Ten Los Angeles-area artists who have spent the past three years critiquing one another's work will share the results with the public this month in "Between Darkness and Dawn," a contemporary art exhibition running Sept. 11-27 at Propeller Gallery in the Santa Monica Airport Arts Center.
The show at Studios 3026, 3026 Airport Ave., is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. An opening reception is set for Sunday, Sept. 13, from 2 to 5 p.m., and a closing reception for Saturday, Sept. 26, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The exhibition juxtaposes narrative works confronting the challenges of modern life with vibrant quilts and abstract paintings that celebrate the promise of a new day. The exhibiting artists are Manuela Ammendola, Barbara Danzi, Helen Desmond, Christine Forest, Kevin Higa, Lydia Kann, Deborah Pitt, Anna Sapenuk, Aaron Schechter and Melissa Thrasher.
The artists belong to the Westside Artists Critique Group, which began in May 2023 as part of a yearlong program run by the Los Angeles Art Association. It has continued through several iterations since, weathering the loss of its founding leader, Wendy Widell Wolff, who was diagnosed with cancer in late 2024 and died in March 2025. Kann, the group's leader and a Santa Monica resident, kept it going, with Schechter stepping in as co-leader when she traveled. The group opened to new members in July and now counts 14 artists.
"In some ways, we've become a little like a family," Kann said. "We take the work seriously, but we also show up for one another's exhibitions, share opportunities and resources, and genuinely enjoy being together."
Members meet monthly, taking turns presenting work for questions and suggestions. The approach, adapted from Los Angeles Art Association guidelines, has the group respond to what it sees before the artist explains his or her intentions.
"We're honest, but we're not critical in the sense of finding fault," Kann said. "We focus on the artist's intentions and on what we see as the work's strengths and possibilities, recognizing that art is subjective and that we each bring different experiences and perspectives."
Those conversations can steer an artist in unexpected directions, she said. One member recently presented deeply poignant narrative work about his family history, a sharp departure from the abstract imagery he had shown before. He traced the shift to an earlier group critique of Kann's own art book project.
"Perhaps the greatest gift of the group is that, over three years, we've learned how to be useful to one another across a remarkably wide range of artistic goals and practices," Kann said.
The exhibition includes two free public workshops. "What Is This Artwork Asking of You?" on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., invites participants to respond to the art through drawing, writing and movement. "Tango in Art!" on Sunday, Sept. 20, from 10 to 11 a.m., pairs a tango demonstration with a lesson open to all, no experience required.
Kann said the first workshop is meant to unsettle a common assumption.
"Many people come to a gallery assuming they don't know enough about art to respond to it 'correctly,'" she said. "We want to turn that idea on its head."
"There is no single correct way to see or experience art; even professionals can have very different responses to the same work," she added. "Art is a relationship, and like any relationship, each of us brings our own perspective and experience to it."
The show arrives as the Airport Arts complex faces an uncertain future, with the city planning the site's eventual transition. Kann said that awareness lends the moment urgency.
"For artists on the Westside, spaces like this are precious and increasingly rare," she said. Losing the studios and gallery, she added, would mean losing "an environment where artists can connect, collaborate, share ideas, and be part of something larger than their individual practices."
She said she hoped the community that has grown at the site would survive whatever comes next.
"The buildings may change, but our hope is that the spirit of this remarkable artist environment — and the role it plays in the broader community — will have a place in whatever comes next," Kann said.