The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) proudly announce the launch of Friday Night Arts at LAMAG, a vibrant summer series running every Friday from June 6 through September 26, 2025 (except 4th of July holiday). This innovative program is presented alongside the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation’s (BAPF) acclaimed Summer Wine Nights, inviting visitors to enjoy a unique blend of fine wine, community, and contemporary art in the heart of Barnsdall Art Park with proceeds going to support Barnsdall Art Park programs.
Each Friday evening from 5 to 8 pm, all are invited free of charge to step inside LAMAG to experience artist-led presentations, interactive installations, and special exhibitions.
The series opens with an immersive installation by Bill Barminski, a self-taught multimedia artist celebrated for his playful, large-scale cardboard sculptures that transform everyday objects into three-dimensional drawings. Barminski, who has held over 20 solo exhibitions since 1986 and teaches digital media at UCLA, has created an interactive environment designed to engage visitors of all ages. Curated by David Novoa.
In July and August, Friday Night Arts at LAMAG spotlights the COLA 2025 exhibition with evening viewing hours and a lineup of participatory public programs. On July 26, Jemima Wyman leads a collective art-making activity rooted in her multidisciplinary exploration of visual resistance, camouflage, and collective identity. The programming continues with a drawing workshop led by Olivia Booth on August 16, an origami making class with Flora Kao on August 23, and culminates with a performance by Carmen Argote on August 29. Each evening offers a unique opportunity to connect with contemporary artists and engage in hands-on creative experiences that reflect the exhibition’s emphasis on pattern, decoration, and collaborative expression.
In September Friday Art Nights summer series continues through September 26, 2025 with culminating programming by Heavy Manners Library and an installation by artist Sophia Le Fraga. On Fridays, September 5, 12, 19, and 26, Heavy Manners Library—a gallery and bookstore based in Los Angeles—will enliven the gallery’s lobby and outdoor spaces. Each Friday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. expect a lively rotation of zine vendors, video projections under the stars in the Barnsdall Park pine grove, and changing interactive exhibitions designed to spark curiosity and conversation. In addition, Sophia Le Fraga will present a three-panel work in LAMAG’s outdoor vitrine that overlays views of Barnsdall Art Park with library call cards, evoking the dynamics between municipal institutions and their publics. These programs offer visitors an opportunity to engage directly with artists and new work in a relaxed, evening setting.
Join us this summer to experience the perfect fusion of art, community, and culture at Friday Night Arts at LAMAG.
Friday, June 6, 2025 — Friday, June 27, 2025
Friday Art Nights: Barminski curated by David Novoa
Across Barminski’s four-decade-long career, his work has integrated diverse mediums, including animation, painting, and sculptural installations. His paintings appropriate images from advertising, highlighting the surreal and inauthentic qualities of mass consumer culture. His 1998 billboard design commissioned by Absolut Vodka featured an eerily happy consumer with two smiling mouths raising a martini glass. His collaborations include a cardboard security entrance crafted for Banksy’s 2015 “Dismaland” art show, and animated music videos for artists such as Kid Cudi and Death Cab for Cutie. Along with his directing partner Chris Louie, he created an animated set and character design for the opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” in 2014, innovating a distinctive new perspective for a traditional art form.
Across all of his works, Barminski’s approach remains subversive yet whimsical. At LAMAG’s temporary exhibit, visitors are invited to tangibly delve into Bill’s sketchy cardboard versions of art materials and knick knacks. These banal objects turned not-so-commonplace become portals into a surreal imaginative world of play, surprise, and cheeky humor.
Bill Barminski is renowned for his multidisciplinary work spanning painting, sculpture, animation, and graphic design. His signature cardboard sculptures-white forms outlined in dark brown paint-create the illusion of three-dimensional drawings, exemplified by his interactive Security Theater installation for Banksy’s Dismaland in 2015. Barminski’s work often critiques consumerism and advertising, highlighted by his iconic Absolut Vodka billboard on the Sunset Strip and animated music videos for artists including Gnarls Barkley and Kid Cudi. Based in Los Angeles, he has been teaching digital media at UCLA since 1998.
Saturday, July 26, 2025, 12:00 to 3:00pm | Jemima Wyman, Collective Art Making Activity. Artist Talk at 2:30pm.
Click here for more information.
Jemima Wyman is represented by Commonwealth & Council, Milani Gallery and Sullivan + Strumpf. Her most recent solo exhibition A Haze Descends was held at Commonwealth & Council in 2022. Recent group exhibition have been held at ZKM (Germany), MU artspace (Netherlands), Nam June Paik Art Center (Korea), Elaine L. Jacob Gallery Wayne State University (Detroit), Carriageworks (Sydney), Steve Turner Contemporary (Los Angeles), 17th Biennale of Sydney | THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age (Sydney), MUMA(Melbourne), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and 21st Century Museum of Art (Japan). Selected large-scale commissions include work for Air at GOMA Other Life-formings at Blackwood Gallery (Canada), Iconography of Revolt at City Gallery Wellington (New Zealand), The Unexpected Guest: Liverpool Biennial at FACT (Liverpool) , and Pattern Bandits at the Children’s Art Center at GOMA (Brisbane) with an accompanying book Pattern Power.
