How to navigate the expanded Hammer Museum, plus must-attend L.A. arts events
I’ve been obsessing all weekend over the Prime Video series “Swarm.” Dominique Fishback is haunting as a violent stan and Billie Eilish plays a cult leader a little too well. Just kidding. She’s just thriving in her acting era. If you’ve finished the show or don’t mind spoilers about the new series created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, check out our conversation with Fishback and Nabers. I’m Steven Vargas, your L.A. Goes Out host, and here are the top events for this upcoming weekend recommended by the crew (sign up here for the newsletter):
Weekly Countdown
1. ‘The Tempest: An Immersive Experience’
“How beauteous” is this immersive production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The Shakespeare Center L.A. and After Hours Theatre Company present a reimagined performance of the classic. In this immersive version, patrons comprise the shipwrecked crew on a magical island and must solve character and story clues before the performance begins, all while sipping cocktails. Times theater critic Charles McNulty recommends this elaborate, experimental production of Shakespeare’s fantastical play. Tickets to the show in Echo Park, ranging from $35 and $125, can be found on Fever. “The Tempest: An Immersive Experience” runs until April 16.
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2. Wild Up: HOCKET / Rountree
Wild Up’s “Endless Season” is underway, and up next is “Hocket / Rountree” at 2220 Arts + Archives in Westlake. Pianist-composers Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff, also known as Hocket, start the night with some of their contemporary work. Following their performance, Wild Up founder and artistic director Christopher Rountree will perform the world premiere of two piano concertos. Tickets to the 8 p.m. Saturday performance are $20 and can be found on Dice.
3. ‘Refugio en las Flores: Kiara Aileen Machado’
Artist Kiara Aileen Machado explores the complexities of Latino identity in her new exhibition “Refugio en las Flores” presented by Luna Anaïs Gallery, in partnership with Launch L.A. in Hancock Park. Machado creates scenic compositions that reference the traditional artesanía of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. This exhibition recommended by The Times’ Deborah Vankin tells a story of migration, forced displacement and healing. The free exhibition opens Sunday at Launch L.A. with a reception from 1 to 6 p.m. and runs until May 14. Further details can be found on Luna Anaïs Gallery’s website.
4. ‘Los Jaichackers: Softcore Payasos’
Los Jaichackers — Julio César Morales and Eamon Ore-Girón — have a solo exhibition coming to a close Saturday. “Softcore Payasos” at LaPau Gallery in Koreatown is a multimedia show that uses experimental documentary, sculpture and archival material to display the unofficial economies that allow music to transcend borders. They do this by revisiting their previous installation, the 2008 show “Phantom Sightings” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The duo created a large-scale mirrored cube sound sculpture and portable sound studio. After the exhibition closed, the cube was listed on the “free” section of Craigslist. “Softcore Payasos” documents its journey. Times art and design columnist Carolina A. Miranda recommends this event, which she calls “an intriguing coda to a highly influential exhibition.” The free gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and the door code for entry is 01220. More details on the exhibition can be found on the gallery’s website.
5. Debbie Allen Dance Academy: Nina Simone’s ‘Four Women’
The Debbie Allen Dance Academy is bringing dance to the California African American Museum in Exposition Park. Students of the Harvard Heights studio will be performing Nina Simone’s “Four Women.” The show celebrates the famous singer with a dance that documents the experience of Black women in America, from enslavement to contemporary times. The event is free (RSVP is required) and runs from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Details can be found on CAAM’s website.
Bonus round: ‘Scenes From a Marriage: Ed & Nancy Kienholz’
If you’re taking a day trip to Santa Barbara, check out this bonus art event while you’re there. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art presents “Scenes From a Marriage: Ed & Nancy Kienholz.” The exhibition centers on a recent acquisition, the sculpture “Bout Round Eleven.” Surrounding the sculpture are complementary artwork from 1960 to 2007 created by the couple, both in collaboration and solo. Their work explores marriage, family, sexuality and connection. As married artists, it captures what it means to work and live together. Tickets to the museum cost up to $10 for nonmembers and are free for SBA members. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. The exhibition runs until May 21, and details can be found on the museum’s website.
