13ThingsLA: August 19

Exhibitions, conversations, and gatherings that take stock of the situation with the volatile terrestrial landscape—post-industrial, cosmological, evocative, abstract, and fictive—and the increasingly surreal experience of living here, at Nazarian/Curcio, Arcane Space, The Hammer, Track 16/Bendix Building, E2ART Gallery, LA Art Core, Blue & The Muse Gallery, The Huntington, ICA LA, These Days, Natural History Museum, Bakersfield Museum of Art, and Mt. Wilson Observatory.

And don’t forget to SAVE THAT DATE! We’ll be wrapping up summer with a brunchy garden and gallery party on Sunday, August 30 for our supporting subscribers. Scroll to the end (aka past the paywall, sorry that’s the point, love you!) for details.

Talks & Telescopes: Lita Albuquerque, Saturday, August 22, 5:30-11:30pm at Mt. Wilson Observatory. I almost cannot think of a more celestially engaged artist than Lita Albuquerque. Rightly lauded as the grand dame of Land Art, her explicit work with the Earth’s surface and substrates is always geared toward its place in the cosmos. Known for her monumental blue pigment and gold leaf interventions across remote geographies—from the Antarctic ice shelf to the California coastal ranges—Albuquerque explores how site-specific work maps human perception within vast physical scales. From sacred geometry to farflung natural wonders and even intergalactic communion, Albuquerque’s decades of practice orients around a matriarchal vision in which we feel deeply both rooted to place and made of stardust. For the legendary Observatory’s Talks & Telescopes series, Albuquerque discusses her reasons, methods, and sources of insight and wisdom in bridging art, astronomy, and the cosmos. The evening pairs her lecture in the historic auditorium with late-night public viewing through the 60- and 100-inch telescopes. Tickets: $50; mtwilson.edu. —SND