Ajay Orona

California

Associate Editor at Alta Online

Associate Editor @AltaJournal. Former EIC @Ampersand_LA. Co-Founder @TreadOverland. #StandwithArtsakh 🇦🇲

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Articles

Artists Imagine a Utopia for Earth’s Entire Population

Nov 1, 2024 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona

Welcome to Alta Sketchbook, your guide to Getty’s PST Art: Art & Science Collide festival. PST Art is the largest art event in the United States. Every Friday, Alta Sketchbook will offer the most intriguing takeaways from the 800-plus artists exploring the collision of art and science through exhibitions across Southern California. A computer-generated tapestry at Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles tells a curious story.
10 New Books for November

Oct 31, 2024 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona |Jessica Blough |Elizabeth Casillas

1AN IMAGE OF MY NAME ENTERS AMERICA: ESSAYS, BY LUCY IVESGraywolf PressIves’s essays address everything from her early obsession with My Little Pony to the American West and her uncle’s suicide. She thoughtfully brings together reflections about identity, family, and our current culture, offering nuanced thoughts on pain and fear and how they can transform into possibility and healing. The result is a powerful blend of memoir and criticism that leaves a lasting impression.
12 New Books for October

Sep 30, 2024 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona |Elizabeth Casillas

1BRUTAL COMPANION, BY RUBEN QUESADABarrow Street PressInspired by visual art, Quesada has crafted a collection of poems rooted in the personal experience of desire and trauma, offering nuanced and intimate reflections. His work touches on loss, sexuality, self-discovery, and identity and blends dreamlike visions with sharp social critique.
10 New Books for September

Aug 30, 2024 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona |Will Garrett |Elizabeth Casillas

1COLORED TELEVISION, BY DANZY SENNARiverhead BooksSenna’s fourth novel—the California Book Club’s September selection—revolves around Jane, a mixed-race writer and professor whose second novel isn’t working out. As her life slips increasingly out of control, she connects with a television producer and begins to develop a comedy series with parallels to her own life. Senna is brilliant at writing about characters in the middle, caught between their responsibilities and desires.
10 New Books for August

Jul 31, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough |Ajay Orona |Will Garrett

1THE DIVIDE, BY MORGAN RICHTERKnopfIn the glitter of Los Angeles, Jenny St. John fades from breakout indie movie star to fake psychic making ends meet. But when the director of her film is murdered, she becomes involved in investigations, disappearances, and a murderer’s mysterious motives. Worse: Jenny looks just like his wife, the police’s prime suspect. Richter’s novel is a riveting ride.
Art & Photo Spotlight: Navied Mahdavian

Sep 25, 2023 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona |Navied Mahdavian

Were there any images or vistas in particular that convinced you to make this a graphic memoir? I have a picture of my tiny home—made even tinier—against the most majestic mountains. I referenced the photo multiple times in my book. In some renditions, the mountains are snowcapped, and in others, green, and sometimes the perspective of the house is shifted, but it’s always essentially the same image. Which layer of your own culture shock was the hardest to overcome?
Five Artists to Know from the Hammer’s ‘Made in L.A.’ Exhibit

Sep 24, 2023 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona

Take a picture of any street in Los Angeles. A day later, a moment later, someone else could capture an entirely different image of it. This philosophy guided curators Diana Nawi and Pablo José Ramírez as they began piecing together the 2023 edition of the Hammer Museum’s biennial exhibition, Made in L.A. Instead of trying to present a definitive version of Los Angeles, the curators allowed the city to speak for itself.
A Tree Grew in Compton

Aug 4, 2023 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona

For the past decade and a half, Jesus Arroyo tended a 350-year-old sycamore tree that grew just a few yards from his Compton home. The tree was nearly 100 feet tall, and its leafy boughs reached far into Arroyo’s property, shading his house and keeping his family cool during the city’s oven-like summers. Arroyo began caring for the Eagle Tree, named after the large raptors that once rested in its branches, soon after purchasing his house in 2009.
LA’s Armenian community wrestles with culture loss amid pandemic

Aug 3, 2023 | uscstoryspace.com | Ajay Orona

With cases of coronavirus on the rise, the idea of grappling indoors with an opponent might sound to many people like a literal death match. Bezjian’s former training partners, Gokor Ambaryan and Karen Darabedyan, who both opened their own gyms, are feeling the effects of such concerns. So instead of demonstrating how to perform seoi nage, a traditional over-the-shoulder Judo throw or a submission lock for his students, Ambaryan arrives at his dojo at 5 a.m. each day and heads to his office.
What Could’ve Been: Unbuilt Graveyard

Jun 25, 2023 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona