Stay Awhile: “Gathered at the Well” at Sabbatikal in Los Angeles

Sacha Cohen, 2025. Photo by Scott Hutchinson.

By STEPHEN WOZNIAK MARCH 31,  2025

When I first heard that steady, ready and ambitious art dealer Sacha Cohen opened a gallery in a freestanding two-car garage of the apartment building where he lives, I asked myself the obvious question: “Why?” I knew about his father Ethan Cohen’s successful commercial art galleries and big project spaces in New York City and Beacon, and that Sacha Cohen had curated dozens of major shows in them. Why not go with what works, I wondered. So, I called up the younger Cohen, inquiring about his inaugural exhibition Gathered at the Well, and, importantly, his unconventional new setup.

After studying business management, minoring in fine art and earning a degree at New York University, Sacha Cohen embarked on a critical holistic wellness journey. His personal philosophy developed quickly thereafter, raising important questions about our dire need for real-time engagement and the value of a living community in an increasingly disconnected world. Growing up surrounded by an extended family of artists, art historians and art dealers—which goes back generations—Cohen’s logical next choice was to enter the art business. But he wanted to do it his way, in a kinder manner befitting his gentler personality, to foster intimate relationships while promoting and selling art.

However, it wasn’t just the garage that he renovated to look and function like a fresh contemporary gallery space. The resourceful Cohen upgraded his apartment and the courtyard outside his complex to accommodate the mixing, mingling and relaxing of guests, making it much easier to enjoy both the art and the company. "We’re at a moment in time when the need for spaces of reflection and renewal is more pressing than ever—and becoming more prevalent,” Cohen explains. “The name of the space is rooted in the idea of a sabbatical—a purposeful break from the noise, a chance to disconnect from our digital worlds and reconnect with ourselves. It also draws from 'sabba,' meaning 'all,' and 'tikal,' meaning 'a community well'—a place where people gather, replenish, and share.” He concludes earnestly, “This space is as much about sanctuary as it is about discovery. It’s a setting for deep engagement with art, ourselves, and … the world. It’s about coming away with a clearer, more grounded perspective."

When I arrived, after being greeted warmly by the tall, clear-spoken and thoughtful Cohen, I realized that what it had sounded like actually turned out to be true. As he took me through the garage back door, I was amazed by the tidy, elegant, drywalled gallery inside—but more importantly, by the art on its walls.

Left to right: Vasco Del Rey’s El Milagro Market, Cheyann Washington’s Green Playing with Yellow, and Shaina McCoy’s Aunt Kim & Myles.
 

The first piece we looked at was a small relief work on the corner wall, entitled Ronan, Montana by seasoned artist Paul Paiement. The realistic, bright blue sky and grassy-green landscape painting in this pretty little work was superimposed by ghostly, color-frosted, Plexiglas silhouettes of contemporary office buildings. It was an interesting contrast between an unadulterated organic setting and what an artificial, human-designed intrusion might look like. My understanding of the artist’s intent, however, is that he’s actually interested in how architectural creations are extensions of our fundamental needs and expression as humans—as opposed to a violation of our natural world.

Ronan, Montana, 2019, oil and Plexiglass on plywood Paul Paiement.

Next up was a playful, gestural abstract painting, Desert Lotus, from 2024 by Isabella Innis. Made of mashed and smudged oil paint, oil stick and graphite on the warmest of linen, the fleshy earthen marks in the work seemed to collide and slide among each other, like fluid friends and family. It’s hard to pin down any pattern to the artist’s application of paint and stick, but the work recalled the expressive autonomy of 20^th-century American scribble master Cy Twombly’s epic 1994 Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor), also utilizing a type of frenzied, unadulterated “dauber” handling of the media on bare canvas. Despite its mess-made qualities, I found Innis’ work inviting in many ways, as if it represented a type of childhood freedom that likely would have produced some of the spontaneous, joyful, finger-flung smears seen in the work.

 Desert Lotus, 2024, oil paint, oil stick and graphite on linen by Isabella Innis.

Left to right: Kevin Sabo’s Mood Head + Friends, Plaid-Lads, La Decolletage; Cheyann Washington’s Red Form; Vasco Del Rey’s Galactic Lover; and Clarisse Abelarde’s Warm.

Across the room, an oil painting by rising art star Shaina McCoy caught my attention. Entitled Aunt Kim and Myles, the work features a classic image of an adult woman cuddling an infant who sucks on a pacifier. Except these Black figures are faceless and set upon a bare, light-blue background. It’s almost as if the artist wants us to focus on the love and interaction of the duo—instead of providing their detailed features, which could distract and perhaps prevent a more universal sympathetic response that the artist may hope to elicit in the audience. It is a gorgeous piece, and although quite startling in its austerity, it is rife with humanity.

In an era when big-city art spaces often feel either sterile and transactional or warehouse-huge and rough-around-the-edges, Cohen’s Sabbatikal offers something atypical—a return to intimacy, conversation and the utterly necessary, here-and-now communal moments we are drawn to. More than just a gallery, Sabbatikal is a space for slowing down, engaging deeply and effectively gathering at the well. With any luck, you might find some art to brighten your home—and even make a new friend.

Gathered at the Well
Through April 20th, 2025
Sabbatikal
1226 25th Street
Santa Monica, California 90404

Closing Reception: Sunday, April 20th, 2025, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Visiting hours: By appointment or during scheduled events