Los Angeles’ thriving cultural scene offers thought-provoking creativity in every shape and form imaginable. But while there are tons of world-class museums to lose yourself in all year round, there are a few that stand out as must-sees. Here are the best installations and exhibits in Los Angeles that you simply cannot miss.
1. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms
Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms are turning heads from San Francisco to New York, and we’re lucky to have two of them available to visit for free right here in LA.
- Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away: An enclosed mirror-lined space filled with flashing LED lights that visitors physically step into. Since guests enter the space one group at a time, The Broad requires that you make a timed reservation so as to foster the best possible experience. Find it on the first floor of The Broad.
- Longing for Eternity: A mirrored chamber filled with pulsating neon lights that guests peer into one by one. There’s no need to make a reservation for this, so just join the line on the third floor.
🎟️ Free to visit. Reservation required for Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away.
🗓️ On view now, no end date announced
📍 The Broad, 221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles
2. Hip Hop Til Infinity
Explore the extensive history and enduring influence of hip hop at this exciting new exhibition on Sunset Blvd. Guests will embark on a 50-year journey of the genre, from its origins in New York through its presence here in Los Angeles. You can also expect immersive virtual concerts, live panels and discussions, vibrant listening parties, meet-and-greets with influential artists, iconic photography displays, and an original soundtrack by DJ Clark Kent.
🎟️ Get tickets to Hip Hop Til Infinity
🗓️ On view now, tickets available through March 2024
📍 6400 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles
3. Bahia Reverb: Artists and Place
Art + Practice presents this temporary exhibition in collaboration with California African American Museum. See works by ten former fellows from the Sacatar Institute in Bahia, Brazil, all of which reflect the African diaspora’s influence in the Brazilian state. The collection covers a spectrum of media including watercolor, textile, and video, with special attention to each artist’s process and unique lived experience.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Mar. 2, 2024
📍Art + Practice, 3401 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles
4. Bubble World: An Immersive Experience
Bubble World is an immersive experience spread out across 10 different rooms that take on a variety of fun themes, from the ocean floor to desert lands. Dive into ball pits, travel through fabulous landscapes designed to stimulate the senses and challenge your imagination using cutting-edge VR technology. You can expect giant balloons to join you on your quest through these fun-filled installations and of course, lots and lots of bubbles.
🎟️ Get tickets to Bubble World
🗓️ On view now, tickets available through March 2024
📍1345 N. Montebello Boulevard, Montebello
5. Expansive Presentation of Andy Warhol
The Broad presents a showcase of work by legendary American artist Andy Warhol, who is best known as a leading influence in the pop art genre. This installation takes the viewer through 26 of Warhol’s works, eleven of which are on view for the first time at The Broad. The major artwork to seek out is Liz [Early Colored Liz], which is a silkscreened image of Elizabeth Taylor from 1963. Other items on display include Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Can (Clam Chowder – Manhattan Style) [Ferus Type] and 40 Gold Marilyns.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now
📍 The Broad, 221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles
6. Scratching at the Moon
This soon-to-open LA exhibition displays a carefully-curated presentation of works by thirteen Asian American artists, rooted in recent social justice movements. Each artist is either based in LA or has strong ties to the city, and the works demonstrate their respective experiences with gender roles, structural racism, immigration, gentrification, and family. See work from Patty Chang, Young Chung, Yong Soon Min, and more.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ Opening Feb. 10, 2024
📍ICA LA, 1717 E 7th St, Los Angeles
7. Long Story Short
Peruse a gallery of artworks dating from the 1940s to present day, which juxtapose modern-day and lesser-known works against hallmark pieces from the museum’s 7,500-count collection. Follow the ways in which artists have addressed aesthetic, political, and philosophical concerns over time, and see how MOCA arrives at the assertion that “art history, and history more broadly, is made in the present.”
🎟️Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Apr. 28, 2024
📍MOCA, 250 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA
8. Rita McBride: Particulates
The UCLA Hammer Museum has an eye-catching light installation by Rita McBride that illuminates the gallery with a bright neon-green glow. The work is inspired by time travel and quantum physics, shooting shimmering laser beams through a mist of suspended water molecules to create a haunting beam of shifting light. You can experience Particulates inside the gallery during the day or witness it at night through the windows on Wilshire Blvd.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Mar. 3, 2024
📍Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
9. Groove: Artists and Intaglio Prints, 1500 to Now
Learn about the intaglio medium with an intricate showcase of prints across five hundred years. Intaglio is a technique in which the artist inks a copper or zinc plate by using engravings and etchings to transfer the artwork, a process that has remained largely unchanged since the fifteenth century. See over 80 prints organized chronologically and follow the evolution of the form over time.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Mar. 3, 2024
📍Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
10. The World Made Wondrous
The World Made Wondrous: The Dutch Collectors Cabinet and the Politics of Possession is an eclectic temporary exhibition at LACMA. It’s curated from the point of view of a hypothetical 17th-century Dutch collector, with assorted pieces including paintings, sculptures, prints, gems, shells, and taxidermy. Go for a deep-dive into European colonial collecting practices, examining the ways in which collectors of the time attempted to order the world without regard for the consequences. The exhibition includes an audio guide with commentary from experts.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Mar. 3, 2024
📍Resnick Pavilion, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
11. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting
Explore a groundbreaking presentation of Islamic art and culinary traditions, with over 250 works related to the process of sourcing, preparing, serving, and consuming food. Learn about luxury tableware objects and the way in which elaborate food service influenced life in Islamic courts, all while stimulating your appetite and your appreciation for the importance of sharing a meal.
🎟️ Free to visit
🗓️ On view now through Aug. 4, 2024
📍Resnick Pavilion, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
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