VRA LA 2019: Must-see Museums and Art Galleries

In addition to the museums that are featured as tours, there are many more art institutions and galleries that you might like to visit while staying in Los Angeles. If you are attending the LACMA tour, you can stop by Craft Contemporary while you are there; it’s right across the street. Also, David Kordansky Gallery and Kayne Griffin Corcoran are nearby. If you are headed to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens tour in San Marino, nearby, in Pasadena, you’ll find the Norton Simon Museum (free admission with conference badge), USC Pacific Asia Museum (half price ($5) on general admission with conference badge), or the Armory Center for the Arts among other venues. Pasadena is accessible from the Metro Gold Line. The Memorial Park Station is right across the street from the Armory. The Pacific Asia is about a five-minute walk and the Norton Simon is about a sixteen-minute walk from that station as well.

Gardens at Norton Simon (Photo: Jennifer Faist)

Galleries in LA tend to gather in communities, and one of those, the Arts District, is within walking distance of the conference hotel. In addition to the Hauser & Wirth tour you might also want to check out DENK Gallery, which will be exhibiting new works by Tim Hawkinson through March 30th, or the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Jason Vass, Mash Gallery and The Box.

A few of the popular art gallery and museum destination areas are easily reached by Metro Rail. There are several museums in Exposition Park which are easily accessed via the Metro. The California African American Museum, California Science Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Fisher Museum of Art are all within walking distance of the Expo Line's Expo Park/USC Station. Also, the Chinatown galleries are just a few blocks away from the Gold Line Chinatown Station. Most of the galleries are on Chung King Road including Charlie James Gallery, Lisa Derrick Fine Art, Coagula Curatorial and The Good Luck Gallery plus a few others around the neighborhood. The Bergamot Station arts complex in Santa Monica is right next to the Metro Expo Line 26th Street/Bergamot Station. While many of the heavy hitters have left the complex since the Metro stop opened, there are still some good galleries left like Richard Heller Gallery, William Turner Gallery, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Craig Krull Gallery and Patrick Painter, Inc. Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood is near the Vermont/Sunset stop on the Metro Red Line. The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House are both located in the park which is on top of a hill with spectacular views of the Los Angeles basin and the Hollywood Hills including Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign.

For some of the other major clusters of galleries it would be better to drive or use ridesharing services. There are numerous galleries in Culver City congregating along La Cienega and Washington Boulevards. Baik Art Gallery has a group show called Re-Verb on display. Lisa Bartleson will be showing at FP Contemporary, Kim Dingle will be at Susanne Vielmetter, and Betye Saar at Roberts Projects. There are many more galleries in this area like Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Philip Martin Gallery and Honor Fraser Gallery, so it’s easy to hit a dozen or more galleries in a short amount of time. A little further off the beaten path in Culver City, you’ll find the Museum of Jurassic Technology, a quirky Wunderkammer.

West Adams is the newest blossoming art scene in LA and hosts an eclectic group of galleries including E.C. Liná Gallery. Hollywood is another gallery hot spot focusing around Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard and is home to Regan Projects, Kohn Gallery, Diane Rosenstein, Steve Turner Contemporary, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Gavlak, Various Small Fires and Nonaka-Hill. Close by, two New York gallerists have recently opened new spaces in West Hollywood, Matthew Marks who is showing Gary Hume and Jeffrey Deitch who has a large group show of figurative sculpture. LAXART, an independent, nonprofit art space showcasing contemporary & experimental art, is also in the neighborhood.

Getty Center Balcony and View (Photo: Jennifer Faist)

One of LA’s most well-established, blue-chip galleries, Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, will be showing Takashi Murakami. Other outstanding museums in Los Angeles include the Hammer Museum in Westwood which will be showing a comprehensive exhibit of Allen Ruppersberg’s work, and the J. Paul Getty Museum with two locations, the Getty Center in Brentwood (with beautiful vistas of the skyscrapers of Downtown to the coastline beaches) and the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. If you would like to visit the Broad Museum Downtown or the Marciano Foundation in the Mid-Wilshire area, be sure to reserve your tickets in advance starting February 1st. Unfortunately the current shows at the the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo will be ending on March 25th, but the permanent collection will be on view at their Grand Avenue location Downtown on Wednesday, March 27 and Thursday, March 28 (free admission with conference badge).

Gallery hours vary, and some galleries are closed between shows for installation, so be sure to check their websites. For more information and additional galleries and museums see our museum and gallery list which is organized by neighborhood.

Contributor:

Jennifer Faist
Local Planning Committee Member, VRA LA 2019
Library Systems & Digital Collections Administrator, ArtCenter College of Design Library