A Modern Way to Love to Hate

I’m not what you would call a hater, per se, but I will definitely say the last few years I have grown more… let’s just say, annoyed… with the world. Most people say it was the pandemic where everyone just sort of lost their ability to be courteous or even cordial or even a bit aware in public spaces, or driving a car, or waiting in line (and why did waiting in lines become the pandemic’s gift to the general populous?). It is all pretty much the phone. That’s really it. We have phones, we used them too much in 2020, we lost our minds, and we are now just fucked off. Although some are just blissfully annoying me still, and they are probably quite happy and content.

All of this is to say, I really like Brittany Fanning’s curation of Love to Hate at Megan Mulrooney in Los Angeles. It begins with a quote from actor Eddie Pepitone: “Look there are a million things that are gnawing away at our peace of mind every damn day. Our job is to let it just pass through us and not judge it or attach to it like a good zen practitioner. Yea good luck with that. This exhibit explores the things that annoy us for whatever goddamn reason, some obvious, some quirkily our own problem. I myself don’t like seeing people toss pennies into a fountain. Screw that noise.”

I do believe in some cases that art is a way to get some peace, some consideration, some understanding and test the boundaries of our knowledge. I don’t think social media art is the answer, the way that we all have just let the marketing of galleries and artists be run by some formulaic Claude friendship. I want a group that just says, “Guess what? Shit is bad. We are annoyed. Let’s make some art about it and get a conversation going.”

The show is on through August 15, 2026