12 Cool New Art Exhibits to Check Out in LA Before They Disappear
From neon art to street art, photography, and more.
After two years of shutdowns and limited entry, LA’s art galleries and museums are fully reopened and ready for perusing, with a fresh slate of exhibitions popping up this spring and summer. While you should absolutely make it a point to visit long-standing museums like LACMA, MOCA, and The Broad, as well as Instagrammable pop-ups like Immersive Frida, making a visit to one of the following exhibits is a great way to explore the city and get to know the breadth of artistic talent that calls LA home. See plants be used in place of paint, contribute to a community-generated soundscape, and embark on a journey of street art past and present. While the art may be varied, the one thing all these exhibitions share is that they won’t be on display forever. Put this list in your back pocket and use it as your guide to see 12 new art exhibits in LA before they disappear. Bonus: most of the places listed are free!
Through Sunday, June 5
Gallery 90220 (Compton)
This Compton-based gallery has a mission to celebrate Black artists in the local community. The Parallel Kin exhibit displays photography by New Oleans-based artist Delaney George and LA-based artist Tiffany “Just Rock” Brown, merging each city’s cultures and styles for a celebration of Black perspective, expression, and vulnerability. The exhibit is curated by Tyie Dominique and McKayla Chandler.
How to book: Make reservations online.
Cost: Free
Through Sunday, July 3
The Lume Los Angeles (Downtown)
Street Art Alive brings together work from over 200 artists, including D*Face, Lady Pink, Blek le Rat, and more, into a multi-sensory immersive exhibition. Taking scenes and inspirations from the streets of over 20 cities, like New York, London, and Berlin, the visual explosion shares a history of street art and explores the motivations of the artists.
How to book: Purchase tickets online.
Cost: General Admission adult $39.00-$49.00; youth (4-14 years old): $29.00-$37.00; Child (3 and under) are free, excludes Friday–Sunday after 6 PM.
Through Sunday, October 2
California African American Museum (Exposition Park)
Through beautifully rendered portraits, artist Mario Moore shines a light on marginalized communities and honors the labor and leisure of frontline and essential workers. In his first solo exhibition in California, he combines previous works with two new portraits of women who have worked as custodians at CAAM as a way to recognize that the success of museums comes from the labor of those behind the scenes.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted.
Cost: Free
Through Wednesday, August 31
Los Angeles State Historic Park (Chinatown)
Visitors to Los Angeles State Historic Park can compose soundscapes in real-time by just walking around the park. The site-specific sonic experience uses modified field recordings and samples composed through geolocation, created by artist Jimena Sarno and commissioned by Clockshop LA. To hear the compositions, visitors will have to download a free app to their phone.
How to book: No reservations necessary.
Cost: Free
Through Sunday, September 4
Forest Lawn Museum (Glendale)
See large-scale portraits rendered in molten metal, photographs transformed by forces of nature, images printed in edible materials, and more at this retrospective of artist Matthew Brandt. The exhibition features more than 100 photographs and multimedia artworks, some of which have never been exhibited before.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted.
Cost: Free
Through Saturday, July 30
The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College (Monterey Park)
A mix of 30 sound artists and collectives spanning different generations contribute their work to this major exhibition. From the early avant-gardism of sound art to new interdisciplinary art forms, these works amplify how sound can be used for creative expression as well as political intervention.
How to book: Reservations are recommended. Call 323-265-8841 or email info@vpam.org. Walk-up entry is on a first-come, first-served basis until they reach capacity.
Cost: Free
Through Sunday, September 25
Museum of Neon Art (Glendale)
The Brain Without Organs is an immersive and large-scale installation that explores the relationship between the brain and information. Neon and neuroscience meet in this body of work that consists of large neon installations and a small room filled with blacklight-activated paintings.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted.
Cost: General Admission $10; Senior (65+) $8; Glendale Residents (with ID) $5; Children (12 and under with an adult) and Veterans (with ID) free.
Through Saturday, July 30
18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus) (Santa Monica)
For this exhibition, artist Maru García brought together five artists whose practice involves creating spaces for regeneration and resilience, through acts like maintaining community gardens and seed archives or working towards food and healing justice. By moving outside the norm of conventional art mediums, the group exemplifies the power of plants and shows how sharing knowledge, food, and ideas can inspire change in surprising ways. Guests are also invited to join García every Tuesday at noon for plant propagation and watering.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted. Reservations are recommended and can be made online, by calling 310-453-3711, or emailing office@18thstreet.org.
Cost: Free
Through Monday, August 22
Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
Pulling from the museum’s collection, Alternate Realities showcases the works of artists Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Lobdell, John Altoon, and Emerson Woelffer. Considered pioneers of their time, the artists challenged the limits of pure abstraction by developing new forms of figural art in the mid-twentieth century.
How to book: Visitors are recommended to purchase advance tickets online to expedite check-in.
Cost: Adults $15.00; Seniors (ages 62 and above) $12.00; Children (ages 18 and under) and Students with valid I.D. free.
Through March 2023
Hotel Figueroa (DTLA)
The Hotel Figueroa continues its ongoing series of showcasing the works of local women by exhibiting 20 original pieces by LA-based artist Ruthanna Hopper. The Emergence is about the artist’s experience of emerging from a dark winter season and welcoming the possibility of change that each new season brings, as well as processing her unresolved responses to life in order to synthesize past experiences.
How to book: No advance tickets required. Walk-ins accepted.
Cost: Free
Saturday, May 14–Saturday, June 18
Corey Helford Gallery (Pico Gardens)
In their most ambitious exhibition to date, London-based artistic duo Kai & Sunny are set to debut a new body of work that explores changing seasons, and the shifts in mood it causes within us. Future Seasons opens at the Corey Helford Gallery alongside I Don't Wanna Be, I Am, a touring group exhibition by Ink and Movement that features artworks by Okuda San Miguel, Elian Chali, Franco Fasoli, Martí Sawe, Misterpiro, Nano4814, Sabek, Sixe Paredes, and Spok Brillor.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted.
Cost: Free
Sunday, June 19 through Sunday, September 4
Hammer (Westwood)
For more than 30 years Andrea Bowers has combined her art practice with her dedication to activism and advocacy. In this retrospective, viewers have the opportunity to see how the multi-disciplinary artist continuously evolves and experiments with a wide range of mediums, including drawing, performance, installation, sculpture, video, and neon sculptures.
How to book: Walk-ins accepted
Cost: Free