LA Art Documents took an expedition to Northern California in early August to survey some exciting gallery spaces and museums for our ongoing BEYOND LA series. Here are some of the findings from an adventurous exploration.
The Oakland Museum of California is a massive and beautiful example of how Brutalist architecture can actually work to create a community space. It’s actually three museums rolled into one, featuring art, history, and natural sciences in one sprawling building.
We truly enjoyed the exhibition Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism on view August 7, 2021–February 27, 2022
Afrofuturism is a lot of things. It’s the past, present, and future reimagined through a Black cultural lens. Visionary, spiritual, and generative, it is art, music, literature, and cinema that expresses a just future where Black people and Black ideas thrive. It is fantasy and science fiction that envisions the African Diaspora and Black culture as central in a technically advanced and culturally rich civilization. It is also the ordinary—now— in this very moment and the everyday pleasures that may often be seen as mundane. Afrofuturism is a strategy for Black community building.
MORE TO COME…Oakland First Friday Art Walk…studio visit with Christine Ferrouge…