Drawing on collaborative research by LACMA’s Conservation Center and the Art of the Ancient Americas Program, Revealing Creation: The Science and Art of Ancient Maya Ceramics integrates new insight gained from technical analysis of ancient Maya ceramic vessels with knowledge from Maya culture. This exhibition considers ancient Maya ceramic production as both art and science and highlights how artisans worked to emulate acts of primordial creation through their labor of shaping, painting, and firing clay.

In May 1931 photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) traveled to Mexico on vacation where he met Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), a woman he would never forget. The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next ten years and a friendship that lasted until the end of their lives.

The Broad is a new contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles which opened in September of 2015. The museum is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler and offers free general admission. The museum is home to the 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is among the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide and has launched an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement

Explore the Collection

For over 35 years Harold Van Pelt has quietly been perfecting the art of carving quartz, rock crystal and agate gemstones. Gemstone Carvings: Masterworks by Harold Van Pelt is a display of his mastery.

The Norton Simon Museum presents Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California, an exhibition that delves into the life of Galka Scheyer, the enterprising dealer responsible for the art phenomenon the “Blue Four”—Lyonel Feininger, Alexei Jawlensky, Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky.

Lovers stealing out for secret trysts under cover of stormy nights, visits to the monsoon retreats of holy men, and divine beings associated with sources of water and rain are among the pictorial subjects in this exhibition, which explores visual representations of the rainy season in India.

Jonas Wood is known for his hard-edged, exuberantly colored watercolor drawings and paintings, which frequently depict the everyday spaces of his studio and garden. Recurrent motifs such as potted plants in beautiful ceramic vessels made by his wife, ceramicist Shio Kusaka, appear against a backdrop of the clarion blue skies of Los Angeles. 

MOCA is pleased to present a 35-year retrospective of painter Kerry James Marshall, co-organized by the MCA Chicago, MOCA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art under the leadership of MOCA’s Chief Curator Helen Molesworth. Marshall’s figurative paintings have been joyful in their consistent portrayal of African Americans

The Norton Simon Museum presents an exhibition that looks at the 18th-century painter Pietro Rotari (1707–1762), whose work somewhat unintentionally fell into the category of serial art during his late period, when he lived in Russia. 

Frida Kahlo - Her Photos offers an intimate glance into the life of one of the world’s most beloved artists. Throughout her life, Kahlo meticulously collected over 6,000 photographs of loved ones as well as scenes of Mexican culture, politics, art, history and nature.