About We Open Art Houses (WOAH)

WHAT IS WOAH? We Open Art Houses (WOAH) is an emerging arts-service organization based in Los Angeles. Working in tandem with property owners to reimagine empty space as a site for temporary art venues, WOAH aims to bring unique site-specific projects and arts education programming to a diversified public sphere. Innovative approaches to redevelopment and activating commercial corridors as opportunities for creative place-making are key to a sustainable future of art, artists, and the communities it cultivates. WOAH’s current projects include the mobile mall arts facility West Oaks Art House at the West Oaks Mall in Houston, TX. WHO IS WOAH? WOAH is a creative project by Sharsten Plenge. About Sharsten: Working in various media, Sharsten is an artist inspired by a world saturated in digital excess, instant access, and convenience. Her videos are diffracted visual studies of places of transit, where forms fade to prismatic shadows and finite structures collapse into infinite overlays. Through her art and with WOAH, Sharsten seeks utopian residues in a pervasive atmosphere of screens, strip malls and sensory overload.

Weekly WOAH | Nov 13-19

// Thursday, Nov 13 Anonymous

// Friday, Nov 14

// Saturday, Nov 15 

// Sunday, Nov 16 

throwback Margaret Lee, Eggplant (Hello)

// Monday, Nov 17 unnamed


// Tuesday, Nov 18

// Wednesday, Nov 19 

Jack Smith’s Exotic Landlordism

Jack Smith’s Exotic Landlordism

// last-looks 

Fitch x Trecartin at Regen

Fitch x Trecartin at Regen



Weekly WOAH | Nov 6-12

// Thursday, Nov 6 

EUREKA & the BIOMASS, at 5 Car Garage

EUREKA & the BIOMASS | at 5 Car Garage

    thru Nov 10

// Friday, Nov 7

Fedrik Nilsen on Mike Kelley | at Downtown Photoroom

Fedrik Nilsen’s Mike Kelley doc | at Downtown Photoroom

// Saturday, Nov 8 


Taking The Waters with HDTS

// Sunday, Nov 9 

Seven Reeds

Seven Reeds | at Overduin & Co.

// Wednesday, Nov 12

// last-looks 

Composite Arcade at Château Shatto

Composite Arcade | at Château Shatto


Weekly WOAH | Oct 30-Nov 5

// Thursday, Oct 30

ALONE, an immersive haunted house | in DTLA thru 11.1

// Friday, Oct 31 

Day Of The Dead seance

  • Day Of The Dead Seance, Secret Location.
    RSVP (limited space x location map)
    Facebook Event
    closing soiree 6:30pm
    thru Nov 1

// Saturday, Nov 1  

    Facebook Event
    opening reception x picnic 2-5pm
    11am-5pm thru Nov 3
Rafaël Rozendaal | at Steve Turner

Rafaël Rozendaal | at Steve Turner

// Sunday, Nov 2

  • Liminal Sunday, at Satellite Space, Santa Monica.
    opening reception 6-9 pm
    thru Nov 30

