AT THE 99¢ ONLY STORE

LOS ANGELES END OF FEBRUARY 2026
and disorder is good
by Rosanna Albertini – text and photos
Urban life is brought inside, reshaped, regrouped. In the huge abandoned space, the shelves filled with artpieces overlap in the distance becoming a sort of inner landscape, as if all the moments of seeing and sharing we gather in a day had been brought together, transformed, and made surprising. It’s not only disorder. Art is gently arranged for the public viewing. It’s a piece of choral music plus confusion, questions, doubts: Am I right being here? Can I stay? And the old 99¢ Only Store building becomes a fragile castle for dreamers.



Integral to chaos are the threads of the future. If only were we able to grab them and spin them in our mind, instead of crushing them like cigarette butts on the floor. Time is encrusted in our organs, centuries of ruins have covered brilliant civilizations, death and birth are a nuptial nod over the human lives. Messy. The 99¢ Only Store died, a group of artists from San Francisco brought back the space to a week of life. In a place that smells of abandonment, art becomes a phoenix regenerating from the ashes: a portrait of urban life made by many hands, many different minds, cultures, beliefs … walk through until you lose your mind, until your heart beats stronger and a big smile moves your lips. It’s all for not being lonely, self-sufficient or dismissed by the need of order.






Barry McGee marks his own presence with colored geometries scattered among the large population of artpieces without disturbing them. Vivid and silent, his images could expand like fractals, they don’t. Thoughts are organized by hand, limited by vertical and horizontal edges. They merge into the surrounding collection of objects filled with sensitivity, refusing evaluation, announcing their presence.
A rational choice keeps the exhibition together, hovering in the air, invisible, out of touch. It’s called equality. Along with its essential companion, the feeling of equality. Past and future are neutralized. We stay in the present and we can embrace it, enlarge it, and drink the air in front of us.









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