It’s the 18th Street Art Center‘s birthday. The Santa Monica art center began in 1988 as the headquarters for High Performance magazine and soon grew to provide live-work spaces for approximately 30 tenants from a variety of backgrounds. Now 18th Street is a thriving exhibition and residency space and it’s celebrating its 20 year mark with an exhibition curated by Ciara Ennis.

The exhibition opened on May 2nd with an lively ArtNight (the center often hosts ‘ArtNights,’ evenings that feature performances, screenings, or happenings). 18th Streets studios were open to the public, a performance by the LA Poverty Department, Art Karaoke, and a graffiti demonstration.

The exhibition in the main gallery, Cults, Collectives and Cocooning, imagines an LA of the near future, one in which the suburban sprawl is subverted by a return to self-reliant, village-like communities. The work included is low-tech with a Do-It-Yourself aesthetic: William Ransom’s transient compost cart, Nuttaphol Ma‘s lemongrass tearoom, Cathy Akers’ diorama made of cake. It’s a fugitively optimistic array of work that doesn’t pioneer a new path into the future as much as it reminds us of the sustainable options that are already available to us.

Currently on view at SHAHEEN Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio is a solo exhibition of work by Craig Kucia, entitled we left with our hearts tired. Kucia’s paintings offer entree into a dreamy land of nostalgia, memory and curiosity– a virtual huddle of memories rendered in bright crayola hues. He renders scenes that appear innocent and playful at first, because of their cheery palette and storybook imagery, but we soon find that within the paintings hide layers of deeper meaning and even somber sensibilities. The quirky titles paired with the paintings will most often confound you if your goal is to use them as a reference point for deeper understanding into what is offered visually. Taken from lines that the artist has overheard in conversation or song, or read throughout the years, the seemingly nonsensical phrases are works of art in and of themselves, rather than simple captions for the paintings they give name to. They are poetic pieces, almost designating Kucia’s paintings multi-media by offering another layer to their construction. We left with our hearts tired is on view through June 5th.

Craig Kucia studied art at the Chelsea School of Art in London and the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his MFA at the Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work is in the permanent collections of the Miami Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. He has exhibited at Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami; Blum & Poe, in their Santa Monica space; Marlborough Chelsea, New York and Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, among others.

Amongst the labyrinth of booths at this year’s Art Chicago is Partisan, a special exhibition of works that explore social and political ideas. Selected from Art Chicago and NEXT galleries by guest curator Mary Jane Jacob, independent curator and director of exhibitions at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Partisan works represent a multitude of political ideas and positions from around the world.

According to Jacob, “It is no wonder in this day and age that artists are reengaging one of the most critical subjects in art: the political and social climate, war and survival. Such human dramas that shape destiny have always existed in the history of art, but they are not usually found, no less highlighted, in the environment of an art fair. So this year’s “Partisan” show is evidence of inescapable concerns on everyone’s minds and which have a place in every sector of the art world.”

While Partisan offers global insights, the exhibition is anchored by the inclusion of politically-oriented works by American artists such Philip Evergood, who is known for practicing a brand of Social Realism in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as prolific artists Leon Golub and Nancy Spero, of whom works will be on view from the 1970s and 1980s.

Much of Partisan‘s energy, however, comes from newer generations of artists whose project-oriented works not only demonstrate critique and resistance, but they also imagine new possibilities.

Highlights include the video installation, The Penal Colony, by Vietnamese artist Dinh Q Le, which depicts the inside of the walls of a Vietnam prison historically known for abuse of activists and was inspired by the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba; There are things we know …a large scale installation by New York-based artist John Delk features 26 security surveillance globes. Finally, Maximo Gonzalez imagines new uses for obsolete vehicles in large drawings from the series Project for reutilization of vehicles obsolete after the extinction of petrol, whereby abandoned motorcycles become gardens and cars are oversized planters.

Kehinde Wiley is back in his hometown of Los Angeles, and the city is welcoming him with open arms. As an artist whose name evokes recognition, and even conversation, beyond the periphery of the contemporary art world, the Brooklyn based artist draws a crowd of eager devotees (the author not excluded) to any venue at which his work is being exhibited or discussed. With a recent lecture at the Getty Museum, and a new exhibition on view at Roberts & Tilton, Wiley is introducing the public to Brazil, the latest series within his larger body of work, The World Stage. Continue reading below for a full review of Brazil by DailyServing’s Allison Gibson.

Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA

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On view at the Deitch Projects Wooster Street Gallery is The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows, a new series of large-scale watercolor paintings by Francesco Clemente . For this series, Clemente has literally wrapped the gallery with his new water colors, creating an immersive environment for contemplation. The artist has also continues his use of capturing spiritual experiences through art. As the title suggests, the rainbows are a metaphor for a bridge, connecting the body to more religious or spiritual ideas.

The Italian born artist’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and retrospectives. The artist has completed major exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Royal Academy of the Arts and the Pompidou among many others.

Opening this Thursday at the Showroom in New York City will be the latest installment of the Scion touring series titled, Installation 5: Self Portrait. In the Scion tradition of supporting both established and emerging artists, the proceeds from this season’s tour will benefit the art programs of the Creative Capital Foundation.The fifth Installment of the art tour features an amazing roster of artists, including, Aj Fosik, Andrew Schoultz, David Choe, Kelsey Brookes, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Codak, among many others. The exhibition will visit 9 cities in total during the full tour making upcoming stops in San Jose, Philadelphia, Portland and reaching its final destination at the Scion Installation Gallery in Culver City, California.

Top Image (left to right): AJ Fosik, Kelsey Brookes, and Codak