J E S S I C A D I A M O N D
M I C H A E L R O S S
September 26, 2026 - January 16, 2027The phrase “Gold Wholesale Retail” is permanently installed on a marquee attached to the facade of the Jewelry Theatre Building in Downtown Los Angeles. The building opened as the Pantages Downtown Theatre in 1920, operating as a movie theater throughout Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” Shuttered in the late 1970s, it transformed into a wholesale jewelry and gold exchange in 1980. Matinée is located within this setting.
Conceived by the artists in response to Matinée’s location, He Loves Gold brings together seven golden artworks made between 1988 and 2026. Apropos of America’s current “Golden Age,” the works reference Elvis, Popeye, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, Gucci, McDonald’s, Old Glory, golden bamboo-style earrings, a gold bar, eighteenth-century French furniture, rubble, and trash. Gold shifts between image, color, and meaning, while the works range in scale from wall-sized paintings to sculptures occupying less than a cubic inch.
The exhibition takes its title from the final three words of Shirley Bassey’s 1964 track "Goldfinger,” the theme song for the James Bond film released the same year. In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel Goldfinger, on which the film is based, the antagonist Auric Goldfinger is a gold magnate with a penchant for tanning and cheating at golf.
He Loves Gold marks the first time Jessica Diamond and Michael Ross have exhibited together in a two-person exhibition.
JESSICA DIAMOND (b. 1957, The Bronx, New York) received a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Selected solo exhibitions include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2023–2025); Team (Bungalow), Los Angeles (2016); the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (2002); Le Consortium, Dijon (1997); and American Fine Arts Co., New York (1989, 1990, and 1992). She participated in the Biennale de Lyon (2015), Sonsbeek 9 (2001), Aperto ’93 at the Venice Biennale (1993), and the Whitney Biennial (1991). Diamond received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000) and an Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2004). Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal.
MICHAEL ROSS (b. 1954, Buffalo, New York) received a B.F.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Selected solo exhibitions include Galerie Timonier, New York (2026); Galeria Mascota, Mexico City (2019 and 2023); Ledge Gallery at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing (2017); SculptureCenter, New York (2006); the Swiss Institute, New York (2002); and FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon (2001). He participated in the OsloBIENNALEN (2019–2024), the Kathmandu Triennial (2017), and Sonsbeek 9 (2001). Ross received the Roger Pailhas Prize (2023) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2026). His work is held in the collections of S.M.A.K., Ghent; FRAC Bourgogne; and the Oslo Municipality Collection.
Conceived by the artists in response to Matinée’s location, He Loves Gold brings together seven golden artworks made between 1988 and 2026. Apropos of America’s current “Golden Age,” the works reference Elvis, Popeye, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, Gucci, McDonald’s, Old Glory, golden bamboo-style earrings, a gold bar, eighteenth-century French furniture, rubble, and trash. Gold shifts between image, color, and meaning, while the works range in scale from wall-sized paintings to sculptures occupying less than a cubic inch.
The exhibition takes its title from the final three words of Shirley Bassey’s 1964 track "Goldfinger,” the theme song for the James Bond film released the same year. In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel Goldfinger, on which the film is based, the antagonist Auric Goldfinger is a gold magnate with a penchant for tanning and cheating at golf.
He Loves Gold marks the first time Jessica Diamond and Michael Ross have exhibited together in a two-person exhibition.
JESSICA DIAMOND (b. 1957, The Bronx, New York) received a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Selected solo exhibitions include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2023–2025); Team (Bungalow), Los Angeles (2016); the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (2002); Le Consortium, Dijon (1997); and American Fine Arts Co., New York (1989, 1990, and 1992). She participated in the Biennale de Lyon (2015), Sonsbeek 9 (2001), Aperto ’93 at the Venice Biennale (1993), and the Whitney Biennial (1991). Diamond received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000) and an Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2004). Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal.
MICHAEL ROSS (b. 1954, Buffalo, New York) received a B.F.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Selected solo exhibitions include Galerie Timonier, New York (2026); Galeria Mascota, Mexico City (2019 and 2023); Ledge Gallery at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing (2017); SculptureCenter, New York (2006); the Swiss Institute, New York (2002); and FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon (2001). He participated in the OsloBIENNALEN (2019–2024), the Kathmandu Triennial (2017), and Sonsbeek 9 (2001). Ross received the Roger Pailhas Prize (2023) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2026). His work is held in the collections of S.M.A.K., Ghent; FRAC Bourgogne; and the Oslo Municipality Collection.