LOYAL returns to the El Royale, reopening its legendary doors for El Royale III, the third iteration of the gallery’s annual exhibition inside one of Los Angeles’ most storied buildings. Erected in 1929, a year of both progress and profound loss for the city, the El Royale embodies a complex narrative of resilience and imagination. This year’s exhibition, from February 18 to March 1, resonates with this history and potential futures, offering a suite of works presented as minor portals — gateways, frames, and mirrors reflecting the intricate tapestry of how we got from there to here, from then to now — temporarily housed inside the uniquely timeless landmark.

Prevailing through a century of Los Angeles’s trials and triumphs, the El Royale has absorbed the stories of creatives for generations, bearing witness to the city’s cycles of rebirth and serving as a tether to its foundations of hope. El Royale III engages with how we view change over time — on the heels of dire crises and on the cusp of seasonal change — presenting the artwork of 25 artists with varied perspectives into varied settings, set among the distinctively LA walls of the El Royale. The artists’ works, in context, present possibilities: to reconsider, even if fleetingly, our place in time and what our trajectories might hold.

A palimpsest of portals emerges in El Royale III, where the enduring spirit of renaissance plays out through the potential of creative work to transport and transform, as entryways inside entryways. Each artist featured in the exhibition — Mario Ayala, Ida Badal, Katarina Caserman, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Alice Faloretti, Veronica Fernandez, Tarik Garrett, Molly Greene, Daniel Heidkamp, Colleen Herman, Marriel Joy, Jordan Kasey, Lindsey Lascaux, Tidawhitney Lek, Lauryn Levette, Zoé Blue M., Liz Markus, Alex McAdoo, Jean Nagai, Christian Sampson, Mia Scarpa, Eetu Sihvonen, Claudia V. Solórzano, Aryo Toh Djojo, and Augustina Wang — offers a particular vantage point to peer from, a new way to see, a new view to explore. These works, displayed within the El Royale’s steadfast walls, invite dialogue between times and spaces, from shared histories to personal dreams for the future.