Summer 26

Steven Durland

Olivia Gibian

Andrés Janacua

Jeremy Jansen

Hea-Mi Kim

Kyle Knodell

Seanna Latiff 

Natalie Lerner

Ruhee Maknojia

Tucker Neel

Never Work

Joshua Oduga

Maddy Peters

Carolyn Lockhart Schoerner

Joshua Smith

Pilar Wiley

Opening Reception:
Saturday, June 27, 2026, 5pm-late

839 is pleased to announce Summer 26, the gallery’s third annual group exhibition, bringing together represented artists, invited collaborators, and friends. Coinciding with the gallery’s second anniversary, the exhibition offers a snapshot of the program at this moment. 

The show is organized around a network of relationships that has developed through the gallery over the past two years. Many of the artists share longstanding connections, as well as overlapping interests and approaches. Across the exhibition, symbolism and narrative appear alongside practices rooted in abstraction and material reduction. Recurring concerns with community, labor, displacement, public life, and the built environment emerge in different forms from artist to artist.

Some pieces feel especially resonant at this time. The gallery is proud to include a work by Steven Durland, for example, who exhibited his Inflation Gauge series at Highways Performance Space in January, and passed away at the age of 76 in March. Alongside his art practice, Durland was a writer and longtime editor of High Performance magazine (1978-1997), a seminal publication founded in Los Angeles that explored the rise of non-commercial experimental practice and functioned as a hub for artists. 

Within this broader field, Seanna Latiff’s 355 bullets fired into the car where Hind Rajab and her family tried to flee. What happens now? (2026), a small pencil drawing hung conspicuously low on the wall, depicts the compact hatchback car where 5-year-old Rajab and her family were killed by the Israel Defense Forces in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza city in January 2024. Since the escalation of the Israeli/US-led genocide in Palestine, Latiff’s work has responded to the ongoing loss of life and displacement, locating acts of witnessing in materially modest forms. The size and positioning of her rendering is intended as commentary on the push of highly visible atrocities toward the margins of public consciousness. The viewer is implicated through this visual evidence, regardless of whether they choose to look.

The work appears amid an expanding regional war stretching beyond Palestine into Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the material infrastructures underwriting these conflicts are deeply embedded within everyday life in Southern California. GKN’s recent chemical leak in Garden Grove is a reminder that the consequences of war-making are not confined to distant realms. As it has since its founding, 839 calls for an immediate end to the Israeli/US occupation of Palestine.

20% of sales from the exhibition will be donated to London-based mutual aid group The Sameer Project, working to support displaced families in Gaza since early 2024, and established in memory of Gaza-born farmer Sameer Abu Salim (1943-2024).

Artist Biographies

Steven Durland (b. 1951, Long Beach, CA, d. 2026, Saxapahaw, NC) was an artist, writer, editor, and cultural organizer whose work was central to the development of performance and socially engaged art. Trained as a ceramic artist (BFA, University of South Dakota; MFA, University of Massachusetts Amherst), his practice encompassed performance, mail art, installation, and independent publishing. His writing (essays, interviews, and criticism) appeared most notably in High Performance magazine, where he served as editor (1986-1994) and co-editor (1995-1997). With founder Linda Frye Burnham, he co-edited the 1998 High Performance anthology The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena (1998) and co-founded Art in the Public Interest, advancing community-based artistic practice. His solo exhibition Inflation Gauge was on view at Highways Performance Space, Los Angeles, in early 2026.

Olivia Gibian (b. 1988, Selma, AL) is an artist living in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. She has exhibited at the VAMA Gallery of Los Angeles City College (Los Angeles), Utopia (Kingston, NY), Other Places art fair (OPaf, San Pedro), Treasure Town (Brooklyn), and William King Museum of Art (Abingdon, VA). She is the lead vocalist in the LA-based punk band, Never Work, and plays synthesizer in noise improv trio, Star World. 839 will present a second solo exhibition in Los Angeles in fall 2026.

Andrés Janacua (b. 1982, possibly Los Angeles). P’Urhépecha. Received a BFA from the University of Southern California and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. He was an artist in residence at Core, MFAH (Houston), Queens Museum (New York), SOMA (Mexico City), and more. He has exhibited at Rio Hondo Art Gallery (Whittier, CA), CSUN Art Galleries (Northridge, CA), Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles), KITA (Culver City), Elephant Art Space (Los Angeles), Shelter in Place (Boston, MA), Vitrine (Albuquerque, NM), and Commonwealth and Council (Los Angeles). He currently resides in Los Angeles, and works at times in Chilchota, Michoacán. 839 will present a second solo exhibition in Los Angeles in February 2027. 

