As LACMA prepares for the 2026 public opening of the new David Geffen Galleries, the future home of the museum’s permanent collection spanning a breadth of eras and cultures, we’re sharing 50 iconic artworks that will be on view in the building over the next 50 weeks in the series 50 Works 50 Weeks. 

Los Angeles–based artist rafa esparza, who works primarily in performance, installation, and painting, often employs adobe—a material made of earth, water, and straw—to allude to the bodies of brown-skinned people and the spaces they inhabit. He was taught to work with adobe by his father, who learned the skill in Mexico before immigrating to the United States. 

This powerful wall sculpture, referencing the border between Mexico and the United States, carries layers of meaning, tapping into personal and national histories as well as the passage of people across land. The solitary figure could be coming or going, crossing over or through the fence. The title . . . we are the mountain asserts the power and endurance of Latine people and cultures. Although adobe is strong, it also requires care and commitment to survive. 

“The adobe is torn away, revealing the edges of the chainlink fence and plywood,” says esparza. “These materials felt very important to use as not only a structural support for the work itself, but also conceptually.”

In the David Geffen Galleries, nearby works on paper will amplify esparza’s themes of community and family—both given and chosen—shaped by resilience in the contested terrain of contemporary Los Angeles.