Opening
Saturday, September 06
5 – 8PM

On View
September 06 – October 18 2025

Wednesday – Saturday
Noon – 5PM

Marta
3021 Rowena Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Marta is proud to present In the Style of..., an exhibition of new sculptural-functional works by Los Angeles-based artist and designer Doug McCollough. Hosted in the gallery’s Anteroom, one of the more intimate spaces conceived within Marta’s architecture, In the Style of... positions the principles of domesticity against the expectations of historicity, articulating a sacred dialogue between memory and culture that defines, without exception, the essence of home.

There is an allegiance laid into the character of each of McCollough’s works—to the lineage, whether real or imagined, of their expression, and to the subversion of the tropes that typify historical American design objects. It is an impression, as the exhibition’s title implies, that suggests a novel past and the potentialities of its future. With allusions to the hands of makers both recognized and anonymous, the artist has paid homage to a variety of vernacular skillsets, previously codified by community and/or necessity, that offer distinct points of material and conceptual engagement with a foundational interest of McCollough’s practice: the derivation of archetype from extinct form.

A question hangs in the air around each of McCollough’s works, asked with the grace of an elegant host upon entry into their home: May I hold that for you? Resounding throughout the Anteroom, it is first posed by two works located outside its boundaries: Decorative Bow II—an iteration of the central motif debuted in Decorative Bow, a work that the artist first presented in the gallery’s monumental group exhibition Rites of Spring (2024)—and Wall Rocker, an evolution of the forms first explored in the artist’s static-kinetic sculpture Rosebud (2024), the second entry in the gallery’s Mezzanine series. If so desired, both slender-limbed forms provide visitors with a site to place a garment. This ritual offer, a quotidian ceremony in the home, is repeated by McCollough’s twelve ‘pillow hooks’—three groups of four wall sculptures that extend the fine grain of their unique wood appendages from upholstered landscapes that convey specific histories in the nuances of their patterning and composition.

Sourced with meticulous care, the extensive hunt for these often elusive fabrics, typified here by the artist’s evocative designations (Beach Club; Basement; Winterthur) exemplify McCollough’s insistence on authentic pairings between materials and their attendant references, as well as the associations that they induce. The delicate sheen of a 1980s floral chintz; the interplay between soft Wedgewood blues and whites; the subtle wealth, both literal and associative, of tweed: each combination exemplifies McCollough’s ability to balance precedence with an ingenuity at once tender and slippery. We believe their familiar invitation, arms outstretched in an embrace that desires to accept our most cherished items—a beloved coat or bag—yet understand that they do not require activation for completion. The two corresponding Ottomans placed beneath these works echo a similar refrain—the body is welcome but never demanded. We are released from imperative, free to adapt as we so choose; to live as we please.

Doug McCollough is a Los Angeles-based artist primarily working in wood and upholstery. Without irony, he explores the nuances of nostalgia and pleasure, comfort and tradition, in order to draw attention to the sacred in the familiar. Each of his works seeks to communicate with viewer, owner, and user about our shared knowledge of household objects and the design histories that underpin their culture of use and association. By extracting archetype from often-extinct form, he both celebrates and articulates the collective knowledge base endowed in the quotidian—a space in which the old is found to be eternally new.

McCollough has participated in two group exhibitions with Marta, Built In at the Neutra VDL House (2021, as one-half of L.A. Door) and Rites of Spring (2024). McCollough will contribute work to an untitled group exhibition at Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in New York in Fall 2025. In the Style of… (2025) is the artist and designer’s first solo exhibition with Marta under his own name, following Open & Close (2023), with former collaborator Katie Payne under the moniker L.A. Door. His static-kinetic sculpture, Rosebud (2024), was the second entrant into the gallery’s Mezzanine series, which hosts supplementary work from artists within and outside of Marta’s regular exhibition program. You can listen to his interview on Motion in Field, the series’ corresponding podcast program, here.