Datebook: A poignant and fantastical immigrant tale lands at REDCAT

A celebrated film by Isaac Julien lands in Los Angeles for the first time and SoCal artist Devon Tsuno mines the history of Japanese American internment for a painted installation. Here are nine exhibitions and events around Southern California to check out in the coming week:

Isaac Julien, “Better Life (Ten Thousand Waves),” at REDCAT. This screening marks the L.A. premiere of the single-channel version of the British filmmaker’s 2010 work, “Ten Thousand Waves.” The film, about two dozen undocumented Chinese cockle-pickers who died in northwest England in 2004, highlights the risks migrants take in search of a better life. But this is no literal depiction of events: “Ten Thousand Waves” mixes historical flashback and fantasy — including Maggie Cheung as a goddess of the sea — for a work one critic described as “an argument for a more engaged understanding of history.” The filmmaker, and his collaborator Mark Nash, will be there to introduce the film. Saturday at 8:30 p.m. 631 W. 2nd St., downtown Los Angeles, redcat.org.

Devon Tsuno, “Shikata ga nai,” at Residency. As part of a residency at L.A.’s MOCA, the artist worked with the Topaz Museum in Utah (the institution associated with the Japanese American internment center of the same name) and the Cal State Japanese American Digitization Project to make available, for the first time, more than 200 pages of stories written by incarcerated Japanese American teens during World War II. His multimedia installation at Residency pays tribute to the ways in which ideas of the foreign are, quite literally, embedded in the L.A. landscape — histories that include his own. (The artist has family members who were incarcerated at Topaz.) Through April 4. This Friday at 6 p.m. the gallery is hosting its first ever open house, featuring pop-up food stands. 310 E. Queen St., Inglewood, residencyart.com.

“How to House 7000 People in Skid Row,” at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive. An exhibition organized by Henriëtte Brouwers and John Malpede of the Los Angeles Poverty Department in collaboration with artists Rosten Woo and Anna Kobara, looks at how Los Angeles could very quickly house an additional 7,000 people of very low income on skid row through inclusionary zoning, a vacancy tax and other measures. The show will include a “dystopic” performance during the opening that imagines Amazon’s headquarters on skid row. Opens Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs through Aug. 29. 250 S. Broadway, downtown Los Angeles, lapovertydept.org.

Los Tlacolulokos, “Oaxacalifornia,” at the Museum of Latin American Art. During Pacific Standard Time: LA/ LA, a series of murals by Oaxacan artists Los Tlacolulokos drew crowds to the Central Library for the ways in which it rendered contemporary Mexican indigenous life in Los Angeles. Now those murals are back on view, but at the Museum of Latin American Art instead. Through December. 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, molaa.org.

Cameron, “Madame X,” at Marc Selwyn Fine Arts. The gallery is displaying a series of paintings and drawings by the visionary painter who was known for running in avant-garde circles and for dabbling in the esoteric, including, quite famously, the occult. Through April 11. 9953 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, marcselwynfineart.com.

Genevieve Gaignard, “Outside Looking in,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. The artist, whose work explores notions of identity and belonging (she is biracial), will have several bodies of work on view at the museum made between 2016 and 2019. These photographs and installations pick apart the signifiers of race and play with ideas of self-presentation. Opens Thursday and runs through May 31. 653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, mcasantabarbara.org.

“Unreality: Works by Lisa Adams and Kelly McLane,” at the Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery. This show features work by a pair of L.A. painters known for the ways in which they blends facets of the real and surreal in ways that nonetheless manage to reveal truths about cities and landscape. Through March 28. Santa Monica College, 1310 Eleventh St., Santa Monica, smc.edu.

“Type,” at the Golden West College Art Gallery. A group exhibition features work that explores type, typefaces, words and language in ways poetic and political. This includes works by Keith Walsh, Tm Gratkowski, Dani Dodge, Michelle Andrade and many others. Opens Thursday at 5 p.m. and runs through April 4. Fine Art Plaza at Golden West College, Rm. 108, 15751 Gothard St., Huntington Beach, goldenwestcollege.edu.

