{"id":219827,"date":"2025-06-27T23:21:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219827\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T23:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:21:35","slug":"lacma-is-previewing-its-new-building-with-a-one-of-a-kind-kamasi-washington-performance-heres-what-its-like-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219827\/","title":{"rendered":"LACMA is previewing its new building with a one-of-a-kind Kamasi Washington performance. Here\u2019s what it\u2019s like inside."},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s not a single piece of artwork to see on the concrete walls of LACMA\u2019s<\/a> new building right now. And yet, this is undoubtedly the most exciting art destination in Los Angeles this weekend.<\/p>\n

Months ahead of the galleries\u2019 planned April 2026 debut<\/a>, and before the institution begins installing artwork, LACMA has allowed the public to take a peek inside its new David Geffen Galleries\u2014to the tune of a one-of-a-kind performance<\/a> from local saxophone extraordinaire Kamasi Washington<\/a>, no less.<\/p>\n

For the museum members and everyday Angelenos who were lucky enough to secure tickets, they\u2019ll find more than 100 musicians split between 10 performance areas, with each ensemble playing a different component of the six-part jazz suite Harmony of Difference; you might catch Washington soloing on sax toward the center of the building, but round a corner and you\u2019ll hear the buzz of a brass section or the echoing voices of a choir.<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

\"Kamasi
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutKamasi Washington <\/p>\n

But what about the building itself? The Peter Zumthor-designed replacement for LACMA\u2019s myriad mid-century buildings on its eastern campus consolidates collections into a single-floor, 110,000-square-foot amoeba-shaped space. It\u2019s also, since its unveiling in 2013 and start of construction in 2020, invited plenty of strong opinions about everything from its aesthetic to its footprint. So what\u2019s it like to actually step inside (still sans art, of course)?<\/p>\n

\"Tony
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutTony Smith, \u2018Smoke\u2019 <\/p>\n

I was invited to the museum<\/a> on Thursday for the first of three performances. About an hour before sunset, I filed past the familiar spider-like lines of Tony Smith\u2019s Smoke sculpture and hoofed it up the long staircase into the David Geffen Galleries (there are elevators, as well). I passed by what looked like a ground-floor restaurant space and a future bookshop but could only gawk from outside.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, though, I was free to roam across the entire floor\u2014and roam I did. The building isn\u2019t broken up into traditional rooms; instead, there are roughly two dozen enclosed galleries toward the center of the structure, while the entirety of the exterior is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows.<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutDavid Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutA map of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

The views are absolutely dreamy and offer a fresh vantage point that makes it feel as though you\u2019re floating above one of L.A.\u2019s most crowded cultural corridors. Each curve unveils a new, unexpected perspective: overlooking the lake at the\u00a0La Brea Tar Pits<\/a>, eye-level with the bubble-like theater of the Academy Museum<\/a> and literally on top of the traffic on Wilshire Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutDavid Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutView of the La Brea Tar Pits from the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutView of Wilshire Boulevard from the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

Yes, the building spans the busy road (Jeff Koons\u2019s floral Split-Rocker sculpture will eventually anchor the\u00a0outside of the southern side), and it\u2019s tough to articulate just how wild it is to\u00a0shuffle along the museum floor and suddenly find yourself crossing over the iconic street. At every point, the architecture perfectly frames each vista, so\u2014for better or worse\u2014expect plenty of posing, particularly as the setting sun floods the west side with dramatic lighting.<\/p>\n

Despite all of those windows, it was easy to get a little bit turned around inside of the space\u2014but I imagine that\u2019ll be much less of an issue once there\u2019s actually artwork installed. For now, it\u2019s a lot of unadorned concrete, so if you\u2019re not looking out a window, there are no other visual cues to place exactly where you are.\u00a0Without paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations, the interior galleries feel raw and empty because they\u2019re, well, raw and empty right now\u2014so I\u2019ll hold off any sort of proper\u00a0judgment until after the installation process has wrapped up. (You can see how the galleries will look with art inside over on LACMA\u2019s site<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutDavid Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutDavid Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

When Washington\u2019s performance wound down, it was dark out. As I descended the staircase out of the David Geffen Galleries, Urban Lights\u2019 rows of streetlamps glowed in the background. On my way in, I thought some angles of the building were more flattering than others; the profile of\u00a0the tar pits side looks beautiful, but stand close enough to the western tip and it feels a little like a low-angle selfie. But as I was exiting and looked back up the staircase at night, it was as if the entire building was floating. It was oddly peaceful\u2014and already difficult to imagine the museum and Wilshire Boulevard without it.<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutDavid Geffen Galleries at LACMA <\/p>\n

Check out some more photos below. Kamasi Washington continues his performances on Friday and Saturday\u2014tickets are unfortunately sold out\u2014followed by a series of member previews of the building. The David Geffen Galleries open April 2026.<\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

\"David
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s not a single piece of artwork to see on the concrete walls of LACMA\u2019s new building right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[2606,4021,4020,13721,4022,77,13722,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-219827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-categories-art","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-news-art","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114757900467563850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}