Your L.A. weekend, all mapped out
For a more comprehensive roundup of exhibitions, concerts, screenings, festivals and other events, check out Matt Cooper’s Culture Guide. The mapped list is a go-to for those who make plans based on the commute, and it also can be filtered by event type and price.
On my mind
On Thursday, I saw Los Angeles Ballet’s “An Evening of Christopher Wheeldon” at the Broad Stage. The performance began with “Ghosts,” set to music by Kip Winger. The movement was inventive, especially in the framework of ballet. Dancers lay flat on the ground and rolled with another dancer on top, or started on the floor and inched forward like a worm. It was playful but also grand. In one section, the women in the ensemble turned in repetition while the men leapt around them, creating a perfect circle. It created a cyclone of bodies that grew tighter and tighter until the dancers formed a cluster center stage. The section ended with an exalted breath by the dancers that drowned out the music as they all raised their arms, bathed in blue light.
Although Wheeldon’s work is inventive, some of the innovations fell flat, creating road bumps in the process. These came in smaller motions, such as ticking arms and bobbing heads. In these moments, the dancers were still and the flow was interrupted while the intricate movement distracted from the rest of the choreography.
Beyond the interruptions, “Ghosts” ended sharply with dancers flat on their stomachs on one end of the stage, arching their heads up and looking into the wings as light flashed onto their faces. Meanwhile, two other dancers seemingly floated off on the other side. It was a remarkable image to behold.
Wheeldon also had a couple of LAB premieres, including “Morphoses,” a complex and speedy choreography including four dancers in two separate virtuosic pas de deux — Lauren Lovette, Kate Inoue, Zachary Catazaro and Shintaro Akana. The piece spun a web onstage alongside music by György Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1, which emulated the sounds of fluttering and crawling. Once again, the dancers began on the floor; once they got up, it was a magnetizing performance. Lovette and Inoue fell into deep plies on pointe, inching across the stage like spiders. Inoue and Akana’s pas de deux stuck out in the piece with complex and expansive movements, including turns and lifts. Details like Inoue’s flexed feet during lifts perfectly fit the tone of the music, highlighting the struggle and yearning depicted in the piece.
Once the ebb and flow of “Morphoses” settled, dancers ended the same way they began: clinging to the ground, rolling.
Insights: How to navigate the new and improved Hammer Museum
A trip to the Hammer Museum usually starts with a confusing tango with elevators and unexpected entryways. The art museum is debuting a newly completed entrance on Sunday coinciding with the naming of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Cultural Center and conclusion of a two-decade transformation. This addition brings along more room to display art, a new visitor’s desk and a different entrance. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to navigate the improved Hammer Museum:
- Entering from the parking garage: The first big change is that visitors can now enter through the garage instead of taking the elevator to Level 3. Once parked, take the first set of elevators to P1. When you walk in, the visitor’s desk will be at the center of the space, where museum staff can check you in and guide you to the art. This setup is vastly different from the previous lobby, where the desk was against the far wall. This area will also be home to Chiharu Shiota’s large-scale installation to mark the opening.
- Entering from the street: There will be no more construction creating confusion about the entrance of the Hammer from Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. The entrance will have clear signage and screens welcoming you to the museum via stairs or a ramp.
From these two entry points, you can either take the stairs or elevator to the gallery spaces and common areas of the Hammer. But before you leave, there is another addition to explore:
- The bank gallery: After viewing the exhibitions on Level 3, enter the elevators in the corner by the top of the stairs (the same temporary elevators you took to get to the Hammer during construction). From here, go down to Level L, where you’ll enter the bank lobby. Walk across the front desk and through the double doors to see an installation by Rita McBride in the bank gallery and Sanford Biggers’ 25-foot-tall “Oracle” on the new outdoor sculpture terrace.
The Hammer Museum is free and open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Go out speed round
Go out before it closes: “Here Comes the Sun” at Loyola Marymount Univerisity’s Laband Art Gallery in Westchester is coming to an end Saturday. The group show features moret than 100 works on paper and ceramics from seven Tierra del Sol Studios artists: Marlena Arthur, Shaina Barnett, Herb Herod Jr., Evan Hynes, Ericka Lopez, John Maull and Jeffrey Rinsky. The free gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, except for Thursdays, when hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Details can be found on the gallery’s website.
