The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has officially opened the David Geffen Galleries, a massive glass-and-concrete structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. Elevated nine meters above the ground and spanning Wilshire Boulevard, the 275-meter-long building replaces several older structures to house the museum’s permanent collection. The inaugural installation, developed by a team of 45 curators, abandons traditional chronological displays in favor of a geographic framework organized around four major bodies of water: the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.
This opening marks the culmination of a controversial, two-decade transformation of one of America’s most significant encyclopedic museums. By utilizing a non-linear layout and focusing on maritime exchange networks, the museum is attempting to decenter Western art history and highlight global interconnectedness. The project also features major new site-specific commissions from artists including Do Ho Suh, Lauren Halsey, and Todd Gray, signaling a shift in how large-scale institutions integrate contemporary practice with historical archives.