Museums

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich.

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love Walker’s cheerfully ferocious subject is the black experience in a proud nation whose prosperity and might were substantially built on the degrading legacy of black slavery. The first room features a 50-foot-wide diorama in which silhouette figures attached to the curved wall are slightly larger than life-size. The refined, formal elegance of the artist’s debonair design sense is put to the rudest ends (C.K.). Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Tue.-Wed., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Mon.; ends June 8. (310) 443-7000.

Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement The exhibition brings together a diverse and satisfying array of recent work. Sometimes the art is specific to questions of ethnic identity; often it’s not. What’s passing into history is an aesthetic that matured in the 1970s, produced by Mexican American artists with an eye toward articulation of the Mexican American experience. A full generation later, what has arrived on the scene is something different – an aesthetic produced by Mexican American artists with an eye toward articulating whatever they darn well please. Thirty-one artists – most based here, some in Texas, New York and elsewhere – are represented by 102 works (C.K.). Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Mon.-Tue., Thu., noon-8 p.m.; Fri., noon-9 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Wed.; ends Sept. 1. (323) 857-6000.