These artists are guiding L.A. culture. Let them steer your way

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2018 as an arts journalist, people tried to explain to me the appeal of this city’s sprawl, how it shaped the art that was made here. There was no fixed center — the museums, galleries and studios were scattered all over town — which resulted in more play and experimentation, less uniformity, they said. I was intrigued and overwhelmed as I tried to make sense of the multiple cities that somehow existed within L.A. I bought a map and framed it on my desk. As with any place I visit, I sought to get to know it through its artists. I remember turning to Shelley Holcomb’s Curate LA, an impressively comprehensive guide to openings and events beyond the obvious. Within my first year here, I also saw Guadalupe Rosales’ archival photos of fashionable Latina youth partying at the raves in East L.A., projected on the walls of the Vincent Price Museum. I remember clocking how the artists here weren’t just based in L.A.; they were shaping and being shaped by it.

I know the city better now, but the artists within it have continued to steer my way. This is also how I see the Image Makers collected in this issue: as guides of the culture here. To learn about them is to learn about a different corner of L.A., from ERL’s Venice and Becky G’s Inglewood to Sage Elsesser’s Mid-City and Kiko Kostadinov’s Melrose Hill.

They are a multigenerational group, and regardless of which phase of life they’re at, many seem to share a desire, more than ever before, to be unapologetically themselves. Becky G is making music that is uncompromising and defiant. Sage Elsesser is being “intentional” with his energy and where he puts it. Micaiah Carter is ready to “freestyle” more in his photography and just be “in the present.” To paraphrase stylist Bailey Rose Quiñones, they’re ready to shed old selves. Or, as Rosales puts it: “I just feel like I’m more myself.”

These Image Makers are shedding expectations and weeding out the noise. They are making work that, like L.A. itself, is expansive and multiple. I invite you to let the 2026 Image Makers be your guide to this city that refuses to be any one thing.