Good Mother Gallery presents The Los Angeles Confidential, a bold new installation by artist Devin Troy Strother, on view from February 19th to March 12th in Los Angeles. The exhibition, a collaboration with The Pit, transforms the gallery into an immersive, multimedia experience that deconstructs pop culture, art-world exclusivity, and media spectacle.
Strother, known for his subversive humor and maximalist aesthetic, builds on his signature style with a layered environment that critiques and celebrates cultural mythmaking. At the center of the show is The Los Angeles Confidential, a sculptural kiosk and evolving archive that plays on the idea of the art world as a closed network, accessible only to those who know the right names and narratives. Inspired by the 1997 film L.A. Confidential, the piece functions as a mobile newsstand, collecting printed matter, film recordings, and ephemeral artifacts as it moves through space.
Another standout work, Name Drop (Literally), takes art-world elitism to neon-lit heights. Suspended in space, glowing names of influential figures create a constellation of power, satirizing the social hierarchy of contemporary art. The work nods to Jason Rhoades’ Black Pussy and Paul McCarthy’s theatrical sculptural environments, blending humor with critical edge.
Throughout the exhibition, Strother plays with the language of advertising and underground media. Large-scale assemblages channel the energy of billboards, while hand-painted works fuse high art references with comic-book absurdity. It’s a show that is both an inside joke and a mirror to the industry it dissects, challenging, playful, and impossible to ignore.
