Image via Complex Original
Southern California (and the state as a whole) has a lot of great galleries and museums to choose from. From LACMA to MOCA and every acronym in-between, there is no shortage of art institutions at which individuals or families can walk from room to room, gazing at the masterpieces on the walls and the incredible sculptures on the floors. For this list, we decided to suggest a few art destinations that aren’t defined by walls, but instead exist in the open air. Grab some sunblock and a few friends and check out a few of The Best Outdoor Art Destinations in Southern California.
Location: Los Angeles
The Graff Lab is described as an “urban sanctuary” where kids, adults, and artists of all ages are free to paint without worrying about breaking the law. They also offer tutoring programs and music lessons, but walking through the yard and viewing the graffiti is also cool.
Location: Los Angeles
Spanning five acres of the UCLA campus, this sculpture garden features over 70 works by Rodin, Alexander Calder, Hans Arp, Deborah Butterfield, and many more. The garden was created by former UCLA chancellor Franklin Murphy and resident architect Ralph D. Cornell. Visitors can follow the map routes to see each sculpture, or wander and hang out on the open lawns and seating areas. Tours of the art are available, and there is more art just steps away, inside the Hammer Museum, that you can also check out.
Location: Niland, Calif.
Salvation Mountain is one of the largest outdoor art installations in the state of California, and it was made entirely by one man. The late Leonard Knight created the installation in the desert as a “tribute to God and his gift to the world.” Biblical scriptures and messages of love cover the hill, an installation made using a mixture of straw and adobe, and covered with an estimated 100,000 gallons of paint.
Location: San Diego
The Edwards Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in La Jolla features site-specific sculptures and installations by Ed Ruscha, Nancy Rubins, Roman de Salvo, Vito Acconci, Mauro Staccioli, and others. The museum asks that you don’t touch the artwork, except for Roman de Salvo’s Liquid Ballistics cannon, which doubles as a seesaw with a built-in water fountain.
Location: Borrego Springs, Calif.
In the deserts of Borrego Springs, there are over 120 metal animal sculptures spread out across three miles of undeveloped land. The property belonged to the late Dennis Avery of the Avery Dennison Corporation, who commissioned artist Ricardo Breceda to create prehistoric animals, camels, turtles, and other creatures, the largest being a 350-foot-long serpent. Visiting the Galleta Meadows Estate is free if you’re willing to make the drive out there.
Location: Los Angeles
The MCLA tour stops are technically more than one “destination,” but they’re worth including on this list. Los Angeles has tons of awesome street art, and the conservancy was founded in 1987 to “restore, preserve, and document the murals” for future generations. They also help the artists by protecting their legal rights as a way to thank them for their contribution to the history and culture of the city. Private and public tours are offered for a small fee, or you can check their database and find the murals for yourself.
Location: Los Angeles
Some of the paintings on the half-mile long Great Wall of Los Angeles date back to 1976. It was the first public art project started by the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), and was painted over the course of five summers by over 400 kids and their families. The art on the wall represents a timeline of the ethnic people of California from prehistoric times up until the 1950s. Over the years, SPARC has worked to maintain and restore the artwork on the wall with help from the community and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. With such a rich history and the distinction of being one of the longest murals in the world, The Great Wall of Los Angeles is definitely worth checking out.
Location: La Jolla, Calif.
Situated on the University of California, San Diego’s campus, the Stuart Collection features some pretty interesting pieces. There is a massive Bear rock statue by Tim Hawkinson, a patterned Terrace by Jackie Ferrera, a large Green Table inscribed with text by Jenny Holzer, and a full home and garden installation on the roof of Jacobs Hall by Do Ho Suh titled Fallen Star, just to name a few.
Location: Colorado Desert, Calif.
A trip down to Slab City almost always means a trip to East Jesus. The trash-art Mecca is a little out there, but it is definitely worth the experience. Started by a man named Charles Stephen Russell in 2007, the “experimental, habitable, extensible artwork in progress” is less than a mile away from another popular art destination on this list, Salvation Mountain. Pack both into one day and it just may be one of the most memorable days of your life.
Location: Joshua Tree, Calif.
Venture into the desert to view this incredible ten-acre village of sculptures by Noah Purifoy that took 15 years to make. Purifoy lived in the Mojave and created the sculptures out of objects that he found, including a house, theater, commissary, and various other works. The artist passed away in 2004, but the outdoor museum is still preserved and maintained by a foundation that bears his name.
Location: Los Angeles
One of the many cool things to see outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass sculpture. The work is comprised of a 340-ton granite boulder resting above a 456-foot-long walkway through which visitors can pass and look up at the impressive monolith. The sculpture’s journey to the museum became a spectacle in itself, with tens of thousands of people watching as the boulder was taken down the streets of Los Angeles back in 2012.
Other outdoor attractions at LACMA include Chris Burden’s Urban Light assemblage of street light poles (which are lit 24 hours a day), Alexander Calder’s Hello Girls sculpture, and Robert Irwin’s Primal Palm Garden.
