New exhibit, ‘West of Modernism: California Graphic Design’ debuts at LACMA

Madeline Tello

Staff Writer

LACMA’s latest exhibit, “West of Modernism: California Graphic Design” includes a variety of pieces of graphic art created by Los Angeles based artists. The exhibit presents viewers with unique pieces of art all created within the years 1975 to 1999.

The exhibit features a small variety of colorful, expressive pieces of graphic art that are interesting to viewers due to their connection to important events or political messages. The exhibit consists of mixed media booklets being displayed as centerpieces for the polychromatic posters hung on the walls. The art, created by autonomous artists and institutions, are displayed with the intent of promoting the graphic art community in Los Angeles. The pieces show the popular avant garde style of creating art from the selected time period.

The art gallery focuses entirely on displaying art created by Los Angeles based artists and only displays graphic art rather than also including paintings and sculptures, making this the most interesting, original exhibit on display at LACMA.

Frances Butler’s, “Women Writing Poetry in America,” is one of the most prominent pieces in the gallery due to the extraordinary attention to human detail and powerful light that the artist portrays women in. The piece shows a woman passing on the idea of supporting American women writing poetry to the next generation and promotes the concept of feminism in America.

Another prominent piece is “California Institute of the Arts,” by April Greiman and Jayme Odgers. Grieman and Odgers used mixed media images, shapes, vibrant colors and various fonts to create their piece. This work of art is prominent and stands out within the exhibit due to its emphasis on the physical traits and movements of real people. The piece is an offset lithograph and features an inside look into the creativity of life at the California Institute of the Arts.

The exhibit includes many mixed media posters and multi-dimensional pieces and would be more impactful if it was expanded to include more emotion-provoking pieces of art in order to attract more viewers. The gallery would also be more interesting if it was expanded to include more pieces of graphic art. However, this exhibit is still impressive due to its original pieces and its diversity compared to other exhibits. The gallery is unlike any other at LACMA due to the fact that each piece is distinctly unique from the other pieces within the exhibit.

“West of Modernism: California Graphic Design” opened on September 30, 2018 and will be available to the public through April 21, 2019. For more information regarding future exhibits, visit www.lacma.org.