California’s Most Interesting Art Shows in 2022

It’s 2022, and you’re looking for a list of the most important art museum exhibitions in California this year. You’ve come to the right place. Here are the most important art exhibitions in 2022.

“Noah Davis” at the Underground Museum in Los Angeles

Opening Jan. 12, 2022.

The late Noah Davis (1983-2015), co-founder of the Underground Museum along with his wife, sculptor Karon Davis, are the focus of this exhibition as the museum reopens its doors to the public after nearly two years of closure. The exhibition, organized by Helen Molesworth and Justen Leroy, focuses on the seemingly quiet, everyday scenes that Davis painted, as well as other paintings the museum describes as exercises in “magical realism.”

“Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation” at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles

Feb. 6 to May 15, 2022.

Groundbreaking video artist Ulysses Jenkins presents a major retrospective, the result of three years of research in which curators digitized his vast 50-year archive and conducted interviews with the artist and his many collaborators. His friends, teachers and acquaintances include Charles White, Chris Bourdain, Bethie Saar and Kerry James Marshall, who starred in Jenkins’ 1979 video “Two Zone Transfer.” You won’t want to miss this exhibition.
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“Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy” at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts

April 16 to September 5, 2022.

Proclaimed by the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts as “China’s best couturier,” Guo Pei is best known in the United States for designing Rihanna’s dress at the 2015 Met Gala. Featuring some 80 pieces from the past 20 years, this exhibition includes examples from the runways of Beijing and Paris and illustrates how the designer combines ideas drawn from European architecture, Chinese imperial art and the botanical world to create gorgeous new models. “Through his unusual clothing designs,” museum officials say, “the exhibition reveals the trajectory of Guo Pei’s career.

“Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Myth, Muse” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

April 24-October 9, 2022.

In Southern California, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s short but hugely important career (1969-2010) will be the subject of the first West Coast exhibition of his work. The exhibition will feature pieces from Regina J. Drucker’s fashion collection and LACMA’s permanent collection that explore McQueen’s art and his ability to infuse couture images with extravagant ideas, his lively imagination and daring references to the outside world.