ICA LA (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles)

ICA LA (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas in downtown Los Angeles.
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The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) opened in September 2017 and is a new museum housed in a renovated industrial building in Downtown Los Angeles. The ICA LA’s revelatory exhibitions of works by international artists, dynamic public programs, and inclusive community partnerships will reflect the diversity of Los Angeles and the world, fostering critique of the familiar and emp

athy with the different. Founded in 1984 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), the ICA LA is one of few kunsthalles—non-collecting museum—in the United States. The museum opened in a 12,700 square-foot industrial building in Downtown Los Angeles in September 2017 and features spaces for exhibitions, public programs, offices and a café, designed by the architectural firm wHY under the leadership of Kulapat Yantrasast. ICA LA will build on the distinguished history of SMMoA, a museum that fostered artistic experimentation with bold curatorial choices and often presented the first West Coast solo exhibitions of artists who went on to celebrated stature. ICA LA supports art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other. The museum will nourish the community through the arts: educating the eye, stimulating the intellect, and nurturing the life of the mind and the spirit. ICA LA is committed to making contemporary art relevant and accessible for all; as always, admission is free. For more information, visit theicala.org.

This week’s FOCUS newsletter celebrates iris yirei hu whose works "Corpus mundi" (2026) and "The invocation of the spiri...
05/29/2026

This week’s FOCUS newsletter celebrates iris yirei hu whose works "Corpus mundi" (2026) and "The invocation of the spirit blue child" (2024) are featured in "Speaking in Tongues," which remains on view at ICA LA through August 23.

The newsletter uses these three important elements of hu's artistic practice—people, plants, and rock—as frameworks for continued exploration of the artist's work, like these sundial portraits taken at hu's public work installed at Los Angeles State Historic Park, co-commissioned by ICA LA and ) in 2021, made in collaboration with Tongva Elder Julia Bogany, and poet Mercedes Dorame.

Visit the link in our bio to sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share upcoming programs and exhibitions, dive deeply into the work of exhibition artists, and share exciting ways to explore arts and culture throughout Los Angeles.

At once an altar and a type of alms, a vessel and an offering, iris yirei hu's "Corpus mundi" is a collection of porcela...
05/29/2026

At once an altar and a type of alms, a vessel and an offering, iris yirei hu's "Corpus mundi" is a collection of porcelaincast bones arranged to form a human co**se. Near one of the braided strands of hair rests a small animal skull, referencing the Hmong funerary tradition of placing a chicken near the head as a meal for the journey to the afterlife. Upon death, the soul is said to return to its birthplace, where it unearths its buried placenta and wears it like a jacket. Recalling this armor for the hereafter—and
reminiscent of the elaborate brocade and apron weavings of the Miao people—
hu's co**se rests atop a handdyed indigo textile that hugs the pearlescent blue
bones like a shawl. Whether sewn, dyed, cast, or painted, hu's works often incorporate natural inks made from earthly materials to draw attention to the politics of their making specifically, to the violence of extraction and exploitation at the hands of imperialism.

What exists as a church in the morning becomes—with little to no distinction—a living room in the afternoon, a dining ro...
05/28/2026

What exists as a church in the morning becomes—with little to no distinction—a living room in the afternoon, a dining room in the evening, and a bedroom at night. As recounted by Sarah Ourahmane in her PhD thesis "Survival in the Afterlife," what emerges from these House of Hope gatherings is a kind of "local Pentecostalism" that honors cultural specificity and is not solely shaped by foreign missionaries or forced assimilation. Telling the story of this community from the deeply personal perspective of family photographs offers humanizing insight into a people and a place.

Images: Lydia Ourahmane, "House of Hope Archives," 1989–ongoing.
Courtesy of Youssef and Hie Tee Ourahmane.

Hands clasped in prayer. Voices lifted in praise. Friends and strangers seated togetherfor a shared meal. These are some...
05/28/2026

Hands clasped in prayer. Voices lifted in praise. Friends and strangers seated together
for a shared meal. These are some of the scenes that appear in "House of Hope Archives," a work by Lydia Ourahmane featuring a slideshow of photographs that illuminate the story of House of Hope, a Christian commune established during the
Algerian Civil War (1992-2002).

Born to an Algerian father and Malaysian mother, Lydia and her sisters Noura and
Sarah Ourahmane were raised in the commune. Offering a kind of spiritual break from
the terrorism that defined these decades, House of Hope is a ministry of hospitality,
a community grounded in fellowship, and a site of shelter and salvation for persecuted
minorities.

