Spanning more than forty years, Susan Silton\u0019s multidisciplinary practice unfolds with clarity and conviction in Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, on view September 3\u0013November 22, 2026. The exhibition is a carefully considered overview, shaped by an artist whose background in 1970s and \u001980s graphic design sharpened her visual acuity across photography, design, performance, sculpture, video, audio, and installation.<\/p>\n
Visitors enter through a bright orange title wall bearing Adrienne Rich\u0019s 1972 poem Diving into the Wreck, which sets a metaphorical tone for the journey ahead. The first encounter is In front of your face<\/em> (2026), a large wrecking ball suspended from the ceiling. Inscribed with lines from Rich\u0019s poem and paired with an audio track from the 1999 film Any Given Sunday<\/em> \u0014 in which Al Pacino delivers a pre-game pep talk \u0014 the piece features wording Silton has subtly made gender neutral, redirecting its thrust from football toward politics. The wrecking ball serves as a blunt register of current affairs.<\/p>\n Silton\u0019s candor about illness and identity surfaces in You Sound Sexy<\/em> (2000), a two-channel video where a diverse group of performers mouth the words \u001cyou sound sexy.\u001d Close-ups of lips are juxtaposed with a hand sounding the rims of drinking glasses, producing a steady high-pitched tone. Prompted by changes in her vocal cords that lowered her voice, the work probes expectations around gender and voice. A later bout with cancer informed Life, Drawing<\/em> (2014): at Los Angeles art schools, Silton posed wearing only striped pants or a tutu, inviting participants to draw her breastless upper body following a double mastectomy in 2011. On view are the costumes and drawings made by more than fifty participants.<\/p>\n In the back galleries, Requiem<\/em> (2016\/2026) reflects on the 2016 shootings at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL by pairing a running list of victims\u0019 names with a film of Silton dancing to \u001cTurn the Beat Around.\u001d Performative threads continue in The Whistling Project with The Crowing Hens, a collective of women who whistle themes from iconic male-centric films; excerpts sound through speakers across the space.<\/p>\n Participation is central to In everything there is the trace<\/em> (2013), where ten manual typewriters are adhered to interlinked custom tables in a circle. Throughout the run, Silton will host sessions to re-type without ink the text of Octavia Butler\u0019s Parable of the Sower<\/em> (1993). (In a previous presentation, John Steinbeck\u0019s The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> was used.) Empty chairs and inkless typing underscore presence and erasure.<\/p>\n Photography and design practices round out the survey: self-portraits made on flatbed scanners; storm-chaser tornado photographs digitally manipulated and printed small; fumigation tents; and Aviate<\/em>, large prints of blurred, abstracted birds. A back gallery gathers posters, postcards, and books that highlight Silton\u0019s incisive play between image and text.<\/p>\n Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck runs September 3\u0013November 22, 2026 at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (lamag.org).<\/p>\nBodies, voices, and collective actions<\/h2>\n