Well kids, it’s another Saturday night. May 17, 2025 Art Parties and Events include a celebration at the Music Center, the Beverly Hills Art Fair, the LAABF 2025, a Japanese Food fest. Needless to say, there are many art openings as well as art talks, theater and dance – over 18 events!
May 17, 2025 Art Parties & Events
The 2025 Spring Beverly Hills Art Show takes place today and tomorrow. Enjoy all types of art, and purchase directly from the artist. Stop by the wine garden while you are there. It’s a great place to meet up with friends. LAArtParty.com has been a sponsor since 2011. Read more about the event on our 2025 Spring Beverly Hills Art Show Event Feature. Event: 10am-6pm; Beverly Gardens, 9455 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210; https://beverlyhills.org
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At the Santa Monica Pier, Konamon Fest 2025 takes place today and tomorrow. The food festival celebrates Japanese street food culture and MATSURI atmosphere. Enjoy food, sake, as well as cultural experiences via live performances. Event: 11am-8pm; Visit the website for more info, and to purchase tickets; Santa Monica Pier, 200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, 90401; https://www.konamonfest.com/
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Printed Matter Inc. hosts its book fair at a new location. LAABF 2025 is taking place at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Read more about the event on the Printed Matter LAABF 2025 Feature.
Event: 11am-7pm; Admission $5; Printed Matter’s LAABF 2025, ArtCenter College of Design, 950 S. Raymond Ave., 870 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91105; https://printedmatterartbookfairs.org
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Later in Beverly Hills…M+B hosts an opening art party City to the Sea, an exhibition of works by artist, Bill Jacklin. This marks Jacklin’s first solo presentation with the gallery. In true British spirit, the gallery will be serving tea, coffee, scones, and a selection of sweet treats. Art Party: 2-6pm; M+B, 612 North Almont Drive, LA, 90069; https://www.mbart.com/
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Hollywood
Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles (PAC LA), with the support of Eastman Museum Los Angeles, is pleased to present its second Year of the Woman event, Why A Photobook? Los Angeles Modern Auctions will host a panel discussion featuring photographers Mona Kuhn and Elena Dorfman, Getty Library photography curator Isotta Poggi, and photography collector Marjorie Ornston.
Drawing from the Getty Library’s current pop-up exhibition of global photobooks by women, PAC LA’s panel discussion will highlight notable photobooks by Southern California women artists published after 2000. Additionally this interactive discussion will welcome audience participation as the panel explores many of the questions that photo artists face today. Art Talk: 1pm; Register for the FREE PAC LA event HERE. Los Angeles Modern Auctions, 6666 Lexington Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038; https://paclosangeles.com/
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Downtown
The Ahmanson Theatre presents Life of Pi a winner of three Tony Awards® as well as the Olivier Award for Best Play. It is a stirring fantasy style tale of wonder and adventure. Lolita Chakrabarti has an adapted dazzling stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel (over 15 million copies sold). The show opened to critical acclaim on Broadway and the West End. It is attracting audiences from around the world. The plot features a shipwrecked sixteen-year-old boy named Pi. He survives on a lifeboat with four other companions—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The magical story is unpredictable and the performance includes extraordinary puppetry and also stunning visuals
Life of Pi – Anna Leigh Gortner, Shiloh Goodin, Toussaint Jeanlouis and Taha Mandviwala in the national tour cast
To find out additional info, see the Life of Pi Preview Feature. Two Performances: 2pm and 8pm; Admission starts at $40.25; The Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., LA 90012; https://www.centertheatregroup.org
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More downtown…
Join Gallery Luisotti for an artist talk with CJ Heyliger. The artist will discuss his current solo exhibition Minding Time as well as works in his most recent series Horizon Studies. Art Talk: 2-3pm; Gallery Luisotti, 818 S Broadway #1001, LA 90014, Building door code: #4104; https://galleryluisotti.com/
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Vielmetter Los Angeles invites guests to attend a conversation between artist Jared McGriff and curator Ronel Similien. The art talk takes place in Gallery IV in conjunction with McGriff’s solo exhibition The Stakes are Myself also opening tonight. At 4pm the official opening art party for two new exhibitions take place. These include: Whitney Bedford: Sunsetting as well as Jared McGriff: The Stakes are Myself. Art Party: 4-6pm; Vielmetter Los Angeles, 1700 S Santa Fe Ave #101, Los Angeles, CA 90021; https://vielmetter.com
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The Music Center’s On the Record: Vinyl Fair is the ultimate destination for #vinylvibes! The eclectic outdoor hangout returns for a third year on Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center to dig into Angelenos’ discovery and love of vinyl records. Held in collaboration with The Music Center’s Partner Network Initiative (PNI), the fair will feature over 16 vendors selling a variety of music genres, cool art-making and interactive activities, live DJs dropping beats, a mix CD swap and so much more. Furthermore, attendees can enjoy a sound bath-meets-music lounge inside The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Chill at the onsite bar, enjoy local fare and connect with fellow music lovers as well as vinyl enthusiasts and collectors! Event: 4-8pm; Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., LA 90012; https://www.musiccenter.org
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Glendale
Brand Library & Art Center continues its dance series with Volta Collective. This dance troupe fuses physicality, theatricality as well as multidisciplinary approaches to performance. Directed by Mamie Green, Volta has performed and taught across the US, Europe, and the UK and is the recipient of several grants. 
