“I do it because I enjoy it,” says Magdalena Suarez Frimkess in the film Her Finest Disregard, about her habit of making art every day. “It’s my escape.” 

Her Finest Disregard, directed by Fernando Sanchez, is a slice-of-life documentary capturing the artist in candid conversation with curator José Luis Blondet during which the pair talk about the Suarez Frimkess’ personal history, creative process, and daily life in her studio in Venice, California. There, working closely with her husband and longtime collaborator, Michael Frimkess, she creates her celebrated hand-painted ceramic sculptures and vessels imbued with diverse elements drawn from her life and from pop culture—motifs ranging from Aztec iconography to comic book characters like Little Orphan Annie and Popeye to historical figures like George Washington and Celia Cruz.

The artist’s work is now in view at LACMA in Magdalena Suarez Frimkess: The Finest Disregard. Spanning over five decades, The Finest Disregard, curated by Blondet, is the first museum exhibition of the L.A.-based and Venezuelan-born artist and features ceramics, paintings, and drawings, many shown in public for the first time. The exhibition allows visitors the chance to discover elements explored in the film with a body of work that’s the result of the artist's fascination with art history books, popular media, cartoons, animation, autobiography, and the humor found in the folds of everyday life.

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess: The Finest Disregard is on view in the Resnick Pavilion through January 5, 2025.