PhillipsX and Penske Projects are pleased to announce L.A. Woman, a group exhibition featuring contemporary and established women artists who have lived and worked in Southern California, from Vija Celmins and Mary Corse to Kate Pincus-Whitney, Hiejin Yoo, Jessica Taylor Bellamy, and Jay Lynn Gomez. The title L.A. Woman is inspired by late author, visual artist, and Los Angeles icon, Eve Babitz, a reference to her 1982 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Just as Los Angeles was Babitz’s eternal muse, L.A. Woman endeavors to explore the specific ways this unique city has shaped the identity of multiple generations of female artists and continues to influence and inspire the practices of artists living and working in the city today.
On the occasion of the exhibition, artist Aidan Romick illustrates some of Eve’s favorite haunts situated in close proximity to Phillips Los Angeles.
Eve Babitz's Los Angeles
Los Angeles was Eve Babitz’s eternal muse. Her evocative stories capture the uniqueness of a city she describes as “a humid jungle alive with seething L.A. projects.” Her deeply personal portrayals of the city’s most famous landmarks are vivid, compelling, and always come from a place of unconditional love.
Eve frequented two famed hotels — the Chateau Marmont and the Beverly Hills Hotel. She describes drinking “gorgeous Bloody Marys with an Irish love in the Polo Lounge at 3 pm.” The lounge was typically empty by this time as “the serious movie people had returned to the hills after their business lunches.” She remembers standing “on the little balcony almost all of the rooms at the Chateau have and overlooking the city in what would become a salmon sunset.”
Kate Pincus-Whitney, LA Woman: With the Eyes You Gave to Me, 2023. L.A. Woman.
The Troubador and Whisky a Go Go were clubs that came to define L.A.’s rock scene, and Eve was a fixture at both iconic venues. Jim Morrison (perhaps Eve’s most famous lover) and the Doors worked as the house band at the Whisky, and she first met a young banjo-playing comic Steve Martin, at the Troubador. Another one of Eve’s frequent watering holes was the storied artist's bar in West Hollywood, Barney’s Beanery, where she imbibed with the likes of Ed Ruscha, Ed Moses, and Ken Price.
Hiejin Yoo, Melting Spot, 2023. L.A. Woman.
Something of an unsung food writer, Eve’s descriptions of the cuisine at her favorite L.A. restaurants are some of her most captivating. Depicted by Romick are red sauce-stalwart, Dan Tana’s, the place she described as where “everybody picks each other up and eats garlic,” and Canter’s Deli, the West Hollywood staple where revelers from the Sunset Strip would find late-night sustenance.
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Exhibition /
PhillipsX and Penske Projects
L.A. Woman
On View 23 March – 20 April
Phillips Los Angeles
9041 Nemo St, Los Angeles, CA 90069 (map)