How Do You Visit “Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions” at the Getty?
How to visit Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions at the Getty Center, Oct 20, 2026 to Feb 28, 2027. Free timed entry, hours, parking and what the five paintings respond to.
Short answer
Book a free timed-entry reservation for the Getty Center, then go to the Museum’s East Pavilion, upper level. “Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions” runs from October 20, 2026 to February 28, 2027 and presents five new paintings by the Los Angeles-born artist, made in response to three seventeenth-century Italian paintings in the Getty’s own collection. Admission is free; parking is not.
Key facts
- Who: Reggie Burrows Hodges (born 1965, Compton, California), represented by Karma, New York and Los Angeles
- What: “A Theater of Passions” – five new paintings
- Where: Getty Center, Museum East Pavilion, Upper Level, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
- When: October 20, 2026 – February 28, 2027
- Admission: free, with a timed-entry reservation; reservations open six weeks in advance; parking costs extra
- Hours: Tuesday-Friday and Sunday 10 am-6:30 pm; Saturday 10 am-9 pm; closed Mondays
- Language: the exhibition is presented in English and Spanish
- Curator: Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty Museum
- Context: one of three concurrent Los Angeles exhibitions that are Hodges’s first solo museum presentations in his hometown
What is “A Theater of Passions”?
According to the Getty, the exhibition features five new paintings by Hodges. In this series he investigated the underlying dynamics of violence and theatricality embedded in the dramatic narratives of three seventeenth-century Italian works from the Getty’s collection: “Lot and His Daughters” and “Danaë and the Shower of Gold” by Orazio Gentileschi, and “Lucretia” by Orazio’s daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi. The Getty says Hodges often begins each painting with the same composition as the historical work, then expands its formal and thematic attributes with references to his own style.
How does the Getty describe Hodges’s way of painting?
The museum says Hodges’s paintings engage with memory, labor and power, and that he builds his compositions from black grounds rather than treating dark space as emptiness. “Shifting emphasis away from descriptive naturalism, he instead privileges atmosphere, ambiguity and psychological presence,” said Davide Gasparotto in the Getty’s announcement. The same release describes soft, gestural marks and a descriptive focus on the figures’ surroundings rather than on the figures alone.
How do you look at one of these paintings?
This is a method we suggest, not the Getty’s or the artist’s.
- Start with the dark. The Getty notes that the black ground is the first layer and gives the figures their form. Let your eye adjust before you look for anything else.
- Find the figure by its edges. The contours are implied by the painted surroundings, so look for where a shape begins rather than for an outline.
- Read the setting before the person. Ask what the room, the light and the objects tell you about the figure’s situation.
- Hold the old painting next to the new one. Take one of the three source works named above – a pose, a diagonal, a fall of light – and ask what Hodges kept and what he replaced.
- Name the drama in one sentence before you read the wall text, then compare your sentence with the label.
This kind of slow, guided looking is close to what we call cultural mediation. Adaptive cultural mediation – Antre’s own term, not a Getty service – describes how an app can support that process in front of the work.
How do you get in, and what does it cost?
Entry to the Getty Center, including this exhibition, is free, but you need a timed-entry reservation. Reservations are released six weeks in advance on the Getty’s website. Parking costs extra. The Getty Center is at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. It is open Tuesday to Friday and on Sunday from 10 am to 6:30 pm, on Saturday from 10 am to 9 pm, and closed on Mondays. If you go before October 20, the East Pavilion display will not be open yet.
What about the other two Hodges exhibitions opening the same day?
Two more shows open on October 20 and together with the Getty’s they form Hodges’s first solo museum presentations in Los Angeles. “A Theater of Miracles” at the California African American Museum (CAAM) runs October 20, 2026 to February 28, 2027; several works respond to paintings in the Getty’s collection, and Jacopo Bassano’s sixteenth-century “The Miracle of the Quail” is shown there alongside them. “A Theater of Dreams” at Art + Practice in Leimert Park (3401 W. 43rd Place, open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm) runs October 20, 2026 to February 27, 2027 and presents paintings inspired by Hodges’s childhood in Compton, the legacy of Leimert Park and his travels in Europe. Each venue is a separate institution with its own hours and admission arrangements; check each one before you go. Neither is a commercial gallery: CAAM is a state museum and Art + Practice is a nonprofit.
Is there an opening-week event?
Yes. On October 27 the Getty Center hosts a free public lecture with Hodges in conversation with curators Davide Gasparotto and Bridget R. Cooks, followed by a reception and a special opportunity to view the Getty installation. Cooks curated the CAAM and Art + Practice exhibitions.
More Los Angeles guides from Antre
FAQ
Is “A Theater of Passions” free to visit?
Yes. Admission to the Getty Center and its exhibitions is free, but you need a timed-entry reservation, and parking costs extra.
When does the exhibition open and close?
It opens on October 20, 2026 and closes on February 28, 2027.
Is the exhibition available in Spanish?
Yes. The Getty presents it in English and Spanish.
Are the Gentileschi paintings in the exhibition?
The Getty’s announcement lists the five new Hodges paintings as the content of the East Pavilion display and names the three Gentileschi works as part of the museum’s collection; it does not list the historical paintings as exhibits in this show.
Do I need to visit all three Hodges exhibitions?
No. The Getty, CAAM and Art + Practice shows are independent presentations at separate institutions; each offers its own perspective on the artist.
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