Going Hollywood

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Samara Golden, Diet Piece: Moral Kinship, 2013, photo by Lee Thompson Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles

text by JEFFREY DEITCH

The conventional allure of Los Angeles includes the near-perfect climate, dazzling sunsets on the beach, and chance encounters with movie stars coming out of a Starbucks. The superficial surface of the city is endlessly fascinating, but since moving here three years ago, I have found much more stimulation on the cultural margins.

Los Angeles’s diverse neighborhoods provide a haven for underground geniuses who manage to survive and sometimes thrive while hidden in plain sight. It is amusing to watch movie stars dodging the paparazzi outside Mr. Chow, but it is much more interesting to run into Kenneth Anger in a booth at Musso and Frank on Hollywood Boulevard, where he goes to enjoy their Thursday night special, chicken…