On January 29 from 7-11 pm, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) welcomed students from UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount and other universities in Los Angeles for a special occasion. After normal hours, LACMA thus opened its doors for hundreds of college students. This free, annual event featured access to the exhibits, art-making, photo-ops and complimentary food and drinks. A mashed potato bar was formed near the entrance of the museum, with another table offering tea and coffee for students.
The prominent exhibit was Japan in Samurai: Japanese Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection. In a room tinted with blood red lighting, glass cases held armor and clothing and masks and weapons of Japanese-style; warrior-esque horses were on display as well. This was a shocking and sensory setting for those wishing to see historical artifacts of the Samurai era.
Another exhibition included American landscape paintings from the Hudson River School of the 1800s. These beautiful pastoral paintings often depicted cattle, trees, and displaced lighting. One particular piece illustrated a city in several stages via different paintings – from its natural state to development to ruin.
The last museum show I visited was contemporary one about our surroundings and how we interact with the environment. It was set up like a maze, with diverted rooms each featuring a strange presentation. These ranged from one room with a pair of golden shoes and polaroid pictures to another room with floating porous rock and black ice sheet to a dark room with a dirty fish aquarium and plants.
Museum employees walked around the exhibit with a triangular lit mask covering their face, reminiscent of aliens. The modern exhibit definitely made students think about life and how we perceive the world around us as we interact with the different elements. To illustrate this, one outside portion even had water fall from machines in its different forms – as ice, liquid and gas.
And of course before heading home, college kids from around LA snapped photos with a giant Oscar statue nearby, as well as photos with the classic exhibit Urban Light, a series of lampposts at the front of the museum. Urban Light seems to attract many museum-goers as an ideal selfie location, with their brightness piercing the dark night as the poles act like perfect perches for pictures.
For those in attendance, the night marked a free excursion to explore the artistic and historical offerings of the city of angels. Many brought friends along for this vividly artsy night of food, photos and fine art.
Photos by Lindsay Weinberg