LOS ANGELES
Thonet Chairs and
Neon Signs: Coffeehouse Culture in Exile
Mar 21 – Apr 19, 2026
Opening Reception: Sat, Mar 21, 7-10 pm
Long before Starbucks colonized every corner and Friends made Central Perk an icon, the coffeehouse was Vienna's radical experiment in democracy: a marble-tabled sanctuary where artists, writers, and revolutionaries could linger for hours over a single cup, debating the future of art and politics. Recognized by UNESCO in 2011 as Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Viennese coffeehouse was far more than a café. It was a democratic salon where ideas moved as freely as the endless newspapers passed between Thonet chairs. When Nazi persecution scattered Vienna's Jewish intelligentsia across the globe in the 1930s, they carried this tradition to an unlikely new home: Los Angeles.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles is pleased to announce the new exhibition, Thonet Chairs and Neon Signs: Coffeehouse Culture in Exile, that traces this remarkable cultural journey—from fin-de-siècle Vienna to the Hollywood hills, revealing how the coffeehouse became a space where exile, creativity, and democracy converged.
In reference to a film noir stage set, and the genre's shadowy aesthetic (where coffeehouses and diners became stages for political intrigue and moral reckoning), the exhibition design honors both Los Angeles's cinematic heritage and the profound influence Central European émigrés had on Hollywood. Visitors move through expressionistic lighting and atmospheric spaces that evoke the democratic coffeehouses of Vienna and the smoky cafés of classic noir films like Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945)—spaces that functioned as sites of resistance, refuge, and revelation. The artists in this exhibition trace this lineage forward, examining how the coffeehouse tradition continues in contemporary Los Angeles, from Silver Lake to Venice, and how spaces of conversation remain spaces of cultural and political possibilities. True to the Viennese tradition where 'time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill,' we invite you to linger in this exhibition as long as you wish—no consumption required.
Eva Beresin is a Vienna-based painter whose work explores the intersection of memory, trauma, and humor. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she began drawing as a child during weekly visits to Budapest's Café Gerbeaud. After studying at the Budapest School of Visual Arts and moving to Vienna in 1976, Beresin has developed a distinctive practice known for its grotesque comedy and melancholic depth. Her acclaimed exhibition (2015), and subsequent monograph (2019), "My Mother's Diary: Ninety-Eight Pages" transformed her mother's post-Auschwitz liberation diary into powerful paintings. Beresin's work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in major collections including the Albertina, which presented her first museum solo exhibition in 2024.
@evaberesin
Joseph Dumbacher John Dumbacher are fraternal twin artists based in Los Angeles and New York who have collaborated since early in their careers, creating works that transcend traditional categories of architecture, design, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Their minimalist, architecturally-scaled works explore relationships between light and dark, positive and negative space through installations using materials ranging from solid machined aluminum to matte wallpaper and raw ink markings. Their work has been exhibited at institutions including at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Patricia Faure Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, both Curator’s Office and Fusebox in Washington, DC, and BackroomNY in New York.
Kids of the Diaspora is a Vienna-based movement brand founded by Leni Charles and Cherrellone. Established in 2016, it operates as a creative collective between fashion, music, and the arts that celebrates diverse cultural identities and provides a safe space. The movement invites everyone to embrace themselves without compromising their personality or appearance, drawing inspiration from contemporary diaspora dimensions and connecting people through shared empathy and experiences. They have created meaningful experiences at Kunsthalle Wien, Belvedere Museum, CalleLibre festival, and many more.
kidsofthediaspora.com
@kidsofthediaspora
@cherrellone
@lenicharles
Rachel Kamerman is a Production Designer with over 350 episodes to her credit, creating immersive worlds for film and television. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, gatherings always over coffee, were spaces of survival, storytelling, and hardtruths. These experiences informed her understanding of the coffeehouse, as ahistorically charged space of conversation, tension, and moral inquiry, not just leisure. The legacy continued throughout her journey in Hollywood, creating sets of for fictional characters to confront their own personal and ethical dilemmas.
@rachelkamermandesign
Friedl Kubelka / vom Gröller, is an Austrian photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist based in Vienna and Paris. She founded the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography in Vienna in 1990 and the School for Independent Film in 2006. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major collections. She received the Grand Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography in 2005 and the Austrian Art Prize for Film in 2016.
Hans Neuffer (1936-1973) was a Viennese artist who played an important role in Vienna's artistic community during the 1960s and early 1970s. He was closely connected with other significant artists of the period, including Friedensreich Hundertwasser, with whom he traveled and collaborated, and founded in the 1970s the Viennese coffeehouse institution Kleines Café (architect: Hermann Czech). His relatively brief life and career left a lasting impact on the Viennese art scene of his time.
Isa Rosenberger is a Vienna-based artist working in installations, film, photography, and public space projects dedicated to questions of memory politics and social space. She frequently collaborates with contemporary witnesses and cultural historians, combining documentary and fictional modes. Notable projects include "Café Vienne" (2014), which was commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, honoring writer Gina Kaus and Viennese coffeehouse culture. Rosenberger teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and received the Otto Mauer Prize in 2008 and the Outstanding Artist Award for Video and Media Art in 2012.
isarosenberger.net
@isarosenberger
Alexandra Scharff, born 1930 in Vienna, is an artist and fashion designer who emigrated to Los Angeles in 1938, where she became part of the vibrant Central European émigré community that shaped the city's cultural landscape in the mid-20th century. A designer with Lanz of Salzburg, Scharff created the Alexa line of dresses and swimwear that were sold widely in American department stores throughout the 1960s. Her work blended Austrian design sensibilities with California's emerging sportswear aesthetic. Married to Werner G. Scharff, co-founder of Lanz Incorporated and creator of the iconic Lanz "Granny" nightgown, she was part of a generation of émigrés who brought European craftsmanship and design traditions to American fashion.
Steven Steinman is a Los Angeles-based artist whose layered paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs combine movement and texture with light and shadow to reveal unseen rhythms and patterns found in nature. His work, influenced by French Impressionists, Bay Area figurative artists, and ranging from 18th-century firework depictions to Cy Twombly, has been exhibited in the U.S. and Europe since the 1980s. His work is held in major collections including the Hammer Museum; LACMA; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C; Albertina Vienna, and Yale University Art Gallery.
stevensteinman.com
@steven.steinman
photos coming soon