July 2025 events calendar for Los Angeles

This spectacular exhibition from the Icelandic–Danish artist brings a new series of optical installations to MOCA’s Little Tokyo location. Don’t let the reflective, colorful pieces fool you into thinking this is some run-of-the-mill “immersive” exhibit: Olafur Eliasson’s works invite you to admire the everyday miracles of physics that shape how we see the world. The towering, mirror-lined stacks that fill the entrance of “OPEN” bring the outside in, as the warehouse-style Geffen Contemporary’s skylights create infinite spaces and mini worlds out of the sun and sky. The surprisingly analog optics behind them can be truly sublime: Gently moving water has a pair of pieces appear as shimmery landscapes, mirrors turn tubing into floating rings that trail into a black void and a simple array of pendants produce colorful flares against a screen. These aren’t pieces you’re meant to disappear into; instead, they provide a lens for the enviornment around us. You’ll need a timed ticket ($18) to see “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN.” Look for reservations on the first Friday of the month, from 5 to 8pm, for free admission.

More than 50 works on display at the Autry showcase how indigenous artists have crafted visions of alternative futures in the face of enduring colonial trauma. The bottom-floor exhibition opens with a semicircle of high fashion, including remarkable crow attire from Cannupa Hanska Luger, which is paired with video footage from his accompanying performance piece. Star Wars plays a surprisingly large role in the vibrant show, including Andy Everson’s Northwest Coast-inspired take on stormtrooper helmets. The exhibition spills into the upstairs galleries, too, with a surreal spacescape from Wendy Red Star and a multimedia installation from Virgil Ortiz, who’s reimagined the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 through a Dune-meets-MCU film-like lens. Also, make sure to check out the museum’s other PST ART show, which opened back in May and runs through January 5, 2025; “Out of Site: Survey Science and the Hidden West” tackles everything from mining surveys to nuclear blasts in its examination of documenting and surveilling Western U.S. landscapes.

We kind of just take it for granted when we gawk at a screen, but there’s a ton of science and craft behind the use of color in film. This Academy Museum exhibition dives into just that, with more than 150 objects—cameras, costumes, props and film posters—from the 1890s to today. The show’s rainbow-sequence costume gallery—with pieces from Django Unchained, The Shining and the return of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz—is a visual feast of recognizable cinema relics. But the most eye-catching components come in the hands-on Color Arcade, where you can splash digital paint across a screen or press into the stretchy recreation of Oskar Fischinger’s Lumigraph, a trippy illuminated instrument. “Color in Motion” is broken up into six areas: The exhibition looks at the connection between color, music and movement, like in early dance and animated shorts; decades of color technologies, from Technicolor processes and Disney’s women-led Ink & Paint Department to contemporary digital tools; tinted reels of otherwise-black-and-white silent films; the narrative role of color; and experimental works (the Color Arcade fills that sixth slot). The show debuts alongside “Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema,” a comparatively smaller exhibition in the museum’s central double-height gallery. On the bottom floor, you can watch a supercut of films in the genre, while upstairs features props and artwork from Blade Runner, The Terminator and Ex Machina, plus a restore

The Natural History Museum’s taxidermy dioramas turn a century old this year, and to celebrate the museum is reviving an entire hall of displays that’ve been dark for decades. Expect some fresh approaches to these assembled snapshots of the wilderness, including alebrijes made of recycled materials, a crystalline depiction of pollution and a tech-driven display of the L.A. River.

See over 50 garments from Diane von Furstenberg, best known for her iconic wrap dress, during this career-spanning exhibition at the Skirball. Alongside artwork and fabric swatches, the show will also focus on her philanthropic work as well as how her life was shaped as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

Study the technical and cultural background of colorful clay vessels, textiles, bark-paper pages and sculptures in the Indigenous Americas—and how their significance has been downplayed among colonialist histories—during this LACMA exhibition.

I’m not okay: After a few increasingly large local shows, aughts pop-punk fixture My Chemical Romance again returns to L.A. for its biggest concert yet—this time around at Dodger Stadium. The band will be celebrating its much-loved album The Black Parade at this show, which includes support from local outfit Wallows.

This musical, which we awarded three stars during its New York run, charts gruff singer-songwriter Neil Diamond’s rise to stardom.

The classic film returns as a Broadway musical, and it’s cooking with gas. Check out our four-star review of its New York run.