April 5, 2023
With spring in full swing, these 10 shows focus on new beginnings, old friends, and transformations. The Hammer Museum inaugurates its new gallery, 20 years in the making, with a laser light installation by Rita McBride, while Lisson opens its new LA space with a solo show from the late Cuban-born painter Carmen Herrera. Make me feel mighty real at Honor Fraser chronicles the long history of avatars in queer culture from the underground to digital spaces, and Robert Russell at Anat Ebgi reveals the darkness under a surface of kitsch. At prjctLA, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio share documentation of their latest LA River project, presenting a model for reconnecting the waterway to its natural floodplain, a forward-looking proposal rooted in history.
— Matt Stromberg
See our full list of highlights.
Support Hyperallergic's independent journalism
We rely on member support to publish quality arts journalism and criticism that is free and available to all.
CRITIC'S PICK
An Artist’s Gift of Care
Artist Soo Kim’s latest series is about the act of arranging, about the impulse to create something with our hands for ourselves and for others. | Alex Paik
Making art, although a solitary exercise, is a way of acknowledging, celebrating, and caring for the personal, professional, and historical relationships that we’ve created for ourselves as artists. Aria is Soo Kim’s splendidly impractical gift to herself, to her friend, and to the viewer. It celebrates and mourns the impermanence of these relationships, a bittersweet song that lingers in the memories of others long after it has been sung.
Soo Kim: Aria
Mar. 19–Apr. 22, 2023
Anat Ebgi Gallery, 6150 Wilshire Blvd. (anatebgi.com)
ON OUR RADAR
MexiCali Biennial: Land of Milk & Honey
Feb. 25–May 28, 2023
The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, 3581 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside (riversideartmuseum.org)
Launched in 2006 by artists Ed Gomez and Luis G. Hernandez, the MexiCali Biennial explores the cultural and artistic terrain of California and Mexico. This year’s edition, Land of Milk & Honey, focuses on the region’s agricultural and culinary significance and associated issues surrounding labor, ecology, and politics. California was touted as a bountiful Eden by early promoters of the state, however the flipside of this starry-eyed view was exclusion, exploitation, and corruption, themes that the Golden State is still reckoning with. Participating artists include Carolyn Castaño, Edgar Fabián Frías, Narsiso Martinez, Ruben Ochoa, Jazmín Urrea, and many others.
Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971
Aug. 21–Jul. 16, 2023
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Miracle Mile (academymuseum.org)
Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971 showcases the work of Black American filmmakers, actors, and entertainers, reframing narratives often excluded from mainstream film history. The exhibition spans from the birth of film to the end of the Civil Rights Movement, focusing on those who worked both within and outside the Hollywood system. It highlights William Selig’s recently rediscovered 1898 short film “Something Good – Negro Kiss”; iconic dancer, singer, and actor Josephine Baker; and fiercely independent director Melvin Van Peebles, whose 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” is a cornerstone of the blaxploitation genre.
Margaret Garcia: Arte para la Gente
Jul. 22–Jun. 11, 2023
LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte, 501 North Main Street, Downtown (lapca.org)
Arte Para la Gente is a career retrospective of the work of influential Chicana artist Margaret Garcia, whose paintings offer an intimate, honest portrayal of her city, community, and family. With nods to Fauvism and Impressionism, Garcia’s paintings range from street scenes of her Boyle Heights neighborhood to portraits of her circle of friends and collaborators, and reinterpretations of Mexican Catholic religious imagery. The exhibition also includes prints from her “Stamp Project,” a suite of black-and-white serigraphs by Garcia and other artists that was an attempt to exert greater control over the means of producing, distributing, and selling art.
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC
LA’s Getty Museum Helps UK Acquire “Portrait of Omai”
In a rare move, the Getty and the National Portrait Gallery in London will split the $62M cost of the painting. | Taylor Michael