Hannah Epstein, “Making Bets in a Burning House,” at Steve Turner. The artist transforms one of Turner’s gallery spaces into a room that looks like a video game dungeon — albeit, one in which many of the objects are made out of materials typically associated with craft, such as looped yarn. Another room features an algorithm-generated work that analyzed Epstein’s works over the past year and predicted what she might create next. Also on view is a solo show presenting new paintings by Yung Jake. Through March 28. 6830 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, steveturner.la.

Last Chance

Hank Willis Thomas, “An All Colored Cast,” at Kayne Griffin Corcoran. In his first solo show in Los Angeles, Thomas explores the nature of color while also exploring the nature of representation in Hollywood. The pièce de résistance is a sculpture inspired by the General Lee, the car that appeared in television’s “The Dukes of Hazzard,” the Dodge Charger painted with a Confederate flag that was at the center of the action — an object of television nostalgia that also evokes histories of violence against African Americans. Through Saturday. 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, kaynegriffincorcoran.com.

Sandy Rodriguez, “You Will Not Be Forgotten,” at Charlie James Gallery. Rodriguez is known for using natural pigments and handmade papers in ways that evoke the codices of ancient Mexico to tell the stories of today — in this case, that of seven Central American child migrants who died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection over the last two years. The 20 works she has created for this show include portraits of the children in life, as well as a visual recipe for healing “susto” (trauma or fear). Through Saturday. 969 Chung King Road, Chinatown, cjamesgallery.com.

Christopher Russell, “Cascades,” at Von Lintel. Russell has found new ways to manipulate photographs: creating prints that he uses as backdrops for carvings of patterns and ships. Through Saturday. 1206 Maple Ave., downtown, vonlintel.com.

“A Message to Space,” at Supercollider. Space is the theme at Supercollider this month, which will feature an assortment of space-inspired, perspective-shifting works by a range of contemporary artists, including Richelle Gribble, Isabel Beavers, Alan Chin and Yoko Shimizu, among many others. Also featured will be a drawing made by astronaut Nicole Stott as well as audio from a disk created by Carl Sagan for NASA’s Voyager. But the pièce de résistance will be the Space Art DNA Time Capsule, an art project that will transfer crowdsourced drawings to synthetic DNA, which will be rocketed into space in 2023. The carbon footprint is strong with this one. Through Sunday. 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, supercolliderart.com.

“Unseen: 35 Years of Collecting Photographs,” at the Getty Museum. In 1984, the museum’s precursor, the J. Paul Getty Trust, began to collect photography. Now the Getty has holdings of more than 148,000 prints, but only a fraction of those have ever been exhibited at the museum. This show gathers a small selection of some of those images, by photographers from all over the world, and puts them on display in thematic groupings that touch on themes related to the body, the city, animals and experimental technique. These include new acquisitions by Laura Aguilar and Osamu Shiihara, as well as images by other figures in the collection, including Anthony Hernandez, Carrie Mae Weems, Mary Ellen Mark, Veronika Kellndorfer and many more. Through Sunday. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, getty.edu.

“Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs,” at the Skirball Cultural Center. Before he was a film director he was a photographer, taking pictures for Look magazine in the 1940s. This exhibition gathers images from the Look archive and maps the early aesthetic talents of one of cinema’s great eyes. Through Sunday. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Brentwood, skirball.org.

“El Sueño Americano: The American Dream, Photographs by Tom Kiefer,” at the Skirball Cultural Center. Kiefer gathers objects seized by officials on the U.S. border — objects often deemed “potentially lethal” or “nonessential” — and creates tidy arrangements that he then photographs. The images serve as searing catalogs of the ways in which immigrants are treated upon arrival in the U.S. Kiefer came upon many of these items while working as a janitor at a Customs and Border Protection station in Arizona. Through Sunday. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Brentwood, skirball.org.

Ongoing

“What She Said,” at ace/121 Gallery. The Association of Hysteric Curators, a loose collective of artists who explore feminist ideas in their work, has organized this group show that takes as its point of inspiration the ways in which moments of adversity call for divine speculation of the feminine sort. Among the artists featured in the show are Camilla Taylor, Lili Bernard, Michiko Yao and Carolyn Castaño. Through March 13. 121 N. Kenwood St., Glendale, ace121gallery.com.

