Fifteen Must-Visit Art Exhibitions in Los Angeles This Summer
This summer, Los Angeles art institutions offer both sorely needed aesthetic escapes and deep dives into contemporary issues. There are several career-ranging surveys and historical reassessments, for one, including a look at Barbara T. Smith’s early Xerox work made on a rented copy machine in her living room; an exhibition at the Hammer covering the brief but brilliant career of late painter Noah Davis; and a Nancy Buchanan retrospective highlighting her multifaceted art practice alongside her commitment to education and collaboration. New work by Jeffrey Gibson at the Broad, Will Rawls at the ICA LA, and Karl Haendel at the Weisman Museum confront various dominant narratives, offering inclusive and disruptive multiplicities of voices. Meanwhile, two very different shows illustrate the role of art to speak to urgent needs and current events: a group exhibition at the California African American Museum focused on the legacy of Altadena’s Black community and its collective loss as a result of the recent Eaton Fire, and a Skirball show dedicated to comic-book artist Jack Kirby, who broadened the medium to address real-world challenges outside of its fantastical storylines. Collectively, these exhibitions underscore the role of the museum as both cultural refuge and community resource.
Barbara T. Smith: Xerox 914 at Marciano Art Foundation showcases works made with a Xerox 914 photocopier leased in the 1960s. The exhibition demonstrates Smith’s engagement with seriality, technology, and feminist art practices.
Mother Me Meanly at Chez Max et Dorothea challenges binary perceptions of motherhood and explores its complexities through an intergenerational group of artists. The exhibition includes works by Christina Ballantyne and Dorothea Tanning.
Carole Caroompas: Heathcliff and the Femme Fatale Go on Tour at Laguna Art Museum features layered canvases blending literature and pop culture references to subvert traditional narratives.
Karl Haendel: Less Bad at Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art presents conceptual, photo-realistic drawings exploring masculinity and artistic labor within media contexts.
Imagining Black Diasporas at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art highlights contemporary Black art through sixty artists, reflecting themes of displacement, resilience, and Pan-African expressions.
Will Rawls: [siccer] at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles uses multimedia to explore Black bodies’ portrayal in media and societal scrutiny.
Noah Davis at Hammer Museum is a retrospective capturing Davis’s intimate and thematically diverse paintings, reflecting African-American history and cultural narratives.
Francis Picabia: Femmes at Michael Werner Gallery displays works from a modernist chameleon, focusing on interpretations of women across diverse styles.
Truthfully, Nancy Buchanan at The Brick traces Buchanan’s versatile career in performance and digital art, emphasizing her experimental approaches and contributions to art as an educator.
Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me at The Broad combines Indigenous art traditions with modern narratives to address oppression and resistance.
Luchita Hurtado: Yo Soy at Hauser & Wirth explores Hurtado’s geometric abstractions while providing historical context and archival materials of her feminist art contributions.
Ode to ’Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena at California African American Museum honors the heritage and resilience of Altadena’s Black community in response to recent tragedies.
Black Cowboys: An American Story at the Autry Museum of the American West rectifies historical erasure, honoring Black contributions to cowboy culture in the American West.
MOCA Focus: Takako Yamaguchi at the Museum of Contemporary Art showcases a solo exhibition highlighting Yamaguchi’s appropriation strategies within postmodern context.
Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity at Skirball Cultural Center explores Kirby’s iconic comic-book creations, emphasizing their societal relevance and influence.