End your summer on a high note with free tours, live music, art workshops, and fun talks and courses at LACMA! On Friday, Jazz at LACMA brings us the spiritual jazz sounds of the Phil Ranelin Jazz Ensemble at 6 pm on the outdoor stage in front of Chris Burden’s Urban Light. In the galleries, museum members have early access to Variations: Conversations in and around Abstract Painting, featuring abstract paintings by 29 artists. Member Previews continue into Saturday, with access to Variations and our newest display of African art inspired by celestial wonders, African Cosmos: Stellar Arts. Both exhibitions open to the public on Sunday.
In Torrance the Art+Film Lab presents the LACMA9 Animation Program at 8 pm on Friday, a series of animated films with classics and new stories. At the Mini-Docs Workshop on Saturday at noon, learn about expressing your unique perspective through character, mood, and detail. The Torrance Art+Film Lab will be in Torrance through September 6. Back at LACMA, Saturday stays busy with docent-led tours and free talks and music. Tours on this day include a walk-through of Treasures from Korea and The Painted City: Art of Teotihuacan and looks at Urban Landscapes and European Art. At 1 pm, join the conversation with artist and experimental philosopher, Jonathan Keats and Reciprocal Biomimicry in the Brown Auditorium. Remember not to miss the second-to-last performance of this season’s Latin Sounds with the Afro-Peruvian Jazz Project at 5 pm. And Family Dynamic, our newest family workshop series, launches this weekend to a sold-out crowd but spots for the next session in September are still available.
Gavin Jantjes, Untitled, 1989–90, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 96-23-1, photograph by Franko Khoury
On Sunday, create tech-inspired art with the family at LACMA’s weekly Andell Family Sundays workshops beginning at 12:30 pm. At 2 pm a curator-led tour of African Cosmos sheds new light on the creation of art and its connections to celestial phenomena and cultural astronomies in ancient and modern times. At 3 pm, stop by Art Catalogues and listen in as the artist George Herms talks about his recently published book, George Herms: The River Book. Be sure to see Night in Day, displaying a wide range of photographic nocturnes, before its closing on Sunday. Lastly, end the weekend with this week’s Sundays Live performance of Los Angeles Symphonic Winds, directed by Stephen Piazza, at 6 pm.