The largest art museum in western America, located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Its director is Michael Govan.
LACMA's new home, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, opened to the public on May 4th 2026 after 20 years of planning and construction. The building cost $724m. Its hulking concrete-and-glass form hangs above the boulevard and has been compared to a levitating amoeba. The museum occupies a single floor—a deliberate equaliser ensuring no movement or era is presented as more important than another.
Rather than organising galleries by the conventional categories of geography, chronology or medium, LACMA has arranged its collection loosely around oceans and seas, emphasising trade and cultural exchange. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the palm trees and foothills of Los Angeles, making the city itself part of the display.
The approach typifies a movement among Western institutions towards less hierarchical, more global galleries. MoMA in New York rejected permanent exhibitions after its 2019 expansion, and the Tate Modern in London began grouping art by theme rather than chronology when it opened its permanent galleries in 2000.
Sources: The Economist, May 2nd 2026
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