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Visual Arts

An image can have powerful consequences. Explore how artists are using the visual arts to empower and elevate a point of view.

An illustration of different Western images in pop culture.
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From Sunset Blvd, 1966, Ed Ruscha. | Streets of Los Angeles Archive. The Getty Research Institute,2012.M.1. © Ed Ruscha
The Getty’s “12 Sunsets,” project digitizes Ed Ruscha’s many photographs of each building on Sunset Boulevard from 1966 to 2007.
Chris Burden's "Urban Light" | © Museum Associates/LACMA
Take a look at just five public artworks that play an important part in the city, both in a geographical and artistic way. 
Helen Pashgian holding up one of her blue spheres. Her work is a part of the Light and Space movement | Still from "Light & Space" ab s11
Light and Space artists have captured, investigated and metamorphosed light into unexpected artwork that implores us to look — really look.
Detail of Consequences (2018), acrylic and gold leaf on wood panel 24 x 18 | Courtesy of Mark Steven Greenfield
The time is more than ripe to see Mark Steven Greenfield’s “Black Madonna,” a new suite of paintings and drawings that meditate on the fraught, violent history of Africans brought to America against their will.
The sign outside the Watts Towers Art Center | Still from "The Watts Towers Arts Center" ab s11 episode image
57:08
The Watts Towers Arts Center was born out of the resilience of 1960s Black L.A.
Participants play a tug of war during the Watts Cookbook © event initiated by ToroLab 2019 | Panic Studio LA, Courtesy of City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, CURRENT:LA Food© ab s11 episode image
52:45
Artists created works to spark conversation about L.A. and sustainable futures.
"Kristina Wong for Public Office" showcases an entire campaign rally set, including an American flag and presidential seal, are sewn | Courtesy of Kristina Wong
Pandemic or not, hands-on activities have an enduring appeal. Today’s crafters are making art, making a difference, and having fun making a mess.
A wide shot of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart showing artist Oto-Abasi Attah painting a mural of Nipsey Hustle, "Saint Nip" | Courtesy of Crenshaw Dairy Mart
In Inglewood, a fine art space that takes up the legacy of Black-led arts institutions emerges.
"Bitter Crop," Alison Saar, 2018 | Courtesy of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, Claremont, CA
Powerful images of Black women have featured prominently in Saar’s work for decades. This fall, three institutions will show her work in a time when it’s more relevant than ever.
A large-scale Light and Space artwork from Robert Irwin called "untitled (dawn to dusk.)" | Still from Artbound "Light & Space" ab s11
56:43
Robert Irwin, Larry Bell and Helen Pashgian explore perception, material and experience.
A little boy looks up at two masked figures at the 2017 edition of the Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks. | Photo by Sahra Sulaiman, Courtesy of LA Commons
Some handmade masks protect you from viruses; others honor ancestral wisdom. 
USC Pacific Art Museum exterior | Courtesy of USC Pacific Art Museum exterior
Many museum collections were built on the imperialist and exploitative practices of collectors. University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum is taking steps to rectify this problematic situation.
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