How to enjoy LA’s art scene without a car

Los Angeles is full of art shows this summer. Every museum has a new exhibition and there are numerous gallery openings every week. However, with L.A.’s notorious traffic and expensive parking, and if you don’t have access to a car, it can be difficult to catch all that’s available. Here is a list of exhibitions you can see this summer, directly from USC’s campus, using Metro rail. 

Exhibition: Mickalene Thomas: All About Love

Location: The Broad

Date: Through Sept 29

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards East LA to Grand Ave Arts/Bunker Hill Station

Mickalene Thomas’ exhibition is inspired by themes from “All About Love: New Visions” by writer bell hooks and is the first major international tour of her work. The exhibition aims to inspire viewers to become “practitioners of love,” a phrase coined by hooks. It contains mixed media painting, collage, installation and photography. Thomas worked with the museum to create a summer concert series, a comedy night under the stars, wellness and healing events and more programs and workshops to push forward her mission. 

Exhibition: ED RUSCHA/NOW THEN

Location: LACMA

Date: Through Oct 6

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards Santa Monica to La Cienega/Jefferson Station. Take Bus 217 from Vermont/Sunset Stn to Fairfax/Wilshire

Ed Ruscha’s exhibition is the first broadly-encompassing retrospective of his work in 20 years. The show contains multimedia works that portray how great his contributions have been  to breaking the boundaries of the art world throughout his career. Some works are from when he traveled through Europe and some are his documentation of the streets of Los Angeles. 

Exhibition: Josh Kline: Climate Change 

Location: MOCA Grand Ave.

Date: Through Jan 5, 2025

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro to Grand Ave Arts/Bunker Hill Station

Josh Kline’s “Climate Change” is a look into a fictional but very possible future where the planet experiences the destruction of climate change that scientists and humans are trying to navigate. The exhibition is multimedia, with sculpture, moving images, photography and short-lasting materials for certain effects. 

Exhibition: Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting

Location: LACMA

Date: Through August 4 WE SHOULD DELETE THIS ENTRY IF THE STORY DOESN’T PUBLISH THIS WEEK.

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards Santa Monica to La Cienega/Jefferson Station. Take Bus 217 from Vermont/Sunset Stn to Fairfax/Wilshire

“Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting” is an exhibition focused on food and how it is an essential part of human culture. It contains art and items from the United States, Europe and the Middle East and is focused on Islamic culture’s food and dining and the shared experience of feasting. 

Exhibition: The Curious World of Seaweed

Location: California Science Center

Date: Through July 21, 2024

Directions: Walk across the street from Expo Park/USC Metro entrance

“The Curious World of Seaweed” is an exploration and deep dive into the history of seaweed, how it has been present in indigenous cultures for generations, but is receiving more attention today because of the impacts of climate change on oceans and kelp forests. 

Exhibition: Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Finding Soft Ground

Location: Art + Practice

Date: Through Aug 10, 2024

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards Santa Monica to Expo/Crenshaw, then take K Line towards Westchester/Veterans Stn to Leimert Park Station

“Finding Soft Ground” is an exploration of what safety looks like for Black women in Los Angeles, based on conversations artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh conducted in 2023. Fazlalizadeh’s exhibition is in tandem with “Speaking to Fallen Seeds” at the California African American Museum. 

Exhibition: Winfred Rembert: Hard Times

Location: Hauser & Wirth

Date: Through August 25

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards East LA to Little Tokyo/Arts District Station. 10-minute walk from there.

“Hard Times” portrays Winfred Rembert’s difficult life, the mental and physical suffering he endured, and it does so with a wide palette that depicts the color of leather, to black-and-white, to  vibrant colors. 

Exhibition: J.T. Sata: Immigrant Modernist

Location: Japanese American National Museum

Date: Through Sept 1

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards East LA to Little Tokyo/Arts District Station

“Immigrant Modernist” is an exhibition of photographs and artifacts of J.T. Sata and his family’s time in American concentration camps. When Sata first came to the United States, he worked a variety of jobs, such as a servant and a custodian, and during this time he let his artistic ambition loose and took photographs of Southern California’s nature and around Little Tokyo.  

Exhibition: Jaime Muñoz: Truth Is A Moving Target

Location: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes 

Date: Through January 26, 2025

Directions: Take Expo Park/USC Metro towards East LA to 7th St/Metro Center, then take the D line to Union Station. Five-minute walk from there.

“Truth Is A Moving Target” is an exhibition of mixed-media paintings and ink diagram drawings that covers Muñoz’s experience as a first-generation Chicano being born and raised in Southern California.