Young Joon Kwak, “Dilectio,” at Cerritos College Art Gallery. Kwak explores the nature of plastics — how they can convey both ideas of flexibility and paranoias about contamination — in a solo exhibition that also dwells on queerness and the body. The show is the product of the artist’s recent Art+Tech residency at the college. Through March 13. 11110 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk, facebook.com/cerritosgallery.

Mark Dean Veca and Mark Steven Greenfield, “Graphic Subversion,” at Cal State Northridge Art Galleries. A two-man show features work by two artists known for pieces inspired by calligraphic marks: Veca’s detailed crosshatches detailing visceral forms, and the inkblot shapes that Greenfield uses to address the ways in which African Americans have been historically depicted in media. Through March 14. 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, csun.edu.

Michael Tedja, “The Color Guide Series,” at Chimento Contemporary. The Dutch painter, known for his reuse and recycling of images, is presenting 280 works of paper that are part of a larger project that he gathered in the book “Holarium — Negeren Series.” Through March 14. 4480 W. Adams Blvd., West Adams, chimentocontemporary.net.

Lauren Halsey at David Kordansky Gallery. Halsey, known for sprawling installations that employ found objects and the signifiers of black vernacular culture, takes over the gallery in her first solo show with a series of works that take commercial signage as their point of inspiration. These she uses not as a way to highlight big chains but as a way of noting the small, independent business owners who are threatened by commercial development and gentrification. Through March 14. 5130 W. Edgewood Place, Mid-Wilshire, davidkordanskygallery.com.

Herald Nix, “Paintings,” and Martin Werthmann, “Woodblock Prints,” at Wilding Cran Gallery. The gallery has a two-part show this month, with a series of 30 meditative landscape paintings by Canadian artist Herald Nix that revisit the same location over three years, as well as large-scale abstract wood-block prints by the Berlin-based Werthmann. Through March 14. 1700 S. Santa Fe Ave., #460, downtown Los Angeles, wildingcran.info.

Pat Philips, “Summer Madness,” at M+B. This is the first Los Angeles solo show for the British artist, whose wild canvases fuse aspects of the urban — such as visions of the city and bits of graffiti — with the surreal and the poignant. Somewhere on the canvas, fragments of the human body also play a role. Through March 14. 612 N. Almont Dr., West Hollywood, mbart.com.

OCMAEXPAND: Six new artist installations at the Orange County Museum of Art. The museum, still in its temporary space in an old furniture showroom near South Coast Plaza (do visit — this is a great space), has a whole new rack of installations by six artists working on the Pacific Rim, all of which are inspired by the environment and the natural world. This includes installations by Carolina Caycedo, who pays tribute to a pair of local rivers in a pair of new commissions, as well as works by Daniel Duford, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Mulyana, Robert Zhao Renhui and Yang Yongliang. Through March 15. South Coast Plaza Village, 1661 W. Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, ocmaexpand.org.

“Sound Off: Silence + Resistance,” at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. Part of LACE’s Emerging Curator series, this exhibition, organized by artist Abigail Raphael Collins, explores the idea of silence as a political act. Artists featured include Pauline Boudry, Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Sharon Hayes, among others. Through March 15. 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, welcometolace.org.

Lia Halloran, “Double Horizon,” at Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery. To create large-scale filmic views of Los Angeles, Halloran takes to the air, mounting four cameras to an airplane that she piloted during more than 30 flights. She has put the footage together into an immersive, three-screen projection that is accompanied by a score created by Allyson Newman. Through March 15. ArtCenter South Campus, 1111 S. Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, artcenter.edu.

“Beyond Embodiment,” at the Brand Library Art Center. Twenty-five female, nonbinary and trans artists — including Sandra de la Loza, Kelly Akashi, Kelly Nipper, Martine Syms, VJ Um and many others — explore the body’s form and function in video, animation, sculpture and virtual and augmented reality. The opening reception will feature a special interactive live performance by Tiffany Trenda. Through March 20. 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale, brandlibrary.org.

