STUDIO DDLA
Día de los muertos
Opening nov 1st
Studio DDLA and Arvia Projects are proud to present "Día De Los Muertos", an event honoring the ancient Mesoamerican tradition of grieving, remembering, and celebrating loved ones who have passed on to the spirit world.
The show will center a large, collaborative ofrenda (offering altar), featuring artworks and mementos that symbolize diverse ways of remembering those who have died. We are inviting the public to bring their own small, non-precious mementos to contribute to the ofrenda. We celebrate the idea that the practice of honoring death and communing with ancestors spans across cultures and countries and aim to foster open dialogues about mortality, grief, and life celebration through this collaboration.
Each artist brings their own perspective on loss and memory, offering viewers a chance to reflect on death not only as an end but as part of a larger continuum. From intimate tributes to cultural interpretations, this exhibition invites the public to engage in a conversation that spans across time, borders, and traditions.
This exclusive exhibition will be on display at Studio DDLA from November 1st-15th.
Meet our artistS
Noor Ahmed, she/her (b. Karachi, PK.) is a Los Angeles based artist whose work engages in cultural and diasporic storytelling as a South Asian Muslim. Noor spent most of her childhood in LA, growing up into a sort of cross culture that involved assimilation to American culture while retaining her dominant South Asian and Islamic heritage. Muslim garments such as the hijab she wore frequently as a child, and cultural roots reveal themselves through iconography in her work.
Claire Bernson is a Los Angeles-based artist whose practice spans realist and surrealist painting. Born in Connecticut, she received her BA in Art History from Skidmore College in 2017. Bernson balances her artistic practice with her role as a graphic designer in the non-profit sector, where she brings her creative vision to mission-driven organizations.
Alyson Brandes (she/her) is an LA-based artist using clay to establish connection to her Mexican American identity within the context of a suburban upbringing overwhelmed with consumerism. Art historical and anthropological studies inform her intentional choice in vessel shape, function, and decoration to elicit a contemporary familiarity to historical artifact. Each piece, stripped of its utilitarian ease, stands as a testimony to the enduring connection between her art and the mass commodity consumerism intrinsic to suburban life. In this synthesis of personal heritage and commercial critique, her work becomes a deliberate act of reclaiming ancestral connection to a heritage lost to modern assimilation.
Andrés Cortes is a first-generation Mexican/California Native. Born in Los Angeles’ Monterey Park in 1985. Obtained a BFA in Drawing and Painting, with a minor in Comparative World Literature from California State University, Long Beach in 2010. Currently resides and works in Los Angeles, California.
David Cortes
Jesús Cortes
Raina Lee (she/her) is a second generation Taiwanese-American artist working in sculpture, ceramic glaze experimentation, and mixed media painting. She is a self-taught artist and an accomplished writer and zine publisher. Her practice is in conversation with non-Western art, painting, and the history of ceramics. Drawing from classical Chinese and Greek ceramic forms and Song Dynasty glazes innovations, she explores bi-cultural identity and the erosion of time through surface and textured glazes. Lee’s work draws from science fiction, video games, and a Southern California immigrant upbringing, between Taiwan and her parents’ pizzaria in Torrance, California. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times: T Magazine, and MilK Decoration.
Ernesto Martinez (he/they) (b.1988) is a first-generation Salvadorean American born and raised in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. They currently live and work in Los Angeles as a therapist and multimedia creative. They completed their MA in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University, and BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Ernesto is a ‘community taught artist’ who has developed skills through learning from various community-oriented artists in Los Angeles. Through art they seek to interogate the proccess in which western psychology considers modern thought and research as the leading epistemological force in mental health, yet heavily incorporates and co-opts indigenous and non-western wisdom as a foundational driving force in theory and application. They explore themes of bearing witness, conectedness, intergenerational healing, symbolic integration, ancestral knowledge, and the proccess of becoming ‘one part of a whole’.
Siobhan McClure (she/her) Born in England, she is a narrative artist who lives in LA with the painter Greg Rose (her husband and sometimes collaborator). She has had solo shows at Rory Devine Fine Art, 101, Roswell Space, Richard Heller, Lara Schlesinger, and Jan Baum. Some venues that have recently included her work in group shows are Nathalie Karg Gallery, NYC; Track 16, Torrance Art Museum, Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Great Park Gallery, Launch LA, South Bay Contemporary, and Angels Gate’s Cultural Center. Her work contains a layering of multiple realities where the world of the spirit brushes up against the natural world. They are allegorical lamentations speaking of loss and regeneration, of time and how little we know.
Mike Nesbit is an architecturally trained artist and curator who's work traverses a wide range of landscapes, contexts, and typologies. Originally from Los Angeles, California he has worked across the United States and abroad on projects which thoughtfully and critically provoke and expand the concept of site. His extensive experience in design and construction enables him to navigate and execute work requiring complex collaboration and coordination while engaging and building community. Equally at ease painting in his studio, building three-dimensional computer models, or wielding a shovel with a team at a pre-cast concrete plant, Mike is a truly multi-faceted and interdisciplinary artist. Over the last decade he has curated over 75 exhibitions, self-published 6 books, and worked directly with over one hundred artists throughout the United States and abroad.
