is an exhibition about the objects that travel with us and the ones we leave behind. The royal tombs at Nimrud, discovered by Iraqi archaeologists in 1988, yielded extraordinary jewelry, resplendent vessels, and a clay tablet inscribed with a curse threatening those who would disturb the queens’ rest. For Yousif, this curse text resonates beyond its archaeological context, touching on the superstitions of her Iraqi childhood and, the protective power of the evil eye that recurs throughout her work, and the deeply human impulse to surround the dead with beautiful things. To recreate these funerary objects in clay, she writes, is “to forge a new sense of life.” Personal memory and deep history fold into one another throughout.. The exhibition extends Yousif’s singular territory in contemporary American ceramics – a practice where Bay Area Funk’s irreverence and material freedom meet the visual legacy of ancient Mesopotamia, held together by the lived experience of being in diaspora.⁠ ⁠ Artwork:⁠ #MaryamYousif⁠ Habibti in Green Rosette Dress, 2026⁠ Glazed ceramic⁠ 14 x 11 x 10 in⁠ 📸: Photography by Chris Hanke @false_artifacts
904 31
11 days ago
The Pit is thrilled to present Tuning the Void, the first solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Anna Kunz at The Pit, opening May 9, 2026! ⁠ ⁠ Join us for the opening reception on Saturday May 9 from 3-5pm before heading over to CARLA's annual fundraiser at Night Gallery!⁠ ⁠ For more information email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ Press release excerpt:⁠ ⁠ Kunz approaches the painting process performatively. Over a career spanning more than twenty-five years, Kunz has collaborated with architects, dancers, and musicians, most notably creating décor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The artist is known for a body of work that spans canvas painting and large-scale installation, unified by an unwavering focus on color as the primary vehicle of meaning and sensation. Her canvases are built slowly through layered washes of acrylic and dye on porous, unprimed surfaces, so that canvas and pigment become inseparable. The resulting surfaces are not reflective but internally luminous, as though the light originates from within the work itself. She works with an expansive palette drawn from threshold moments, such as the light of dusk and dawn, inflected by the charged saturation of 1960s psychedelic posters. Her signature formal vocabulary of arcs, wedges, and interlocking color planes arranges forms that lean into and support one another with open, dissolved edges, creating a sense of harmony rather than conflict.⁠ ⁠ In Between Moon and Ocean, 2026 a vertical dark band divides the canvas into two distinct registers: on the left, a field of amber, pinks, and greens is anchored by a luminous cobalt circle and a half-moon of warm yellow; on the right, a body of intense red-orange swells in two great arcs against a dark background. The composition holds its two sides in careful suspension distinct in temperature and mood, yet structurally bound, evoking the charged space between celestial bodies as they exert quiet pull on one another. ⁠ ⁠ Artwork:⁠ Anna Kunz⁠ BETWEEN MOON AND OCEAN, 2026⁠ Acrylic and dye on canvas⁠ 66 x 60 in⁠ 📸: Chris Hanke @false_artifacts ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #annakunz #thepitla #contemporaryart #lagallery⁠
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18 days ago
Bid on work by Erik Frydenborg in the Venice Family Clinic Auction all week! Bidding closes May 17 at 6pm. ⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our bio or venicefamilyclinic.org/artexhibition to learn more.⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ We are proud to serve on the art advisory council for the 2026 Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction - the longest running charity art exhibition in Los Angeles. This year's auction showcases artworks from over 200 artists including Signature Artist Alison Saar, The Pit's roster artists Bella Foster, Howard Fonda, Erik Frydenborg and Anthony Miler, and The Pit's owner Adam Miller. ⁠ ⁠ Proceeds will support Venice Family Clinic’s innovative programs and services, providing high-quality health care to more than 45,000 people in need across the Westside of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the South Bay and everywhere in between. The exhibition will be held through Sunday, May 17, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, with special events held throughout the ten-day event. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #ErikFrydenborg⁠ Aten, 2025⁠ Acrylic and sand on basswood⁠ 12 x 6.5 x 3.5 in⁠ ⁠
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10 hours ago
Congratulations to Anthony Miler on the opening of his new solo exhibition "Numerous Concerns" at Shrine in New York!⁠ ⁠ The exhibition includes over 1,000 drawings made by Miler daily over the past 18 years. ⁠ ⁠ The show is on view May 15-June 27, 2026. ⁠ ⁠ For more information email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ --------⁠ ⁠ Press release excerpt:⁠ ⁠ Obsession can take many forms in artists’ lives, and for Anthony Miler, it has manifested as a steady, prolonged investigation into drawing that is more of a marathon than a sprint. Almost every day for the past 18 years, Miler created at least one letter-sized drawing on paper, if not more. The works are rendered in graphite, ink, and paint, and they bear clear signs of his life and activity, with shoe prints, smudges, and general wear and tear leaving their mark, inferring they were not made to be precious.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #anthonymiler #newyorkgallery #contemporaryart
