Omar Holguin

ArtsPavilion26

Posted by Omar Holguin | Jul 20, 2026 | Arts, Blog, Culture |

And for the twelfth edition under its stewardship, dating back to 2014, La Mancha Gallery returns to curate the festival’s Arts Pavilion — the visual heartbeat of the day, housed in a 120-foot tent between Central Avenue and 41st Street, steps from the Dunbar itself.

On the Alternative Venue Exhibition Model

Posted by Omar Holguin | Jun 30, 2026 | Article, Blog, Culture |

Rent for permanent space in Los Angeles is a tax on ambition, and that tax falls heaviest on those artists and audiences I most want in the room together. So I took my gallery off its foundation. This is what we call the Alternative Venue Exhibition Model.

The Piano Room

Posted by Omar Holguin | Jun 13, 2026 | Article, Blog, Culture |

Before she was an award-winning artist. Before she was a Senior Art Director at The WB/CW and E! Television. Before any of it — Riea Owens was a seven-year-old in Pasadena dragging visitors into the piano room. Forty-plus years later, she is still dragging people in.

The Women of Central Avenue: Keepers of the Flame Opens May 1 at the Historic Dunbar Hotel

Posted by Omar Holguin | Apr 21, 2026 | Blog, Culture |

You enter into the work of the elder. You encounter the bridge generation. You arrive at the inheritors — the women who are actively tending the flame right now. By the end of the room, you understand: this was never one woman’s fire. It was always a relay.