Alyssa Angelle Newsham (she/her), born in 1997, Creole from New Orleans, LA is a self taught artist and is now based in Los Angeles, CA. There are these moments when she’s looking down at her toes and she finds a piece of junk that lightens her day and illuminates her senses. There’s a mystery to each of their stories which heightens her curiosity. The forgotten, neglected, and lost treasures that collect dust and debris are compacted with a chain of narratives that fall short of a story waiting to be resurrected and adored. Through her assemblage of found objects, her other forms of mediums are heavily, yet delicately textured such as metal, wood, and concrete. She also predominantly highlights pistachio shells, corn, and driftwood; they feel the most delicate and vulnerable to her. The tales of each object coexist with vibrant colors and breeds a sense of wonder. They ignite a soulful connection and bring unity through each medium that resonates an emotion or inspires one to embrace their surroundings.
Kaitlyn Pietras, she/her (b. 1987 Jamestown, NY) is a queer LA-based visual artist & death doula with a background in architecture and stage design. Kaitlyn’s practice is rooted in the intersection of grief, death, and art. Her work has been showcased on stages and in unexpected places across the country as well as internationally - from the Metropolitan Opera to a parking garage in Detroit. Kaitlyn’s current artistic explorations involve alchemizing grief through the wisdom of the Jewish ancestral calendar, creating ritual objects & visual materials for each month.
Luis Ramírez (b. 1984) is a Central Coast artist whose work gives visibility to aspects of our everyday scenery that are invisible or overlooked by most passersby. Ramirez was born in Jalisco, was raised on a ranch in Santa Ynez, then attended Cal State Long Beach where he studied Art. Ramirez honed his skills in fine art and painting during study-abroad programs in Italy and China.
Born in Los Angeles, Lily Ramírez’s painting practice has always hinged on her fascination with the with paint. She began working in acrylics at a young age, experimenting alongside her father who supported her burgeoning practice. The pair moved across the US, living briefly in Montana and Wyoming before re-settling in LA. “Everything I’ve done is based on what he taught me. I had a beautiful, natural childhood,” she says. Ramirez attended Otis College of Art and Design to study painting as an undergraduate, where she studied under artists Meg Cranston, Scott Grieger, and Soo Kim. With her practice now fully evolved, Ramírez’s sumptuous paintings explore the physical limits of her chosen medium. Through richly textured surfaces and repetitive, methodical marks, the artist injects a playful vitality into her oil compositions, with paint strokes eking out the abstracted shapes of dangling tendrils in her backyard or the weaving lines of rivers, highways, and borders. The artist rarely mixes her pigments, instead relying on the panoply of monochromatic strokes to create meaning. Ramírez draws inspiration from her love of Los Angeles, her 3 year old son, and husband, all three of whom she loves – not in that order.
Michael Rollins' (he/him) practice explores storytelling, mythology, identity, and community through traditional studio practices and multimedia explorations. He creates immersive worlds that invite viewers to engage with the environment on a sensory and psychological level. His work draws from diverse mythological traditions and contemporary narratives. He works to create spaces that provoke thought and dialogue about our shared experiences and collective stories.
Daniel Paul Schubert lives and works between the land & the city.
Lucien Shapiro, he/him, was born in 1979, in Santa Rosa, CA. He attended San Francisco Academy of Art University and received a BFA in 2003. He primarily creates sculptures focusing on masks, protection objects, and vessels. Most recently, the objects he creates are being utilized in various symbolic rituals that are performed and filmed. After a few years traveling for projects and Residencies held in NYC, Detroit, Los . Angeles, and New Mexico, he has since moved to Mount Shasta, CA as a home base. Continuing world travel while in which to explore environments and space. His current works use similar methods in building, but are applied to wall and ceiling-hung works. Employing the theories of natural growth such as branches, root systems, and crystals, his work continues circling around to similar conclusions: that the end result is the same no matter what the work is; it always leads to personal growth and self-realization.
Anna Valdez (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist who examines the relationship between objects, cultural formation, and collective consciousness. Creating epic tableaux in her studio, Valdez moves seamlessly between still life and landscape painting as she collects objects and makes new ones—throwing, firing, and glazing new ceramic vessels inspired by ideas for paintings, new plants or taxidermy, recent trips, or works in progress. Toggling between collection, creation, observation, and fictionalization, Valdez works with saturated hues and surprising scale shifts to communicate an abstract temporality. Layering the personal with the historical in dense compositions that collapse foreground and background, Valdez’s compositions resemble immersive installations.
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Studio DDLA
Nestled in the heart of Los Angeles’ Historic Chinatown, Studio DDLA stands as a pioneering space dedicated to death work in the United States.
As a cornerstone of Historic Chinatown, our studio continues the rich tradition of artistic expression that has thrived in this neighborhood since the late 1990s. Originating with the Black Dragon Society, a collective of Art Center College of Design students, this community has long been a hub for emerging artists and innovative galleries. With Studio DDLA, we honor this legacy by providing a platform for local artists and members of our vibrant death doula collective community to showcase their work.
Beyond our commitment to showcasing diverse artistic perspectives, Studio DDLA offers a versatile space for photographers, videographers, event organizers, and more. From immersive art exhibitions to dynamic multi-day events, our studio welcomes a range of creative endeavors.
For gallery use, screenings, photography, video shoots, retreats & other multi-day or closed events, please submit your proposal below. Rental pricing will be determined based on event application.
Questions can be directed to admin@deathdoulala.com.
Hours
by appointment only
Address
944 Chung King Rd
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Submit your proposal
This form is for gallery use, screenings, photography, video shoots, retreats & other multi-day or closed events.