Lota

Your source for emerging art, fashion, and design from around the world

05/21/2026

My latest artist interview is with Alex Maceda ( ), who I had the pleasure to finally meet in person last week in New York at her MFA thesis show.

Alex’s paintings live in the space between body and landscape, desire and restraint, mysticism and structure. They don’t resolve too quickly, which is exactly what makes them so compelling.
We spoke about leaving startup life after reaching the role she thought she wanted, finding stillness in New York, painting from observation, morena skin tones, and why ambiguity is not a failure of communication.

One line I keep coming back to: “I associate ambition with vulnerability.”

Full interview is up on LOTA. Link in bio.

05/18/2026

Touch is a sensation, and sensation is information! ( .nyc )

Last week in NYC for art week and a touch of design week (ha!), was perfection. My camera roll is filled with many moments of sensation and information, so starting with a dump of some of my favorites.

1. .nyc
2. Golden Hour

3. myles.bennett.studio .world
4. Veronique Wirbel .art
5. Bu Shi

6. Masanori Maeda
7.

8. Made it to in West Village thanks to .feedme late night read

9.
10.
11.

12. .people
13. .galeria

Non fair favorites
14.
15.
16. Salon wall
17.
18. Helen Frankenthaler
19. Carlos Mérida
20. .geometry

05/04/2026

IT’S TIME!! First Monday in May means Met Gala!

This year’s dress code is “Fashion is Art,” which sounds simple until you realize how easy it is to turn that into a painting printed on a dress.

The more interesting question is what happens when fashion behaves like art - when it changes how a body moves, how a material carries memory, or how an entrance becomes an image.

So here’s my visual cheat sheet for following along tonight:
Painterly dresses
Surrealism on the body
The body as the subject
Headpieces and adornment

Plus, of course, the obvious references we will absolutely see.

Tell me who understood the assignment, and who just wore the museum gift shop.

Full post is up on LOTA. Link in bio.

04/21/2026

Priyanka Rana’s () practice is formally modern, but carry rituals, memories, ecological grief, repair, and the spirit of nature that we know to be centuries old.

In our conversation, Rana talks about the moment wood stopped feeling like material and started feeling like a collaborator. You can feel this tension in her work - the human hand evident but only to reveal the possibility of what lies beneath.

Full conversation on Substack. Link in bio.

04/02/2026

What’s left when everything can be copied?

Blame AI, blame the algorithm, blame doomscrolling, and even blame the loneliness epidemic. Things everywhere continue to be flattened into sameness but what continues to hold my attention are the ideas, people, and things that refuse to flatten.

Things like ’s insane surrealist, hand painted sets and compositions that feel more like fine art versus brand images, a interior that reminded me that style is meant to scale but TASTE doesn’t, a mesmerizing experience at , an ode to as a testament to great design, and of course what part of the art market is largely ignored (but open to play in).

That’s the round up in this month’s Goods. Link in bio for all the good, juicy details and notes.

03/19/2026

Art fairs are a gift and a problem.

You can see more in a day than you’d normally see in months — but the conditions aren’t neutral. The VIP layer, the layout, even the rooms you’re allowed into shape how you experience the work (and what you walk away with).

LA had its own wave of new fairs this year — Butter, Post, and more. And in London, .attractions is rethinking the format: hotel-room installations, real programming, and a push toward experience, not spectacle.

I interviewed co-founder about what the fair model still assumes, what “success” actually means for galleries, and how to stay human when you’ve seen 10,000 artworks in a week.
Full Q&A is live — link in bio.

03/05/2026

Having a little space from art week helps my brain separate what was loud from what actually stayed.

When you’re in it, everything feels urgent, another booth, another opening, another room you’re “supposed” to see. A week out, the fog clears and I can tap back into what actually moved me.

For better or for worse, I’m a frameworks gal (blame my dad and/or tech world training). This week I kept returning to two questions: what is the role of the artist, and how do we actually experience art?

So here’s my Art Week recap through three threads (not trends):
Memory as the medium (featuring art by .la .gallery )

A return to the classics, the hand, the proof of a human (featuring )

Containers edit culture, the venue is never neutral ( .studio )

Full notes are up on Substack, plus market notes at the end for the sales-curious. Link in bio.

02/12/2026

When we were growing up, Black History Month was the only thing February really held in a prominent way (apart from the joy of candy hearts on Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl). With all the noise today, it’s easy to lose the thread, which makes me think about how quickly “history” gets flattened if we’re not intentional about what we’re actually paying attention to.

With that lens, here are Black American artists whose work I love (recent discoveries to longtime favorites), plus where to see Black art IRL in LA before the month closes.

Link in bio to the full post with all the details to shop art and learn more

Featuring ( .gallery ), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ),

01/29/2026

Today I’m launching Collector’s Circle - a paid tier on Substack.

I saw this Kerry James Marshall work at The Histories at the and it has stayed with me. Untitled (2017) (courtesy of ). The way he makes space for people and histories that are often hidden in plain sight. This piece questions who is art for, and who gets to feel at home inside it?

That’s also the why behind LOTA.

Collector’s Circle is for people who are more than just curious about art and want to participate in the art world without the gatekeeping and elitism.

What you get:
— “Available Now” picks (3–7 works/month you can actually buy)
— Market Notes (pricing, editions, galleries, logistics — what matters, what doesn’t)
— Subscriber chat for questions + finds
— $20 credit toward your first 1:1 consult
Early access through Feb 28: $6/month for your first year (then $8).

Link in bio.

Address

Los Angeles, CA

Website

http://lota.substack.com/, http://lotagoods.com/

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