Tonight at ICA LA, "Speaking in Tongues" artists Jasmine Orpilla and Asher Hartman present "Blessed with Switch." Though...
05/27/2026

Tonight at ICA LA, "Speaking in Tongues" artists Jasmine Orpilla and Asher Hartman present "Blessed with Switch." Though structured as a 25-minute theatrical monologue, the performance unfolds as an intimate and multifaceted spectacle of selves, featuring a torrent of vocalized emotions, linguistic ruptures, and hackings performed by Orpilla with incantatory force, as if possessed. For audiences, this maelstrom of linguistic and psychic transformation is an affirmation of the knowledge held in the body and the spirit.

If you plan to attend the performance tonight, please arrive early. With limited seating available on a first-come first-served basis, the remaining space will be standing room only. The galleries will remain open until the start of the performance. Because the performance includes loud, sudden noises, we advise against bringing small children or pets who may be startled. By request of the artist, no late admission will be permitted once the performance begins.

Grab a friend and stop by ICA LA to see our current exhibition "Speaking in Tongues," an intergenerational and internati...
05/27/2026

Grab a friend and stop by ICA LA to see our current exhibition "Speaking in Tongues," an intergenerational and international group of contemporary artists who embrace the role of art as a conduit to the spiritual. At a moment when religion is increasingly weaponized as an instrument to divide, this exhibition celebrates the spiritual as a tool for survival, kinship, and communion.

Dopamine — a new and innovative publishing collaboration with Semiotext(e) — elevates q***r writing and writers through ...
05/20/2026

Dopamine — a new and innovative publishing collaboration with Semiotext(e) — elevates q***r writing and writers through a nurture and promotion of work outside of mainstream LGBTQI+ storytelling. It is experimental and distinguishes itself with writers who resist assimilation with work that stretches the boundaries of what defines “q***r.” The press affirms a freedom to present texts that are raw and often by self-taught writers with intersecting identities. Dopamine honors the outlaw heritage of q***r artists and writers who are not complacent, complicit, nor gentrified with voices that challenge the status quo through their existence.

Join us tomorrow as we welcome Medaya Ocher, Editor in Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, to explore this endeavor in conversation with Hedi El Kholti of Semiotext(e) and co-founders of Dopamine Michelle Tea and Brooke Palmieri. Writers Clement Goldberg, Brooke Palmieri, and Chris E. Vargas will enhance the evening with readings.

Commissioned for the "Speaking in Tongues" exhibition, "Mouth Full of Spirits" is a live vocal ritual by Ron Athey () an...
05/08/2026

Commissioned for the "Speaking in Tongues" exhibition, "Mouth Full of Spirits" is a live vocal ritual by Ron Athey () and Carmina Escobar () that unfolds through glossolalia, breath, and embodied sound. At the threshold where language collapses, the performers enter a shared field of utterance in which voice detaches from meaning and becomes conduit, force, and residue. Each body holds its own opening, its own passage. In this work, sound emerges not as communication, but as visitation, fragmented, excessive, irreducible.

Featured within the performance are artworks by Karen Lofgren () and Jerónimo Naranjo (.naranjo).

ICA LA galleries will remain open with extended hours until the program begins at 8pm. Please arrive early, as late admission to the performance will not be permitted at the request of the performers. Following the performance, we invite you to stay for a small reception or enjoy the galleries until 10pm.

Over more than twentyfive years of composing, the sound and installation artist Raven Chacon has maintained an abiding ...
05/01/2026

Over more than twentyfive years of composing, the sound and installation artist Raven Chacon has maintained an abiding dedication to exploring and evoking place through sound. Chacon's score "Compass," a solo for electric guitar, is included in "Speaking in Tongues" in the form of an outdoor painted mural and accompanying live performances. Informed by a range of sonic strategies and frameworks—including the traditional Western five-line musical staff, avant-garde experimentation with indeterminacy and silence, and the distortion and amplification of noise—the artist's scores are noteworthy for their precise instructions coupled with an openness, inviting musicians to interpret the notations and respond to their physical surroundings.

Head to our Reels to listen to an excerpt of musician Andrew Tholl's activation of "Compass" from the exhibition opening on April 4, 2026.

05/01/2026

Over more than twenty-five years of composing, the sound and installation artist Raven Chacon has maintained an abiding dedication to exploring and evoking place through sound. Chacon's score "Compass," a solo for electric guitar, is included in the "Speaking in Tongues" exhibition in the form of an outdoor painted mural and accompanying live performances.

"Compass" is intended to be performed outdoors on an overly amplißed guitar as a harmonic
progression. Intermittent instructions to the guitarist include such prompts as, "To choose
the next note type and relative harmonic position where the note will occur, pay attention
to the direction that the wind is blowing." Such attentiveness to place ensures that no
performance of Compass will ever duplicate a previous one.

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Los Angeles, CA

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 6pm
Thursday 12pm - 6pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

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+12139280833

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