"The thing about artists," quips Tony Berlant, "is that they say the work speaks for itself, then they can't stop talking about it!" Well, thank goodness for that, because during our tour of his new exhibition, it turned out Berlant had quite a lot to say about his newest work.

For anyone interested in the long arc of art history, the contemporary art world’s obsession with youth, novelty, and spectacle can be exhausting. A welcome tonic has arrived in the form of a dazzling new show at Los Angeles’s Kohn Gallery that is dedicated to recent work by Tony Berlant.

For most of his life, Tony Berlant has surrendered himself to his obsessions. Aside from making his own large-scale collages from vintage metal street signs and advertisements, the Santa Monica painter and sculptor has spent decades collecting ancient objects made by unknown artists.