Where Memory Forgets
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills, CA
February 21 - June 22, 2025
Ackerman Studios in partnership with CURA Art is pleased to present Where Memory Forgets, an exhibition of paintings by Los Angeles artist Virginia Broersma at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
Virginia Broersma's artistic practice coexists with her research project into leisure practices through the lens of Southern California. The locations in her paintings are often sites rich in leisure history, such as swimming pools and deserts. Her lush sun-kissed paintings are born from the cultural imagination of Los Angeles, a metropolis built on optimism and glamour, where dreams materialise, and fantasy and reality coexist. She absorbs information about the ways people have sought personal liberation through activities such as mud bathing, sungazing, swimming and sunbathing—practices that her home region of Southern California, in particular, has attracted. These personal rituals and their locations are the primary subjects of her paintings, playing with romanticised notions of the region offering good health, opportunity and prosperity for all.
The hot, earth orange of dependable sunshine and contrasting toothpaste green of swimming pools—sites that are rich in leisure history—set the stage. The electric glow of shimmering water through the dense silhouetted leaves and dappled light create space for leisure, an activity that many Angelenos turn into ritual.
Titled after a line from Joan Didion’s ode to California: Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Broersma's painting "The Beginning of the End" alludes to the promise of possibility and arrival in a place west of Eden. The research for her paintings extends from sanitoriums, spas, hot springs, pools and beaches through the work of artists, writers, journalists, doctors, advertisements and historical records. Broersma’s practice acknowledges the many that have tried to encapsulate the essence of California—and Los Angeles in particular—in multiple mediums.
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The Beverly Hills Hotel has always been at the heart of Los Angeles’ design and culture, and our programming celebrates this cultural significance as inspiration for creativity. Through our curatorial presentation, Spotlight LA, we showcase the rich vibrancy and creative expression of the city’s artistic community. Celebrating the resilience and creativity of the Los Angeles arts community, we focus on artists from the region who reflect the city’s diversity. This initiative showcases the city’s creative pulse, blending contemporary artistry with the enduring spirit of one of LA’s most storied venues.
Los Angeles embodies human ingenuity and imagination, a playground for artistic exploration. Many have tried to encapsulate the essence of Los Angeles in multiple mediums; it’s a city that lures creatives in. The subject of Southern California informs Virginia Broersma’s lush paintings; born from the cultural imagination of Los Angeles where fantasy and reality exist together.
Photography by Chris Young