ART

New Leader: Controversial Los Angeles artist Joe Smoke, 27, took over Monday as executive director of Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, replacing Suzy Kerr who is leaving the downtown organization to return to her native England. “I have great hopes to expand our membership and to continue providing L.A. and Southern California with new and innovative photographic exhibitions,” said Smoke, who organized an exhibition on Women and AIDS for the organization in 1991. Earlier this year, slides of Smoke’s photo-based works dealing with homosexual themes prompted the National Endowment for the Arts to turn down a visual arts grant for Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.