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1 day ago
Bid on work by Bella Foster in the Venice Family Clinic Auction! Bidding closes tomorrow May 17 at 6pm. ⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our bio or venicefamilyclinic.org/artexhibition to learn more.⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ We are proud to serve on the art advisory council for the 2026 Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction - the longest running charity art exhibition in Los Angeles. This year's auction showcases artworks from over 200 artists including Signature Artist Alison Saar, The Pit's roster artists Bella Foster, Howard Fonda, Erik Frydenborg and Anthony Miler, and The Pit's owner Adam Miller. ⁠ ⁠ Proceeds will support Venice Family Clinic’s innovative programs and services, providing high-quality health care to more than 45,000 people in need across the Westside of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the South Bay and everywhere in between. The exhibition will be held through Sunday, May 17, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, with special events held throughout the ten-day event. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #BellaFoster⁠ Carrie, 2025⁠ Acrylic on canvas⁠ 48 x 36 in⁠ Photography by Chris Hanke
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2 days ago
Bid on work by Howard Fonda in the Venice Family Clinic Auction all week! Bidding closes May 17 at 6pm. ⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our bio or venicefamilyclinic.org/artexhibition to learn more.⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ We are proud to serve on the art advisory council for the 2026 Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction - the longest running charity art exhibition in Los Angeles. This year's auction showcases artworks from over 200 artists including Signature Artist Alison Saar, The Pit's roster artists Bella Foster, Howard Fonda, Erik Frydenborg and Anthony Miler, and The Pit's owner Adam Miller. ⁠ ⁠ Proceeds will support Venice Family Clinic’s innovative programs and services, providing high-quality health care to more than 45,000 people in need across the Westside of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the South Bay and everywhere in between. The exhibition will be held through Sunday, May 17, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, with special events held throughout the ten-day event. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #HowardFonda⁠ Untitled, 2025⁠ Oil on wood panel in folding frame⁠ 72 x 32 in⁠ Photography by Chris Hanke
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3 days ago
Bid on work by Anthony Miler in the Venice Family Clinic Auction all week! Bidding closes May 17 at 6pm. ⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our bio or venicefamilyclinic.org/artexhibition to learn more.⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ We are proud to serve on the art advisory council for the 2026 Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction - the longest running charity art exhibition in Los Angeles. This year's auction showcases artworks from over 200 artists including Signature Artist Alison Saar, The Pit's roster artists Bella Foster, Howard Fonda, Erik Frydenborg and Anthony Miler, and The Pit's owner Adam Miller. ⁠ ⁠ Proceeds will support Venice Family Clinic’s innovative programs and services, providing high-quality health care to more than 45,000 people in need across the Westside of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the South Bay and everywhere in between. The exhibition will be held through Sunday, May 17, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, with special events held throughout the ten-day event. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠#AnthonyMiler⁠ Not Titled, 2023⁠ Acrylic on canvas⁠ 18 x 24 in⁠ Photography by Ed Mumford⁠ ⁠
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4 days ago
Stop by The Pit to see Above Earth, Under The Rays of the Sun, a solo exhibition of new ceramic sculptures by Maryam Yousif!⁠ ⁠ The exhibition is on view through June 17, 2026. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠For more information email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ ----------⁠ ⁠ Press release excerpt:⁠ ⁠ Yousif’s third exhibition with the gallery takes its title from the inscription on a curse tablet found in the royal tombs of the Assyrian queens at Nimrud, where the phrase describes the mortal realm: the place of people who live above the earth, beneath the sun. Working from this ancient text as a point of departure, the exhibition brings together large-scale and intimate works that move between funerary artifact and living ornament, between what is carried out of a place and what endures. Maryam Yousif was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1985, where she grew up surrounded by her mother’s paintings and handmade objects, emigrating to Canada at the age of 10.Yousif works primarily in clay, producing figurative sculptures that occupy a space between ancient devotional objects and contemporary folk art. Her signature “Habibti” figures (Arabic for “sweetheart” or “my love”) are modeled on Sumerian votive statues, the small stone stand-ins placed inside temples by worshippers who could not enter themselves. Her lustrous, layered glazes fuse the exuberance of Bay Area Funk ceramics with the ancient visual traditions of her homeland. Running through the work is a persistent question: what it means to leave a place, potentially forever, and what do we carry with us when we do so?⁠ ⁠ Artwork:⁠ #MaryamYousif⁠ Catalogue Scroll, 2026⁠ Glazed ceramic⁠ 19 x 20 x 5 in⁠ 📸: Photography by Chris Hanke @false_artifacts
