Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Name	Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Established	2017
Location	Los Angeles, California
Type	Contemporary art museum
Director	Helen Molesworth

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art institution founded in 2017 in Los Angeles, California. The museum organizes exhibitions, commissions new work, and presents programs that engage artists, curators, and publics from Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, and Tokyo. The ICA Los Angeles operates within networks linking museums, biennials, galleries, foundations, and universities across the United States and internationally.

History

The ICA Los Angeles emerged amid institutional developments involving Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Getty Center, Getty Villa, The Broad, and Walt Disney Concert Hall stakeholders. Founders and early supporters included figures connected to Terry R. Myerson, Don Bacigalupi, Eli Broad, Margo Leavin, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and collectors active alongside David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian Gallery, Pace Gallery, Lisson Gallery, and Marian Goodman Gallery. ICA Los Angeles made initial announcements during cultural gatherings with participation by curators associated with New Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Museum of Modern Art, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou. Early programming responded to debates occurring at the time in contexts such as the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Manifesta, Skulptur Projekte Münster, and regional festivals like LA County Fair and Frieze Los Angeles.

Architecture and Facilities

The ICA Los Angeles occupies a site reimagined by architects influenced by practices seen in projects by Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Richard Meier, Rafael Moneo, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, and SANAA. The building incorporates gallery spaces, performance areas, conservation labs, and study rooms comparable to facilities at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Walker Art Center, Hammer Museum, and Dia Beacon. Landscape and public realm work referenced interventions by designers linked to Olmsted Brothers, James Corner Field Operations, Martha Schwartz, Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, situating the ICA within Los Angeles precincts near Downtown Los Angeles, Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Los Angeles, Arts District, Los Angeles, and Exposition Park.

Collections and Exhibitions

ICA Los Angeles emphasizes rotating presentations with loans and commissions by artists connected to Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Kehinde Wiley, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Kara Walker, Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Julie Mehretu, Kehinde Wiley, Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, Kiki Smith, Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Taryn Simon, Richard Prince, Rashid Johnson, Edgar Arceneaux, Doris Salcedo, Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy, Jacob Lawrence, Betye Saar, Charles Gaines, Catherine Opie, Gordon Matta-Clark, John A. Parks, Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin, Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, Isa Genzken, Roni Horn, Kara Walker, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons, Bruce Nauman, Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly, and Sol LeWitt. Exhibition models look to precedents at Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Instituto Moreira Salles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, National Gallery of Art, and Royal Academy of Arts. The ICA commissions new work in dialogue with festivals and biennials including Los Angeles Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, São Paulo Art Biennial, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, and Whitney Biennial.

Programs and Education

Educational initiatives mirror programs at Cooper Hewitt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pratt Institute, California Institute of the Arts, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, ArtCenter College of Design, CalArts, Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale School of Art. Public programs include artist talks, panels, workshops, and screenings featuring collaborators from Design Museum, Architectural Association School of Architecture, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, New York University, Columbia University, and Harvard University. Partnerships extend to cultural producers such as LA Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Getty Research Institute, Autry Museum of the American West, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California African American Museum, and Skirball Cultural Center.

Leadership and Governance

Leadership comprises a director, board members, and advisory councils with connections to Helen Molesworth, Ann Philbin, Kara Walker, Thelma Golden, Michael Govan, Glenn Lowry, Emmanuel Macron—insofar as diplomatic cultural relationships have been cultivated with ministries and foundations like National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Knight Foundation, Rothschild Foundation, Artforum, Frieze, and ArtReview. Governance practices reflect standards observed at Smithsonian Institution, American Alliance of Museums, International Council of Museums, Association of Art Museum Directors, and donor networks similar to those supporting Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Community Engagement and Impact

The ICA Los Angeles pursues outreach paralleling initiatives at LACMA, Hammer Museum, The Broad, MOCA, Getty Foundation, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Self Help Graphics & Art, 826LA, inner-city arts organizations, and neighborhood partners across South Los Angeles, Echo Park, Venice, Los Angeles, and Boyle Heights. Programs aim to intersect with local cultural labor markets involving galleries such as Geffen Contemporary, Bergamot Station, Night Gallery, Various Small Fires, ZOO Art Fair, PULSE Art Fair, and community festivals like LA Art Show and Día de los Muertos commemorations. The institute measures impact through attendance, commissioning outputs, residency outcomes, and collaborations with municipal entities including City of Los Angeles cultural departments and philanthropic bodies like Annenberg Foundation and California Community Foundation.

Category:Museums in Los Angeles County, California