Free things to do in Los Angeles this month

Walk, run, skate, bike and explore car-free stretches of South Pasadena, Alhambra and San Gabriel during the latest edition of this open streets event series. The Metro-presented 626 Golden Streets clears cars off the road in different parts of the San Gabriel Valley for one day only. On Sunday, April 28 you’ll be able to set foot on five miles of streets sans cars, from Mission Street in South Pasadena, down Marengo Avenue and along Alhambra Road, Main Street and Las Tunas Drive toward Mission Drive in San Gabriel (hence the “Mission-to-Mission” name of this particular event).

“Let’s hang out at the Pier” is something Santa Monica locals probably say next to never, but this monthly series is trying to change that. Every third Thursday you’ll find everything from performances to storytelling to a classic car show on the Santa Monica Pier, all free to attend.

Did this past year’s Basquiat exhibition in DTLA leave you wanting more? Head to Beverly Hills where Gagosian will be displaying 50 rarely loaned Jean-Michel Basquiat pieces that were created in L.A. during the iconic artist’s time spent at his Venice studio between 1982 and 1984.

In 1993, artist Charles Gaines mounted “ The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism,” a UC Irvine gallery show that responded to the country’s cultural and political crises with works from then-up-and-coming Black artists. Now, three decades later, Hauser & Wirth has revived the show in two parts: a small reprise of “The Theater of Refusal” with ’90s pieces from Gaines, Gary Simmons and Lorna Simpson, as well as a larger room that continues the show’s themes with recent works from Lauren Halsey, Rashid Johnson, Caroline Kent and more.

See early works in assemblage, installation, happenings and conceptual artmaking at this examination of art from the decades that followed the Korean War, the first such exhibition in North America to focus on this period.

“Let’s hang out at the Pier” is something Santa Monica locals probably say next to never, but this monthly series is trying to change that. Every third Thursday you’ll find everything from performances to storytelling to a classic car show on the Santa Monica Pier, all free to attend.

What does living in L.A. look like? It’s a wildly different picture depending on each Angeleno’s point of view, and so to celebrate that diversity of perspectives, Hollywood gallery Jeffrey Deitch will display pieces from a dozen local artists that delve into underground economies, landscapes, surveillance, backyard hangouts and public transit, among other topics.

Judy Baca’s half-mile–long The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a collaborative mural painted in the ’70s along the Tujunga Wash, has received all sorts of museum love in the past few years. But LACMA has a particularly unique show to boast about: The local Chicana muralist and SPARC artists will paint two new sections of The Great Wall during museum hours. As long as you live in L.A. County, you can visit LACMA for free on weekdays after 3pm.