Volta has been commissioned and presented at the Laguna Art Museum, East Miami Hotel, Neutra House VDL, Loyola Marymount University, Hosek Contemporary, Museum of Neon Art, and also Brooklyn Center Theatre Research, just to name a few. The company will perform “Loneliness Triptych: Excerpt,” which explores contemporary isolation through three interconnected vignettes.
Performance: 5pm; Brand Library & Art Center, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale, CA 91201; https://www.brandlibrary.org/
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In Mid City…DMST Atelier presents Crusting: Cara Rae Joven and Lauren Goldenberg Longoria. In this two-person exhibition, the artists explore the porous boundaries between surface and weight, body and land, beauty and abjection. Across sculpture, performance, video, and paper-based works, the artists investigate how histories are carried, how forms are shaped by time, and how matter remembers. Art Party: 5-8pm; DMST Atelier, 4614 W Washington Blvd, LA, 90016; https://www.dmstatelier.com
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Santa Monica
Exposing Pasithea, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Rachel Berkowitz opens at Gallery 612. The show will feature various themes of sleep, dreams, and the feminine psyche through large-scale oil paintings. Art Party: 5-8pm; Gallery 612., 612 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401; https://www.gallery612.com/
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Plus we have a few openings at Bergamot Station…
Richard Heller Gallery throws an opening art party to celebrate new exhibitions. The two solo shows include Natalie Wadlington: Pot-Bound as well Kyle Coniglio: No More I Love You’s. Art Party: 3-5pm; Richard Heller Gallery, 2525 Michigan Avenue B-5A, Santa Monica, 90404; https://www.richardhellergallery.com
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Another at Bergamot…bG Gallery and Korean American Artist Collective presents Dreams in Migrations, a compelling group exhibition featuring seven LA based AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) contemporary artists. Dreams in Migrations becomes an engagement of adaptation and creative endurance. Artists include: Chrissy Hsieh, Bryan Ida, David Young Kim, Mei Xian Qiu Mike Saijo, Tia Xia, and Miki Yokoyama. Art Party: 4-7pm; bG Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave #A2, Santa Monica, CA 90405; https://santamonica.bgartdealings.com
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Also at Bergamot Station…Lois Lambert Gallery celebrates two new exhibitions with an opening art party tonight. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Hillary Gruenberg is an LA based artist who was mentored by Tom Wudl. She has studied painting at Otis College of Art and Design, in addition to Santa Monica College. Her artwork incorporates a variety of assemblage utilizing tactile materials, including paper, leather, fabric, paint, metal leaf, and sewing.
Hillary Gruenberg, To Become One Thing, mixed media, 36” x 60”
Also opening in the Project Room is PNOSA (Paul Nosa). The artist is originally from Tuscon, Arizona. He is self-taught in drawing, painting, music, and sewing. Art Party: 6-9pm; Lois Lambert Gallery, Bergamot Station, E-3, 2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, 90404; http://www.loislambertgallery.com
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West Hollywood
Louis Stern Fine Arts debuts Mark Leonard: Common Threads. This selection of paintings provides a comprehensive view of Leonard’s artistic development throughout his career and also highlights his unique synthesis of intellectual and emotional approaches to painting. Art Party: 5-7pm; Louis Stern Fine Arts, 9002 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, 90069; https://www.louissternfinearts.com
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Downtown
Game Time opens at the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery tonight. The group show features new works by 20 artists. Art Party: 6-8pm; Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, 1923 S. Santa Fe Ave., LA, 90021; https://abigailogilvy.com/
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One more Downtown in the Bendix building…515 Gallery hosts a closing art party for FICTIONAL PRESS POETRY which features work by poet/artist collaborators as well as poet artists. The group show is curated by Carolie Parker who re-conceptualizes the literary journal and affords some distance on the standard practice of publishing poetry in the small press.
Artists include: John David O’Brien & Molly Bendall; Gail Wronsky & Gronk Nicandro; Mei Xian Qiu & Jeremy Ra; Lisa Bloomfield & Rod Moore; Nam Hoang Tran; Eve Wood; Martha Ronk; Ramón Garcia; Laura Parker; Carolie Parker; Eve Luckring; Diane Ward; Robert Kingston. Art Party: 7-9pm; 515, 1206 Maple Ave., #515, LA, 90015; https://www.515bendix.com
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LA Theater
Skylight Theatre Company continues its run of Tracy Young’s modern verse translation of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. Moreover the legendary play has been reimagined in an accessible, 90-minute modern English translation adapted by Young and Lisa Wolpe. Young directs as she retells her version of the iconic story about love, loss, and rebirth.
Performance: 8:30pm; Regular shows are priced between $20-$42 (students: $20; seniors: $35.) Preview tickets are priced at $15+. There are a limited number of Pay-What-You-Can tickets to any performance, using code ACCESS (advance sale only). Visit the website for more info. Skylight Theatre, 1816 ½ N. Vermont Ave, LA 90027; https://www.skylighttheatre.org
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For additional art exhibitions, and performances as well as culinary events, see LAArtParty’s Upcoming Events Page.
Read more about Arts and Entertainment throughout the world on our sister site EatTravelGo.com, an art inspired travel site.
Or enjoy artist / gallerist interviews on our Art Talk Page also on ETG.