Cyprien Gaillard, “Reefs to Rigs,” at Sprüth Magers. In this exhibition of photography and sculpture, Gaillard examines the links between prehistoric matter and urban infrastructure — a nod to the oil-rich nature of the neighborhood. (The gallery lies practically across the street from the La Brea Tar Pits.) Also on view is the French artist’s new film, “Ocean II Ocean.” Through March 21. 5900 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, spruethmagers.com.

Claire Christeron, “Through the Window Up the Stairs,” at AA/LA. Through painting, ceramics and video, this exhibition tracks the emotions of childhood in works that channel whimsy, longing and the search for self. Through March 21. 7313 Melrose Ave., Fairfax, aala-gallery.com.

Calida Rawles, “A Dream for My Lilith,” at Various Small Fires. The Los Angeles-based painter produces paintings that employ water as a screen which she uses to frame suspended human figures — including people she knows. She captures water’s roiling properties, but also the ways in which it can wash. Also on view is kinetic sculpture — inflatable meets rock formation — by Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon, in the courtyard. Through March 21. 812 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, vsf.la.

“50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts,” at REDCAT. Prominent CalArts alumni like Tony Oursler, Carrie Mae Weems, Barbara T. Smith and the late John Baldessari created a series of limited-edition works to raise money for a scholarship endowment fund for CalArts. A selection of these are on view in the gallery at REDCAT. Through March 22. 631 W. Second St., downtown, redcat.org.

Betsabeé Romero and José García Moreno, “Caravan,” at the Laband Art Gallery. The two artists deploy traditional craft techniques (such as cut paper) to address the conditions currently faced by immigrants to the United States. Tech plays a role, too — in the form of an animation by Romero. Through March 28. Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Westchester, cfa.lmu.edu.

Alice Wang at Garden. The Shanghai-Los Angeles artist has a solo show on view that makes of science, art: electromagnetism, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. This includes air plants and glass beads that transmit light. Through March 28. 1345 Kellam Ave, Echo Park, gardn.la.

“Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras From Chile,” at the Museum of Latin American Art. Hand-stitched and hand-woven textiles from Chile feature narratives of daily life — often touching on issues of struggle and politics. The show gathers more than 30 arpilleras produced by Chilean artisans between 1976 and 2019. Through March 29. 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, molaa.org.

Candlewood Arts Festival, in Borrego Springs. Now in its second iteration, this small arts festival in Borrego Springs features public installations by four specially commissioned artists: Star Montana, Fay Ray, Anna Sew Hoy and Nery Gabriel Lemus. Organized by Kris Kuramitsu, of L.A.’s Mistake Room, the installations are inspired by the local community and engage the area geography. Montana, for example, has taken a series of commissioned portraits of area residents, and Lemus has created a temporary public monument that draws from local stories of migration. Included in the line up are related programs and events. Think of this as the antidote to Desert X. Through March 29, in locations around Borrego Springs, candlewoodartsfestival.org.

Shio Kusaka, at Neutra VDL Studio and Residencies. The Los Angeles artist is known for creating ceramic works that play with geometries and imperfections. In this exhibition, Kusaka’s work will be placed around the Neutra VDL Studio in ways that respond to the home’s architecture. Also included will be an installation of her playful ceramic animals. Through April 4. 2300 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake, neutra-vdl.org.

“The Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists,” at the Wende Museum of the Cold War. In the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, artists in Eastern Europe turned to mythology to challenge authority and question the roles of women in society. This show features work by underground women artists working in Eastern Europe alongside their cohorts from Southern California. Through April 5. 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, wendemuseum.org.

Stas Orlovski, “Running Man,” at the Wende Museum. In this museum devoted to the Cold War, the guard house installed outside the museum carries special significance. Orlvoski, an artist known for his painstakingly crafted animations, currently has a piece that is projected on the exterior that deals with themes of memory and migration. His blocky forms are inspired as much by Malevich as they are by children’s books from the Soviet era. Through April 5. A closing reception with an artist’s talk will be held March 27. 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, wendemuseum.org.