Go out for free: Night Gallery presents “The Performance of Being” by Marcel Alcalá. Their work uses vibrant paintings to explore Los Angeles and their identity as a queer Mexican American. Their work “Shadow Mask” was just presented at Frieze last month. If you’re looking to dig deeper into Alcalá’s work beyond the arts festival, check out “The Performance of Being” when it opens Saturday at the downtown L.A. gallery. The exhibition is free and open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. More details can be found on Night Gallery’s website.
Go out and learn: Test your cooking skills this week with a dumpling-making class presented by the King’s Roost and Impastiamo. The course from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday is led by Janine Liu from Woon Kitchen in Westlake and takes place at Impastiamo in Silver Lake. The class teaches you how to make dumplings from scratch and costs $45 for kids and $95 for adults. More details can be found on the event page.
Go out with the kids: The Soraya in Northridge is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disney’s “Aladdin” with a kid-friendly event. “Disney in Concert: Aladdin” screens the animated film alongside a live performance of Alan Menken’s soundtrack by the New West Symphony. The event is at 3 p.m. Saturday, and tickets range from $35 to $75. More details can be found on the Soraya’s website.
Go out on a date: The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s production of William Inge’s “Picnic” balances romance, drama and passion, offering a date-worthy play. When drifter Hal arrives in town, just in time for the neighborhood’s annual picnic, he draws the attention of some of the women in the community, including Madge, who is expecting a proposal from Hal’s friend Alan. “Picnic” challenges the idea of the American dream through the struggle to find love in a small Midwestern town. Tickets to the show in Sawtelle range from $15 to $37 and can be found on the theater’s website. Performances begin Friday and run until May 28.
Go out all night: If you’re looking for a night out without drinking, the Absence of Proof launch party is just the place to go. The nonalcoholic pop-up fosters a nightlife community for those taking a night, month or lifetime off from drinking. The event will feature plenty of nonalcoholic drinks, a DJ and a night to remember. The party is from 8 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday at Aesthetically Yours Studio in Venice, and tickets are $40. More details can be found on its event page.
Go out and wander: LAND and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition co-presents “Gemidos de la Tierra“ (Wailing of the Land/Soil) by Jackie Amézquita. The exhibition addresses the cruelty of detainment camps encountered by immigrants at the U.S. border with a public installation featuring the names of those who have died in ICE detention centers. The mobile installation travels throughout L.A. on A-frame trucks. Participants can drive behind the installation and visit detention centers and anti-immigrant corporations on Saturday. Then, Sunday, participants will follow the artwork to pro-immigrant rights and well-being organizations around the city. Both days feature performances. Further details can be found on the installation’s Eventbrite.
Go out on your own: Go out for some “Radical Self-Love.” This evening-length work written and designed by Joy Guidry uses music to encourage affirmation, validation and self-care. The Friday performance begins at 8:30 p.m. and opens with new works by Ricky Sallay Zoker (a.k.a. Yatta). Tickets to the REDCAT performance in downtown L.A. are $20 and can be found on the theater’s website.
Go out and laugh: The Groundlings’ weekly “Cookin’ With Gas” improv show is serving an incredible lineup for Thursday’s performance. Cast members include Lisa Kudrow, Lyric Lewis, Cheri Oteri and Matt Cook. Tickets to the 8 p.m. performance are $22 and can be found on the Groundlings website, along with details on the rest of the star-studded lineup.
Go out and see a legend: Grammy-winning legend and “grandmother of soul” Patti LaBelle is making her way to the Luckman at Cal State L.A. in El Sereno for one night only. The performance at 8 p.m. Friday is bound to feature her biggest hits and stories that span her six-decade-plus career. Tickets range from $75 to $150 and can be found on the Luckman’s website.
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I’m all ears!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Follow our feed of recommendations and itineraries on Instagram and Twitter, and if you have recs of your own, send them to steven.vargas@latimes.com.
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