Exhibitions

15 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This Spring
— Hyperallergic

Material Prophecies: Craft as Divination brings together eight artists who turn to craft to divine memory, enact ritual, and seek knowledge of the future. Working with earth, fiber, metal, cyanotype, terracotta, and film, they carry ways of understanding the world passed through generations, giving form to what is felt, inherited, and unseen. Through these practices, material becomes both medium and oracle, connecting with Spirit, place, and ancestral knowledge.

Rooted in the San Gabriel Valley, where cycles of wildfire, floods, winds, and regrowth shape the landscape, the exhibition reflects on time as nonlinear and ever returning. The artist's works echo these rhythms, suggesting that transformation is both inevitable and generative, and that materials remember across distance and lineage.

The exhibition features works by Jackie Amézquita, April Bey, Calethia DeConto, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Joel Gaitan, vanessa german, Sky Hopinka, and Lani Trock.

Upcoming Public Programs

First Saturdays Exhibition Tours
Saturday, May 2
Saturday, June 6
Saturday, July 11 *
2:00 to 3:00 PM

Armory gallery ambassadors will give free guided tours of the exhibition on the first Saturday of the month. The tours are free. RSVPs are required.

* second Saturday in July due to the 4th holiday

Youth Prophecy: Futures Beyond Wildfire with Altadena Library
Saturday, June 20
1:00 to 4:00 PM

Presented in partnership with the Altadena Library, this free, creative workshop for teens explores imagination, resilience, and collective possibility in the wake of wildfire disruption. RSVPs are required.

Past Public Programs

Curatorial Walkthrough
Saturday, February 28
2:00 to 3:00 PM

Walk our new exhibition and step inside the thinking behind the work in Material Prophecies: Craft as Divination with curator Taylor Bythewood-Porter. This guided conversation explores the materials, ideas, and relationships.

Exhibition Field Trips for K-12

Give your K–12 students a hands-on museum experience that connects looking, thinking, and making. Armory Teaching Artists will tour your students through Material Prophecies, then guide them through an art-making activity related to what they learned. Each student will create their own artwork to take home.

Curated by Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Director of Exhibitions. Exhibition Management by Danielle A. Hill, Exhibition Manager.

Image: April Bey. I KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW ALL ABOUT, 2024. Jacquard, sherpa, crushed velour, metallic thread, beads, adorned clothespins. 4 Panels: 80 x 240 inches overall. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo credit: Jeff McLane.

Lead support for all Armory programs comes from the Perenchio Foundation. Exhibition public programs are supported, in part, by California Community Foundation.