Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar
The Music Stayed: Past, Present & Future Frequencies - The Art of Skira Martinez
October 25, 2026 – January 30, 2027 · Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar
2026 · Los Angeles, CA
Skira builds with what other people threw away. Piano keys that stopped sounding years ago, blown speaker heads, a vintage tape player, a salvaged cymbal, a few afro combs. In her hands they become twelve sculptures and collages about Black music and the places that kept it alive.
Showing that work inside the Dunbar matters. This building housed the musicians who made Central Avenue famous, and Skira is bringing the actual hardware of that music back through the door.
The show opens with live jazz on Sunday, October 25, from 2:30 to 4:30 PM, with the artist in the room. After that it runs the way every Arts @ Delicious show does: one Sunday at a time, with a different performer each week, through January 30.
The Artist
Skira Martinez
Skira is a Los Angeles artist who works in sculptural assemblage, collage and installation, almost entirely with salvaged material. She grew up off-grid on a farm, where her mother cared about design and her father could fix or repurpose almost anything. She founded CIELO galleries/studios in Historic South Central, and has shown at Watts Towers Arts Center, Avenue 50 Studio, Mercado La Paloma, Band of Vices and the Central Avenue Jazz Festival Arts Pavilion.
"Materials have value beyond their intended function."
@skira.cielo (Instagram)
"High Note"
"Juke Joint at Sunset"
"Cuttin’ A Rug"
"Diva"
"Scat"
"The Composer"
"Singer"
"Thelonious"
"Audio Puffs"
"Master Blaster"
"Boom Bap"
"Avant Garde"
The Structure
The Show, in Three Movements
The exhibition plays like a record with three sides: what came before, how it changed, and what comes next..
Movement I
Cultural Memory: The Music We Carry
Blues women, the banjo before the guitar, juke joints after dark and the dance floor that held it all together. Hidden Note, Juke Joint at Sunset and Cuttin' A Rug, built from piano keys, a cymbal and a toy guitar.
Movement II
Transformation: Finding New Frequencies
How music gets remade. Three small collages, Scat, The Composer and Singer, are cut partly from photographs of Skira's own older work, which is sampling with scissors. Diva opens the section, and it closes on Thelonious, a three-foot shadow box for Monk.
Movement III
Future Frequencies: The Music That Comes Next
Skira's future people, built from speaker heads, amplifier parts and a tape deck. Audio Puffs, Master Blaster, Boom Bap and Avant Garde imagine a world where nobody decides who gets to hear the music. One of them has a working speaker in its chest.
Plan Your Visit
Getting Here
Driving
Central Avenue at 42nd Street, about fifteen minutes south of downtown Los Angeles. There's a lot behind the restaurant, but it's small, so give yourself a few extra minutes on Sundays when the jazz showcase runs.
Metro Bus
Lines 53 and 105 stop at Central and 42nd, a minute's walk from the door. LADOT DASH also serves the corner.
Metro Rail
The A Line runs a few blocks east on Long Beach Avenue. Vernon Station is closest, about a fifteen-minute walk.
The Building
Look for the Dunbar Hotel, a Spanish Revival landmark built in 1928. It's the most recognizable building on the block.
Delicious at The Dunbar
4229 S. Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90011
(323) 918-2087
The Dunbar Hotel
Why This Building
The Dunbar opened in 1928 as the Hotel Somerville, built by John Alexander Somerville, a dentist who put it up because Black travelers couldn't get a decent room anywhere else in Los Angeles. It became the center of Central Avenue almost immediately. Businesses followed it south. The neighborhood organized itself around it.
Through the 1930s and 40s it was where the musicians stayed and where they played after their own gigs ended. Roy Wilkins wrote in the New York Amsterdam News that everything about the place ran opposite to what Black guests had come to expect from a hotel.
It has been Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 131 since 1974 and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.
Which is the reason to see this work here. Gatewood's portraits of jazz and soul musicians are hanging inside the building where some of those musicians actually slept. That isn't available in a gallery.
