I am delighted to see that the Getty is using some of its money to finally invest in art by women artists. Their most recent acquisition is by the noted French 18th century painter Adelaide Labille-Guiard.  A beautiful pastel Madame Charles Mitoire with her Children (1783) considered to be her finest example in this medium has been added to their lacking collection.

Luis de Jesus has work by 2 compelling artists on view now. First is Lia Halloran, The Sun Burns My Eyes Like Moons is comprised of large-scale cyanotypes and their painted negatives, created as an homage to the sun. “With a history of integrating scientific concepts into her studio practice, Halloran developed these new works over the past year when she was awarded the City of Los Angeles Visual Artist Fellowship which follows her research of solar eclipse expeditions, ancient Egyptian temple reliefs, and most significantly, the archives of Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles.”

The second artist is Susan Silton whose photo-etchings depict scenic landscapes of the Armstrong Redwoods National Forest. The exhibit is titled We and the prints are divided into pairs of images that, at first glance, appear almost identical. However, the images have been slightly modified from one another, exposing the stark differences of individual perception. Silton’s etchings are accompanied by an original short story by the award-winning writer Dana Johnson, which moves, dreamlike, between time and place as it relates interactions between two white women and a black boyfriend. As in Silton’s etchings, “we,” “us,” and “they” take on differing, nuanced tones as the narrative progresses, and together, the layering of these

The Loft at Liz’s is doing it again. Diverted Destruction 13  is focused on fashion this year. The contributing artists include Alexandra Dillon, Francine Lecoultre, Gwen Samuels, Jane Szabo, Lisa Bevis & Marina DeBris, Monique Birault, Shpetim Zero Victor Wilde and Gordon Salons of Chicago.  This is a collaborative installation by Monique Birault & Liz Gordon.
Thru 9/07/21.

The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College are pleased to announce the largest museum survey to date of the work of artist,  Alison Saar. Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe includes 29 of the artist’s multi-media and mixed installation works in one exhibition installed across the two venues. This exhibition spans the broad spectrum of Saar’s career, from her sculptures of the early 1980s to a new installation, Hygiea, to be unveiled at the Armory Center for the Arts.  Jul 16, 2021 -Dec 12, 2021.

Judy Baca: Memorias de Nuestra Tierra, a Retrospective is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of the internationally renowned Chicana muralist, public intellectual and community activist, Judy Baca at the Museum of Latin American Art. Baca is a painter and muralist, community arts pioneer, and scholarly-educator who has been teaching in the UC system for more than 30 years. As founder of the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974 – which evolved into the non-profit Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) – Baca has been engaged in the creation of sites of public memory within historically disenfranchised communities since 1976. She continues to serve as SPARC’s artistic director while employing digital technology to co-create collaborative murals at the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab. The exhibition is divided thematically into three sections that present different aspects of Baca’s artistic production. Gallery A is the “Womanist Gallery”, wherein we  female power is presented. This gallery delves with greater insight into Baca’s more intimate history, and her very personal explorations of feminism, gender, and body politics. Gallery B will feature a “Baca Public Art Survey”, exploring her pivotal and career-defining work through the Social and Public Arts Resource Center, an organization Judy founded in 1976. In a city and time where community public art was dominated by men, Baca demonstrated that a woman could not only produce at large scale, but that decades later would become the leading innovator in this media. In Gallery C, visitors will discover the history of Baca’s first masterpiece, the Great Wall of Los Angeles. This half mile long mural occupies the Tujunga Wash in the San Fernando Valley. The mural tells the story of California from prehistoric times to the 1950s and takes special care in presenting the lesser-known histories of the ethnic groups who inhabit this state. To understand the immensity of this project, viewers are invited to participate in an immersive audiovisual experience of the monumental piece. July-January 2022. 

The current photography exhibit at the Getty Center is Photo Flux; Unshuttering  LA curated by jill moniz. Photographs by 35 Los Angeles-based artists challenge ideals of beauty, representation, cultural capital, and objectivity. The artists in this exhibition, primarily people of color, have radically transformed photography to express their own aesthetics, identities, and narratives. Their work is foundational for an emerging generation of artists participating in the Getty Unshuttered program, which engages teens to seek photography as a platform to amplify social topics that resonate in their own lives. Among  the photos, the  following women artists are represented: Carrie Mae Weems, Pamela Peters, April Banks, and Andrea Chung. Thru  Oct. 10, 2021.

MOCA LA presents Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep. Jennifer Packer is acclaimed for her portraits and allegorical tableaux, including a series of commemorative floral still-lifes. Rendered in virtuosic lyrical style and layered intensity, Packer’s drawings and canvases surface representations of intimacy, embodiment, and loss. They mark an important new direction in figurative painting and were featured prominently in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Organized by MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson, this exhibition presents new and recent works by Packer and is her first exhibition on the West Coast. Thru Feb. 21, 2022.

A recent visit to the  Huntington revealed a nice surprise in their Japanese garden. Amidst a grove of bamboo was an installation by Lita Albuquerque.  Red Earth, features an approximately six-by-four-foot rock slab coated with bright red pigment and surrounded by bamboo stalks affixed with copper-colored bands. The work contrasts dramatically with the cool greens of the shady bamboo grove and is intended to mark its specific location in time and space. Red Earth incorporates color and light to convey motion and stillness “because only through stillness can we discover the motion of the cosmos,” says Albuquerque. Here is a link to a video showing the installation.

On the 3rd floor is group exhibition, Making Time. It is comprised of work by  a selection of L.A.-based artists who have shared their artwork in solo exhibitions at Craft Contemporary over the last ten years. Their iconic works mark time in a variety of ways and showcase the diversity of materials and processes that have made contemporary craft vibrant and relevant. This exhibition is an opportunity to reflect upon the dynamic work of these artists and highlight the impact they have had on the museum’s development over the years. Exhibition artists: Tanya Aguiñiga, Uzumaki Cepeda, Beatriz Cortez, Keiko Fukazawa, Katherine Gray, Gronk, Sherin Guirguis, Betye Saar, Timothy Washington, and Ann Weber.