Beta Epochs
Beta Epochs is Madeleine Ignon and Alex Lukas
Beta Epochs is an unapologetically unpolished, collaborative adventure. We organize aspirationally in the spirit of basement punk shows and unsanctioned apartment galleries. The first eponymous exhibition, in October 2020, brought together work from twenty eight artists in a 4,200-square-foot warehouse situated between downtown Los Angeles and Echo Park Lake.
Subsequently, Group Text at Left Field Gallery in Los Osos, which opened June 10, 2023, examined a contemporary tipsy condition of reading with soft focus; glossed eyes doom scrolling without reading, and vision blurring text into and out of a mush of formal elements and legible text. Driven by an interest in a playful and curious maximalism, materiality, non-linearity, visible processes and a direct engagement with the 'unfinished,' Beta Epochs embraces quirky possibility and dusty spareness, paired with a contentious relationship with the white cube.
Curating with a spirit of hopeful play and raw curiosity, Beta Epochs proposes an ambitious and optimistic new beginning to move past the weirdness and isolation of the pandemic-plagued years, creating space for disheveled cooperation and community away from the keyboard. After becoming overly acquainted with each others' sweatpants, stained shirts, postponed haircuts and cluttered apartments in the background of Zoom calls, there is no polish anymore. Instead of a return to a pre-pandemic shine, we propose an embrace of vulnerability and messiness as a space of possibility.
Collaborators:
Shana Moulton
Serene Blumenthal
Megan Mueller
Cara Lasell Bonewitz
Hương Ngô
Peggy Chiang
Minga Opazo
Kevin Clancy
Elisa Ortega Montilla
Bailey Clark
Riviera Parking
Marisa de la Peña
Ben Peterson
Stephanie Dotson
Ziba Rajabi
Eleanor Foy
Sarah Rosalena
Kim Garcia
Glen Rubsamen
Matt Leines
Chris Rucker
Natalie Lerner
Hunter Saxony III
Kayla Mattes
Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales
Rita McBride
David Wesley White
Christina McPhee
Kareem Michael Worrell
Madeleine McQuillan
Adam Milner
Cover Image: Documentation, Beta Epochs, photo by Alex Lukas
