The Music Stayed

Skira builds with what other people threw out: piano keys that stopped sounding years ago, blown speaker heads, a vintage tape player, a salvaged cymbal, afro combs. In The Music Stayed; Past, Present & Future Frequencies, those parts become twelve sculptures and collages about Black music and the places that kept it alive. Showing them inside the Historic Dunbar Hotel, at the center of what used to be the Central Avenue jazz scene, brings the hardware of that history back to the building that housed the musicians.

The exhibition moves in three parts. Cultural Memory honors blues women, juke joints and the dance floor. Transformation looks at how music gets remade, from scat to a shadow-box tribute to Thelonious Monk. Future Frequencies introduces Skira's future people, built from obsolete audio gear and living in a world where music stays open to everyone.

The show opens on Sunday, October 25, with live jazz from 2:30 to 4:30 PM and the artist in the room. Every Sunday after that, The Dunbar hosts its weekly jazz showcase at the same time, with a different performer each week.

Event Details

Featured Artist

Skira Martinez is a Los Angeles multidisciplinary artist working in sculptural assemblage, collage and installation, almost entirely with salvaged material. She grew up off-grid on a farm, where her mother's eye for design and her father's habit of repairing and repurposing almost anything shaped how she sees objects. Her work moves between Black cultural history, ancestry and imagined futures. She founded CIELO galleries/studios in Historic South Central Los Angeles, and has exhibited at Watts Towers Arts Center, Avenue 50 Studio, Mercado La Paloma, Band of Vices and the Central Avenue Jazz Festival Arts Pavilion.

Instagram: @skira.cielo