// Wednesday, Nov 5

// last-looks 

Poemfield | at The Box

  • Stan VanDerBeek: Poemfield, at The Box, DTLA.
    thru Nov 1

Cayetano Ferrer | Composite Arcade 

    thru Nov 9

    Cory Arcangel | at team

    Cory Arcangel | at Team

    thru Nov 9

    EUREKA & the BIOMASS | at 5 Car Garage

    EUREKA & the BIOMASS | at 5 Car Garage

    Facebook Event
    open Thursdays & by appt.
    thru Nov 10


Weekly WOAH | Oct 23-29

// Thursday, Oct 23 

Gone From My Sight Kate Parsons at .CALM

// Friday, Oct 24 

Eugenia Barbuc

throwback Eugenia Barbuc: Spacestation installation | Code X 2 at ESXLA

// Saturday, Oct 25 

David Lloyd

David Lloyd | at Klowden Mann

// Sunday, Oct 26 

// Monday, Oct 27 

Prism Pipe

Prism Pipe | at pehrspace

// Tuesday, Oct 28 

// Wednesday, Oct 29 

// last-looks 

Tobias Madison | at Freedman Fitzpatrick


Weekly WOAH | Oct 16-22

// Thursday, Oct 16 

Nightbreed | at Cinefamily


// Friday, Oct 17 

Meghan Gordon | at ltd

// Saturday, Oct 18 

video still from Mother Spill | at Commonwealth & Council

// Sunday, Oct 19 

Alika Cooper Sleeper | at South Of Sunset

Alika Cooper Sleeper (detail) | at South Of Sunset

// Monday, Oct 20 

// Tuesday, Oct 21

// Wednesday, Oct 22 

Fitch x Trecartin | at Regen Projects

Fitch x Trecartin | at Regen Projects

    opening reception: 6-8pm
    thru Nov 26

// last-looks 

Interior Void

Interior Void | at CSUN


Interior Void: a room for collaborative contemplation

image (2)Exploring the tension between surface and substance through a multidisciplinary practice, David Lucien Matheke combines painting, kinetic sculptures, and participatory environments to create silent spaces for collective introspection.

image (9)Invoking ideas of sterility and preservation through works on paper, mixed media sculpture, sound, and performance, Matheke culls inspiration from thinking about ‘the confrontation of mortality’ that haunts and guides a process informed from within.  Whether it be through utilizing the body as source material and subject in his blood paintings or ritualistic installations, Matheke uses the idea of art as a platform for liberating, medium-mixing, and participatory play.

image (4)Contemplating mortality is a subject all too familiar— diagnosed with a rare blood disorder requiring monthly infusions and frequent hospital trips, Matheke sublimates materials like blood and fire as primary mediums to forge an active ‘energy exchange’ with the viewer and as a tool for immortalizing natural ephemera.  Highly influenced from ‘the external: decay; collecting dead insects; feeling other people’s energy; walking around and observing things changing, growing, and ultimately dying,’ Matheke creates ‘surrogate bodies’ through his art, with ghosts frequenting his manifestations.

Opening today, Matheke debuts new works in sculpture, painting and a performance at CSUN Art & Design Center.  On view through 10.18, Interior Void is a thoughtful survey on experiential fields of the elemental, somatic, and subjective— an exhibition translating fascination, fear, abjection, and anxiety into an expressive occasion for interpretation and sovereignty.


image (5)image (7)image (1)


David Lucien Matheke: Interior Void 
at CSUN Shed Gallery
opening reception 6-8pm, Tuesday | 10.13 – 10.18.14

—Read more on David and his works in issue no. 7 of The Work Magazine, available December 2014.  All images courtesy the artist.


Expanding Cities via New Media

10.3 performance at Sediment Arts | image: Nicki L BA

10.3 performance at Sediment Arts | image: Nicki L BA

A temporary series triangulating multiple cities simultaneously, Expanded Cities hosted telematic events at Sediment Arts in Richmond, Virginia, Mexicali Rose in Mexico, and Curio Studio in Venice, California.

10.4 Suzy Poling x Ian Miyawki at Curio Studio | image: Aaron Farley


Commencing for the week on Friday 10.3, Expanded Cities featured a roster of visual and sound artists spanning geographies through a showcase of new media projects.  The LA incantation included performances from local luminaries Devin Sarno, Suzy Poling, and Elle Mehrmand.

10.10 performance at Mexicali Rose | image: Aaron Farley

10.10 performance at Mexicali Rose | image: Aaron Farley

For the closing program on Friday 10.10, visual residues from Virginia-based musician Karacell’s performance were live broadcast from Sediment Arts at 10:30pm EST, syndicated with Randy Randall’s performance at Mexicali Rose, while multidisciplinary artist Elle Mehrmand performed within the saturated lights of Curio’s Venice storefront at 7:30pm PST.

10.10 Elle Mehrmand at Curio Studio | image: Elle Mehrmand

10.10 Elle Mehrmand at Curio Studio | image: Elle Mehrmand

A collaboration between London-based video, performance and light installation artist, Ela Boyd, and LA-based abstract light photographer Aaron Farley, Expanded Cities is an ephemeral light x space x time installation excavating new landscapes through explorations in new media.

>Expanded Cities website

>more photos via WOAH’s Tumblr