What Should You See at Susan Silton’s First Major Survey Before It Closes?

Short answer

Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck, the first major survey of the Los Angeles-based artist, is on view at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) at Barnsdall Art Park through Sunday, November 22, 2026 – less than a month from now. The exhibition gathers more than 150 works, admission is free, and the gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, 11am-4pm.

LAMAG is at 4800 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. All times are local to Los Angeles.

Key facts

• Exhibition: Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck, the artist’s first major survey, per LAMAG.
• Dates: September 3 to November 22, 2026.
• Venue: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027.
• Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 11am-4pm, and by appointment. Closed during installation periods and on official City holidays.
• Admission: Free.
• Curator: organized by guest curator Andy Campbell, with organizational and curatorial support from LAMAG curator Nancy Meyer. Originated at the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston.
• Catalogue: a nearly 300-page catalogue, co-published by the Blaffer Art Museum and Inventory Press.

Where does the title come from?

From a 1972 poem by Adrienne Rich, in which a diver descends to explore an unnamed “wreck” – perhaps her own life, perhaps her coming to consciousness within the feminist movement, perhaps a relationship long after its end; the poem leaves it open. Rich writes: “I came to explore the wreck. / The words are purposes. The words are maps.”

LAMAG treats the poem as a touchstone for Silton’s practice: an art that presses on the limits of text, vision, perception and participation.

What will you see in the exhibition?

The survey spans participatory and multimedia installations, photographic, video and audio works, early graphic pieces and textual interventions. LAMAG presents Silton as a key figure in West Coast conceptual, feminist and queer genealogies of art and design. Two works anchor the visit.

• In everything there is the trace (2013): a circular table built from ten interlocking desks, each structurally dependent on its neighbors, each with a manual typewriter. During the run of the exhibition, participants retype Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower – a novel set in a dystopian 2020s – without ink, in what is called stencil mode, so the only record is the imprint of the keys striking the page.
• Civilized Voices (2026): a new site-specific public project debuting with the exhibition. Five hand-painted billboards among the pine trees in front of the gallery carry new poems by five Los Angeles-area poets: Rocío Carlos, Cathy Linh Che, Erin Marie Lynch, Lynne Thompson and Terry Wolverton. The project pays homage to Aline Barnsdall, who used billboards in the park for social and political messaging in the 1940s.

What programs are still ahead?

• Saturday, November 7, 2-3pm: catalogue release, with a performance reading by writer Dana Johnson.
• Sunday, November 8, 12pm: Silton leads a Metro Art tour of her permanent installation WE,OUR,US at the Wilshire/Fairfax station.
• Saturday, November 14, 2-4pm: Let’s Get Lost!, a public giveaway of Silton’s Make-Ready posters, with artist Kiki and guitarist Nate Rich.

How can context shape the visit?

Much of this work turns on what gets recorded and what disappears – words typed without ink, voices moving through a crowd. Reading the rooms as an argument about language and public memory is close to what Antre calls cultural mediation: enough context for each visitor to form their own reading. Antre’s own term, adaptive cultural mediation, describes how that context can adjust to what each person already knows.

For other Los Angeles guides, see Cecilia Vicuña at MOCA Los Angeles and The Kitchen and Home of the Future at LACMA.

How should you plan the visit?

Admission is free, and LAMAG also runs free public programs. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, 11am-4pm, and by appointment; it closes during installation periods and on official City holidays.

The exhibition ends on Sunday, November 22, 2026, so the remaining window is under a month. The gallery is at Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard; the phone number is (323) 644-6269. Check the gallery’s pages before you go, because hours can change.

FAQ

Is the Susan Silton exhibition free?

Yes. The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery offers free admission and programs.

When does Diving into the Wreck close?

On Sunday, November 22, 2026.

Where is the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery?

At Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. It is open Thursday through Sunday, 11am-4pm.

Who is Susan Silton?

A Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist. Her projects – performance, participatory works, photography, video, installation, text/audio and print – have been presented at MOCA Los Angeles, SFMOMA, the Hammer Museum and LAXART, among others.

About Antre

Antre is building an app that gives artworks their context, starting with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Join the waiting list at antre.art.

Sources

• Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery: Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck exhibition page: description, dates, works, title source, public programs and artist biography.
• Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery: About page: free admission, hours and address.