Happy Pictures From the Apocalypse

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice at the Hammer Museum is guilty of a concerning lack of urgency. | Nathan Gelgud

FROM OUR CRITICS

Sigourney Schultz

Yong Soon Min: KISSSSS at the Contemporary Arts Center Gallery at the University of California Irvine 

“Min reminds us that the political is personal; as art historian Kim Hong-Hee writes in Korean Feminist Artists: Confront and Deconstruct, ‘This is the DMZ, which is analogous to the artist’s own situation: looking on from the edge with a dual identity that is neither fully American nor fully Korean.’”

David S. Rubin

Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology at the Skirball Cultural Center

“They begin at the center with simple queries that early Homo sapiens might have asked, such as ‘Why do I exist?’ and ‘Can we create fire?’ As they spread outward, the questions become more complex and relevant — for instance, ‘How will we live in a changing climate?’”

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

Van Gogh’s “Irises” Were Never Supposed to Be Blue

A new exhibition chronicles how a paintings conservator and chemist solved a color mystery in one of the painter’s most beloved works. | Isa Farfan

Chicana Artist’s Once-Censored Mural Finds a New Home in LA

Barbara Carrasco’s landmark 80-foot painting portraying the city’s origins and evolution will anchor the Natural History Museum’s new wing. | Matt Stromberg