Wes Lang at the Chateau

Brooklyn-based artist Wes Lang holed up in Room 34 of Los Angeles’s storied Chateau Marmont for Sittin' On a Rainbow, a collection of daintily rendered drawings referencing everything from Native American iconography to late artist Dash Snow to rock legend Jim Morrison. “The base of it all is American history,” Lang says of the spectral-tinged suite, which is presented on monogram-embossed hotel stationery. “But it’s also self-reflective: sometimes, the skeletons and the reapers are me. The women are just plain beautiful to draw.” A collaboration with OHWOW gallery, Lang’s project was inspired by Martin Kippenberger’s early 90s Hotel Drawings, while the setting for his month-long residency was informed by the Chateau’s own rumored resident ghost. “I remember as a kid when John Belushi died there,” the artist says. “I was only nine, but somehow it made a big impression on me.” Named for a lyric in Sinatra’s “I’ve Got the World On a String,” the exhibition will be on view for a one-night-only show at the Chateau Marmont on June 23, in the room once occupied by Howard Hughes.