LBMA, LBMA Downtown: Reopening April 1
Following a year-long mandated closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Long Beach Museum of Art and LBMA Downtown indoor galleries reopened on April 1 for visitors with advance online tickets. Visitors are required to wear a mask covering the nose and mouth at all times, and maintain a distance of at least six feet from others. Please review our COVID-19 protocols and procedures prior to your visit.
Long Beach Museum of Art
Decade by Decade: Women Artists of California
April 1 – May 16, 2021
In 2020, the Long Beach Museum of Art celebrates 70 years of art programs in the community. Since its inception, the Museum—at first as the Municipal Art Center—collected and exhibited contemporary art in all media. Women artists were included in group and solo exhibitions and their artworks were added to the Museum’s collection through the years. Seventy years later, 20 percent of the Museum’s permanent collection is comprised of photography, painting, sculpture, prints, drawing, works on paper, artist books, fiber, ceramics, enamels, glass, and much more by women from Long Beach, the region, the State, and across the nation, resulting in a percentage that exceeds the average of most museums.
This exhibition, Decade by Decade, ranges beyond Long Beach and is a small selection of the art by California women in the collection. The artworks are presented chronologically by the dates they were created, rather than the dates that they were acquired by the Museum. Each artwork tells a story about the Museum’s history, the history of our time and place, and the artists’ personal visions.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Port of Long Beach and made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Sharon Ellis, Winter, 1994, Alkyd on canvas, 28 x 40 inches, Purchased with funds contributed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the 1995 Long Beach Museum of Art Collectors Circle 95.39
Long Beach Museum of Art
CA Designed 1955
April 1 – May 16, 2021
In 1955, the Long Beach Museum of Art (then Municipal Art Center) presented California Designed, an exhibition of 325 furnishings and accessories representative of the best typically California solution to problems in design and workmanship. Curated by Director Samuel Heavenrich and in partnership with the de Young Museum in San Francisco, products including furniture, floor coverings, fabrics, lamps, accessories, tablewares and home appliances were selected on the merit of originality, function and utility in favor of overworked “modern” design. CA Designed 1955 features a selection of collected works originally exhibited in 1955 including those of Charles and Ray Eames, Sam Maloof, and Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman.
It is with delight that the Museum presents this tribute to the California mid-century artists whose contributions marked a distinct architectural era and continue to influence design aesthetics today.
Charles Eames, La Chaise, designed 1948; produced by Vitra 1999, Fiberglass, 34 ¼ x 59 x 34 inches, Purchased with funds contributed by the 1999 Long Beach Museum of Art Collectors Circle 99.15
Long Beach Museum of Art
Earth, Every Day
April 1 – May 16, 2021
Artists throughout the ages have explored themes related to the environment in their art. For centuries, the landscape’s appearance in art was meant to construe awe for our natural world, or to serve as a backdrop for the documentation of human narratives. More recently, however, environmental works have become more ecological and politically motivated. In the 20th century, alongside rising global concerns surrounding our impact on the environment’s health, many artists began to create works drawing attention to ecological issues and our human contribution to them.
For this exhibition, high school students were invited to explore the environment in their work. Selected works explore a wide range of ecological topics, including air and water pollution, the use of renewable energy, and the effects of climate change.
The Long Beach Museum of Art wishes to thank the Long Beach Unified School District, the student artists for their participation in this project, and the teachers who inspire their students to create.
Nataliya Levins, Gaea’s Burning, 2020, Ceramic, Jordan High School, Grade 11 (in 2020)
LBMA Downtown
Space as Presence
April 1 – June 12, 2021
Space as Presence at LBMA Downtown features large-scale installations from Southern California artists Christine Nguyen, Elyse Pignolet and Fran Siegel whose works mold to, and evolve with their surroundings. This malleability forms from a tiling process used by each artist; their “canvas” has no limitation, and the works as a result grow until they feel complete, changing to the shape of their environment. Nguyen, Pignolet and Siegel each navigate the intersections of material, narrative and space.
Elyse Pignolet, 2019-2020