Betye Saar: “Call and Response,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Saar is one of the icons of the Black Arts Movements, a Los Angeles assemblagist known for taking some of the ugliest pieces of our culture’s detritus and making out of them things that are stirring and beautiful. This solo show examines the arc of her practice, pairing early schematic sketches with finished versions of her work from throughout her career. Through April 5. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

Charles Arnoldi, “Four Decades,” at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. This survey of the Venice Beach artist brings together work drawn from the collection of Jordan Schnitzer and his family foundation. The show traces his evolution since he landed in Southern California in the mid-1960s, making assemblages out of sticks, carving up plywood pieces with a chainsaw and more traditional paintings. Through April 4. USC, 823 W. Exposition Blvd., University Park, Los Angeles, fisher.usc.edu.

lauren woods, “American Monument,” at the Beall Center for Art + Technology. In this timely exhibition, the artist explores the ways African Americans have lost their lives due to police violence. Painstakingly compiled through government records requests, the central work is a sound installation in which viewers can employ the installed turntables to play audio from police killings. The audio is broadcast within the gallery space and to other exterior locations too. The installation generated headlines after the director of the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach, where it was supposed to be shown, was fired — and woods silenced the work. This is an opportunity to see (and hear it) in full. Through April 4. UC Irvine, 712 Arts Plaza, Irvine, beallcenter.uci.edu.

Richard Wiesel, “Objects from the Concentration Camps, at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Wiesel, the cousin of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, takes objects from the archives at a pair of German concentration camps — a key, a child’s stuffed animal — and shoots them on mournful black backgrounds. Through April 10. 100 S. The Grove Drive, Fairfax, lamoth.org.

“All of Them Witches,” at Jeffrey Deitch. A group show that takes its inspiration from the witchy began as a conversation between painter Laurie Simmons and curator and writer Dan Nadel. Together they have put together a constellation of artists whose work touches on wishes and curses and incantations and the supernatural, including Kiki Smith, Ana Mendieta, Niki de Sainte Phalle, Sylvie Fleury, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and many others. Through April 11. 925 N. Orange Drive, Hollywood, deitch.com.

Elizabeth Huey, “Divine Intervention,” at the Pit. For her new body of work, the L.A.-based artist draws from the lives of four women artists who were driven by their dreams and spiritual leanings: Hilma Af Klimt, Emma Kunz, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Huey places these artistic figures into appropriately dreamlike settings in which the fantastical reigns. Also on view are paintings by Bella Foster. Through April 11. 918 Ruberta Ave., Glendale, the-pit.la.

Ruben Ortiz Torres, “Plata o Plomo o Glitter,” at Royale Projects. The show’s title is partly inspired by a famous phrase attributed to drug trafficker Pablo Escobar: “Plata o Plomo” (silver or lead), which meant the subject of his attention had the choice of taking his money or a lead bullet. A version of that drug war is now ravaging Mexico, something that serves as inspiration to Ortiz Torres, a Los Angeles artist who hails from Mexico City. He fuses Escobar’s famous saying with the revolución diamantina, the glitter revolution, in which feminists activists in Mexico have been using glitter as a symbolic way of highlighting the ways in which the state has been complicit in issues of violence against women. Through April 11. 432 S. Alameda St., downtown, royaleprojects.com.

August Sander, “New Women, New Men and New Identities,” Lucio Fontana, “Walking the Space: Spatial Environments, 1948-1968” and Nicolas Party, “Sottobosco,” at Hauser & Wirth. The gallery has a trio of shows on view, including paintings, sculptures and murals by Swiss artist Nicolas Party, early environmental installations by Lucio Fontana, and a series of Weimar-era portraits by the German photographer August Sander. The latter show also features original examples of the first gay and lesbian journals ever published and is being presented in collaboration with the L.A. Phil. Through April 12. 901 E. 3rd St., downtown Los Angeles, hauserwirth.com.

