Painting in the River of Angels: Judy Baca and The Great Wall

(Los Angeles, CA—September 26, 2023) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Painting in the River of Angels: Judy Baca and The Great Wall, the artist’s first solo exhibition at the museum. Los Angeles artist Judy Baca (b. 1946) conceived The Great Wall of Los Angeles (1975) as a monument to the people of California. Over five summers (1976-83), Baca collaborated with 400 youth, artists, and community members on a mural that told the erased histories of local communities. The artist, alongside members of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), an organization Baca co-founded, designed the mural and painted it on the walls of the Tujunga Wash, a tributary of the L.A. River in North Hollywood, California. In 2021, SPARC received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the landmark’s chronology into the 21st century.

Painting in the River of Angels is co-curated by Dhyandra Lawson, Andy Song Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, and Deliasofia Zacarias, Executive Assistant and Fellow, Director’s Office, LACMA.