South California’s landmark arts event, PST Art, returns this September with the theme: Art & Science Collide. Over 800 artists will display work across 70 exhibitions across the state, opening up a space for the public to engage with some of the most urgent problems that affect our world. By exploring past and present connections between creative expression and scientific progress, these practitioners engage with a diverse array of topics – ranging from the climate emergency to the future of AI. Today, we bring you a selection of must-see exhibitions from Cara Romero, Marcus Lyon and Olafur Eliasson and Ruth Wallen.
Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography | Getty Center | Until 24 November
Following WWI, filmmakers and photographers became increasingly interested in the possibilities of light abstraction, discovering innovative methods to project, reflect and refract rays to create non-traditional photography. Now, Getty Center spotlights these avant-garde image-makers from the 1920s through to the 1950s in Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography. This show features prints by leading international artists, including Francis Bruguière, Jaromír Funke, Asahachi Kōno, Tōyō Miyatake, László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray. The selection of works demonstrates the dynamic interplay between still photography, experimental film and the dazzling time-based artworks by Thomas Wilfred called Lumia instruments.
Desert Forest | Lancaster Museum of Art and History | Until 29 December
In August 2020, lightning ignited a fire that destroyed more than 1.3 million Joshua trees, prompting the California Fish and Game Commission to consider protecting these plants under the California Endangered Species Act. Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees focuses on the plight of this species, which are threatened by the climate crisis, energy industries and wildfires. This project brings together natural history, Indigenous knowledge, public policy, conservation science and works by historic and contemporary artists. From the first known photograph of a Joshua tree by Carleton Watkins to recent work by Cara Romero and Ruth Wallen, this show looks at the past, present and future of a fragile ecosystem.
Read our interview with Ruth Wallen and Cara Romero in the new issue, here.
Seeing the Unseeable: Data, Design, Art | ArtCenter College of Design | Until 15 February
We live in the age of Big Data: extremely large data sets collected from multiple sources by scientists, businesses, nonprofit organisations, government agencies and others. Data visualisation—the practice of representing data—is one of the primary tools used to make these massive amounts of data understandable. Within the sciences, this is all about conveying information in a compelling manner; in art, it transforms information into a canvas for creative expression. Over the past 20 years, artists have incorporated data visualisation into their work, both as a way of critiquing it and as a new form of storytelling. Seeing the Unseeable explores how scientists and creatives have integrated data visualisation.
Olafur Eliasson: Open | The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) | Until 7 July
Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson presents a new site-specific installation made for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, LA. In line with Eliasson’s career-long exploration of light and colour, geometry and ecological awareness, this installation will playfully engage with material and immaterial qualities of the building. A series of large scale optical devices designed specifically for the Geffen will reflect on the architecture of the building, as well as the atmosphere of Los Angeles more widely. Upon entering the gallery space, visitors will encounter a dazzling range of sensory experiences that harness the laws of geometric optics to address feelings and concepts of embodiment, perception and participation.
Alta / a Human Atlas of a City of Angels | Library Foundation of LA | Until 27 April
Marcus Lyon is a Prix Pictet-winning and Aesthetica Art Prize shortlisted visual artist. Building on his renowned World Atlas project, Lyon now spotlights 100 extraordinary individuals creating positive change across Los Angeles. Each participant will be represented in the work through photographic portraits, DNA maps and interviews that reveal how their lives intersect with the city – past, present and future – creating a legacy work that documents and conserves a deeper, interlinked narrative for generations to come. The project will be shared in several formats, including an exhibition at LA Central Public Library, public activations across regional libraries and outdoor spaces downtown, a podcast and an interactive book.
Submit your work and be part of the Aesthetica Art Prize, learn more.
Image Credits:
- Light experiments for “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 2024. Photo by Henri Lacoste | Studio Olafur Eliasson. Courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles; neugerriemschneider, Berlin © 2024 Olafur Eliasson
- Ruth Wallen, Walking with Joshua Trees (2019). Image courtesy of the artist.
- Light experiments for “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 2024. Photo by Henri Lacoste | Studio Olafur Eliasson. Courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles; neugerriemschneider, Berlin © 2024 Olafur Eliasson
