SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER by Carol Kaufman Segal

          The  Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles is featuring two exhibitions as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time LA/LA project.

Another Promised Land:  Anita Brenner’s Mexico        

          Anita Brenner was born in Mexico to Latvian-Jewish immigrants, but eventually grew up in America as an immigrant, thus often finding herself an outsider.  She was a journalist, an art historian and anthropologist and was important in introducing Mexican art and culture to America. She became a friend to academics and prominent artists in Mexico, including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, among others.  

          It was important for Brenner to build a cultural understanding between The United States and Mexico.  This exhibition emphasizes that fact through more than 150 objects that includes artworks by Rivera, Orozco, Kahlo, and Edward Weston.  This exhibition also offers a look into the life of Anita Brenner and the reason for her feelings of being an outsider, whether in Mexico, or in America.  She always loved Mexico and considered it her home.

          This exhibition will remain on view through Feb. 25, 2018, at the Skirball Cultural Center, located at 2701 N. Sepulveda, Los Angeles.  Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 12 noon to 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, closed Mondays and holidays.  Exhibitions are free on Thursdays.  For further information, call (310) 440-4500, or go online at skirball.org.

Surface Tension by Ken Gonzales-Day:  Murals, Signs, and Mark Making in LA 

          Surface Tension by Ken Gonzales-Day is an exhibition of a special kind of art, art that we see every day as we drive through all areas of Los Angeles.  It consists of murals, signs, street art, advertisements, etc. that you may see one day and the next day they might vanish from view.  Ken Gonzales-Day, a prominent Los Angeles-based photographer, interdisciplinary artist, and 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, spent ten months traveling hundreds of miles around our metropolis taking photographs that reveal the diversity and creativity of our vast city.  

          This is a most unique exhibition, all displayed in one wide open area of the museum with the more than 100 color photographs  hung around all of the walls.  The floor is one huge map of our city, with numbers that correlate to the pictures on the walls to the locations on the map, allowing viewers to truly be immersed in the diversity of this widely-spread city.   Looking at this mixture, one can see the prominence of the Mexican influence in many of the works.

          This exhibition will remain on view through February 25, 2018.

          The Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N, Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles.  For further information, call (310) 440-4500, or go online at www.skirball.org.