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

Eight women artists. Three generations. One of Los Angeles’s most important exhibitions of 2026.

Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar · La Mancha Gallery · May 1 – June 30, 2026 4229 S. Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90011 · Free and open to the public

A fire does not keep itself.

That is the truth this exhibition was built around. Central Avenue has been celebrated for its jazz legacy, its civil rights history, its role as the backbone of Black Los Angeles for nearly a century. But the women who kept that culture alive — who showed up at the gallery, painted the stories, photographed the faces, assembled beauty from what others discarded, taught the next generation, and contributed to this corridor’s creative life when no institution was watching — have rarely been the subject of the exhibition itself.

On Friday, May 1, 2026, that changes.

The Women of Central Avenue: Keepers of the Flame opens at Delicious at The Dunbar, inside the Historic Dunbar Hotel at 4229 S. Central Ave, Los Angeles. The exhibition runs through June 30, 2026 and is free and open to the public during venue hours.

What This Show Is

This is not a survey. It is not a retrospective. It is not a collection of women artists who happen to share a zip code.

It is a living timeline.

Curated by Omar Holguin, Founder and Curator of La Mancha Gallery, The Women of Central Avenue: Keepers of the Flame brings together eight women artists spanning three generations and a wide range of media — painting, photography, assemblage, mixed media, surrealist portraiture, figurative work, and music. A final artist slot is still being confirmed, and her announcement is coming soon.

The show is structured to move like time. 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.

The Artists

Buena Johnson opens the timeline and carries the full institutional weight of what this corridor has produced. Pratt Institute-trained. Her work is held in the Smithsonian Collection, the Getty Collection, and MOCA Los Angeles. Her collectors include Oprah Winfrey, Halle Berry, and Queen Latifah. The recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Director Club of New York. Her practice is rooted in affirmation, racial healing, and the conviction that art can help America reckon with its unresolved history. The “I AM” series is her declaration and ours. She is the elder. She lights the first flame. View her work at artbybuena.com.

Diana Shanon Young is the bridge. Over forty years of independent practice. A solo exhibition at the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles. Commissions from the Congressional Black Caucus, the March of Dimes, and Black Enterprise Magazine. Her canvases layer historic periodicals and textiles into visual storybooks — narratives of resilience, hope, and empowerment built by an artist who describes herself as an “incurable optimist.” She has spent four decades translating this community’s story for every audience willing to look. Explore her collection at dianashannonyoungfineart.com.

Nina Syii is a mixed media visionary from South Central Los Angeles whose work is rooted in healing, testimony, and the power of dreaming in difficult conditions. She describes art as therapeutic expression — a language for resilience that she has spent years refining and sharing. Her work celebrates the rose that grew from the concrete. She was part of La Mancha Gallery’s Legacy on Central cycle and returns here as a keeper in her own right. Follow her work on Instagram.

Christen Austin paints surrealist acrylic portraits of Black life that demand to be felt, not just seen. Her canvases center Black beauty, Black culture, and the surreal depths of Black experience — built in deliberate opposition to the eurocentric visual frameworks that have historically framed Black subjects as objects rather than subjects. She wants her work to reach viewers psychologically and emotionally, beyond visual appeal alone. She was part of Legacy on Central and brings that energy forward into this show. Visit her at caustinarts.com.

Skira Martinez is an assemblage and multidisciplinary artist whose practice is also a philosophy. She builds from what others discard — found objects, materials pulled from dumpsters and street corners, ancestral knowledge made tangible through things that were never supposed to be beautiful. Her parents taught her to create by reusing, redoing, revamping, and reimagining. She has built stages and sets for film, music video, and fashion using the same principles that drive her fine art. Her work is not about making something from nothing. It is about insisting that nothing is not nothing. She was in Legacy on Central. She belongs on this wall. Follow her on Instagram.

Riea Owens is a Pasadena native whose love of people, cultures, and fashion shaped a career that took her to the highest levels of the entertainment industry — Paramount Pictures, The WB/CW Networks, E! Entertainment, where she served as Senior Art Director. She has now returned fully to her first love: the figure, the face, the story of people from every corner of the world. When a career that distinguished finds its way back to the canvas, that is not a retreat. That is a return to purpose. See her work at rieasart.com.

X. Darvi is a Las Vegas-based multidisciplinary artist — painter and singer — whose bold figurative works center the Black feminine experience in vibrant, otherworldly palettes. Green-skinned women navigate inner landscapes of self-discovery, solitude, and spiritual awakening; figures bloom with flora and flame, in full command of their becoming. Her paintings have been featured at the Arts Pavilion at the Central Avenue Jazz Festival for several consecutive years, placing her work in direct conversation with this corridor’s living cultural legacy. She was part of Legacy on Central and brings that thread forward into this show. Follow her on Instagram.

An eighth & nine artists is being finalized. Her name and practice will be announced here as we approach the opening.

A Note on Who These Women Are

These artists do not all share a South Central Los Angeles birthplace. Some were born on this corridor. Others came to it — brought their practice, contributed to its ongoing cultural life, and kept this Avenue’s creative legacy alive through their commitment and presence.

Central Avenue has always been a gathering place. A corridor that draws artists, musicians, and community makers into its orbit and asks something of them — not birthright, but commitment. Every artist in this exhibition has answered that call.

Central Avenue does not require birthright. It requires commitment. These women have given it.

Why the Dunbar

The Historic Dunbar Hotel is not a backdrop for this exhibition. It is a character in it.

Built in 1928, the Dunbar was the first luxury hotel west of the Mississippi to welcome Black guests during an era of segregation. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes — the full roster of mid-century Black excellence stayed here, performed here, and wrote here because this building offered what most of Los Angeles would not: dignity, welcome, and a space to be fully themselves.

This building has always been a safe haven for excellence the wider world was not yet ready to celebrate. That is exactly what this exhibition is.

Read the full history of the Dunbar Hotel at the LA Conservancy.

Opening Night

The opening reception takes place on Friday, May 1, 2026 at Delicious at The Dunbar.

The evening will feature a live jazz activation — not as atmosphere, not as background, but as a co-curator. Central Avenue is the birthplace of West Coast jazz. The music that filled these blocks during the Avenue’s golden era is part of the same cultural legacy these women have spent their careers honoring and extending. And with X. Darvi in the room — a painter who is also a singer, whose entire practice exists at the intersection of visual art and sound — that connection between the walls and the music feels especially alive on this particular opening night.

A closing reception tied to Mother’s Day weekend is under consideration. As an exhibition dedicated to women who have nurtured and protected a cultural legacy across generations, the resonance is earned — not forced.

Come

This is the exhibition that should have been held a long time ago. These women have been keeping the fire on Central Avenue for decades — some for their entire careers — and this is the room where that work finally gets named for what it is.

Come on May 1. Bring someone who has never been to a gallery. Bring someone who grew up on this Avenue. Bring someone who needs to see what keeping the fire looks like on a wall.

Admission is free. The doors are open. The flame is lit.

Reserve your spot and stay connected at lamancha.events/delicious.

Curated by Omar Holguin · Founder & Curator, La Mancha Gallery Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar · 4229 S. Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90011

La Mancha Gallery has been an independent curatorial practice on Central Avenue since 2006. The Arts @ Delicious at The Dunbar program launched in September 2025. The Women of Central Avenue: Keepers of the Flame opens May 1, 2026 and runs through June 30, 2026. Free and open to the public.

Artists

Featured Artists

Nina Syii
X. Darvi
Leila Prince
TBD