Los Angeles According to: Dominique Clayton of Dominique Gallery

Dominique Clayton opened her eponymous gallery in Los Angeles’s West Adams neighbourhood in 2015, with a focus on diversity and Black representation. Clayton, who also works as an art advisor and consultant, has since also developed the gallery into the virtual space with project-based collaborations as well as physical editions and publications. The born-and-bred Angeleno talks about how her upbriging allowed her to navigate the complex discrete communities within the art world. 

Chris Waywell What’s your own relationship with Los Angeles?

Dominique Clayton I was born in Inglewood in a hospital that no longer exists. Now, the SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum are there, so everybody goes to where I was born to party, play sports and listen to music. Seems very fitting, because I’m a party girl at heart! My family is predominantly from the south side of LA, what they would call Black LA – Crenshaw, Leimert Park, Inglewood – historically Black neighbourhoods. Growing up, my mother shifted gears, put me in private school, and I spent my childhood and teen years in Hollywood. I’ve always been in both worlds. 

Being exposed to LA’s different cultural pockets prepared me for how the art world works. Dominique Clayton

CW How have you seen Los Angeles change since then?

DC As a person of colour growing up in LA, I’ve always felt that Los Angeles is very culturally segregated. Each ethnic group has a very rich culture in its own community. But until recently, they have not quite intersected. As a child, I was always going to Black cultural events: there was the Chocolate Nutcracker and the Crenshaw Car Show every Sunday. Even Crenshaw Boulevard, where my mom used to get her nails done or buy her wigs – my friends who grew up on the other side of town never experienced that. I have a lot of Hispanic friends and they would say the same thing about the communities that they grew up in. I think that being exposed to these different pockets prepared me for how the art world works. There are very niche segments within it, and I learned from an early age how to navigate all that. I also think gentrification and cross-cultural development have blended some of these communities and erased some of the real foundation. But those who are really committed to cultural stewardship and protecting that, we are all talking to each other and building a cross-cultural community, which is long overdue in the art world. There’s definitely an independent Black art world and a set within the mainstream art world. And I make sure that stays and grows. Because doing two separate things all the time, code-switching, it’s exhausting.

CW Who is the artist you’re bringing to Frieze? 

DC Adee Roberson, who’s based here in Los Angeles but originally from Florida. Her work is just magical: it’s colourful, it’s refreshing, it’s very LA to me. She works in a high-chroma fluorescent palette, which is very much like the sun and the sky and the flora in between, all things that I love in this town and just in general. I am really drawn to how she manipulates her lens-based works. There’s a lot of images that she’s repurposed from her own life in addition to cultural references, that she then mixes with her magical colour palette. I love how her work makes me feel. And I love how when people have seen it: there is a visceral response, like putting a smile on your face. I’ve worked with a lot of artists of colour, who, unfortunately, have come out of trauma, out of poverty, out of displacement. And a lot of their work speaks to that, which can be very heavy and dark and poignant in a wonderful way. But we’ve had such a heavy year. We’ve had a lot of highs and lows, politically, culturally, economically. So this is a fresh start, fresh attitude, fresh outlook.

CW What are your favourite galleries and museums in Los Angeles?

DC That’s bittersweet, because some of my favourite places don’t exist anymore. Like the Underground Museum, which was just a few blocks away from my home and founded by artist Karon Davis and her late husband, Noah Davis. That was a beautiful space with so many magical memories for me, for my family, for the artists that I know. The Broad is a forever fave: I used to work there. The private collection of Eli and Edythe Broad is remarkable. The main reason I love that place is that it has a collection of more than 2,000 objects including all the major players in contemporary art and pop art, and it’s just fun, larger than life. It’s an iconic museum that signifies a lot of what LA is about. Between the architecture and the other cultural institutions on the same block, I always felt so cool going to work, walking in there with millions of dollars’ worth of gorgeous artwork. It was a real privilege to sit in the same building with these incredible pieces by mostly living artists, many of whom I actually know. That place more than anywhere else reminds me how art can motivate and inspire.

CW What’s a memorable show you’ve seen there recently?