Jeremy Jansen (b. 1979, Calgary, Alberta) studied at Langara College of Art in Vancouver, where he developed an enduring interest in the relationship between built environments and human behavior. His work explores the tension between architecture and personal agency, examining how ostensibly “open” urban spaces are shaped by invisible systems of control. His work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Toronto, Winnipeg, Paris, and Copenhagen. Jansen lives and works in Los Angeles.

Hea-Mi Kim (b. 1993, Detroit) is currently based in Los Angeles. Merging the techniques of painting and collage, her practice focuses on compiling a two dimensional surface through gestures of adding and subtracting. Each composition goes through multiple stages of painting, experimenting, collaging, and cutting holes, with each step leaving its trace behind. Kim received a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2018 and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2021. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Los Angeles including Sidecar, Móran Móran, Artist Curated Projects, and Central Server Works.

Kyle Knodell (b. 1984, Indianapolis) is a fine art and commercial photographer living in New York and Berlin. Photographing both personal and public spaces, his work is a search for an alignment of light, form, and feeling within his surroundings. He seeks to capture the often-overlooked everyday objects that populate our built and natural environments, imbuing them with a sense of reverence and beauty. He has exhibited in various group shows in New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles, and has had a solo show at the Public Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2008. His solo exhibition, Heavy Woods, is on view at 839 through June 20, 2026.

Seanna Latiff (b. 2000, Trinidad and Tobago) is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Los Angeles. Her work navigates fragmented memory and myth to trace the emotional and historical contours of diaspora, grief, and survival. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Southern California and has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA), Catalyst Gallery (Irvine, CA), and Good Mother Gallery, the Fisher Museum of Art, Ruscha & Co, Band of Vices, and the Kerckhoff Art Gallery (all Los Angeles, CA). She contributed curatorial support to group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, including The Infinite Rehearsal (2023) and Speaking in Tongues (2026). She recently independently curated Shuhūd (Witnesses) at Monte Vista Projects in Los Angeles, a group exhibition featuring over 100 works by more than 40 artists, alongside a corresponding benefit auction supporting the Sameer Project’s Rebuild Gaza campaign.

Natalie Lerner (b. 1992, Sarasota, FL) Lerner received her BFA from Ringling College of Art & Design in 2014. She attended the AICAD/NY Independent Study Program in 2013. In 2023, she was a resident at the Orein Arts in Upstate NY. Lerner has presented her work in solo and two-person exhibitions at Mouse Gallery (Detroit); Parent Company (Brooklyn); Left Field Gallery (Los Osos, CA); Arts Center Sarasota (FL); 4ws (Los Angeles); and Secret Floor (Brooklyn). She has also exhibited in group exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally, including at The Carnegie (Covington, KY); September Gallery (Kinderhook, NY); Picture Theory Gallery (New York); Underdonk (Brooklyn); Stockton University (Galloway, NJ); Camayuhs (Atlanta, GA); Art Cake (Brooklyn); Kunstraum Super (Vienna, Austria); Feinkunst Krüger (Hamburg, Germany); Underground Flower x PeePee Gallery (Fremantle, Australia); and Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA). 839 will present a second solo exhibition in Los Angeles in April 2027. 

Ruhee Maknojia (b. 1993, Houston) is a painter, animator, and installation artist based in Houston. Her work explores how literature, philosophy, history, and legal systems undergo fragmentation when transferred across new frameworks. She earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2019 and is Dean at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2024, she was the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she also served as visiting faculty. Selected exhibitions include Subliminal Projects (Los Angeles), Women & Their Work (Austin), the Lenfest Center for the Arts and LeRoy Neiman Center for the Arts (New York), and Rice University Moody Center for the Arts, Asia Society Texas, and Anya Tish Gallery (Houston). Her solo exhibition, Ornamental Drift, was recently on view at 839.

