Contemporary Art

Mark Bradford’s 150 Portrait Tone, a mural-size composition that contains elements of both abstraction and realism, is based on an idea for a work that the artist conceived after the fatal shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in July 2016. Castile, a nutrition services supervisor at an elementary school, was shot after being pulled over in his car—an incident that was livestreamed on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to him.

The painting features excerpts of Reynolds’s dialogue from the video. The title, 150 Portrait Tone, refers to the name and color code of the pink acrylic used throughout the painting. Like the now-obsolete “flesh” crayon in the Crayola 64 box (renamed “peach” in 1962), the color “portrait tone” carries inherent assumptions about who, exactly, is being depicted. In the context of Bradford’s painting, the title presents a sobering commentary on power and representation.

This exhibit explores Shin’s visual storytelling as a Korean American woman who engages indigeneity as a site of knowledge and creativity. She uses personal archives and figures from Korean shamanism to question the navigational forces that chinoiserie and “the Orient” play in empire, colonization, religion, gender, and love.

Adults – $9, Students, Teachers, and Seniors – $7, Members – Free,
Sundays pay what you can

Refashioning presents two project spaces from transdisciplinary artists and fashion designers: Concept Foreign Garments New York (CFGNY) and Wataru Tominaga. Featuring garments, accessories, and textile works, the exhibition examines the ways in which these two practices—one based in New York, the other in Tokyo—challenge preconceived notions of gender and identity and, in particular, what the artists describe as “vaguely Asian” aesthetics.

 

Tuesday  –  Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Since 2007, JANM has partnered with Eric Nakamura, founder of Giant Robot, to produce the Giant Robot Biennale, a recurring art exhibition that highlights diverse creative works celebrating the ethos of Giant Robot—a staple of Asian American alternative pop culture and an influential brand encompassing pop art, skateboard, comic book, graphic arts, and vinyl toy culture.

 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday – Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Thursday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m. Adults – $16, Seniors and Youth – $9, Members and Children under 5 – Free

In 2019, Lawson answered more than 1,000 questions in his Story File so that future generations can continue conversing with him to learn about his legacy. What would you like to ask Lawson?

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Thursday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
Adults – $16, Seniors and Youth – $9, Members and Children under 5 – Free

James Tadanao Sata created some of the most adventurous photographs made in America in the 1920s and ’30s. Abstract spheres and triangles, complex arrangements of figures and shadows, and spaces rich with deep and delicate tones emphasized geometric forms and conveyed newness, modernity, and irony. This exhibition comprises sixty photographs by Sata, photographs of Sata’s concentration camp paintings and drawings, and family artifacts from the camp.

 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Thursday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
Adults – $16, Seniors and Youth – $9, Members and Children under 5 – Free

Korean Treasures presents 35 artworks recently donated to LACMA by Drs. Chester and Cameron C. Chang (M.D.); The bulk of the Chang family collection has been intact for over a century. This introductory exhibition presents traditional Korean paintings, calligraphic folding screens, mid-20th century oil paintings from both North and South Korea, and ceramics of the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) dynasties. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Fridays 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Saturdays & Sundays 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Adults – $20, Seniors – $16, Members, Students, and Children – Free Reserve a timed entry ticket online. General admission is Free after 3:00 p.m. on weekdays

In Humaira Abid’s exquisitely haunting exhibition Searching for Home, the artist’s sculpted wooden creations invoice the troubling specter of the global refugee crisis and its trails of ruined lives. Inspired by real accounts of displaced people- all personally researched and documented by Abid- the exhibition hints at untold tragedies surrounding the collateral victims of persecution, political conflicts, ethnic cleansing, and natural disasters, a disproportionate number of whom are women and girls. Through her chosen wood medium, Abid unleashes the material’s innate properties to suggest the ineffable weight of gravity of this continuing humanitarian crisis.

 

Adults – $10, Seniors, Students, and Educators – $7, Children and Members – Free.
The second Sunday of each month – Free