Carlos Agredano / Anais Franco / David Horvitz / Amalia Irons / Leona Johnson / Douglas Kirkland / Judee Sill / John Tottenham
Curated by Sophie Appel
September 13 through December 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13 | 5 to 8pm
Curator remarks at 4:30pm
Press Release
“How do you carry yourself?”
“Like a city.”
– Joe Pesci (Dream Fragment)
Drawing its title from a dream encounter I had with Joe Pesci, Like a City begins not with a map but with an orientation, with a moment in time, a truth in turn of phrase, a facade. The fabric of Los Angeles is designed and upkept by the people inside of it, in the way that Hollywood is a city within the city built on fiction. As a place, it is as real as it is made up, constructed by casts and sets, those who build them, and those who grow and sell the food on the verdant landscapes that cradle the county. The line between reality and reality in its own image is thin.
Like a City opens within a scene: Liz Taylor’s chandelier, a blue couch, white carpet, fresh tulips, Elvis Presley’s bowling trophy. Across from the couch, a film, The Caretaker by Amalia Irons, plays on loop. The film follows Louis, the caretaker of an old Hollywood Hills mansion, who, after hearing the news of his boss’s death, has a nervous breakdown and a house party.
Read Sophie Appel’s full curatorial statement and learn more about each artist included in Like a City here.