DEPARTURE LOUNGE Los Angeles (DLLA) is a nomadic exhibition platform supporting overworked artists and underfunded models of cultural exchange.
The roving gallery operates through partnerships with fixed institutions to provide artists with the space, skilled labor, and material resources to exhibit new artwork.
DEPARTURE LOUNGE spotlights emerging voices throughout Southern California and blends the operational strategies of commercial & not-for-profit art spaces to foster collaborations between creative communities across the country.
About
Co-founders Matthew McGaughey and Jamison Edgar live and work in Los Angeles. They first met as graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University where they studied the history and artistic traditions of social practice, video, performance, and installation art.
After school, J + M continued to work in the studio but found themselves splitting their energy between projects that fueled their creative research and gigs that enabled them to live in the second most expensive city in the country.
During these years, M freelanced as a music producer for film and television. J accepted a job as the Director of Honor Fraser Gallery. Between 2022 and 2024, the two regularly met for coffee to share rough cuts of works in progress, threads of unrefined research, and—most importantly—to share which artists in Los Angeles were inspiring their work. During these caffeine-fueled rendezvous, they started to pick up on a familiar pattern:
Some of the most exciting artwork in the city never leaves the studio—either because galleries are unwilling to take risks on provocative work by emerging artists, or because the artists themselves are too consumed by their "other art jobs" to fully develop projects for exhibition.
Over time, these discussions evolved into a shared vision: a platform designed to help artists move their work beyond the studio and into the view of engaged audiences. At its core DLLA embraces institutional flexibility in order to best support artists from the margins—functioning less as a static vessel and more as a hydraulic chute at the mouth of a multistoried water ride. J + M guide the platform with an artist's hand, a curator's eye, and a producer's knack for project management. Their programming reflects the wild, genre-bending artwork they want to see more of in the world.
Donate
DEPARTURE LOUNGE operates under the fiscal sponsorship of 501(c)(3) Sin Fronteras. Your tax-deductible contribution to Sin Fronteras directly supports DEPARTURE LOUNGE Los Angeles in providing vital exhibitions, events, and resources for emerging artists in Los Angeles and beyond. By giving, you help bring innovative artwork out of studios and into meaningful public engagement.
DEPARTURE LOUNGE
spotlights emerging voices throughout Southern California and leverages the operational strategies of both commercial & not-for-profit galleries to foster collaborations between creative communities across the country.
spotlights emerging voices throughout Southern California and leverages the operational strategies of both commercial & not-for-profit galleries to foster collaborations between creative communities across the country.
Novel exhibitions that foster critical discourse & community building.
SIN FRONTERAS
is a 501(c)(3) that raises money to fund projects locally & internationally that foster conversations among artists, critical thinkers, & diverse voices that might not otherwise have the opportunity to emerge.
is a 501(c)(3) that raises money to fund projects locally & internationally that foster conversations among artists, critical thinkers, & diverse voices that might not otherwise have the opportunity to emerge.