Tucker Neel (b. 1980, Washington, D.C.) lives and works in Los Angeles. His practice uses disruption and redirection to examine how ideology is encoded in overlooked objects, communication systems, and aesthetic conventions. He received a BA from Occidental College and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, where he is an Associate Professor in the Liberal Arts & Sciences department. In addition to unaffiliated public projects, he has exhibited at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Samuel Freeman, and Control Room (Los Angeles), and Ogge (Brussels). He has curated exhibitions for CB1 Gallery, Highways Performance Space, and the Tom of Finland Foundation (Los Angeles). Neel’s work has been reviewed in the L.A. Times, L.A. Weekly, Artforum, and Art21 Magazine. He has written for Artillery, X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal, ARTLIES, Artpulse, and The L.A. Alternative Press. He was founder and director of 323Projects, an experimental exhibition venue for participatory, sound-based works. 839 will present a solo exhibition in Los Angeles in November 2027. 

Never Work is a Los Angeles-based punk band formed in September 2023 by Nick Earhart, Olivia Gibian, Liz Hirsch, and Joshua Smith. To date, Never Work has neither performed live nor released recorded material. Their first EP is anticipated in fall of 2026. 

Joshua Oduga (b. 1987, Providence) is a first-generation Nigerian American interdisciplinary artist, curator, gallery director, and writer based between Los Angeles and London. His artistic, curatorial, and research practices focus on archives, alternative histories, oral and musical traditions, exhibition systems, and the relationship between contemporary art, performance, and infrastructure. His work has been exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum, PAM, Durden and Ray, and the Claremont Colleges. He has curated and organized exhibitions and public programs with Art + Practice, the Hammer Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Various Small Fires, and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. In 2021, Oduga co-founded Central Server Works with Rachael Oduga as an artist-run gallery, publishing house, and interdisciplinary production platform focused on exhibitions, publishing, film, sound, and performance. Oduga holds an MFA in Fine Art and an MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University, and will begin a PhD in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in fall 2026.

Maddy Peters (b. 1996, Vancouver) is a cartoonist living in Los Angeles. She writes and draws comics exploring surreal derailments of the status quo. Alongside her personal sequential work, she has created posters, comics, and illustrations for organizations like the Los Angeles Tenants Union, People's City Council, NOlympics, Solidarity and Snacks, and Albert Corado's 2020 LA city council campaign. Her work has been published by Zine-O-Matic, Midcult, and Junior High LA. She has participated in Comic Arts Los Angeles, LA Zine Fest, San Francisco Zine Fest, Orange County  Zine Fest, and the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival. Her comics can be found at Silver Sprocket (San Francisco), Sour Cherry (San Francisco), Golden Apple (Los Angeles), Chevalier’s Books (Los Angeles), and Lucky’s Books (Vancouver). She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 2018. Her solo exhibition at 839 is scheduled for January 2027.

Carolyn Lockhart Schoerner (b. 1982, Lansing, MI) is an artist, dancer, and choreographer living in Brooklyn. She received her ballet training from the Kirov Academy of Ballet and her BA in Art History from Indiana University. Examining dance within domestic settings, she explores ballet intimately, allowing it to serve as a performative, diaristic view of life. Her video pieces have been screened at Lubov (New York) and Ed. Varie (New York). She has also performed collaboratively with various artists at Cleopatra’s (Brooklyn), Simone Subal (New York), Essex Flowers (New York), Signal (Brooklyn), and Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA). Her solo exhibition, A Dance in Two Acts, was on view at 839 this past winter.

Joshua Smith (b. 1983, Houston) is an artist based in Los Angeles. He attended the AICAD New York Studio Program in 2004 and received a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit in 2005. He has had solo exhibitions at Albert Baronian (Brussels), Essex Flowers, SOUTHFIRST, Shoot the Lobster, PACS Gallery, West Street Gallery, Art Production Fund, Artists Space, and John Connelly Presents (all New York). His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at Leroy’s Happy Place (Los Angeles), MoMA PS1 (New York), and White Flag Projects (St. Louis), and has been written about in ARTnews, Artforum, Interview, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. His solo exhibition with 839 will open August 29, 2026.

Pilar Wiley (b. 1976, Tacoma, WA) is an artist in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Visual Art from Brown University. Solo exhibitions include A Push Can Make Falling at Alto Beta (Los Angeles) and Whitesnake at Orthodox (Los Angeles). She has appeared in group exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, and internationally, and has been a resident artist at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, and the Expressive Computation Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Accessibility and Parking: For the opening reception, we recommend public transit or parking in front of Bancroft Middle School on Las Palmas Ave., a short walk from the gallery. Please note that the gallery has a porch with four steps.