John Birtle: More is More

Los Angeles – The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) proudly presents John Birtle: More is More, the artist's first solo institutional exhibition, on view from Saturday, November 1, 2025, through Saturday, January 24, 2026.

 

John Birtle (b. 1985, Long Beach) questions the role of the artist as an authority or singular identity. His work brings a bold and evolving exploration of authorship, images, and collectivity. Working across drawing, sculpture, and installation, they reimagine everyday objects, highlighting both their utilitarian and aesthetic qualities, and revealing how they connect people in unexpected ways. More is More restages an installation first conceived in their studio, combining drawings, artist books, and sculptures such as puzzles, kaleidoscopes, and dice to create a dynamic environment that fosters connection among viewers.

 

Known for their intricate rubber stamp drawings—dense, dazzling compositions that evoke endless flower fields or overflowing bubble baths—Birtle underscores questions of authorship embedded in the repeated gesture of each individual stamp. Their practice probes the networks through which images like rubber stamps or puzzles circulate, tracing how images and objects accrue meaning and value over time. In doing so, their work challenges the hierarchies that determine what counts as "real art" and what is relegated to the margins as craft, too queer, too camp, and ultimately, too much.

 

This sense of dynamism runs throughout Birtle's practice, allowing them to index the ways individuality blurs into plurality, shaping both our sense of self and our collective experience. With a nod to feminist and queer legacies of the Pattern & Decoration movement, they infuse their objects with playfulness, humor, and an earnest invitation to engage with the work—and with one another. Their tactile approach not only unsettles the heightened sensitivities often found in museums but also reimagines the very systems through which art is valued, used, and shared.

John Birtle: More is More is curated by Hugo Cervantes, LAMAG Curator.

This exhibition is supported by The Barnsdall Art Park Foundation.

Additional programming information to come.

LAMAG is open Thursday to Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please make an appointment via our website, lamag.org.

 

About the Artist 

John Birtle (b. 1985, Long Beach) questions the role of the artist as an authority or singular identity. They host exhibitions in a 2″ by 4″ gallery on their left forearm, enjoy wearing other people's shoes, and frequently misspell their last name. Birtle has been involved in several collective art projects, including Human Resources LA, KCHUNG, Llano del Rio Collective, the Eternal Telethon, and many others. In the past year, they have exhibited at Artist Curated Projects, David Horvitz's 7th Ave. Garden, Fulcrum Press, Marianne Boesky Gallery, and Clara's Garage. They are currently working on a forthcoming publication, Collected Bios: 2009-2024, to mark 15 years of writing a new bio whenever asked.

 

About the Curator

Hugo Cervantes is Curator of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG). He has held curatorial roles at Human Resources–Los Angeles (HRLA), Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, and LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division). While at LAND, he co-organized BLKNWS by Kahlil Joseph, a city-wide public art project included in Made in L.A. 2020: a version, and partnered with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) to curate commissioned public art projects by Nico d'entremont and Julia Bogany, Megan Dorame, and iris yirei hu at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. In 2025, he was awarded a Teiger Foundation Curatorial Research Award for the first major survey of Chicana cross-genre performance and installation artist Nao Bustamante, forthcoming at LAMAG. He received a BA from the University of California, Riverside (2018), and an MA in Curatorial Practices from the University of Southern California (2022).

 

About the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG)

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery's (LAMAG) mission is to be responsive to the human experience. Established in 1954, LAMAG is the longest running institution in Los Angeles devoted solely to exhibiting contemporary art. The gallery focuses on artists from Los Angeles – in particular underrepresented artists whose work may not otherwise have found a platform. Our exhibitions, educational and public programs aim to inspire conversation about contemporary issues and ideas that resonate most with the people of Los Angeles.

 

Many local artists who have exhibited at the gallery have gone on to become fixtures of the national and international art world, including Carlos Almaraz, Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Vija Celmins, Harry Gamboa Jr., David Hammons, Barbara Kruger, Kerry James Marshall, Senga Nengudi, Catherine Opie, Sandy Rodriguez, Ed Ruscha, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto. Today, the gallery continues to build on this rich legacy, operating as a site of discovery for outstanding work by the city's most exciting artists, from recent graduates to practitioners with years of experience.

 

Offering free admission and programs, LAMAG serves as a welcoming space for everyone, regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, domestic partner status, marital status or medical condition.

 

It is important that the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery prioritize respect for both the historic culture and the contemporary presence of indigenous peoples throughout California, and especially in the Los Angeles area. To that end, and particularly as a public and civic institution, we acknowledge that our gallery resides on what was historically the homeland of Kizh, Tongva, and Chumash peoples who were dispossessed of their land. If you would like to learn more about the land you are on please visit: https://native-land.ca.