LACE Announces Newest Board Members and Advisory Board
LOS ANGELES, CA (October 1, 2026) — Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is pleased to announce the appointment of five new members to its Board of Directors and a freshly established Advisory Board. These appointments expand LACE’s leadership and bring together artists, arts professionals, advocates, and cultural workers, as the organization prepares to relaunch its gallery and looks toward its 50th anniversary in 2028.
New members of the LACE Board of Directors include Autumn Breon (Artist), Leslie Foster (Artist), Paul Her-Sturm (Senior Vice President of Digital Media, Hawthorne Advertising), Lisa Jann (Managing Director, L.A. Louver), and Alex Sloane (Associate Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles).
The LACE Advisory Board brings together a group of artists, curators, cultural workers, and community members whose perspectives will help support LACE’s growth and sustainability. Members include Susana Smith Bautista, PhD (Chief Curator and Associate VP of Arts and Wellness, AltaMed Health Services), Lauren Bon (Artist and Founder, Metabolic Studio), Nancy Baker Cahill (Artist), Mark Steven Greenfield (Artist), Karen Hillenburg (Art Appreciator), Kathleen Rawson (CEO, Hollywood Partnership), and Legacy Russell (Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Kitchen).
“This is an exciting moment for LACE. As we approach our 50th year, we’re building on a remarkable legacy with leadership that has never been stronger. Five new board members and a new advisory board bring fresh expertise and vision, and our brand-new facility will give artists room to work across every medium. We’re proud to shape the next chapter of this vital Los Angeles art organization,” says Grace Oh, LACE Board Chair.
LACE is thrilled to welcome these new members to its leadership and grateful for the expertise, perspectives, and connections across the arts and culture landscape they will bring. The group will support LACE as it continues to strengthen relationships within the community and build toward the organization’s next chapter.
About the Newest LACE Board Members
Autumn Breon is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work engages queer Black feminist praxis and speculative futures. Working across performance, sculpture, and public installation, she centers liberation and care through ritual, research, and play. Breon studied Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, and her work often explores spatial freedom beyond Earth. Her performance history includes Hauser & Wirth, LACMA, and the Brooklyn Museum. She is a member of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture’s Public Artist in Development Artist Council and a recipient of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Fellowship for Abolition & the Advancement of the Creative Economy and the Race Forward Fellowship for Housing, Land, and Justice.
Leslie Foster (he/they) is an artist based in Los Angeles (occupied Gabrielino-Tongva land) whose work folds experimental film into multi-sensory installations to create pocket universes. His love for storytelling is inspired by a childhood spent in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Berrien Springs, Michigan. Foster uses video art and installation to create beautifully strange contemplative ecologies that explore Black and queer futurity through the lens of dream logic. Much of their practice is rooted in community-building through art-making and collaboration.
Foster completed his B.S in Film Production and B.A in German at Southern Adventist University (2006), received their MFA in Design | Media Arts at UCLA (2022), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2022). Their work, which was shortlisted for both the Hopper Prize (2020) and was awarded the LACE Lightning Fund (2023), has been exhibited nationally and internationally. These include two exhibitions at the Torrance Art Museum (2019, 2023), the QiPo Art Fair in Mexico City, (2020), Human Resources (2025), the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles (2025). His work has also been exhibited at film and video art festivals around the world, including Outfest, where his four-channel installation Heavenly Brown Body, won a Grand Jury Prize (2020), CinéPride in Nantes, France (2022), and the British School at Rome (2023).
Foster served as the director of Art Residency at the LA-based arts nonprofit Level Ground (2017 – 2022), is founding member of the collective MÄARLA, is a Lucas Art Residency Fellow at the Montalvo Art Center in Saratoga, CA, and completed a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California (2024). He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Time-based Media at Cal State San Marcos. He regularly daydreams about running away with a seafaring band of nomadic artists.
Paul Her-Sturm is senior vice president, digital media at Hawthorne Advertising. He is responsible for defining digital growth strategy for the agency’s clients, as well as leading a cross-functional media team. Prior to his current role, Paul oversaw social media and public relations at Credit One Bank where he redefined the brand’s content strategy to drive significant growth in awareness and engagement. He previously served as director, social intelligence and customer care at MGM Resorts International. Paul holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. Beyond his professional work, Paul is passionate about the arts and community engagement. He is an active supporter of cultural organizations in Los Angeles and beyond.
Prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2021, Paul enjoyed nearly 10 years of volunteering with Helping Hands of Vegas Valley.
Lisa Jannis Managing Director of L.A. Louver, one of the longest established contemporary art galleries on the West Coast. For over 20 years, she has led overall gallery management and operations, while also focusing on artist representation, exhibition development and management, publications, and archival initiatives. A native Californian, she holds a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Prior to her tenure at L.A. Louver, she was an arts and culture writer for The Seattle Times, produced professional development and educational programming with the Recording Academy (NARAS), and also worked in corporate law and software development.
Alex Sloane is an Associate Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) where she focuses on live and interdisciplinary practice. Recent exhibitions include MOCA Focus: Diane Severin Nguyen (2026); Wael Shawky: Drama 1882 (2025), Simone Forti (2023), and the Los Angeles presentations of Carl Craig: Party After Party (2023) and the opera-performance Sun & Sea by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė (2021). Alex is the recipient of a Fellows of Contemporary Art Curator Award for her forthcoming survey exhibition with Martine Syms (opening 2027) that is organized with The Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum Brandhorst, Munich.
Alongside exhibitions, Alex organizes MOCA’s signature live art series, Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs. Recent projects include Lenio Kaklea, The Birds; Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot), POLICE STATE (2025); Dynasty Handbag, Titanic Depression (2024); The Comet / Poppea, (2024) co-presented with The Industry and directed by Yuval Sharon with composition by George Lewis and a libretto by Douglas Kearney; Moriah Evans, Remains Persist (2023); and Ligia Lewis, A Plot/A Scandal (2023) among many others.
Prior to joining MOCA in 2021, Alex was the Assistant Curator at MoMA PS1 in New York City, where she co-organized the performance series, Sunday Sessions, with an emphasis on commissioning new work and establishing a residency series.
