Not Shockbox art gallery - Hermosa Beach
open now
The Forgotten Circus
An Haunted Art Experience
Fridays: Oct 2, Oct 9, Oct 16, Oct 23, Oct 30
This October, the lights flicker back on as Not Shockboxx transforms into The Forgotten Circus, a highly produced haunted art experience filled with immersive installations, sinister performers, and a twisted gallery maze built to pull you deeper into a big top that should have stayed buried.
Beyond the entrance, the remnants of an old circus wait in the dark. Faded music drifts through the air. Shadows move behind threadbare curtains. Forgotten performers linger where the spotlight once found them, still desperate for one last audience. As you wander deeper into the decaying big top, the line between spectacle and nightmare begins to disappear, and the circus seems less abandoned with every step. If you find your way out of the maze, the evening continues next door inside The Studio, where games, strange diversions, and other sideshow fun await.
Presented by Not Shockboxx and The Studio
Creative Direction by Mark “Debo” DiBenedetto
Produced in collaboration with Boomz Pharm and Geist Monster Media Experience
Curators Joel Geist and Claudia Berman
now on artsy
The Good Stuff
Oct 12 - Dec 31, 2026
Small joys. Quiet moments. Reasons to remain curious.
The first sip of coffee. A song turned up too loud. Your favorite person’s laugh. A dog asleep in a patch of sunlight. The wonderfully ordinary things that somehow mean everything.
The Good Stuff is an online art exhibition celebrating the moments, memories, people, places, and peculiar little pleasures that make life meaningful. It invites us to look closer at what brings us comfort, sparks our curiosity, and makes us feel connected to the world and each other.
Good stuff looks different to everyone. It might be a familiar landscape, a messy kitchen, an unexpected friendship, or a memory you’ve carried for years. Through art, those personal experiences become something we can share, recognize, and perhaps see differently.
Created in recognition of Suicide Awareness Month, this exhibition makes room for gratitude and joy while acknowledging that life can be complicated and difficult. Its heart is in the things, both small and extraordinary, that matter to us.
Presented by Not Shockboxx, an independent art gallery in Hermosa Beach, California, The Good Stuff is available exclusively online through Artsy, connecting our South Bay creative community with art lovers and collectors around the world.
Take a look. Linger a little. Find something that feels like your good stuff.
Explore the exhibition on Artsy.
Featured Artists: Adele French, Alison Corteen, Ananda KARABO, Arlette Stella, Dylan Wright, e.y. reilly, Emily Tanaka, Jordan L, Lorna Stevens, Richard P Stevens, Shannon Evans, Shereen Lobdell, Tanya Domasco, Tom McIntire, Ute Reckhorn
now on artsy
The Truth About Cats and Dogs
Oct 12 - Dec 31, 2026
Cats get worshipped. Dogs get birthday parties. Somewhere, a lizard is judging us from beneath a heat lamp.
The Truth About Cats and Dogs celebrates our wonderfully complicated relationship with the animal world. From beloved pets and backyard visitors to wild creatures and imagined beasts, this online art exhibition explores the animals that fascinate us, comfort us, occasionally terrify us, and somehow end up running our lives.
Tender, strange, mischievous, or a little feral, animal-inspired art invites us to consider what we see in these creatures and what they reveal about us. Love. Loyalty. Instinct. Obsession. The irresistible urge to give something with claws a very embarrassing nickname.
Presented by Not Shockboxx, an independent art gallery in Hermosa Beach, California, the exhibition is available exclusively online through Artsy, bringing our corner of the South Bay to art lovers and collectors everywhere.
Come for the cats and dogs. Stay for the creatures you didn’t expect.
Explore the exhibition on Artsy.
Featured Artists: Adele French, Dooney Potter, EV Vahlsing, Francziska Steagall, Jace Laakso, James Frost, Jenka Flanagan, Jessica Hansen, Lara Eve Kempke, Loretta McNair, Loretta Surma, Maria Pazos, Patty Whang, Silvana D’Mikos, Sylvana Lankshear, Ute Reckhorn, Woobie Runt Crafts
opening nov 14
Resonance
Nov 14-15, 2026
Art. Music. Frequency.
The lights go down. The room holds its breath. Then the first note hits.
Some sounds stay with us long after the amps go quiet. They become memories, images, a pulse beneath the surface. Resonance lives in that lingering electricity, bringing together music-inspired art, concert photography, and live performance at Not Shockboxx in Hermosa Beach.
Curated by Priscilla Ortiz, the exhibition explores how music moves beyond sound and into the things we make. Her artwork draws from that connection, including the exhibition’s title piece inspired by her favorite, David Bowie. Alongside her work, photography captures celebrated artists and major concerts: the charged moment beneath the stage lights, the scale of the spectacle, the fleeting gesture that holds an entire song.