Saturday, August 16, 2025, 12:00 to 3:00pm | Olivia Booth, Drawing Workshop
Olivia Booth has lived and worked as a teacher and artist for over two decades in Los Angeles. She is a recent recipient of the COLA-IMAP Grant 2024 from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Hopper Prize, and in recent years her work could be seen at the Neutra VDL House, Monte Vista Projects and Irenic Projects, LA, UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago, and Pilchuck Gallery in Seattle. Over the years her work has been shown at non-profit spaces like SculptureCenter, LAMOA,The Finley Gallery and The Schindler House, in addition to other exhibition spaces, and has been written about in Art Forum and the New York Times. She received her MFA from Artcenter College of Design, Los Angeles (2003), and her BFA and BA from Cornell University (1996).
Saturday August 23, 2025, 12:00 to 3:00pm | Flora Kao, Lotus Origami Making Class
Flora Kao explores the poetics of human relationship with environment, transforming everyday structures into systems of beauty. In Los Angeles, Kao has exhibited solo at Launch LA, Los Angeles Artist Association, Cerritos College, Grand Central Art Center, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Commonwealth and Council, Gallery 825, Artmerge LAB, HAUS Gallery, the LA Art Show, and the UC Irvine University Gallery. Kao’s
work has also been featured at various Southern California venues including John Wayne Airport, LAX, LA Louver, Angels Gate Art Gallery, El Segundo Museum of Art, Torrance Art Museum, Irvine Fine Arts Center, City of Brea Art Gallery, LAXART, Durden and Ray, See Line Gallery, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Beacon Arts Building, West LA College, Cerritos College, Cypress College, California State University, and La Sierra University. Kao holds a MFA from UC Irvine in Studio Art, a BFA in Painting from Otis College of Art and Design, and a BA in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College.
Friday, August 29, 2025, 5:00 to 8:00pm | Carmen Argote, Performance
Carmen Argote received an MFA and BFA from University of California, Los Angeles (2007, 2004). Selected solo exhibitions have been held at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2022); Primary, Nottingham (2021); Clockshop, Los Angeles (2020); New Museum, New York (2019); PAOS, Guadalajara (2019); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2015); and Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2013). Argote is a recipient of Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2019), Artadia Los Angeles Award (2019), and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2013).
Friday, September 5, 12, 19, and 26 | Heavy Manners Library and Sophia Le Fraga
Heavy Manners Library—a gallery and bookstore based in Los Angeles—will enliven the gallery’s lobby and outdoor spaces. Each Friday, expect a lively rotation of zine vendors, video projections under the stars in the pine grove, and changing interactive exhibitions designed to spark curiosity and conversation.
In addition, Sophia Le Fraga will present a three-panel work in the outdoor vitrine that overlays views of Barnsdall Art Park with library call cards, evoking the dynamics between municipal institutions and their publics. These programs offer visitors an opportunity to engage directly with artists and new work in a relaxed, evening setting.
About the Library
Heavy Manners is a lending library, gallery, and bookstore that seeks to provide a space for developing, sharing, and discussing artwork and creative practice. Because formal art education is increasingly becoming cost-prohibitive and inaccessible, Heavy Manners hopes to be an alternative resource. Our collection focuses on self and independently published books, zines, and other media. Additionally, the library works directly with artists and small publishers to make overlooked, out-of-print, and hard-to-find media accessible. After signing up for one of our membership options, members receive a library card and can borrow books from the library. Visitors are welcome to browse or scan our collection during our open hours. In tandem with the mission of the lending library, Heavy Manners also presents events and gallery shows in our exhibit space, theater, and classroom. With these programs, we hope to create opportunities for budding artists to share their work and for established artists to experiment with new projects. We prioritize programming that provides educational opportunities for those in the community.
About The Artist
Sophia Le Fraga (b. 1990) is an interdisciplinary artist and poet whose work investigates the evolution and impact of language through objects, images, and poetry. Known for blending digital and analog forms, Le Fraga’s art explores the traces that language leaves over time. She has exhibited and performed internationally at institutions including MOCA Los Angeles, MoMA PS1, Camden Arts Centre (UK), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Geneva), and PERFORMA15. Le Fraga’s writing has appeared in Best American Experimental Writing, BOMB Magazine, Texte zur Kunst, and Dazed. She is the founding editor of No Issue, one-third of Grupo Ñ, and a member of the international artist group Collective Task. In Los Angeles, where she resides, Le Fraga co-curates he Language Garden series alongside Joseph Mosconi and Corina Copp. Her practice foregrounds language’s adaptability and resonance within contemporary art and culture.
