Daytime

Before the city’s first dedicated contemporary art museum was established, Los Angeles was home to disparate, heterogeneous art scenes with artists forming different nodes and establishing tight networks throughout the city—from Venice to East LA, and from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the north to the Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park. Artists utilized unconventional contexts including the street, the studio, the art school, and other public spaces to show and present their art while embracing performative and ephemeral actions to engage the public in more immediate ways. In doing so, artists were responding to the possibilities of a burgeoning art scene and the urban sprawl and dispersed landscape of LA.

 

Timed reservations required: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Thursdays 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

The GRAMMY Museum aims to educate individuals about the history and cultural significance of American music and to inspire the next generation to explore and create new forms of music using the roots that have existed in interactives, and exciting exhibitions.  The Museum accomplishes this through innovative programming, cutting-edge interactives, and exciting exhibitions.

 

Sundays & Mondays, Wednesdays – Fridays 11:00 noon – 5:00 p.m. Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00p.m,  Tuesdays – Closed

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.

Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Our 5,000-square-foot exhibit delves deep into the multifaceted world of hip-hop through expansive exhibits on hip-hop music, dance, graffiti, fashion, business, activism, and history, providing visitors with an immersive experience that explores the profound impact and influence of hip-hop culture. On display will be an incredible array of artifacts including the Notorious B.I.G.’s iconic red leather pea jacket, LL Cool J’s red Kangol bucket hat, and more.

 

Sundays & Mondays, Wednesdays – Fridays 11:00 noon – 5:00 p.m. Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00p.m,  Tuesdays – Closed

“Rooted in Africa” is more than an exhibition; it is a dialogue between cultures, a celebration of diversity and unity. Through our theme – “Two People, Two Continents, Two Countries, Two Cultures, Two Genders, Two Generations, Two Races, Two Religions, Two Ideologies” – we explore the convergence of different worlds, coming together in a harmonious symphony. Our artists are not just creators; they are storytellers, visionaries, and pioneers, weaving their narratives into a tapestry of shared human experience.

We invite you to partake in this visual journey, to immerse yourself in the narratives and colors of “Rooted in Africa.” Join us for the Opening Reception on January 20th, from 5 to 8 pm, and engage in a deeper discourse at the Artist & Curator Talk on February 28th, from 7 to 9 pm.

 

 

 

Drawn from the collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra, Art for the People explores paintings created in the United States between the 1929 stock market crash and World War II. The exhibition focuses on federal Works Progress Administration artists of the 1930s and early 1940s who were employed by the government to help stimulate the post-Depression economy. More than 10,000 artists participated, creating works that represented the nation and its people and seeking to express fundamental human concerns, basic democratic principles, and the plight of the dispossessed.

 

Sundays, Mondays, & Wednesdays  – Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Adjacent to John Waters: Pope of Trash, in the Warner Bros. Gallery, the Academy Museum presents Outside the Mainstream, an installation that pays homage to the work of other radically independent filmmakers—such as Kenneth Anger, Shirley Clarke, Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Gregg Araki, Todd Haynes, and Rose Troche—who operate beyond the pale of mainstream cinema. The gallery focuses on examples from the American avant-garde, underground film, and New Queer Cinema movements, united by how forward-thinking film journalists including Jonas Mekas and B. Ruby Rich supported their reach.  

 

Kids and teens are invited to help complete portions of artwork celebrating Black History Month on our Main Library Youth area display wall. For youth through 17.

 

Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays – 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Saturdays –  10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Renowned American artist Betye Saar’s large-scale work Drifting Toward Twilight—recently commissioned by The Huntington—is a site-specific installation that features a 17-foot-long vintage wooden canoe and found objects, including birdcages, antlers, and natural materials harvested by Saar from The Huntington’s grounds.

 

“Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight” transforms an entire room in the Scott Galleries into what the artist calls a “cocoon-like environment.” The walls are painted in an oceanic blue gradient, featuring a poem by Saar and phases of the moon. Shifting lighting effects in the gallery emulate phases of daylight to twilight, evening to night, and night to dawn. Inside the canoe, Saar positions mysterious “passengers,” including antlers in metal birdcages, children’s chairs, and architectural elements—all drawn from the artist’s ever-evolving collection of found objects. The space beneath the canoe is illuminated by a cool neon glow, highlighting plant material.

 

Betye Saar (b. 1926) is one of the most significant American artists. Over her six-decade career, she has created assemblage works exploring themes of racial oppression, mysticism, the occult, family, memory, and identity. She fashions her assemblage artworks from found objects, antiques, and family heirlooms that she collects. Emerging as an important artistic voice during the feminist and Civil Rights movements, Saar is a pioneer of Black feminist art who connected the personal with the political, taking on such subject matter as the legacies of enslavement and the impacts of racism.