For Felix Art Fair 2025, ILY2 is proud to present new work by Los Angeles-based artists Leena Similu, Amanda Ross-Ho, Beatrix Fowler, and Isabel Yellin, alongside a selection of pieces by fellow gallery artists Melanie Flood, Bonnie Lucas, and Sara Rahmanian.
In response to the fires that have impacted the region, ILY2 remains committed to fostering community and healing. This presentation aims to amplify the voices of LA artists, celebrating their resilience and creativity while providing a safe space for reflection and renewal.
To accompany our main installation, ILY2 will transform the bedroom of its suite into an intimate, communal parlor. Featuring small artist editions, design objects, books, and collaborations, this space will serve as a dedicated room for rest, play, curiosity and connection. Highlights include limited edition prints by Eve Fowler, glazed stoneware by Martie Kilmer, vinyl totes by artist collective CFGNY, and stuffed denim creatures by LA-based brand 69.
ILY2 will host a performance by Beatrix Fowler on Saturday, February 22nd at 2:22pm.
Bonnie Lucas (b. Syracuse, NY) repurposes consumer goods into intricate fabric assemblages that critique traditional femininity. Her playful yet subversive compositions juxtapose childhood innocence with the darker undercurrents of societal expectations, creating works that resonate with both humor and depth. Lucas has presented recent solo exhibitions at ILY2, Portland, OR; Trotter & Sholer, New York, NY; RUSCHWOMAN, Chicago, IL; JTT, New York, NY; and 17ESSEX, New York, NY. Her work has been included in projects at the Drawing Center, New York, NY; International Studio & Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY; Painting Center, New York, NY; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; Textiel Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands; and Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, among other institutions. In 2014, Lucas was the subject of a major survey exhibition at Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been written about in Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, The Village Voice, New Yorker, and USA Today. Lucas lives and works in New York, NY.
Melanie Flood (b. Queens, NY) uses photography to examine femininity, aging, and societal beauty standards. Her practice incorporates elements of vernacular photography and experimental manipulation to challenge perceptions of vulnerability and power. Flood’s unflinching self-portraits and irreverent still lifes invite viewers to reconsider notions of femininity and self-care. Flood has had recent solo and two-person shows at ILY2, Portland, OR; Ruschwoman, Chicago, IL; Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, OR; and Ditch Projects, Springfield, OR. In 2024, her work was included in a comprehensive exhibition of contemporary photography at the Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR. Flood’s work and projects have been featured in Art in America, The New York Times, and New York Magazine, among others. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, such as the Regional Arts and Cultural Council Grant, Precipice Fund Award, Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, and two Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Exhibition Grants. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Portland,OR where she lives and works.
Beatrix Fowler’s (b. 1978) multidisciplinary practice spans music, painting, print-making and performance. Often utilizing improvisational elements in their musical and performance-based works, Fowler critically explores the dynamic between the performer and the audience, as well as our public versus private personas. Her prints and works on paper incorporate photographs from her personal archive, fusing elements of sculpture and collage. Through these processes, Fowler’s work seeks to deconstruct the systems, norms, conventions and protocols that convey meaning on both a conscious and subconscious level. Fowler attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she lived and worked as a musician and performance artist under the name BARR before moving to Los Angeles in 2022. She was the former co-editor of the arts magazine ANP Quarterly, alongside Ed Templeton and Aaron Rose. Select exhibitions: Richard Telles Fine Art, (solo); The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and The Arts Club, London. She was included in the 2009 New Museum Triennial “Younger than Jesus” and has performed at The Kitchen, New York and the Performa Art Festival, New York. She lives and works in New York.
Sara Rahmanian (b. Tehran, Iran) transforms mundane objects into uncanny artworks that challenge perceptions of time and contemporary life. Her paintings, characterized by warped proportions and a blend of figuration and abstraction, create disorienting yet engaging experiences. Through humor and posthumanist themes, Rahmanian’s works prompt viewers to question the boundaries of self and object. Rahmanian has held solo and two-person shows at ILY2, Portland; the Stable, S-Chanf, CH; 1969 Gallery, New York; Across Project, Milan; and Delgosha Gallery, Tehran. Her work has been featured in group shows at Office Baroque, Antwerp, BE; Harkawik, New York; Lyles & King, New York; Nak Gallery, Tehran; and Gallery Isabelle, Dubai, among others. She is the recipient of a Clifford Ross Scholarship Award and a Critical Practice Grant, both awarded by the Yale School of Art, where she holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking. She lives and works in Toronto.
Amanda Ross-Ho (b. Chicago, IL) blends sculpture, painting, installation, and photography to explore labor, memory, and cultural symbolism. Her work juxtaposes everyday objects with dramatic shifts in scale, transforming the mundane into monumental reflections of personal and collective experience. By subverting traditional hierarchies, Ross-Ho creates art that is both innovative and deeply resonant. Ross-Ho has presented solo exhibitions at ILY2, Portland, OR; Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Art, Birmingham, AL; Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NY; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE; The Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg, NL; The Approach, London; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA among others. In 2025, The Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art will publish a major career monograph of Ross-Ho’s work. Select group shows include: Bel Ami, LA; Museum of Modern Art,NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Kunsthall Stavanger, NO; Aargauer Kunsthaus, CH; EXILE, Vienna, AT; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, DE; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICALA), Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and the Orange County Museum of Art, CA.She was also featured in the 2008 Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, and in the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia. Public art commissions include The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Public Art Fund, Art Basel Parcours, and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Leena Similu (b. London, UK) explores identity through the intertwining lenses of personal history and motherhood. Her pieces, shaped by her West African heritage, reflect the complexities of navigating multiple cultures in a Eurocentric society. Working primarily in clay, Simulu’s chosen materials underscores an ongoing exploration of temporality - weaving past, present, and future into a cohesive dialogue. Similu has held solo exhibitions at Mariane Ibrahim, Paris, FR; The Pit, Los Angeles, CA; Emma Gray HQ, Los Angeles, CA; and Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland. Recent group shows include: Carlye Packer, Los Angeles, CA; Royal Society of Sculptors, London; The Pit, Palm Springs, CA; and The Future Perfect, Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been written about in The New York Times and Vogue, among other publications. Similu lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Isabel Yellin (b. 1987) creates fabric sculptures that evoke the body while exploring themes of grief and trauma. Her latest series of silicon paintings delves into personal loss, paying homage to her late mother, Anne Locksley. Through this process, Yellin’s work bridges the personal and the universal, offering a poignant meditation on memory and healing. Yellin’s work is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include: The Towards, Toronto, 2023 (solo); Signals, Someday, New York, 2022; and Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, 2018, among others. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2014 and received a 2018 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.Yellin lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
