A Chinese Filmmaker Shares His Message With L.A.

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Los Angeles, “Yang Fudong: Sparrow on the Sea” (Until July 26)
In his photos and films, the Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fudong confronts a rapidly changing China. His film debut came in 2002 with An Estranged Paradise, followed by international acclaim. But in some ways, his 2024 film Sparrow on the Sea, shot in Hong Kong, marks a new direction for the artist. “China has a saying that 50 is the middle point of life: as you grow old, your understanding of life, of art, of time, all change,” Fudong said. “You have to seriously contemplate anew how to create art and how to live.” In this show, the new film is complemented by photographic stills, mixed media triptychs, and photography. mariangoodman.com

Lacoste, “Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés” (Until Sept. 28)
In childhood, Christian Dior spent his summers tending to his mother’s garden at their seaside house in Normandy. “I have the most tender and amazing memories…of my childhood home,” he later wrote in his autobiography. “I would even say that my life and my style owe almost everything to its site and architecture.” Indeed, the English garden’s fauna inspired the “woman-flowers” Dior would sketch, the “soft shoulders, fine waists like liana and wide skirts like corolla” of his dresses, and the House’s floral perfumes like Miss Dior. This summer, SCAD’s Provence campus blooms with Dior’s floral inspiration, from his first collection to the House’s later dress designs and more than 60 hats, shoes, and jewelry. scadfash.org

New York, “Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity” (Until Oct. 12)
Ben Shahn said he painted two things: “what I love and what I abhor.” An immigrant from Lithuania, Shahn admired the working American and criticized governmental injustice. His paintings depict the woes of American life through the Great Depression and Vietnam War, without reservation. When the U.S. entered WWII, Shahn designed posters for the Office of War Information. This is the first US retrospective in half a century dedicated to the social realist artist and activist, with 175 paintings, mural studies, photos, and posters from the 1930s to the 1960s. thejewishmuseum.org

Berlin, “Lygia Clark: Retrospective” (Until Oct. 12)
In 1959, Brazilian art critic Ferreira Gullar published the “Neo-Concrete Manifesto,” arguing that art shouldn’t be a static representation but “like living organisms.” This birthed a movement of Brazilian artists most concerned with the relationship between the art and observer. One of the movement’s pioneering leaders was artist Lygia Clark, who throughout her career sought to explore new ways for the viewer—or “participant”—to perceive, interact, and experience art. In 1954, she began rupturing the canvas and making 3D works. In 1960, she furthered the idea with the creation of hinged metal objects, called Bichos (Critters). Her first retrospective in Germany shows 120 of her early abstract paintings, participatory sculptures, and performances. smb.museum

Toronto, “Recuerdo: Latin American Photography” (Until Oct. 19)
“Does Latin American refer to works done in Latin America, by Latin American makers, about Latin America, or all of the above?” asks Marina Dumont-Gauthier, the exhibitions curator. Dumont-Gauthier has brought together works by Latin American photographers Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, artists of the diaspora like Rafael Goldchain, and photographers who’ve produced significant works in the region. Over 100 images from the past 100 years from Mexico to Argentina explore how photography preserves and creates memory, and how it can be from and of a place. ago.ca