13ThingsLA: May 7

Mother the Earth for your art calendar

Jeffrey Gibson, BIRDS FLYING HIGH YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL (2024). Courtesy of Jeffrey Gibson Studio.

For some reason there is a huge amount of meditating and vibe-attunement happening in this week’s issue. Maybe we all just need some extra namaste right now. Anyway, please enjoy a review at BLUM, plus an array of blissed out special events, eclectic programs, and new exhibitions at The Broad, KP Projects (for our party on May 8, of course!), Wonzimer Gallery, OTIS College, LA River Arts, ATLA Gallery, Blue Roof Arts, Philosophical Research Society, LACMA, LAND, The Getty, Angel City Press, and LA Phil X LA Dance Project.

Bonus content: Shana is leading an afternoon of four short artist talks at TAG on Saturday the 10th. And last call! Desert X is closing in the next week or so! Make haste!

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Feature

Jeffrey Gibson, THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, glass beads, plastic beads, inset in a custom wood frame. (The Broad Museum, Los Angeles. Courtesy of Jeffrey Gibson Studio. Photo by Max Yawney)

Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me opens Saturday, May 10 at The Broad. There is a lot going on with Jeffrey Gibson’s new exhibition at The Broad—both in the work and in the circumstances. Basically, the curation performs an expanded restaging of Gibson’s marvelous undertaking at the US pavilion for the most recent Venice Biennale—where he was the first Indigenous artist to rep the US with a solo exhibition. I saw it in Venice and its prismatic array of intimate and towering sculptures, mixed media textile and painting, and hypnotic beat-driven video was almost overwhelmingly detail-rich and relentlessly beautiful. Ultimately uplifting despite its foundation of critique as regards Indigenous erasure, appropriation, resilience, and transcendence, at the time there was a feeling among all concerned that it was exactly the right show at exactly the right time. Now just one short year later, contexts have shifted—for example, Gibson’s recent NEA grant was federally rescinded for all the bad reasons—and so the same work is already destined to hit differently. As well, the US pavilion is actually, strangely enough, pretty compact, significantly smaller than The Broad, so it will be interesting to see how the installation’s bespoke design will expand to fill it.

Installation shot of Jeffrey Gibson/ the space in which to place me at the 60th Venice Biennale, 2024. (Photosby Jeffrey Schenck. Exhibition title © Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (2017), courtesy of Graywolf Press)

Plus the meantime, The Broad has acquired Gibson’s 2024 painting THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG, which was first presented at the Venice Biennale, and so we can probably expect it to have a more central location in both the space and its narrative. Additionally, Gibson has promised a robust slate of related programming for this exhibition’s run—something he was not really able to do in the context of Venice—which will only expand the field of experience and inquiry even further. On view downtown through September 28; Tickets: $15 (FREE Thursdays, 5-8pm); thebroad.org. —SND

Jeffrey Gibson, installation view at the US Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2024 (Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot)

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And don’t forget to come and hang out with us on Thursday night!

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