Shizu Saldamando, “L.A. Intersections: The Politics of Visibility,” at Oxy Arts. Throughout her career, Saldamando has captured her circle of friends and acquaintances in rich detail, often set against blank backgrounds. This has resulted in a rich representation of Angelenos affiliated with L.A.’s Latinx punk and artistic scenes. This show gathers a range of new and existing works. Through April 17. 4757 York Blvd., Highland Park, Los Angeles, oxy.edu.

“Natural History of Horror,” at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. This exhibition explores our fascination with movie monsters with a display that includes film posters and props but also elements of the natural world that inspired their narratives. This includes a coelacanth fish, which served as the basis for the design of “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.” Through April 19. 900 Exposition Blvd., Exposition Park, nhm.org.

Tatsuo Miyajima, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. This is the Japanese artist’s first museum exhibition in the United States in more than 20 years. Miyajima is known for employing LED lighting in ways that toy with the conventions of lighting generally employed for commercial signage. Here, he uses it to create installations that are luminous and contemplative. Through April 19. 1130 State St., Santa Barbara, sbma.net.

Katharina Fritsch, at Matthew Marks. In her first solo show in Los Angeles, the German artist is displaying a series of life-size human figures painted in the electric shades for which she has become known. Also included: her rooster sculpture “Hahn/Cock,” a smaller version of the one that once graced London’s Trafalgar Square. Through May 2. 1062 N. Orange Grove, West Hollywood, matthewmarks.com.

Luchita Hurtado, “I Live, I Die, I Will be Reborn,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. When Hurtado’s work first materialized at Park View (now Park View/Paul Soto), the story that came with it was as intriguing as the surreal paintings of women’s bodies rendered as landscape: Hurtado, 97, the widow of U.S. painter Lee Mullican, had been painting for decades herself. In the 1950s she exhibited sporadically, then not at all — until her 2018 comeback. LACMA is now giving the Venezuelan-born artist the survey treatment, looking at her experiments with abstraction, language, ecological themes and, of course, the body. Through May 3. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

“The Body, The Object, The Other,” at Craft Contemporary. The museum’s second annual clay biennial is already rolling, with a wide range of works by 21 artists who are in some way using clay to depict or evoke the body, be it through vessels or more conceptually minded installations. These are works that deal with feminism, the queer body, craft theory and postcolonialism by artists such as Roxanne Jackson, Anabel Juarez, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Cassils and Galia Linn. Through May 10. 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, cafam.org.

“Paul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963-2019,” at the Hammer Museum. This is the first U.S. survey of the Los Angeles artist’s drawings and works on paper, which offer an insight into the video, photography and sculpture for which he is best known. This includes wry representations (a self-portrait in which he portrays himself as a gorilla) and others that explore the darker themes of violence and masculinity that appear in his other works. Through May 10. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, Los Angeles, hammer.ucla.edu.

“With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972-1985,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. In the 1970s, artists across the United States began to embrace forms of artistic production frequently described as feminine or domestic, traditions such as quilting, embroidery, weaving and interior design (such as wallpaper patterns). Artists took those ideas and media and pumped up the volume. This show, the first comprehensive, scholarly survey of this American art movement, will feature works by figures such as Merion Estes, Kendall Shaw and Takako Yamaguchi, as well as artists who aren’t directly associated with Pattern and Decoration but whose work bears tangential or indirect links. Through May 11. MOCA Grand Ave., 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles, moca.org.

“The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,” at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic has organized an exhibition that places the invented figures created by Yiadom-Boakye alongside the highly formal 18th century British portraits found in the museum’s Thornton Portrait Gallery. Through May 11. 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, huntington.org.

“Julie Mehretu,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This mid-career survey by the New York-based painter brings together 35 paintings and nearly 40 works on paper that tackle themes such as architecture, landscape, the flows of capital and the displacement of people in abstract ways. Through May 17. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

“In Focus: Platinum Photographs,” at the Getty Museum. Drawn from its collection, the museum is displaying a trove of platinum prints, a type of photo processing technique that gives images a velvety, matte surface. The technique first came into existence in 1873 and was regularly employed until the scarcities of World War I made securing platinum difficult. Since then, however, the process has been regularly revived by artists who seek its wide tonal range. Through May 31. 1200 Getty Center Drive, getty.edu.

