Oscar Week's Big Art Openings

Ever since bluechip dealer Larry Gagosian began scheduling an art opening at his Beverly Hills gallery years back to coincide with Oscar week to draw in all the heavy-hitters in town for the big event, an unofficial art weekend has sprung up around the Academy Awards festivities. This year, six big openings are happening that are sure to lure industry art collectors.

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Things kick off Feb. 21 with an opening at Gagosian (456 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills) of the show Richard Prince: Cowboys spotlighting the artist's series in which he re-photographs iconic cowboy images used in advertising. (A private dinner for VIPs happens afterwards at Mr. Chow.)

The next night, OHWOW Gallery (937 N. La Cienega Blvd.) mounts Nick Van Woert’s solo exhibition titled No Man’s Land. The mixed-media show, including paintings, sculptures, photography and installation, focuses on the artist's obsession with ecology and geology.

On the eve of the Oscars, PRISM (8746 W. Sunset Blvd.) will host an invite-only reception in honor of celebrated photographer Mario Testino. Testino will showcase a wide spectrum of his images with a large number of personal works from the course of his career. On the same night, Blum & Poe (2727 S. La Cienaga Blvd., Culver City) will present a solo exhibition of the work of Japanese artist Susumu Koshimizu, a central figure in the late 1960s and early 1970s avant-garde Mono-ha movement in Tokyo, while Regen Projects (6750 Santa Monica Blvd.) will show new portraits and landscapes by photographer Catherine Opie. Also on Feb. 23, the Los  Angeles County Museum of Art celebrates the public opening of Ends and Exits, a contemporary art exhibition which includes works by Louise Lawler, Robert Gober and Robert Longo from the collection of LACMA and the Broad Art Foundation.