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5 days ago
Bid on works from the Venice Family Clinic Auction all week! Bidding closes May 17 at 6pm. ⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our bio or venicefamilyclinic.org/artexhibition to learn more.⁠ ⁠ -------------⁠ ⁠ We are proud to serve on the art advisory council for the 2026 Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction - the longest running charity art exhibition in Los Angeles. This year's auction showcases artworks from over 200 artists including Signature Artist Alison Saar, The Pit's roster artists Bella Foster, Howard Fonda, Erik Frydenborg and Anthony Miler, and The Pit's owner Adam Miller. ⁠ ⁠ Proceeds will support Venice Family Clinic’s innovative programs and services, providing high-quality health care to more than 45,000 people in need across the Westside of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the South Bay and everywhere in between. The exhibition will be held through Sunday, May 17, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, with special events held throughout the ten-day event. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Artworks:⁠ ⁠ 1. Howard Fonda⁠ Untitled, 2025⁠ Oil on wood panel in folding frame⁠ 72 x 32 in⁠ ⁠ 2. Anthony Miler⁠ Not Titled, 2023⁠ Acrylic on canvas⁠ 18 x 24 in⁠ ⁠ 3. Erik Frydenborg⁠ Aten, 2025⁠ Acrylic and sand on basswood⁠ 12 x 6.5 x 3.5 in⁠ ⁠ 4. Bella Foster⁠ Carrie, 2025⁠ Acrylic on canvas⁠ 48 x 36 in⁠ ⁠ 4. Adam Miller⁠ Ultraman and boys in a Rousseau Jungle, 2022⁠ Underglaze and glaze on stoneware⁠ 14½ x 13 x 12½ in.
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6 days ago
Today is the day! Join us at 2pm for an artist walkthrough by Anna Kunz and Maryam Yousif of their solo exhibitions.⁠ ⁠ Followed by drinks and tacos and music from 3-5pm! ⁠ ⁠ After the opening head over to Night Gallery to support the @contemporaryartreview.la annual fundraiser! ⁠ ⁠ We hope to see you there!!⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #annakunz #maryamyousif #thepitla #laartgallery #laart #contemporaryart⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #maryamyousif #annakunz #thepitla #laartgallery
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7 days ago
There's lots going on tomorrow in LA!⁠ ⁠ Join us at The Pit for an artist walkthrough Saturday May 9 at 2pm with Maryam Yousif and Anna Kunz!⁠ ⁠ Followed by drinks and tacos from 3-5 pm in celebration of the opening of their solo exhibitions. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠After the opening, head to Night Gallery for CARLA's annual fundraiser!⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠For more information email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ ----------⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Artwork:⁠ #MaryamYousif⁠ Warp Palms, 2026⁠ Glazed ceramic⁠ 7 x 10 x 8 in⁠ 📸: Photography by Chris Hanke @false_artifacts
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7 days ago
Visit Joel Gaitan at the Artist Studios at the Museum of Art and Design in New York! MAD's Artist Studios program invites visitors to ask questions, view works in progress, and gain firsthand exposure to the creative process of resident artists and designers working on site at the Museum. ⁠ ⁠ Gaitan will be in his studio at the museum every Saturday from 10:30am - 5:30pm until August 1. If you're in town for Frieze make sure to add it to your itinerary for Saturday May 9 or 16.⁠ ⁠ Stop by, say hello, ask questions, and see the new works in progress!⁠ ⁠ For information on available works email us at [email protected]⁠ ⁠ ---------⁠ ⁠ Joel Gaitan, born in 1995 in Miami, Florida, is a first-generation Nicaraguan American ceramic artist living and working in Miami, Florida. Gaitan has been featured in W Magazine (2023), The Center Magazine (2023), Cultured Magazine (2022), artnet.com (2022), and others. He was an artist in residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2023. He was 2023's Art Production Fund Artist in Focus for the public art program at Rockefeller Center, NY. He is a 2024 USLA Forum Latinx Artist Fellowship recipient. His work is in the public collections of the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; The Bunker, Palm Beach, FL; El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY, and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL. Joel Gaitan is represented by KDR, Miami, FL, and The Pit, Los Angeles.⁠ ⁠ ⁠Photo credit: @onwhitewall ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #joelgaitan #madmuseum #madartiststudios #contemporaryart museumofartanddesign⁠
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8 days ago