“Michelangelo: Mind of the Master” at the Getty Museum. Like many other artists, Michelangelo made drawings before he made paintings. Like many other artists, he scrapped these when he was done — burning many of his preliminary sketches to ash. Thankfully, some of this work survived. This exhibition brings together more than two dozen drawings and sketches that made it into the hands of a 17th century Swedish monarch who abdicated her throne to move to Rome and collect art. The show includes Michelangelo’s sketches for iconic works such as the Sistine Chapel and the cupola of St. Peter’s basilica. Through June 7. 1200 Getty Center Dr., Brentwood, getty.edu.

Ree Morton, “The Plant That Heals May Also Poison,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. This is the first major U.S. exhibition of the late Postminimalist/feminist artist in nearly four decades, gathering drawings, sculptures, paintings and installation that fuse theatrical imagery and fragments of the decorative with elements of personal narrative. Through June 14. 1717 E. 7th St., downtown, theicala.org.

Rufino Tamayo, “Innovation and Experimentation,” at the LACMA gallery at Charles White Elementary School. An exhibition drawn from LACMA’s collection focuses on the celebrated Mexican painter’s works on paper — where he often worked out formal and technical issues. The show includes 20 works on paper that center on his depictions of the human figure, as well as five Mesoamerican sculptures (Tamayo was an avid collector of ancient indigenous objects). As part of the exhibition, L.A. artist Raul Baltazar will work with students at the school to create a collaborative installation inspired by Tamayo’s work. Through July 11. 2401 Wilshire Blvd., Westlake, Los Angeles, lacma.org.

“Collective Constellation: Selections From the Eileen Harris Norton Collection,” at Art + Practice. Norton is a Los Angeles collector known for her support of emerging artists at key points in their career. This exhibition focuses on work by women of color in her collection, including Wangechi Mutu, Adrian Piper, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Carolyn Castaño and Amy Sherald (best known for her portrait of Michelle Obama). Through Aug. 1. 3401 W. 34th St., Leimert Park, artandpractice.org.

Tanya Aguiñiga, “Borderlands Within / La Frontera Adentro,” at Armory Center for the Arts. Using fiber, ceramics, hand-blown glass and other traditional craft techniques, and touching on issues tied to immigration the border, the San Diego-born artist’s work often comments on the nature of hybrid states. This will include her bi-national piece “AMBOS,” an acronym for “Art Made Between Opposite Sides,” and a large-scale installation that transforms a piece of the gallery into a loom. Through Aug. 9. 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, armoryarts.org.

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, “Neither Fish, Flesh, Nor Fowl,” at the California African American Museum. In her first solo museum show at CAAM, the artist — who is of Afro-Puerto Rican and Jewish descent — toys with gender and identity in a range of works that include pie charts drawn from analyses of her genetic ancestry and sculptural works embroidered with bits of her own hair. Through Aug. 23. 600 State Dr., Exposition Park, caamuseum.org.

“Hostile Terrain 94,” at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum. This participatory work, organized by the Undocumented Migration Project, consists of 20-foot-long map of the U.S.-Mexico border that will be populated with toe tags to commemorate the thousands of immigrants who have died trying to cross into the United States. Through Dec. 6. UC Santa Barbara, museum.ucsb.edu.

Do Ho Suh, “348 West 22nd St.,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A recent gift to the museum, this installation is a 1:1 scale reproduction of an apartment the artist once inhabited in New York City. The piece, made from transparent polyester, gives the architecture a ghostly effect and evokes issues of memory and home. On long-term view. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

Daniel Hawkins, “Desert Lighthouse.” The Los Angeles-based artist is obsessed with producing works that toy with ideas of grandiosity, failure and gestures that border on the Sisyphean. (One of his goals as an artist is to ultimately build a scale replica of the Hoover Dam.) Now, Hawkins has installed a 50-foot-tall, fully functioning lighthouse in the Mojave Desert in the vicinity of Barstow. The piece even features a light to guide travelers through this rugged landscape. Directions and coordinates can be found on the website. On long-term view, Hinkley, Calif., desertlighthouse.org.