WeHo Arts Exhibition Spaces at the West Hollywood Library

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The City of West Hollywood programs the public spaces of the West Hollywood Library as a municipal art gallery for rotating exhibitions. Organized through the City's Arts Division, previous exhibitions have included original artworks by Don Bachardy, Clive Barker, Mr. Brainwash, Ellen Cantor, Jean Cocteau, Henry Diltz, Jay Lynn Gomez, Annie Liebowitz, Pat York, and Austin Young; and collaborations with CAP UCLA (UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance), the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), the Grammy Museum, the LA LGBT Center, OutRight Action International, the Tacoma Art Museum, Venice Arts, the West Hollywood Design District, and the Women's March.

For more information on West Hollywood Library exhibitions please contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, mche@weho.org.

Exhibits are free to the public and viewable during regular library hours at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Free validated parking is provided for the Library Parking Structure adjacent to the building.

West Hollywood Library hours:

Mondays through Thursdays, 11am-7pm

Fridays and Saturdays, 10am-6pm

Sundays, 1pm - 5pm

Closed Holidays, check LA County Library website

Current Exhibitions and Artwork:

Heart of WeHo

Celebrating 40 Years of Cityhood in West Hollywood

Heart of WeHo celebrates the places of West Hollywood—its landmarks past and present, its street life, and its everyday spaces—through the eyes of 27 artists. All artworks in this exhibition represent physical locations within the exact 1.9 square miles of our City. Within this small but mighty footprint, there is so much to be explored.

Presented in honor of West Hollywood’s 40th anniversary of Cityhood, this group exhibition invites viewers to experience the city as seen by the artists who live, work, and create here. From iconic buildings and neighborhood corners to vanished venues and imaginary futures, the works on view reflect the layered identity of a city that has always been a beacon of creativity, inclusion, and transformation.

Some artists celebrate places that have stood for a century; others memorialize spaces that exist now only in memory. Together, their works form a collective portrait of West Hollywood—one that honors the mundane and the iconic, the historic and the ephemeral.

Participating artists include: Hera Anderson, Nathan Becker, Zoe Balsam Biggs, Joanne Chase-Mattillo, Kayte Deioma, Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke, Bruno Doucin, Rachel Finkelstein, Shelley Heffler, Robert Heavrin, Hao Jing, Robert Landau, Rupert Lyon, Benjamin Marker, Jeff McMullen and David McCullough, MisterOsborne (Michael Osborne), Mary Roth, LP Ækili Ross, Frank Rozasy, Little Ricky, Sküt, Gregg Shore, Small Scale LA (aka Kieran Wright), Ricardo Tomasz, Miggie Wong, and Christina Yi.

This exhibit will be installed on October 23. This exhibition is located on the uppermost floor of the library, and is on view until May 2026.

An Artists Exhibition Reception took place on October 24, 2025, 7pm.

Reception and exhibition photos can be seen here.

Cacti (Euphorbia, Monstrosus, and Mod Cactus Trio)

ceramic and metal sculpture by artist Dustin Gimbel

This collection of segmented ceramic and metal totems stands as a reflection on xeriscaping, a practice that embraces drought-tolerant landscapes to conserve water in an era of increasing scarcity. Dustin Gimbel is a sculptor and designer who is probably best known for his distinctive and often playful totems, which draw inspiration from desert and cactus forms. The sculptural trio is located near the library's main entrance, and is on view through June 2026.

An Artists Exhibition Reception took place on October 24, 2025, 7pm. You can see photos here.

Exhibition photos are available here.

Angel of Compassion

by artist S.P. Harper

Angel of Compassion is a series of seven mixed-media paintings featuring images of jewels that were originally owned by Elizabeth Taylor and sold by her estate to benefit the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation after her death. Prior to their auction in 2011, these jewels were displayed on a four stop worldwide tour, including at the Pacific Design Center gallery space across the street from the West Hollywood Library. This exhibition is located on the lower floor of the library near the children's theatre, and is on view until May 2026.

S. P. Harper paints and sculpts abstract geometrics using recycled materials. What begins as refuse is repurposed, transforming base materials into noble objects. By reforming and re-employing, the work fits into eco-centric art (aka neo-materialism) to reduce, reuse and up-cycle. She is inspired by her grandfather, Archibald Picking, who was a diamantaire (diamond cutter) before becoming a conductor for Pacific Electric Railway Company (also known as the Red Cars).

Read the full exhibition didactic here.

Exhibition photos are available here.

An Artists Exhibition Reception took place on October 24, 2025, 7pm. You can see photos here.

An Artist's talk between S.P. Harper and Art Critic Peter Frank will take place on January 15, 2026, 5-6pm at the West Hollywood Library. Peter Frank in an art critic and former curator. He is known for curating shows at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the 1970s and 1980s, was the Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum, and an art critic for Angeleno magazine, LA Weekly, and The Village Voice. He is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, Art in America, and ARTnews.

Birthday Party tables, 1963

Remembering Beverly Park

Historic photographs of an amusement park once located on the border of West Hollywood, which helped inspire Disneyland. Beverly Park operated from1943 to 1974. More info. This exhibition is located on the lower floor of the library near the children's theatre.

West Hollywood Park 2017

West Hollywood Park, 2017

Jay Lynn Gomez

Acrylic Paint on Cardboard and Canvas

The artist created this artwork specifically for this space over the stairs in the library. It features the artist’s rendition of West Hollywood Park (prior to the 2022 renovation) and features two nannies whom the artist knew while she worked as a nanny herself from when she would bring the children under her care to the park and library.

