{"id":491069,"date":"2026-02-26T06:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491069\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T06:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:31:17","slug":"these-l-a-artists-flipped-an-empty-99-cents-only-store-into-a-bizarrely-beautiful-mid-city-art-gallery-l-a-taco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491069\/","title":{"rendered":"These L.A. Artists Flipped an Empty 99 Cents Only Store Into a Bizarrely Beautiful Mid-City Art Gallery ~ L.A. TACO"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story and all of L.A. TACO’s Arts coverage is sponsored by\u00a0Nikos Constant<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When Los Angeles has run itself dry of fresh creative spaces, what more can it do but find a temporary home within the city\u2019s forgotten landmarks? After 99 Cents Only stores closed all their locations across different communities in 2024, many were turned over to other businesses, including Dollar Tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the former store on Wilshire Boulevard in Miracle Mile, artists from around the city came together to give the space a warm revival with different guts and new faces.<\/p>\n

Driving down Wilshire, what appears to be an abandoned, graffiti-covered store with foggy windows is lost amid the shadows of the nearby Academy and Petersen Automotive Museums surrounding it. But just behind the store is a rear entrance leading to a nostalgic, feverish experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the aisles where 99 Cents Only products once stood were now disfigured sculptures and portraits, their overwhelming color schemes balanced with the overhead tunes, bouncing from soft indie to a whimsical, lyric-less jingle.<\/p>\n

\"aPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.\"artPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

Without deconstructing the bones of 99 Cents Only\u2013leaving its original blue and white tile floors, numbered purple signs that hang above each aisle, long white shelves, and checkout lanes in the front and back of the store\u2013The Hole, a contemporary art gallery run by Kathy Grayson and American artist Barry McGee, took form from their partnership. Together they\u2019re helping to reimagine a tribute to art and nostalgia with their \u201c99CENT\u201d exhibit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside the abstract haze are aisles cramped with different mediums of creativity\u2013 from foam sculptures made to replicate the human body, black-and-white film prints, childhood toys thrown together to tell the story of youth, and toilet paper with previous presidents drawn on each cut to numerous anti-ICE markings on posters, and a bridal gown tagged with spray paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of this [exhibit] and amount of artists contributing is really quite exceptional and really something only Barry could pull off,\u201d Charlotte Gr\u00fcssing, an art director at The Hole tells L.A. TACO. \u201cArtists were showing up by the hundreds up until the opening.”<\/p>\n

\"blackPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.\"aPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.\"aPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.\"blackPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

While the exhibit provided a venue for underground artists to show their work, it also served as a creative playground for McGee and his artist friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word-of-mouth really spread,\u201d says Gr\u00fcssing. \u201cA lot of old friends and mutual artists from the graffiti scene, or artists he\u2019s [McGee] worked with over the years, as well as some really emerging people who, through friends of friends, got the word . . . this is long-term relationships and friends making this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trailing from ceiling to floor are displays that pay homage to the different cultures of L.A.: skate, surf, and street, among others, often with the artists\u2019 names in front. Congested with the varied installations, one or two walks through an aisle does not guarantee seeing all the projects nor understanding each of their messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"paintedPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

As a competitive field with limited opportunities at success, 99CENT provides an ego-free outlet for all kinds of artists to get exposure for their work, even if it\u2019s just for a split second of time, as the exhibit is only open for a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some stuff that literally looks like the stuff [you see] walking around an art college at the end of the semester that just gets left behind because they were assignments,\u201d says exhibit-goer Bryan Rosser, recalling his time at an art school.<\/p>\n

\"aPhoto by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

The visitors, too, reflected 99CENT\u2019s embrace of L.A.’s diversity, as guests from different generations, skin colors, subcultures, and media algorithms each analyzed the artwork with the same forward lean and furrowed brow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although some objects around the store may seem out of place\u2014like the emptied sardine tins and egg cartons\u2014they all seemingly fall under the exhibit\u2019s central theme: no theme at all. With the deranged atmosphere that makes use of any memorabilia, a crushed can of Modelo left behind is easily mistaken as an artist\u2019s symbol for a deeper message.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how everything\u2019s so abstract and that there\u2019s some [displays] that definitely have a message and some that you have no idea\u2014maybe it was just an expression of self in some kind of way,\u201d says Ginger Sorrah, who found the exhibit from an online recommendation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really know what I\u2019m looking at but it\u2019s visually very appealing to see something that\u2019s bizarre and different,\u201d says Jenni Richie, Sorrah\u2019s friend and a photographer from L.A., telling us she can spend hours in the exhibit observing each piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As 99CENT is both by and for the community, free of contribution and visitation fees despite the spreading buzz for the show, participating artists profit only from the luck of one of their pieces being sold, though most are content in their sole love for creating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [artists] have free space to show their work\u2014it\u2019s very much for the artist, and they\u2019re benefiting from showing amongst some of their idols and friends,\u201d Gr\u00fcssing says. \u201cThey\u2019re able to sell work and come together as a community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sitting just across the street from some of L.A.\u2019s big-hit museums, 99CENT offers a more community-oriented zone that lets the weird roam free, where artists are given the liberty to just do, whether taken seriously or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely has this feeling of going into a thrift store,\u201d says Tula Jeng, an art enthusiast from L.A. \u201cEverything tells this very specific story, and although there are so many artists that I don\u2019t know\u2014that I\u2019m going to discover today, you get a really strong feeling for all of their voices and point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is also just a nice juxtaposition from LACMA [museum], it\u2019s great art but from seeing [Claude] Monet . . . to see this in a different way, in a different light,\u201d adds Steve Motola, from under an L.A. Taco hat. \u201cIt\u2019s just more people\u2019s art, and it doesn\u2019t have to be funded by tens and millions of dollars . . . it\u2019s refreshing to see this space provided for so many folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

99CENT organizers are aware of the comments regarding the exhibit’s displacement of The Really Really Free 99<\/a>, a free store run by the Community Solidarity Project<\/a>, which had been donated the empty space until a lease was processed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mutual aid was finished, and this place [99 Cents Only store] was sitting empty for, I think, about a month\u2014it had been closed for a while and so Barry knew that it wasn\u2019t being used and wanted to do something that brought together artists and people in this special space,\u201d Gr\u00fcssing says. (The Community Solidarity Project did not respond to an interview request.)<\/p>\n

In place of another cobweb-covered, abandoned building, 99CENT tugged at the store\u2019s rusty power switch for its brief revival. The exhibit repurposes the once prominent convenience store that was a staple in numerous LA communities.<\/p>\n

6121 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048 ~ 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Sunday, March 1<\/p>\n