Following the Hot Coffee show I decided I wanted to do a companion exhibit in Los Angeles that would focus on a group of young painters who were making spectacularly scaled abstract paintings that nevertheless dealt with a range of complex issues centered on questions of gender and sexuality and other urgent questions of everyday life. Responding to an open call I applied for a slot at the Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, and the show opened in early 2000. The participating artists were Steven Hull, Heidi Kidon, Mark Robert Lewis, Yunhee Min, and Melissa Thorne.