Things to do in Los Angeles this Friday

The acclaimed Chinese artist kicks off a flurry of activity in L.A. with this takeover of the Marciano’s massive theater gallery, including Ai’s floor-covering “Sunflower Seeds,” which features millions of porcelain seeds, as well as the similar but smaller “Spouts,” a pile of thousands of Song dynasty teapot spouts. “Life Cycle” also marks the premiere of its namesake work, a nearly 60-foot inflatable raft made entirely from bamboo. Inspired by the European refugee crisis, the work employs traditional kite-making techniques to create its passengers, which are often pulled from the signs of the Chinese zodiac—such figures also factor into the astounding mythological mobiles and creatures that surround the black box space.

Find yourself transported to another realm—at least, if Alexander Calder’s monochromatic abstract sculptures are working as intended—in this survey of 30 of the artist’s “nonspace” pieces. Hauser & Wirth’s stark white gallery provides the perfect high-contrast backdrop for Calder’s all-black metallic sculptures (save for one with a few spots of color); the pieces weren’t purposely curated for their darkness, though, it was simply Calder’s favorite color to worth with. You’ll also find five massive sculptures in the gallery’s courtyard, often with matching maquettes to view inside.

In this dream pairing that you never even knew you needed, artist and director Julian Rosefeldt teams up with actor Cate Blanchett for a 13-channel video installation in which she reads famous artists’ manifestos. To say that Blanchett is simply reading the manifestos, though, would undersell how incredibly she inhabits each fictional character (whether as a scientist, a puppeteer or a homeless man) as she spouts reedited versions of writings from the likes of Claes Oldenburg, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Sol LeWitt and Wassily Kandinsky.

Ragnar Kjartansson’s mesmerizing, musical video installation The Visitors returns as part of this free exhibition about the passage of time. The show includes more than 50 works from the likes of Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Glenn Ligon and Anselm Kiefer. The exhibition also marks the L.A. debut of works from Sharon Lockhart, Sherrie Levine and Ed Ruscha, whose monumental diptych Azteca/Azteca in Decline will be on display.

Seasoned photographer and author Joel Sartore has contributed to National Geographic magazine for over two decades. Now, Angelenos will have a chance to see a glimpse of his stunning photos of some of the world’s most threatened species with this selection of 100 large-format prints. Sartore’s Photo Ark project has brought him to over 40 countries to capture portraits of 8,000 species in his quest to catalog all of the world’s animals before they disappear.

See how three-dimensional technology has transcended View-Masters and 19th-century stereoscopes and worked its way into cutting-edge digital art.

See Robert Rauschenberg’s magnum opus, a nearly quarter-mile display of 190 painted panels, on display at LACMA. The piece was completed over the span of 17 years and signified the distance between his studio and home on Capitiva Island in Florida. LACMA’s exhibition marks the first time that all of the panels have been displayed together, and it’s easy to see why: the piece takes practically every surface of the museum’s third-floor gallery. A self-contained retrospective of sorts, the installation is displayed chronologically, but there’s no wrong way to navigate it. Fans of Rauschenberg will find something familiar in its mix of paint, photographs, mass media images, textiles, paint, cardboard boxes and found objects like chairs and traffic lights.

The acclaimed Chinese artist kicks off a flurry of activity in L.A. with this takeover of the Marciano’s massive theater gallery, including Ai’s floor-covering “Sunflower Seeds,” which features millions of porcelain seeds, as well as the similar but smaller “Spouts,” a pile of thousands of Song dynasty teapot spouts. “Life Cycle” also marks the premiere of its namesake work, a nearly 60-foot inflatable raft made entirely from bamboo. Inspired by the European refugee crisis, the work employs traditional kite-making techniques to create its passengers, which are often pulled from the signs of the Chinese zodiac—such figures also factor into the astounding mythological mobiles and creatures that surround the black box space.

The Beverly Hills gallery, which received an architectural overhaul from Ai Weiwei, hosts a solo show that includes the artist’s hundreds of the artist’s interlocking, marble grass-like works.

Find yourself transported to another realm—at least, if Alexander Calder’s monochromatic abstract sculptures are working as intended—in this survey of 30 of the artist’s “nonspace” pieces. Hauser & Wirth’s stark white gallery provides the perfect high-contrast backdrop for Calder’s all-black metallic sculptures (save for one with a few spots of color); the pieces weren’t purposely curated for their darkness, though, it was simply Calder’s favorite color to worth with. You’ll also find five massive sculptures in the gallery’s courtyard, often with matching maquettes to view inside.

In this dream pairing that you never even knew you needed, artist and director Julian Rosefeldt teams up with actor Cate Blanchett for a 13-channel video installation in which she reads famous artists’ manifestos. To say that Blanchett is simply reading the manifestos, though, would undersell how incredibly she inhabits each fictional character (whether as a scientist, a puppeteer or a homeless man) as she spouts reedited versions of writings from the likes of Claes Oldenburg, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Sol LeWitt and Wassily Kandinsky.

Ragnar Kjartansson’s mesmerizing, musical video installation The Visitors returns as part of this free exhibition about the passage of time. The show includes more than 50 works from the likes of Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Glenn Ligon and Anselm Kiefer. The exhibition also marks the L.A. debut of works from Sharon Lockhart, Sherrie Levine and Ed Ruscha, whose monumental diptych Azteca/Azteca in Decline will be on display.