DC The most recent was a solo exhibition by Mickalene Thomas, a Black woman artist. It’s the first of its kind at that museum as she was just added to the collection in the last couple years. Thomas and the curator, my friend Ed Schad, created this oasis that was so remarkable. Her work was perfect for that space, because it’s big and bold, just like many of the other works in The Broad. There were so many colours, gems, rhinestones, plants and patterns in her work, and it really captured all the sexiness and power of women and the richness of Blackness. It was just a sexy show all round and I visited it frequently and took my daughters who’ve spent lots of time in the museum. They also agreed it was one of their favourites. 

CW What are your LA eating and drinking recommendations?

DC The neighbourhood I opened the gallery in is Mid-City. I’m on West Adams Boulevard, which hugs the 10 Freeway and used to be this street that you could use to bypass it. Now it’s fully gentrified. When I first opened that space in 2015 there was nothing on the block. That same year, they opened a pizza shop on the block called Delicious Pizza, which is actually a by-product of Delicious Vinyl, an indie underground hip hop record label founded in the late ’80s. The hip hop spirit of Delicious Vinyl is embedded in the restaurant. There’s a whole wall of all the hip hop legends who have been part of the label, like my faves The Pharycyde, and they have an epic soundtrack: all my favourite ’90s underground hip hop, which is what I grew up on thanks to my older sister. And of course the pizza is great (and so are the affogatos).

What makes LA LA is a little bit of dirt under your nails. A little bit of grit. Dominique Clayton

Also in Mid-City, there are a few Mexican restaurants that are my go-tos and a million taco trucks that are authentic and amazing. If I have time to sit and eat, I’ll do fish tacos at Mariscos Marias. Oaxacan mole (a delicious smoky barbecue-style sauce made of chillis and chocolate) is my favourite flavour so that’s usually my go-to at any Mexican spot, especially Guelaguetza. Being an LA girl, I’m a snob when it comes to my taco place. I can tell when I walk up to a taco truck if it’s going to be good or not. Just the layout, how they prep everything and who is in line. My current favourite is in the gas station parking lot on Venice and LaBrea. Real LA folks on this side of town know exactly where I’m talking about!

CW What about places to party? What’s a good bar or club?

DC LA nightlife is different compared to, say, New York. LA is more of a house-party place. The best hangouts I’ve ever done have been in private homes. People don’t really have big houses in New York City either. There’s a wonderful place down the street from my spot called Alta that many of the Mid-City galleries use. It's a soulfood fusion restaurant with a beautiful garden patio, and I’ve done gallery dinners and receptions there.  There’s also a new restaurant-lounge called Linden, which is super-cute. It’s on Sunset Blvd. It’s co-owned by Sterling ‘Steelo’ Brim and his wife Alahna Jade, who are amazing art collectors and tastemakers in their own right. It’s a great diverse crowd of art/music/fashion/Hollywood folks. Very LA. I don’t get out too much. I have children, so they keep me busy with other kinds of parties!

CW What’s the best thing about LA?

DC There’s an unspoken vibe. There’s a coolness that cannot be captured. What makes LA LA is a little bit of dirt under your nails. A little bit of grit. Not like New York grime and crime, but there’s a little bit of something.

CW And what’s the worst thing?

DC I don’t want to say the transplants because everyone complains about them in every city, but I would say inauthentic people and places. The LA that I grew up in doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the coolest places I went to as a teenager off Melrose or Hollywood Boulevard were just cute little hole-in-the-wall vintage shops, record shops, food shops, and they’re all gone now. That’s the part that I think a lot of transplants don’t understand. People just want to see palm trees and the beach, but there’s so much more. LA has a depth that only natives and long-timers truly respect and that’s why the recent fires touched many of us so deeply.

Dominique Gallery presents Adee Roberson in the Focus section of Frieze Los Angeles 2025.

Further Information

Frieze Los Angeles, 20 – 23 February 2025, Santa Monica Airport.

Frieze is proud to support the LA Arts Community Fire Fund, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust. In addition to Frieze’s contribution, 10% of the value of all newly purchased tickets is also being donated to the fund. 

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^{Main image: Dominique Clayton. Photo: Texas Isaiah}