A solo exhibition of Paul McCarthys work at one of the top galleries in Los Angeles is a newsworthy event. The anticipation of seeing work by this hometown hero turned international art star is made more exciting by the promise of Hauser Wirth Los Angeles. This is the sprawling downtown venue with pretenses of museum-level exhibitions but carrying price tags for the one percent.

A few months past its one year anniversary, the space made waves when it unceremoniously dumped Southern California curatorial legend Paul Schimmel a week after his curated retrospective for Jason Rhoades. Nobody who knows why for sure is talking, still. The promise of the original Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, beyond its dramatic physical grounds, was the combination of HWs access to world-class art collaborating with Schimmel himself, arguably the worlds greatest living curator.

And so the anticipation for a show by a great artist is made slightly titillating to see if a world class gallery can function minus its local celebrity. Is curating more complex for a Swiss company than building a cuckoo clock? Well it turns out that yes, yes it is. Maybe it cannot be done here when it will always be scrutinized thru the context of What Would Schimmel Do?.