LOS ANGELES — The COVID-19 pandemic isn't over, but museum and gallery exhibitions are getting back on track. Rather than write the usual list of 10 best shows, I'm sharing these 10 art stories that caught my eye this year.
Gender spree
The concentrated institutional effort toward gender equity in art museum exhibitions continues to bear fruit. In addition to group shows like those at Pomona's American Museum of Ceramic Art ("Breaking Ground: Women in California Clay") and the Orange County Museum of Art ("13 Women"), a flurry of solo retrospectives of important artists marks the year. Standouts include Niki de Saint Phalle and Alexis Smith at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Christina Fernandez at Riverside's California Museum of Photography, Tala Madani at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, Ferne Jacobs at Craft in America, Linda Besemer at Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Rebecca Morris at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Lezley Saar at Craft Contemporary, Barbara Kruger at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Andrea Bowers at the UCLA Hammer Museum and Imogen Cunningham and Uta Barth at the J. Paul Getty Museum. You go girl.
