Meet Selina Che and Katie Walsh | Owners and Directors

We had the good fortune of connecting with Selina Che and Katie Walsh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Selina and Katie, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
Community has always been the core of Known Studio. We created this space to connect with and uplift our creative community here in LA. As Known Studio has evolved to focus on the arts, our goal has remained the same: to cultivate an inclusive environment for artists and creatives of all backgrounds—especially in an industry that has historically been anything but.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Known Studio has been around for a bit over a year now, and while we are still growing into ourselves, our business is rooted in our community of emerging artists and creatives. Neither of us came into this space with a traditional arts background, and while we spent the past year exhibiting works in a gallery format that we’ve all seen before, we’re excited to showcase more experiential and experimental events with our 2025 programming. Some exciting shows we have coming up are with LA-based artist Kristofferson San Pablo (opening January 18th), where he’ll be live drawing portraits while the subjects throw chanclas at him, as well as a show with a Berlin-based queer photography community that opens on March 7.

Seeing the space evolve as we learn more about what we’re interested in and what we want to do with the space (versus doing what we’ve seen other galleries do) has been “challenging” in the sense that it’s been a real journey in being intentional with what we want to do with the space and upholding the values we initially sought out to explore when conceptualizing Known Studio back in 2022. That said, we’re both glad we’ve stuck to our guns and we’re excited for what’s the come.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
[Selina] I’d probably recommend catching a movie at Los Feliz 3 or Vidiots, establishments that have been around for a long time and have great programming and bring out a good community. I’d also recommend checking out a Leaving Records music in the park event— great place to people watch, chill out and, of course, enjoy some incredible live music from local musicians.

[Katie] For going out, I’d recommend bars like Café Triste, Bar Stella, Homage, Bar Flores, 1642, Zebulon and Melody Lounge. Bacari Silverlake is a great restaurant. Swingers and Fred 62 are good late night diners. Some of my favorite cafes are Jurassic Magic, Telegrama, Open Market, Camel Coffee and Obet & Del’s. Jumbo’s is really fun to see some great dancers! For shopping Varsity has great vintage, along with Shop Silver and The Bearded Beagle. On Instagram @5pmlucky is a good resource for weekly events happening in LA. Also @artopenings.la announces art gallery openings.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We’d like to shoutout everyone who has helped us in the early stages of Known Studio! To Jung Yun, Nicholas Cordeiro, Michael Haight and Brian Lee Hughes: thanks for offering us guidance as we worked to figure out our direction this past year. To Terrence Walsh: thank you for helping us renovate and maintain the space (and answering all our contractor-related questions). To Cosme Cruz: thanks for being our projection mapping genius. And lastly to our friends who have supported us with installations, pouring wine during openings and kind words of encouragement: thank you and we love you!

Website: https://www.weareknownstudio.com/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/weareknownstudio

Image Credits
Paasha Motamedi
Katie Walsh
Landon Yost
Aleks Sarcev
Belle Adams
Selina Che