Founded in 2014, The Mistake Room occupies a renovated industrial warehouse at the edge of the Downtown Arts District in Los Angeles where it presents ambitious new work by an array of international artists, many of whom have never-before shown in LA. It operates under a multi-year, thematic curatorial framework that allows for rigorous investigation and in-depth artistic interrogation. Starting in 2019, it will undertake a 2-year program cycle of gallery exhibitions, public events and publications organized around the themes of memory and cultural identity, entitled Histories of a Vanishing Present.
The Mistake Room
Felipe Baeza, Avistamiento Fantasmagórico 1, 2018, Ink, watercolor, collage, cut paper, and egg tempera on panel, 10 x 8 inches. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London.
Felipe Baeza, Por caminos ignorados, por hendiduras secretas, por las misteriosas vetas de troncos recién cortados, 2020, Ink, flashe, acrylic, varnish, twine, cut paper, and egg tempera on paper, 89.5 x 110.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London.
Felipe Baeza, Naj tunich (Azul 1), 2018, Ink, twine, collage, and glitter on paper, 87.5 x 60 inches. Private Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London.
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”