10 Must-See Exhibitions During Frieze Los Angeles 2026
By Tara Anne Dalbow
Wallace Berman “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”
“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” marks the centennial of Wallace Berman’s birth. The exhibition focuses on the Los Angeles artist’s iconic Verifax works: collages he produced using an early photocopy machine gifted to him in 1963. Reworking a negative image of a hand holding a transistor radio, Berman filled the device’s face with fragments of photos culled from old books, newspapers, and magazines. Jean Harlow nudes and tarot cards appear next to portraits of Fidel Castro and advertisements for pistols. Curated by his son Tosh Berman, the presentation extends the artist’s legacy beyond his Beat-era associations, emphasizing his engagement with mysticism and Kabbalah and his prescient critique of image saturation and mass media.