by Anne Gabriel
There is a new breed of young person in Los Angeles that has begun curating, holding exhibitions, and generally making space and a claim for nouveau conceptual art. They are decidedly too young to have lived through conceptual art’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s and they very much seem to be trying to bring it back with a vengeance (maybe precisely because they didn’t live during its heyday)—and it is largely driven by the same folks who are also bringing back readings and spoken word.
This new crop of artists and their work seem to be in direct opposition to the prevalence in contemporary art for figurative painting that has filled the art world’s lens within the last five years.
Conceptual art’s idea that “the idea behind the work” is more important than the artwork or finished product—often results in work that is as poetic to its fans as it is self-indulgent to its detractors.
Several shows have cropped up centered on small galleries and project spaces with Gene’s Dispensary and Leroy’s seeming to act as a central hub. In a flyer listed on Gene’s Dispensary’s instagram feed for an “exhibition?” on March 2, 2025, promoting a chess-in, the flyer clearly has a quote by Duchamp at the top in all caps “NOT ALL ARTISTS ARE CHESS PLAYERS, BUT ALL CHESS PLAYERS ARE ARTISTS” – MARCEL DUCHAMP. The event was intended to be part chess game and part performance art (the chess table along with two chess players was seemingly the only thing lit in the room) in collaboration with an art exhibition titled “1TB Verbatim: Los Angeles Timing 2013-2025.”
Part of the exhibition 1TB Verbatim: Los Angeles Timing 2013-2025, was an installation called The Walk-In Locker Room, which had an open doorway with a pile of clothing atop converse sneakers blocking the threshold. Behind the pile of clothing, one could see a messy closet-sized room with luggage, boxes, trash and two jewel-sized but awful paintings hung on the wall viewable from the doorway.
Although most art these days manages to justify itself using a language developed to discuss the Conceptual works of the past, it is relatively rare to see such an aggressive attempt to re-live the hippie heyday of Think About This! art.
I hated it, but, frankly, I’m not sure I’m the intended audience. I find no enjoyment in proving my cerebral prowess by discussing, contextualizing, and debating the merits and concepts behind such shows—and I feel like if I showed up, I’d have to do just that. On the other hand, I also realize I am in the minority as art critics go. This has always been big-C Conceptual Art’s draw—it allows everyone to be a critic.
At a time when most of the art world is trying to make contemporary art more accessible to people and less intimidating—this new crop of Nouveau Conceptual Artists are seemingly trying to do the exact opposite. How can we make this as dense and seem “as smart as possible?” seems to be the idea behind the art / exhibitions / installations.
Is there a place for this? Sure. Whether that is in front of any audience that matters remains to be seen.
Image: Photo from Gene’s Dispensary