Before You Now: Capturing the Self in Portraiture focuses on the enduring theme of the artist's self-portrait. The exhibition, now on view at the LA County Fair, presents a selection of photographs, prints, drawings, videos, and installation art, primarily by contemporary makers, drawn from LACMA’s collection. The over 50 artists featured in Before You Now contemplate their physicality in realistic fashion, highlight their persona through symbolic tropes, or utilize humor and conceptual methods to enlighten, exaggerate, or camouflage their reflective selves. All together, the work on view is a dynamic introduction to American artists as they see themselves—or as they want to be seen by the public.
To accompany Before You Now, LACMA has produced a series of video portraits introducing just a few of the artists and their works. In this video, artist Lili Lakich—who co-founded the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles in 1981—discusses her practice of working with neon lights and tells us about her drawing Self-Portrait with Sneer (1976). Lakich creates sketches before she constructs her sculptural works, many of which feature self-portraiture, and this bold drawing anticipates the design of the glowing neon tubes of its corresponding sculpture.
Before You Now: Capturing the Self in Portraiture is now on view at the Millard Sheets Art Center at the LA County Fair through May 26, 2025, and will travel to the Vincent Price Art Museum from July 12–September 20, 2025.