Art exhibit preview: Fall installments focus on themes including history, society
(Joy Chen/Daily Bruin staff)
By Reid Sperisen, Barnett Salle-Widelock, Puja Anand, Yuna Choi, and Olivia Miller
Oct. 17, 2024 12:10 a.m.
This post was updated Oct. 20 at 9:04 p.m.
As the leaves begin to blanket the ground, a change of scenery presents Los Angeles in new ways.
This fall also brings a change of setting inside LA’s museums, with fine art from avant-garde designs to reimagined portrayals of light, promising to transport visitors through history and space with fresh eyes.
Read on to learn more about a handful of art exhibitions the Daily Bruin suggests exploring this fall.
“Lumen: The Art of Science and Light” (Getty Center)
Vellum pages that glowed with knowledge centuries before the Enlightenment are lighting up this fall.
The Getty Center’s “Lumen: The Art of Science and Light,” on view until Dec. 8, is a showcase of the study of light in the Middle Ages. Featuring works from the 10th century to the present day, the exhibition forms a glimmering web crisscrossing mediums, time, continents and cultures. The central thread of the collection is intrinsically human, and visitors are taken through a wide-ranging array of pieces that illustrate what is perhaps humanity’s longest-enduring obsession – light.
As much a science exhibit as an art one, “Lumen: The Art of Science and Light” displays medieval astrolabes and celestial guides alongside a bejeweled cross and Quran pages written in gold. This dichotomy serves to illustrate the porous barrier between science and religion that existed in the Middle Ages. Beyond the art itself, the gallery space uses light as a point of interest. Manuscripts shimmer in their cases, and stained glass windows are backlit to give the impression the viewer is sitting in the dusty pews of a darkened cathedral. Interspersed with the older paintings are several contemporary pieces, demonstrating works of light and shadow that evoke the spirit of discovery past artists likely felt.
With the deft touch symbolic of the Getty Center, “Lumen: The Art of Science and Light” offers a visually engaging and refreshing perspective on a shimmering slice of scientific history.
– Barnett Salle-Widelock
[Related: Getty Center hosts Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day, celebrates Native cultures]
“Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” (Hammer Museum)
The Hammer Museum’s latest exhibition is breathing new life into environmental activism.
“Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” debuted at the LA venue Sept. 14 and will run through Jan. 5. Guest co-curators Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake created the multisensory exhibition to foster awareness around climate change and its intersection with social justice. Conceptualized during the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition calls for an equitable approach to environmental activism derived from ancestral indigenous practices. In a statement about the exhibit, Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin discussed the right to breathe – especially amid the pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd – and how each artist’s work captures the similar urgency of the climate crisis.
Showcasing more than 100 pieces from 25 artists, the exhibition boasts a rich array of artistic mediums including photography, augmented reality and living installations. The contemporary art celebration introduces several new commissioned pieces such as Garnett Puett’s “Apisculptures,” a sculpture steadily built by a live bee colony. Other works outline the ruinous capacity of urbanization, while Brandon Ballengée uses oil paints to create portraits of marine animals driven to extinction by oil spills. As such, “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” wields art to call for much-needed action for a better tomorrow.
From its multisensory works to its powerful message, this exhibition is sure to be a breath of fresh air.
– Puja Anand
“Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” (The Museum of Contemporary Art)
It could be a bit easier for museumgoers to open their minds at The Museum of Contemporary Art this fall.
The new exhibition “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” at the Geffen Contemporary at Museum of Contemporary Art arrived Sept. 15 and will be open to the public through July 2025. “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” spotlights the work of the titular Icelandic-Danish artist, who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1967 but primarily resides in Berlin. The exhibit includes a variety of structures and pieces resembling mirrors and kaleidoscopes to distort viewers’ perceptions of several rooms throughout MOCA.
Eliasson’s work has traditionally incorporated environmental and spatial themes by challenging expectations of light, color and geometry. In a statement about the exhibit, he said this exhibition makes it possible for attendees to understand their surroundings – both within the museum and beyond – with a different perspective. Eliasson also said guests’ active interactions with the exhibit are critical to their understanding of their place within society more broadly.
With such accessibility, viewers are sure to open their eyes to new outlooks on space and light after experiencing Eliasson’s work firsthand.
– Reid Sperisen
[Related: UCLA alumni fuse internet, sublime in Fellows of Contemporary Art summer exhibit]
“World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project” (California African American Museum)
This fall, LA museumgoers are encouraged to pick up both a paintbrush and a shovel.
The California African American Museum is hosting the exhibit “World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project,” which opened last month and will be on show until March 2025. Curated by Cameron Shaw and Yael Lipschutz, the exhibit works by 30 contemporary artists alongside Carver’s paintings, drawings and laboratory equipment. “World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project” examines how current artists and scientists interact with Carver’s ideas and offers a fresh perspective on the enduring relevance of his work today.
The exhibit highlights the work of the titular artist, a pioneer in agricultural research in the early 20th century. His innovative use of natural materials in both science and art demonstrated a pioneering interdisciplinary approach that continues to inspire conservation techniques today. This includes revolutionary ideas such as crop rotation, organic fertilizers and plant-based materials. Together, the experience encourages visitors to appreciate how Carver merged art and science, using his creativity to address agricultural challenges while employing natural materials in his artwork.
Thanks to Carver’s ability to cross boundaries, his work proves to Angelenos that creativity and scientific inquiry can work together to shape a more sustainable world.
– Yuna Choi
“Josiah McElheny: Island Universe” (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, concepts of astronomy are being turned into a tangible reality this autumn.
The creator behind this exhibit, Josiah McElheny, uses glass to emphasize transparency and reflection. The “Josiah McElheny: Island Universe” exhibition encapsulates universes coexisting in the context of a multiverse. It was meticulously designed with time-mapping measurements that were developed with astrophysicist David Weinberg.
The exhibit, housed in LACMA’s Resnick Pavilion, features five suspended chandeliers that are inspired by those at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The chandeliers in New York were originally created in Vienna in 1965. In that same year, the first physical evidence supporting the Big Bang theory became more widely known, increasing curiosity in space science.
By transforming abstract cosmological theories into glass sculptures, “Josiah McElheny: Island Universe” bridges artistic and scientific linkages for the past, present and future.
– Olivia Miller