Things to do in Los Angeles today

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings to LEVEL in Downtown L.A. Known for excellent film choices and a steady supply of snacks and booze, Rooftop Cinema Club is your snazzy, comfortable and less stressful alternative to other outdoor movie screenings. You don’t even need to bring your own camping chair—Rooftop Cinema Club provides you with your very own comfy lawn chair (with optional blankets for purchase to up the coziness). And instead of listening to the movie over loudspeakers, you’ll get a set of wireless headphones so you never have to miss a word. Find the full schedule on their site, or in our outdoor movie calendar.

The multisensory nature of art is explored in this exhibition, which looks at the intertwined relationship between contemporary art and living materials through large-scale installations, painting, mixed-media sculpture, video and sound. Over 20 artists from North, Central and South America have employed mediums like stones, avocado, cacao, achiote, cochineal and clay in their works, inviting visitors to engage their senses of touch, smell and hearing when interacting with the art. On Saturday, April 4, get an after-hours sneak peek of “Several Eternities,” plus three more new spring exhibitions, complemented by sets by Chulita Vinyl Club DJs in the courtyard, a photobooth and a cyanotype art-making activity—all free.

When I first stepped foot inside of this exhibition of decommissioned Confederate monuments and reflective contemporary art pieces, I was taken aback by the scale of it all. I’d seen the installation photos of the side-by-side statues of Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee on horseback, but as I craned my neck up at these towering tributes, they felt awe-inspiring in the most dreadful meaning of the phrase. Most Angelenos don’t need to be convinced of the immoralities of the Confederacy—but most likely haven’t been forced to come face-to-face with such Civil War iconography either. “Monuments,” displayed almost entirely at MOCA’s Little Tokyo warehouse with a single Kara Walker installation at the Brick in East Hollywood, presents tangible proof that these monuments removed from public view over the past decade were not simple, somber remembrances for the recently deceased, these were larger-than-life celebrations of the Confederacy forged in the Jim Crow era and often financed by folks seeking to twist its history. Works from 19 artists respond either directly or thematically to the many statues on display, or in some cases physically alter them: Bethany Collins’s Love is dangerous chisels pieces of the granite pedestal of a Stonewall Jackson monument into Carolina rose petals. Other graffitied or paint-splattered statues speak for themselves: The Robert E. Lee monument at the center of 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia resides...

Nature lovers, rejoice! The Natural History Museum is bringing back its annual Butterfly Pavilion, which will be open March 22 through August 23 and house up to 30 butterfly and moth species, as well as an assortment of California plants. The seasonal outdoor exhibit allows for adults and children alike to witness nature up close—we’re talking walking amid hundreds of butterflies and having them land on your arms or shoulders. You’ll need to purchase a $10 add-on ticket on top of your museum ticket in order to explore the pavilion for a half-hour.

When Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu made his debut feature, Amores Perros, over a million feet of film didn’t make it to the final cut (to put that into perspective, the finished two-and-a-half-hour movie used around 18,000 feet of film). Twenty five years later, some of these unearthed reels of celluloid now zip through a ground-floor gallery at LACMA as part of a multi-channel film installation. As much a piece of sculpture as it is film or video art, Sueño Perro assembles six 35mm projectors that pierce the hazy near-dark space with raw, nonlinear snippets of the movie, fed from a mesmerizing curtain of film stock speeding along sprockets. It’s an intense experience, both sonically (during the car crash that connects the feature’s storylines) and visually (dog fighting plays a pivotal role in the film, though you’ll see here some of the behind-the-scenes tricks that kept the production cruelty-free).

Made up of a Melrose Avenue workshop and two galleries—including one designed by Frank Gehry—Gemini G.E.L. has been at the forefront of fine art printmaking for 60 years now, an accomplishment it’s celebrating in this show which doubles as a love letter to L.A. On display are innovative works by artists including David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg—many of which haven’t been shown in decades—which are inspired by the atmosphere and streets of Los Angeles.

You may have come across Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s massive troll sculptures—which he makes from reclaimed wood and hides in nature to encourage people to get out and enjoy the outdoors—on Instagram. But you don’t need to book a trip to Denmark to see the gentle giants. The 87 acres of Palos Verdes’s South Coast Botanic Garden are currently home to 12 of the whimsical figures, and you can glimpse them all with your general admission ticket. For $33, you can take a guided walking tour of the Twelvelings (with general admission included). To see the trolls in a different light, one night a month, the gardens will host the Canopy Club—an after-hours dance party in the woods with pop-up performances, food and drinks ($34–$50).

It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile—or if you’re more of a fan of the street racing and respect era or heists and hackers phase of Fast & Furious: There’s plenty of familiar motorized might to behold at this Petersen Automotive Museum exhibition honoring the high-adrenaline film franchise. You’ll find roughly 20 screen-used cars and production prototypes—including ones on loan from Vin Diesel’s private collection, as well as from the late Paul Walker—on display in the second floor of the Miracle Mile museum. It’s a very Fast & Furious kind of year in L.A. between Universal Studios’ roller coaster and this 25th anniversary exhibition. While the Petersen’s exhibition is certainly encyclopedic (the selections here span the entirety of the franchise, with a particular focus on the first three films), it’s not overly academic: Brief labels will let you know the story behind the stunt car you’re staring at, but this is ultimately an opportunity to ogle American muscle cars and custom Japanese imports (as well as the franchise’s melodramatic quotes about family). Highlights on display include the 1993 Toyota Supra “Stunt #3” and 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) in the original film, Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) 1968 Dodge Charger R/T and 1993 Mazda RX-7, and Suki’s (Devon Aoki) very pink 2001 Honda S2000.

This show aims to give Black queer culture in California—particularly in Los Angeles—the credit it’s due as a part of the decades-long fight for LGBTQ+ rights and recognition. Through historical materials, photographs, film and vintage newspapers, the exhibition recovers a history that’s been largely excluded from the record, introducing visitors to sites, protagonists and allies who played a role in the fight for democracy and free expression. 

Nonprofit arts organization the Billboard Creative mounts this annual show around town, which turns the city into an open-air gallery. Billboards around L.A. will sport works by a diverse group of 20 artists working across different mediums, whose art will be seen by hundreds of thousands of commuters. This year’s “Sightlines: Art in Public View” iteration kicks off April 6 and runs through May 4. A mobile map shows you all of the entries’ locations and shares info about each artist.