Jay Lynn Gomez was born in 1986 in San Bernardino, California to undocumented Mexican immigrant parents who have since become US citizens. She briefly attended the California Institute for the Arts before leaving to take work as a live-in nanny with a West Hollywood family, an experience that did much to inform her subsequent artistic practice. Gomez’s work is known for addressing issues of immigration and making visible the “invisible” labor forces that keep the pools, homes, and gardens of Los Angeles in such pristine condition.

Gomez has exhibited at the MCA Chicago, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, LACMA, Denver Art Museum, MFA Houston, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Torrance Art Museum, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, MCA San Diego and Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) among others. Gomez’s work has been covered in the Atlantic, the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Artforum, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, and CNN among others.

This artwork is located above the main staircase inside the library.

Plant 1

Platanus Bibliotechalis

by David Wiseman

(permanent artwork - City's Urban Art Collection)

This artwork, located in the grand interior stairwell of the Library, reflects the relationship between the West Hollywood Library and West Hollywood Park. Clad in cast porcelain sycamore bark, tree trunks emerge from the walls, as plastered steel and bronze branches continue their ascent toward the skylight and sprout copper, brass, and steel leaves as well as porcelain seed pods. The site specific installation engages with the large air space above the stairway, providing a link between the park that surrounds it and the library itself. This project is inspired by the ancient indigenous sycamores of the region, whose ghostly branches emerge through the walls and grow sixty feet into the volume of the space, welcoming people to the library collection as they reach toward the light above.

This artwork is located above the main staircase inside the library.

Past Exhibitions:

	The Studies (Untitled Flags) Ruben Esparza's Untitled (flag) series challenges the symbolic meaning of the American flag and questions the social and political history that has made it so recognizable across the globe today. A symbol of the American dream for some and capitalist imperialism for others, the history of the American flag is fraught and complicated. In choosing to construct his flags out of familiar utilitarian materials, table clothes, cardboard, and cast-off remnants of cloth (a nod to Rasquashismo and ready-made art) that speaks of his Chicanidad and queer identity. Esparza is the founder and director of the Queer Biennial and Queer Califas.
	The ROXY: 50 and Still Rockin' For five decades, the ROXY Theatre on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood has been one of the world’s most revered nightclubs, hosting artists such as Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Linda Ronstadt, Cheech & Chong, the Clash, Guns N’ Roses, Jay-Z and was the launching pad for the Rocker Horror Show in the US. We hosted this exhibition and a related talk with co-founder Lou Adler. Organized by City of West Hollywood with the ROXY Theatre and curated in conjunction with Jasen Emmons of the Grammy Museum.
	Angelic Troublemakers was an exhibition of digital drawings and photographs relating to the theme of LGBTQIA+ Pride at the West Hollywood Library for the WeHo Pride Arts Festival. “We need in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” - Bayard Rustin.
	Historic WeHo, photography of designated historic buildings in WeHo
	Rescued Refuse - Wall Art Upcycled from City Banners - Shelley Heffler (April - December 2022)
	Journey of the Bearded Tarot, October 26, 2019 to February 3, 2020
	Where Love is Illegal, May 24, 2019 to October 11, 2019 (part of One City One Pride 2019)
	The Fearless Girl Statue by Kristen Visbal - March 7 - April 1, 2019
	Prior Pleasures - photography by Ellen Cantor, December 11, 2018 to May 7, 2019.
	Adelaide Drive: Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy - artwork by Wayne Shimabukuro and Don Bachardy, April 14, 2018 to November 29, 2018
	In West Hollywood - artwork by Jay Lynn (nee Ramiro) Gomez and David Feldman, August 15, 2017 to March 31, 2018
	There's Something Happening Here... -photography by Henry Diltz, October 2016 to July 2017
	Worth a Thousand Words: Portraits of Artists and Writers -photography by Pat York, July 2016 to October 2016
	Women Manifest: At the Core , group show of women artists, March 2016 to June 2016
	Drag Angeles: A Brief History of Drag , artwork by Austin Young and history panels by the LA LGBT Center, part of the City's One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, March 2016 to June 2016
	In A New Land: Ten Years Later, photography by Russian-speaking immigrants, organized by Venice Arts, October 2015 to February 2016
	Mr. Brainwash Heart Sculpture, June 2015 to March 2024. Extended loan of a sculpture made from upcycled books.
	Art AIDS America a preview of a national touring exhibition organized by Tacoma Art Museum, June 2015 to September 2015 (jointly hosted by the City of West Hollywood and ONE Archives)
	Decades of Design, a first ever retrospective of the West Hollywood Design District - November 2014 to March 2015
	Film Noir 101, curated by Professor Mark Fertig (presented as part of WeHo Reads: Noir) - Sepember 2014 to November 2014
	Love is Love: The Five Year Road to Marriage (photography by David McCoy) part of the City's One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival - May 2014 to August 2014
	A Thousand Threads of Knowledge, original artworks by Italian artist Dado Schapira - February 2014 to May 2014
	Clive Barker's Worlds and Words - original artworks and handwritten manuscripts of Clive Barker - October 2013 to January 2014
	Rock N' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip - photography by Robert Landau, July 2013 to October 2013 (later exhibited at the Skirball Cultural Center)
	Living in Limbo, Lesbian Families of the Deep South, photography by Carolyn Sherer, part of the City's One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, April 2013 to July 2013
	Author, Author - photography by Michael Childers, September 2012 to October 2012
	Jean Cocteau, original artworks (part of the City's One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival) - May 2012 to July 2012
	Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975, (PST…It All Started Here – West Hollywood Celebrates Pacific Standard Time) - February 2012 to April 2012 (Later expanded into an exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center)
	Deserve Dignity, Remote Control Foundation, December 2011 to January 2012