And Hi-Desert Art Tours motors through Joshua Tree
Words by KERSTIN CZARRA, JOAN TAPPER, and ELIZABETH VARNELL
Space Out
OLAFUR ELIASSON, who is known for manipulating fog, droplets of water, and light with projectors, spotlights, and lenses to challenge the senses, is creating a site-specific installation at MOCA’s cavernous Geffen Contemporary space that engages directly with the Frank Gehry–designed building. As part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibitions (formerly Pacific Standard Time), the Icelandic-Danish artist’s solo show, Olafur Eliasson: Open, centers on large optical devices created for the warehouse-like structure that reflect patterns and colors across its architecture, fostering both communal experiences and singular impressions and perceptions. Watch the kaleidoscopic shapes shift, contemplate the laws of geometric optics, or just space out. Sept. 14, 2024–July 6, 2025. 152 N. Central Ave., L.A., 213-625-4390; moca.org; pst.art. E.V.
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Picture This
Color signals a journey through the infinite universe in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the use of a particular palette as a filmmaking tool plays a central role in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ new COLOR IN MOTION exhibition. Part of the latest PST ART edition running throughout Southern California this fall, the show highlights the role of advancements in cinema’s history, including Technicolor and Eastman Color. But it also spans hand-tinted silent films, hand-colored Disney cartoons, and the move to digital production. There’s even a re-creation of the stargate corridor from Kubrick’s 1968 film. 6067 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 323-930-3000; academymuseum.org; pst.art. E.V.
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Dancing Scenes
Los Angeles–based Matthew Brookes finds the emotion in his subjects before he photographs them. EXPRESSION OF FREEDOM: THROUGH THE FREEDOM OF DANCE (Damiani, $55) took 10 years of traversing the globe, capturing bodies in motion in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, South Africa, New York, Brazil, and Los Angeles. Acclaimed professionals share the pages with street performers, from today’s premier kabuki performers in Japan to nonbinary ballet dancer Maxfield Haynes in the Hotel Chelsea in New York to South African Zulu warrior dancers in striking full costume. The book’s proceeds will go to Lift, a New York charity that teaches dance to children in underserved areas. damianibooks.com. K.C.
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Well Played
Athleticism, competition, and play loom large in SFMOMA’s most expansive subject exhibition yet, GET IN THE GAME, with more than 200 artworks and objects inspired by athletes, gear, and major moments in sports. Both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat get plenty of play in the show, which covers over 15,000 square feet. Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject designed the show, which features pieces by more than 70 artists, including Matthew Barney, Paul Pfeiffer, Joan Semmel, Catherine Opie, Derek Fordjour, Tabitha Soren, Hank Willis Thomas, and Rosalyn Drexler. Also on view are innovations such as Michael Johnson’s custom gold running spikes, plus interactive works, including Maurizio Cattelan’s 22-person interactive foosball table. 151 Third St., S.F., 415-357-4000; sfmoma.org. E.V.
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The Hi-Desert
As temperatures cool in the high desert this fall, artists in the cities surrounding Joshua Tree National Park are again opening more than 130 studios across two weekends for the area’s sprawling HWY 62 OPEN STUDIO ART TOURS (Oct. 19–20). Recurring for over 20 years, and now including evening events paired with live music from local bands and musicians, the free and open-to-all gathering gives collectors and first-timers a look at local artists’ new work in an array of media. Creatives in Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, Landers, Pioneertown, Twentynine Palms, and Wonder Valley are all included, and a curated selection of pieces on view at the new Hi-Desert Artists Center in Yucca Valley (through Oct. 27) offers a preview of sorts. There’s a catalog to help plan tour stops, or use the organization’s app to navigate among studios where works can be acquired directly from artists and makers. hwy62arttours.org. E.V.
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Designs of the Diaspora
Interiors designed for care and rest that foster a sense of belonging and safety, yet also embrace intense creativity, fuel Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy, a group show at the MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA in San Francisco. The exhibition, installed across three floors of the museum, highlights the way objects and rooms contribute to Black joy and can incubate liberatory thought and promote the notion of constructing a space of one’s own against a history of uprootedness. Through March 2, 2025. 685 Mission St., S.F., 415-358-7200; moadsf.org. E.V.
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Beyond Books
GODMOTHERS bookstore, which opened Sept. 8, has a wide selection of fiction, nonfiction, nature, cookbooks, YA and kids books, and everything in between, including a healthy selection of gorgeous coffee table tomes. In keeping with the name — which pays homage to the “godmothers who lit our way,” according to an entryway sign; that is, women who are often unsung supporters and advocates — co-owners Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Victoria Jackson have big plans for the handsomely renovated 1920s barn, formerly home to Garde and multiple antiques stores. There’s a fireplace and a couch and a couple of chairs on a raised spotlighted platform, perfect for a cultural hub and a place to discuss books and ideas. There’s a food truck on the patio, and a café is on the horizon to accompany the food for the mind. 2280 Lillie Ave., Santa Barbara; godmothers.com. J.T.
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HAPPY 100, LEGION OF HONOR
Auguste Rodin’s Saint John the Baptist Preaching, a gift from Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, and tapestries depicting Joan of Arc’s daring life are just two of the striking works in California Palace of the Legion of Honor’s centennial exhibition, Celebrating 100 Years of the Legion of Honor. The show’s timeline runs from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 to the French Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 that inspired Spreckels and her husband, Adolph, to give the city a museum replicating the Légion d’Honneur in Paris. It continues from the institution’s opening on Armistice Day in 1924 through the following decades, highlighting a 1930s Diego Rivera exhibition, the 1972 merger with the de Young, the Legion’s expansion after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and Wangechi Mutu’s recent stunning sculptural takeover. Meanwhile, Rodin’s The Thinker, also a Spreckels gift, meditates in the courtyard. Nov. 9, 2024–Nov. 2, 2025. 100 34th Ave., S.F., 415-750-3600; famsf.org. E.V.
Portions of this story originally appeared in the Fall, Men’s, and Fashionable Living 2024 issues of C Magazine.
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