Together, these works invite a closer look at what music leaves behind. A face in the spotlight. A color that feels like a chorus. A memory you can almost hear.
For two evenings, our corner of the South Bay becomes a meeting place for art and sound. Come close. Look longer. Let something resonate.
Opening Reception · Saturday, November 14, 2026 · 6–9 PM
Explore the exhibition with live music by V Torres.
Closing Reception · Sunday, November 15, 2026 · 6–8 PM
Live acoustic music. A closer listen. Another look. The echo still hanging in the air.
Not Shockboxx · 636 Cypress Avenue · Hermosa Beach, California
opening nov 20
Give a Damn
Nov 20-29, 2026
A little art. A lot of heart.
The best gifts say something: I see you. I know your weird little interests. I found this and immediately thought of you.
Give a Damn is a gift-focused group art exhibition at Not Shockboxx in Hermosa Beach, featuring original artwork priced at $200 or less. It’s an invitation to give something personal, collect something you love, and support the artists who put their imagination into the world.
Find a piece for your favorite person, your hardest-to-shop-for friend, or that empty spot on your own wall. Every artwork offers a chance to make a connection, start a conversation, and bring a little more creativity into everyday life.
The exhibition runs November 20–29, 2026, with featured artwork also included in the 3rd Annual Bad Bitch Bazaar on November 28, Small Business Saturday. Make a day of shopping small and discovering art in the South Bay.
Give something with a story. Give something that means something. Give a damn.
Not Shockboxx · 636 Cypress Avenue · Hermosa Beach, California
opening in december
Hot Mess
Dec 3-19, 2026
Life gets complicated. Art happens anyway.
The calendar is full. The brain has seventeen tabs open. Somewhere between the responsibilities, interruptions, and wildly unfinished to-do lists, something beautiful takes shape.
Hot Mess brings together seven women of the Backboxx Artist Society for an art exhibition about making work within the chaos of busy, complicated lives. It celebrates the creative impulse that keeps showing up, even when finding the time and space takes some serious improvisation.
At its heart is a community of women making room for their own voices and each other. The mess becomes material. The complications offer possibilities. Art takes shape through the lives being lived around it.
Join us at Not Shockboxx in Hermosa Beach for a celebration of art, female community, and the beauty we make along the way. Meet the artists, explore their work, and connect with the South Bay arts community.
Come as you are. We’ve all got a little hot mess in us.
Opening Reception · Friday, December 4, 2026 · Begins at 6 PM
Not Shockboxx · 636 Cypress Avenue · Hermosa Beach, California
Featured Artists: Priscilla Ortiz, Adele French, Claudia Berman, Michele Allen, Sam Homan, Emily Tanaka, Danette Mitchell, Sylvana Lankshear
new on Artsy
Art is Keeping us Alive
Featured Now
Independent art spaces don’t survive on their own. They survive because artists, collectors, and community decide they matter.
This exhibition is exactly that.
“Art Is Keeping Us Alive” brings together artists who have donated work to help sustain Not Shockboxx — a queer-owned, artist-forward gallery built for bold, strange, thoughtful work that doesn’t always fit neatly inside traditional systems.
Every piece in this exhibition was contributed in support of keeping this weird little art space alive.
Featured artists: Adele French, Amanda Santos, D R E W S, Anjalé, Annabelle Anderson, Charise Mirabal, Claudia Berman, D Farse, Devon Sharon, e . y . reilly, Emily Tanaka, Fei Alexander, Francziska Steagall, James Frost, James Thatcher, Jennifer R. Myhre, Jessica Accamando, John Teague, Kate Pickle, Kevin Perrault, Leigh Witherell, Oana Gamlowski, Sam Homan, Vince Quevedo.
Exhibitions
About
Not Shockboxx Gallery is a small but mighty contemporary art gallery in Hermosa Beach built for fearless work, creative risk and artists who don’t always fit neatly inside traditional systems.
We grew out of the legendary Shockboxx gallery and remain grateful for the unconventional spirit and community it created. But Not Shockboxx is its own beautiful mess, with new voices, new ideas and an expanding mission centered on supporting artists.
Through our exhibitions, Gallery Artist program, Backboxx Artist Society and South Bay Artist Collective, we create opportunities for artists to show and sell their work, build meaningful relationships, collaborate and become part of a stronger creative community.
We’re here to make space for bold, strange and thoughtful art—and to see where it takes us.
Gallery owner Jessica Accamando with Gallery Manager Carin Ohara.