Featured Artist
Artwork for Sale
“High Note”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2015 | 10″ W × 12″ H × 3″ D
Materials: Salvaged piano keys, carved wood, wood bead, cotton, acrylic paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Juke Joint at Sunset”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 14″ W × 17½” H × 4″ D
Materials: Salvaged cymbal, altered toy guitar, cotton, packaging materials, coffee stir sticks, discarded fan slats, toy pieces, acrylic paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Cuttin’ A Rug”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 7½” W × 23″ H × 4½” D
Materials: Salvaged piano keys, altered candle holder, light, acrylic paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Diva”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2016 | 14″ W × 26″ H × 6″ D
Materials: Salvaged piano components, altered wooden figurine, papier-mâché, broken jewelry, wire, acrylic paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Scat”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 9″ W × 12″ H
Materials: Paper cutouts, photographic fragments from previous works, music paper, acrylic paint on canvas
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“The Composer”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 8″ W × 10″ H
Materials: Paper cutouts, photographic fragments from previous works, music paper, acrylic paint on canvas
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Singer”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 7½” W × 11½” H
Materials: Paper cutouts, photographic fragments from previous works, music paper, acrylic paint on canvas
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Thelonious”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 36″ W × 13″ H × 3½” D
Materials: Wood shadow box, salvaged broken musical instruments, coffee- and tobacco-stained music paper, record player component, scrap wood, acrylic paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Audio Puffs”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 23″ W × 38″ H × 4″ D
Materials: Salvaged speaker heads, records, record player component, afro comb, canvas cutout, acrylic paint on wood substrate
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Master Blaster”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2023 | 34″ W × 17″ H × 4½” D
Materials: Altered amplifier components, salvaged speaker heads, Bluetooth speaker, afro comb, canvas cutout, acrylic paint on wood substrate
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Boom Bap”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2025 | 16″ W × 11″ H × 4″ D
Materials: Vintage tape player, electronic waste, door stoppers, toy parts, metal and plastic bits, belt buckle, acrylic and spray paint
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
“Avant Garde”
Artist: Skira Martinez
2026 | 11″ W × 26″ H × 3½” D
Materials: Altered and salvaged objects representing musical instruments, afro comb, repurposed wood, acrylic paint in black, gold and silver
$Ask
@Skira.Cielo
The Venue
The Venue
Delicious at The Dunbar
Delicious at The Dunbar serves bold Mexican and soul fusion cooking inside the Dunbar Hotel, a cornerstone of African American Los Angeles and the anchor of Central Avenue’s jazz era.
Through Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar, the restaurant hosts rotating exhibitions curated by La Mancha Gallery. Each show runs for a season rather than a night, so the work lives in the room and changes how the room feels. Come for a meal, see the art, and be part of the reason this landmark is still doing what it was built to do.
Every Week
Live Jazz Every Sunday
2:30 – 4:30 PM · Inside Delicious at The Dunbar
A different musician every week. We don't announce who's playing ahead of time, and that's on purpose. Some Sundays you get a name you know. Some Sundays you get somebody you'll be telling people about in five years.
Soul and Mexican fusion cooking, live music, and the current exhibition on the walls, in a room on Central Avenue that has been doing exactly this since 1928.
Come early for a table. Stay for the set.
Newsletter
Stay Connected With Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar
You're standing inside a living cultural space on historic Central Avenue. Artists, musicians, and community voices meet here every week.
- Early notice about new exhibitions
- Invitations to artist talks and special events
- Updates about Sunday jazz performances
- First look at new artwork before public release
- Stories about the artists and the history behind the work
Questions?
Call (323) 918-2087 or send us a note.
The Program
Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar
Since 2006, La Mancha Gallery has presented exhibitions in alternative venues along Central Avenue. Arts @ Delicious is the current chapter, produced in partnership with Adriana Cortes at Delicious at The Dunbar.
Oct 25 – Jan 30, 2027
The Music Stayed: Past, Present & Future Frequencies - The Art of Skira MartinezOn View
A show in three movements. The exhibition plays like a record with three sides: What came before, how it changed and what comes next.
Aug 8 – Sep 30, 2026
The Medium of Memory: The Art of Kenneth Gatewood
Watercolors in three movements. Jazz and soul portraits, neighborhood children, and a smaller group on civil rights and endurance.
May – Jul 2026
Women of Central Avenue: Keepers of the Flame
Nine artists across three generations. Buena Johnson, Diana Shannon Young, Gail Oliver, Skira Martinez, Adrienne DeVine, Riea Owens, Lyric Cross, Christen Austin, and X. Darvi.
Feb – Apr 2026
Legacy on Central
Legacy on Central brought together eleven artists working in photography, painting, and mixed media at Delicious at the Dunbar, inside the historic Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue, on view throughout February.
Sep 2025 – Jan 2026
The Eye Behind the Shutter: Jimmy Velarde
Archival pigment prints of Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Joe Houston, Big Jay McNeely, Stevie Wonder, and John Belushi, shot 1981–82. Also shown at the Arts Pavilion of the 30th Central Avenue Jazz Festival.
Open Hours
Mon, Wed & Thurs: 10am – 9pm
Tuesday: Closed
Friday & Saturday: 10am – 10pm
Sundays: 10am – 7pm
LIVE JAZZ EVERY SUNDAY