Exhibitions
'Grounded' and the earth as memory, history and home at LACMA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Grounded , an exhibition that invites reflection on the earth not only as physical territory, but as a starting point for exploring history, ecology, sovereignty, memory, and the notion of home. The show brings together works by artists working across multiple disciplines, including interdisciplinary artist and weaver Sarah Rosalena (2022 award winner), along with other prominent voices in the contemporary art scene. This temporary exhibition will be on view until June 21, 2026, in Los Angeles.
Through 40 works by 35 artists from the Americas and the Pacific, Grounded highlights how the human experience is deeply intertwined with the land. The artists address the enduring traces of colonialism and imperialism; narrate stories of forced migration and displacement; engage with Indigenous mythologies and symbols; and rewrite ancestral narratives by creating new aesthetic languages.
The exhibition includes Lisa Reihana's large-format audiovisual installation, In Pursuit of Venus [infected] , which reimagines colonial narratives from the Māori artist's perspective; photographs and videos by Clarissa Tossin, Laura Aguilar, and Ana Mendieta, in which the body establishes a direct dialogue with the earth; as well as paintings and sculptures by Eamon Ore Girón, Courtney M. Leonard, and Rose B. Simpson, which fuse technology, Indigenous iconography, and artisanal practices. Rounding out the exhibition are works by Leslie Martinez and Abraham Cruzvillegas, who reuse everyday materials to reflect on consumption and propose possibilities for renewal and transformation.
Grounded functions as a Recent Acquisitions program in the classic sense: most of the works in the exhibition have entered the LACMA collection within the last six years or so. The major exception is Ana Mendieta’s Volcano series—probably the most recognized work in the entire group—acquired nearly a quarter of a century ago and presented here as a historical touchstone within the curatorial narrative. Six of the pieces are co-owned with the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) as part of the new MAC3 (Mohn Art Collective) program, while Laura Aguilar’s work is shared with the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College.
The exhibition is on view at LACMA’s Broad Museum of Contemporary Art (BCAM) for an unusually long eight-month run, through the end of June 2026. This extended duration places recent art on equal footing with the museum’s historical departments, coinciding with the planned April opening of the new David Geffen Galleries building. These new spaces are expected to present LACMA’s permanent collection thematically, underscoring the diversity and breadth of its approach to the global history of art.
Grounded is co-curated by Rita Gonzalez and Michael Smooke and director of the Department of Contemporary Art; Dhyandra Lawson, Andy Song Associate Curator of Contemporary Art; and Nancy Thomas, senior deputy director of Art and Collections Administration at LACMA.
