Curatorial Statement
Ten Years of Artistic Excellence and Cultural Enrichment
There are anniversaries that mark time, and there are anniversaries that measure distance. The 10th anniversary of the Arts Pavilion at the Central Avenue Jazz Festival is emphatically the latter. When La Mancha Gallery first brought a curated visual art program to the festival in 2014, it was a proposition — a belief that jazz and visual art belonged in genuine conversation with each other, and that Central Avenue was exactly the right place to have it.
Central Avenue is not simply a location — it is a living archive. The street where Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington performed, where Billie Holiday's voice filled rooms that crackled with possibility, where an entire community built a cultural world that the rest of the city would eventually come to celebrate. The Arts Pavilion was conceived to extend that legacy into the visual realm — creating a space where painting, photography, muralism, and sculpture do not merely accompany jazz but enter into genuine dialogue with it.
Ten years of curatorial work does not happen in a single gesture. La Mancha Gallery has approached each edition with the discipline of an iterative process — structured, responsive, and refined in direct conversation with artists and the community. The 2024 edition arrives not as a celebration of a single year's work but as a survey of what a decade of commitment to a cultural mission actually produces: depth, trust, and a program the festival's audience has come to regard as essential.
"The Arts Pavilion has played a pivotal role in fostering artistic excellence and adding cultural value — bringing together the essence and heritage of jazz alongside its visual traditions for a full decade."
— Omar Holguin, Curator & Founder, La Mancha Gallery
Exhibition Details
2024 Arts Pavilion at a Glance
Event
29th Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival
Date & Time
Saturday, September 21, 2024
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Location
Central Avenue between MLK Blvd. & Vernon Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
Admission
Free — Presented in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Pavilion Year
10th Anniversary Arts Pavilion
Curated by La Mancha Gallery
Artists Featured
17 Artists across muralism, photography, portraiture, graphics & sculpture — featuring Sam Pace as the 10th Anniversary headliner
Program Highlights
What the 2024 Pavilion Delivered
10th Anniversary Exhibition
A milestone survey of a decade of artistic contributions to the Pavilion — celebrating ten years of visual art in dialogue with jazz on Central Avenue.
Featured Artist Showcase
Sam Pace anchored the 10th anniversary edition as the Pavilion's headlining featured artist — a distinction honoring artistic vision and cultural resonance.
Live Art Demonstrations
Artists created in real time in direct response to live jazz performances — making the improvisational exchange between both art forms immediate and visible.
Community & Youth Programming
Interactive workshops and partnerships with local schools and arts organizations — extending the Pavilion's reach into the next generation of artists and audiences across Los Angeles.
2024 Arts Pavilion
Featured Artists
A headlining featured artist and a curated selection of practitioners spanning muralism, photography, portraiture, graphics, and sculpture — united by a commitment to cultural memory and the living traditions of Central Avenue.
10th Anniversary Featured Artist
Sam Pace
Sam Pace anchors the 10th anniversary edition of the Arts Pavilion as its headlining featured artist. His practice embodies the improvisational spirit the exhibition seeks to honor — work that moves between disciplines and registers with the confidence of an artist fully in command of his visual language, making him the defining artistic voice of this milestone year.
Art & Muralism
Mohammed Mubarak
Mubarak centers his practice on portraiture as an act of historical affirmation — creating powerful works that honor Black history and insist on the dignity of its subjects. His presence grounds the Pavilion in one of jazz's deepest and most essential cultural inheritances.
Art & Muralism
EnkOne
Known for landmark public works including the Crenshaw Mural of African-American Progress, EnkOne brings the visual language of Los Angeles streets into the gallery context. His practice is rooted in the preservation of urban culture — work that belongs on Central Avenue and speaks directly to the communities that built it.
Art & Sculpture
Skira Martinez
Martinez works fluidly across disciplines — sculpture, installation, and wearable art — creating a body of work that refuses easy categorization. Her multidisciplinary practice mirrors jazz's own resistance to being confined within a single form, expanding what a festival exhibition can hold.
Art & Graphics
LP Aekili Ross — LPAE38
LPAE38 brings contemporary urgency and a devoted following that extends well beyond traditional gallery audiences. His practice pulses with the energy of the present while remaining deeply rooted in craft and conceptual integrity.
Painting
Kenneth Gatewood
Gatewood's work offers warmth and nostalgic depth — imagery that recalls the domestic intimacy of everyday life and reminds visitors that jazz was always music for people, not just for stages. His paintings carry the quiet emotional truth of lived experience.
Painting & Mixed Media
Kevin T. Williams
Williams synthesizes African, Native American, and musical traditions into paintings of striking visual and cultural complexity. His work speaks across histories, finding resonance in the layered cultural landscape that Central Avenue itself has always represented.
Art & Illustration
Ramsess
One of Los Angeles' most significant and enduring visual artists, Ramsess brings a practice rooted in Afrocentric imagery, mythology, and the visual traditions of the African diaspora. His inclusion in the 10th anniversary edition carries the weight of a living legacy — a body of work that has shaped the visual culture of this city for decades.
The 2024 Arts Pavilion also featured Bart Ross, Wendell Wiggins, Mike Norice, Shelton Gillis, Riea Owens, Errol Cook, Demar Douglas, Buena Johnson, and Gloria Ing — seventeen artists in total, representing the full breadth of Los Angeles' independent visual art community.