This Arts story was sponsored by Nikos Constant.
On the second floor of a jet-black building in Downtown Los Angeles, These Days Gallery & Bookstore is curating artful happenings that reflect the workings of the city and its underground anarchist-spirited movements.
Its latest exhibition, titled ‘SURVIVAL MODE: Sufrir Es El Destino’ (Suffering Is The Destiny), is a celebration of resilience in a city that eats its born-and-raised alive. It simultaneously reflects our current climate, in which we’re caught between the rising costs of rent and living essentials, increasingly targeted as minorities, and still overlooked and branded, while the powers at large try to seize more of the total.
Works include Cesar Massturd’s intricate, infamously uncensored black-and-white ink drawings and Abe Garcia’s chicha-colorful screen printing, photo decorating, airbrush, and acrylic typography. Those are paired with Eduardo Soto’s spiritually conceptual canvases, showing occult influences and an abstract anger rooted in love.
There is a distinctly unique cohesion of spirit born out of the shared DIY punk ethos among them all, one that honors community and a rebellious dissatisfaction with the status quo.
“I made a piece titled Survival Mode about how some peers and I live—working our hardest, supporting others, just to be consumed by capitalism and social criticism,” says Abe, one of the founders of Descontrol punk shop and known locally for ADX Studio, his screen-printing collective which also curates art and photo shows.
“I like to bring forth histories and interesting characters I perceive important for people like me to see and know about,” he says about his portraits, like the featured one of “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez glaring under the phrase, “Goodbye Toulouse,” jacked from a Stranglers’ song.
He tells us the artists in the show, “collectively wanted to have a chaos wall, naturally turning into an altar.” With show dates running through Dia de Muertos, the idea of a community ofrenda made room for everyone to combine trinkets and offerings into one piece.
Placed above the altar is the group work, Survival Mode, a mash-up of different tributes to the deceased, decorated through flowers, books, art, retro displays, crosses, candles, and other treasured knick-knacks.
"We were all feeling a sense of grief, nostalgia, and community ... That became something that made the show very special to me,” he says.
“I think this show is a window into the minds of three artists that are out here trying to grind and push their art and skills to survive,” says Cesar. “It’s not just our struggles in our respective artistic fields, but also the struggles within ourselves along the way.”
I first got to know Cesar when featuring his work in Dead Relatives. We published a book together soon after with a crew of his friends and maintained a collaborative relationship over the years.
Massturd draws from humor, his environment, and the intensity of his past lifestyles. He’s been sober from drugs and alcohol for four years and is relentlessly committed to his work, having been commissioned by BornxRaised, Street League Skateboarding, The Belasco, and others to do work for them.
He first heard about These Days Gallery in 2017 at a showcase of Raymond Pettibon’s famous flyers for Black Flag and SST Records.
Massturd’s submissions to the gallery include three posters he’d drawn, inspired by ones that used to hang in his teenage bedroom. Featuring Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, Tupac Shakur, and the Misfits, and denoting different sections of Hell, they are humorously graphic and as colorful as black and white can possibly be.
The artist brings a level of hyperactive modesty to how he organizes his thoughts, an extension of his warbly illustrations: “I used to come in here with beers in my pockets and sit in the middle of the bookstore, getting schooled on cults, photographers, printing techniques,” he says. “I’m lucky to have found such a cool space that supports local creators like they do. I’m even luckier to call Stephen and Jodi my friends.”
Stephen Zeigler, owner and operator of These Days with his wife, Jodi, says these three artists were chosen to exhibit together, “based on their different but shared experiences, as three young artists born and raised in L.A.”
The show was meant to reflect “their view of what's going on.”
Stephen and Jodi moved into this former piano store-turned pimp hotel-turned Catholic nun house-turned Native American rehab center in 2008.
Located on the corner of a small strip on the edge of L.A.’s Historic Core, Toy District, and Skid Row neighborhoods, the one dubbed “Indian Alley” in the 70’s, it features murals and artwork by Indigenous American artists. These Days came to fruition in 2014 as a gallery, bookstore, and publisher, featuring new and out-of-print nonconformist art & photography.
“They [Cesar, Abe, & Eduardo] came from the current DIY L.A. background, whereas I come from an older generation,” Stephen continues. “I knew they were all friends, though their styles were wildly different … But somehow these guys were gonna fit together and create something really meaningful.”
He says they mainly look to feature those with rebellious spirits, valuing personal connections and shared beliefs and taste over commercial orientation. I’m told the gallery doesn’t typically generate sales, being so eclectic, though collectors are welcome.
“I don't even consider us part of the art world,” Stephen says. “The art world is fucking hedge fund managers making investments, speculating on artwork that can pay them back when they decide to resell down the line ... I spend half my day getting crackheads off my doorstep. This is a different thing.”
Stephen acknowledges how cutthroat creative work is and aspires to slow down as best as the couple can. These Days is a passion project born from the desire to bring light to the underground.
One of the pieces on display is a banner, ‘WARN A BRUH!,’ created by Abe for a protest he participated in. He didn’t feel comfortable selling it for profit since he made it specifically to protest against I.C.E.
If sold, any resulting money made will kindly be donated in full to L.A. Taco to help our independent coverage of immigration issues in Los Angeles.
The third artist, Eduardo Soto, took over the more secluded room in the gallery.
“For this exhibition, I created an installation meant to remind viewers of impermanence,” he says. “The main paintings are of life thriving and fleeting, facing each other. And when the viewer is placed in the space, their own experiences fill the space between living and dying. The mural is a manifestation of healing.”
He says the exhibit would not be the same elsewhere, without Stephen and Jodi being so relatable and encouraging movement in their space.
“This curation aims to represent the ethos of 'do it yourself' (DIY) for the sake of self-fulfillment and being autonomous,” Soto continues. “It is a vehicle for reminding our community that at the end of the day, we do this because we are inspired by one another. The energy flows in a circle.”
AHORAKI, an improvised sound project based between Los Angeles and Mexico City, played in the space on October 30th, days before Dia De Muertos. It featured Soto, along with artists Atiakatl Ce Tochtli Orozco, Edson ‘Coyote’, Jonas Derbez, and Andrés Lupone. L.A.’s Poeta Del Rio also joined, giving a spoken word performance.
“It's a lot of trust on both sides,” Stephen says as we’re ending our walkthrough. “They're trusting me with their life's work and efforts. I'm trusting them with this place my wife and I have poured our hearts into.”
Asked if there’s any ground rule or code that the gallery operates by when programming or curating, he replies, “Work with the people you appreciate.”
“SURVIVAL MODE: Sufrir es El Destino" is showing through November 8.
These Days Gallery & Bookstore ~ 118 Winston St. Los Angeles, CA 90013
