February 14, 2025
Despite the fires Los Angeles is determined to put on a show for the Artworld several art fairs are opening next week and lots of exhibitions – below are nine exhibitions to see in Los Angeles during the art week.
Karma – Woody De Othello – Tuning the Dial– Opens February 19th
Karma presents Tuning the Dial, Woody De Othello’s first exhibition in Los Angeles. For Tuning the Dial, Othello creates an offering for reflection through an immersive installation of ceramic and bronze sculpture, works on paper and canvas, light, sand, and a commissioned ambient soundscape titled Vire Sab—“turning sand” in Haitian creole—by Othello’s frequent collaborator Cheflee. The title of the show is inspired by the invisible frequencies that we carry in our emotions as humans. “Emotion is energy in motion,” explains Othello, “felt rather than seen, almost like wave lengths or sound reverberations.” As visitors navigate the installation’s multiple elements, they are encouraged to participate in a collaboration between body and environment that recalibrates their internal compass, tuning the emotional dial.
Upon entering the exhibition, viewers encounter three bronze sculptures of hands, ears, feet, horns, and speaker cones that blur the line between the human figure and sonic technology. Morphological and linguistic connections between instruments and the body—ears and drums, horns and necks—manifest as visual puns and slippages. inner knowing (2025) is a totemic stack of interwoven appendages topped with an open palm adorned with a single listening ear. The curving necks of the horns in Involution (2025) reach down to the pedestal before swerving up and snaking around each other, while in Capacity (2025), speaker cones branch off like limbs from a central trunk. Here, Othello advocates for a collapse of any distinction between seeing, hearing, and feeling; for an emphatic openness to the emotions of the other; for an experience of art that informs a new sensitivity to messages from an invisible realm. Like the ritual objects of the Dogon that are among his many inspirations, these works are imbued with energy that transcends the earthly realm. Cheflee’s soundscape of flutes, percussion, and synthesizer softly circling around each other amplifies the viewer’s awareness of the connection between visuality, corporeality, and the sonic.
