Ooga Booga is a small store above a bakery in Chinatown, Los Angeles, founded in 2004 by Wendy Yao. The shop specializes in independent culture, including art, books, music, clothing, other things made by artists. Over the past 8 years they have hosted live music performances, book events, in-store art installations, film screenings, reading rooms, art swap meets, and workshops both on site and in satellite locations. The store also runs a free online database of art book publishers as a public resource (http://print-resources.tumblr.com). Later this month Ooga Booga will open a project at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia from September 26th through December 16th.
Selected past projects include Nieves Library & Reading Room at Ooga Booga (publications from Switzerland), Secondary Market exhibition & mini-shop by Hanne Mugaas, Ooga Booga’s Reading Room at the Swiss Institute, Ooga Booga’s mini book fair inside ArtLA fair, Zine’s Mate mini-book exhibition at Ooga Booga (Publications from Japan), Wendy & Amy Yao’s Annual Art Swap Meet in Joshua Tree as part of Andrea Zittel’s High Desert Test Sites, and upcoming Ooga Booga Excursus III exhibition & programming series at ICA, Philadelphia.
