This is an LAArtParty “Must See” exhibition!

“The Emerald Tablet,” a solo exhibition and curatorial project by artist and native Los Angeleno Ariana Papademetropoulos, opened at Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles on September 4, 2021, and runs through October 23, 2021.

Ariana Papademetropoulos, A Mellow Drama (2021), oil on canvas, 84 x 120 inches

Drawing inspiration from Los Angeles’s unique aesthetic, the exhibition celebrates the intersection of the occult and the magic of set design, blurring the world of cinema and the great beyond. Papademetropoulos is in dialogue with a rich history of artists enraptured by alchemy at the heart of Hollywood—a portal to another world.

The exhibition is modeled on Dorothy’s quest to The Emerald City in Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz” and invokes its iconography to ignite the dialogue between esotericism and popular culture. As a fervent Theosophist, a religious movement that flourished in Los Angeles at the turn of the century, Baum’s Emerald City is a reference to “The Emerald Tablet of Hermes,” an ancient text that formed the foundations of alchemy and all subsequent western occult traditions.

Throughout the exhibition are works by artists that speak to the art of transmutation, including: Isabelle Albuquerque, Theodora Allen, Jean-Marie Appriou, Beck, Lucy Bull, Marjorie Cameron, Leonora Carrington, Sedrick Chisom, Henry Darger, Hugh Hayden, Mike Kelley, Friedrich Kunath, Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman, Jill Mulleady, Raúl de Nieves, Precious Okoyomon, Luigi Ontani, Ariana Papademetropoulos, Agnes Pelton, Jim Shaw, Henry Taylor, Gus Van Sant, Alix Vernet, Marnie Weber, Ambera Wellmann, Jordan Wolfson, and Unarius.

On view: September 4 – October 23, 2021

What: “The Emerald Tablet,” Ariana Papademetropoulos
Where: Jeffrey Deitch, 925 North Orange Drive, LA
Website: http://deitch.com