Jack Whitten, Tom Wesselmann, Dan Graham, and More Must See Los Angeles Shows

Escape the heat by checking out some of these museum and gallery shows in Los Angeles this month.

“Taurus and the Awakener” at David Kordansky
Now—August 25
“Taurus and the Awakener” is a group exhibition of sculpture named for the recent arrival of the planet Uranus into the zodiacal sign of Taurus, where it will remain for the better part of the next seven years. The show features work that channels the juxtaposition of the sensual, earthy, and grounded qualities of Taurus against the excited, transformative nature of the Uranian archetype—seen in the works of artists like Polly Apfelbaum, Ruby Neri, and Mindy Shapero.

 

Tom Wesselmann at Gagosian
Now—August 24
Gagosian is presenting the West Coast’s first exhibition of these monumental works by Tom Wesselmann, whose separation from abstract expressionism in the 1950s played an essential role in defining New York Pop Art. “Wesselmann: 1963-1983” features seven larger-than-life paintings created by the artist over a 20-year period, including works like Bedroom Painting #30 and Still Life #29, a playful take on a kitchen table still life painted atop a 12-foot-wide billboard poster.

 

“A Journey That Wasn’t” at The Broad
Now—February 2019
Featuring works by over 20 artists, “A Journey That Wasn’t,” examines the passage of time through allusions of nostalgia and depictions of aging. The exhibition, which showcases over 50 works from the museum’s postwar and contemporary art collection, includes works like Ed Ruscha’s Azteca / Azteca in Decline and Sharon Lockhart’s Pine Flat Portrait Studio series—a suite of portraits documenting the youth from a rural town in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Dan Graham at Regen Projects
Now—August 18
Dan Graham’s second exhibition at Regen Projects, “New Works by a Small-Town Boy,” continues the artist’s multidisciplinary examination of architecture’s role in contemporary society. Included in the exhibition are works like Homes for America, (a series of photographs of suburban homes that highlight the artist’s fascination with serial structures, topology, and systems of information) as well as Graham’s sculptural pavilions. Part architecture and part sculpture, these simple geometric forms are meant to blur the lines between public spaces and private.

Jack Whitten at Hauser & Wirth
Now—September 23
“Self Portraits with Satellites” is a celebratory survey of Jack Whitten’s career and his unique ability to convey mathematical, scientific, and philosophical concepts through abstracted artworks. The exhibition includes pieces honoring Whitten’s family (like Mother’s Day 1979 for Mom and A Headstone for Mose) and narrating his life growing up in the segregated South. On view as well are some of the final works created by the artist before his death last January—a celebration of the universe’s fundamental opposition to closure titled Quantum Wall, VIII (For Arshile Gorky, My First Love In Painting).

John Gerrard at LACMA
Now—September 3
In collaboration with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, LACMA is showing John Gerrard’s Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) for the first time on the West Coast since its purchase in 2015. A recreation of a solar thermal power plant in Nevada, the installation features a frameless LED wall depicting a tower surrounded by 10,000 mirrors, which adjust to reflect the sun’s light on the tower to generate electricity. Moving in real time with the earth’s rotations, the virtual world of Solar Reserve is constantly changing so that no view will be exactly the same during any point in the exhibition.