Art for a Safe and Healthy California

Gagosian is pleased to announce Art for a Safe and Healthy California, a benefit exhibition presented in Beverly Hills by renowned actor and activist Jane Fonda together with the gallery.

Thanks to the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California and its partnership with the arts community, California Independent Petroleum Association announced this month that it would withdraw a referendum on California’s landmark law (SB 1137) to protect neighborhoods from toxic oil drilling from the November ballot. As a result of this early win, the Campaign has become a general-purpose committee that aims to protect frontline communities from Big Oil’s next attempts at pollution and destruction for profit. Art for a Safe and Healthy California is an exhibition designed to provide valuable support for this crucial initiative.

The highly successful benefit launched on April 9 with an extensively reported-on event at the gallery’s Beverly Hills location that raised more than $14 million for the Campaign. Gagosian is grateful to the artists who participated in the project at this critical first stage, including Ed Ruscha, Charles Gaines, Mark Grotjahn, Jonas Wood, Sarah Cain, Karon Davis, Jules de Balincourt, Olafur Eliasson, Francesca Gabbiani, Marilyn Minter, Catherine Opie, Christina Quarles, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Kenny Scharf, and Joey Terrill. In May, a selection of works by these and other artists was auctioned at Christie’s during their marquee sale week. A second set of works—by Frank Gehry, Nan Goldin, M (aka Michael Chow), Hank Willis Thomas, and others—is now being presented for sale, also at Gagosian Beverly Hills, in an exhibition that opens on July 18 and is on view through August 30.

“I am thrilled to be able to use my love of art to propel the fight against climate injustice while simultaneously uplifting the work of these talented and generous artists,” said Fonda. “I am so fortunate to have Larry Gagosian and his LA team by my side as we continue to pursue a safer and healthier California.” Larry Gagosian remarked, “Jane has been a great friend for over forty years, and an icon of the American cultural landscape since the 1960s. I have always admired her activism, and when she brought this urgent David vs. Goliath cause to my attention, I didn’t hesitate. It has been an honor to partner with her on this crucial issue impacting my home state of California—from the launch event in April to the upcoming exhibition to raise funds to support this effort into the future. I am incredibly grateful for the artists’ generosity in helping us ensure a safe and healthy California for generations to come.”

The work featured in Art for a Safe and Healthy California represents a diverse array of mediums and approaches; much of it also reflects concern about the environment. In Self-Portrait (Fins and Pier) (2023), a recent entry in Alex Israel’s iconic Self-Portrait series, the artist’s Hitchcock-inspired profile logo frames a photorealistic painting of two quintessentially LA features, while in Richard Misrach’s photograph Untitled (Acrobat Super Grid #8) (2012), a pair of athletes perform, half-submerged, in the gray-green ocean. Shepard Fairey’s painting Bliss at the Cliff’s Edge (2024) also features a sea view, showing a couple reclining beneath a striped parasol as an oil rig looms from the water behind them. “We are at the cliff’s edge,” comments the artist, “when it comes to preventing the most catastrophic damage to the planet.”

Nan Goldin took her photograph Cupid and Psyche (2010) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, as part of a commissioned project titled Scopophilia. Pairing shots from throughout her career with new images of works from the Louvre’s collection, including the titular sculptural pair, the artist explores the intersection of desire and gender fluidity. Jessie Homer French’s canvas Ghosts (2012) depicts a stealth bomber—as eerily pale as a phantom—flying past an anonymous wind farm. Lonnie Holley employs found materials in a resonant fusion of metaphor and commemoration, while Y.Z. Kami’s mandala-like painting Gold Dome (2023–24) makes reference to Eastern and Western alchemical traditions and alludes to the “inner gold” of sacred art.

Participating artists include Jackie Amézquita, Andrea Bowers, Matt DiGiacomo, Shepard Fairey, Frank Gehry, Nan Goldin, Lonnie Holley, Jessie Homer French, Alex Israel, Y.Z. Kami, M (aka Michael Chow), Richard Misrach, Analia Saban, Tavares Strachan, and Hank Willis Thomas.