Serious Topics Presents Culture, Borderline, Layered Time An Exhibition of New Paintings By Michael Arata

April 11 – May 16, 2026  

An Exhibition of New Paintings By Michael Arata Culture, Borderline, Layered Time opens this weekend at Serious Topics in Inglewood through May 16. Even when the subject is war and destruction, Michael Arata paints figurative and still-life paintings that exude the joy of being alive. People are in relationship with other people, working together (thinking, acting, and telling each other what they know). He is interested in how we carry a consciousness larger than the space we occupy, containing thoughts, dreams, memories and desires. Arata’s paintings diagram human interaction. Fresh ideas come from dismantling belief systems and rebuilding them. Past and present blur into an unknown future. Nothing is resolved, but nothing is lost either. All of this is in the paintings. Arata’s work is informed by growing up in 1960s San Francisco, marching for civil rights. He holds the idealism of that time as a working proposition rather than a memory. The paintings are optimistic. We need more of that.  

Michael Arata (b. 1955, San Francisco) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received his BFA and MFA from San Jose State University and has taught painting, drawing and art history at Loyola Marymount University, East Los Angeles College, and West Los Angeles College, where he also served as gallery director and curator. His work has been exhibited widely in Los Angeles and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Salamanca, and Tokyo, and has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Artillery, and Artweek, among others. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.   

There will be a reception for the Artist, Saturday, April 11, 2026, 3–6 PM and on Saturday April 25th @2pm the artist will be In conversation with Mat Gleason.