We’re blessed with an abundance of museums and art galleries here in L.A., but with so many shows rotating in and out at any given time, it can be hard to keep up. Nobody wants to be the person who only finds out about a cool exhibit when it’s closing down and heading out of town. To help you make the most of your gallery-going, consult our monthly guide to the best museum exhibits in L.A.
New Openings
Lawrence Weiner: On View — Regen Projects
Through April 4
Lawrence Weiner was one of the leading names of the 1960s Conceptual art movement, and his work returns to Regen Projects for his tenth show with the gallery. On View features a series of large-scale, text-based installations.
Catherine Opie: Rhetorical Landscapes — Regen Projects
Through April 4
L.A. art world icon Catherine Opie presents a show centered around her first-ever film work, The Modernist. The animated film features “political collages” of the Trump era, presented on iPhone-like screens.
Evan Nesbit: Open Objects – Roberts Projects
Opens March 21
Evan Nesbit’s bold color sensibility will be on display in this show, which includes his paintings and fiber works. Nesbit is known for his abstract, incorporating a keen use of material and pattern.
Ongoing Exhibits
All of Them Witches — Jeffrey Deitch
Closes April 11
This group show is organized around what the curators call a shared “witchy sensibility.” Pieces on display draw on imagery that suggests the occult or supernatural to talk about power, the body, and gender.
Julie Mehretu – LACMA
Closes May 17
Another collaboration between LACMA and New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art, this is the first-ever comprehensive retrospective of the career of Julie Mehretu. The 49-year-old, Ethiopian-born artist makes work that grapples with colonialism, history, capitalism, displacement, and war. The show includes over 70 works, all made since 1996.
Hollywood Dream Machines – Petersen Automotive Museum
Closes June, 2020
In collaboration with the ComicCon Museum, the Petersen has brought together a group of cars from classic science fiction and fantasy films. Full-size props from movies including Bladerunner, Back to the Future, and Batman, are on display, along with drawings and models.
Cross Colours: Black Fashion in the 20th Century – California African American Museum
Closes August 23, 2020
Cross Colours was an emerging brand from a pair of Black L.A. designers when Will Smith started sporting their clothes on screen in early episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Soon the brand, always informed by Afrocentrism and progressive politics, became a national sensation. This exhibition dives in on 30 years of the brand, from the vintage textiles that informed the designs, to how the company used fashion as a platform to address social justice.
Closing Soon
Lauren Halsey — David Kordansky Gallery
Closes March 14
Lauren Halsey (one of our People to Watch in 2020) kicks off the year with a show of painted sculptural works, her first solo exhibit at David Kordansky Gallery. Expect to be transported from Mid-Wilshire to the “vivid, mythopoetic hauntscape of South Central Los Angeles.”
Zoya Cherkassy: Soviet Childhood – Fort Gansevoort
Closes March 28
This group of paintings and drawings by Zoya Cherkassy use the styles of Soviet Realism and Modernism to portray scenes the artist, who was just 15 when the Soviet Union collapsed, recalls from everyday life of her childhood.
RELATED: These L.A. Artists Are Bringing Queer Perspectives Into Focus
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