ICA LA | Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Commissioned for the "Speaking in Tongues" exhibition, "Mouth Full of Spirits" is a live vocal ritual by Ron Athey (@ronathey_4 ) and Carmina Escobar (@carminaescobar ) that unfolds through glossolalia, breath, and embodied sound. At the threshold where language collapses, the performers enter a shared field of utterance in which voice detaches from meaning and becomes conduit, force, and residue. Each body holds its own opening, its own passage. In this work, sound emerges not as communication, but as visitation, fragmented, excessive, irreducible. Featured within the performance are artworks by Karen Lofgren (@karenlofgren ) and Jerónimo Naranjo (@jeronimo.naranjo ). ICA LA galleries will remain open with extended hours until the program begins at 8pm. Please arrive early, as late admission to the performance will not be permitted at the request of the performers. Following the performance, we invite you to stay for a small reception or enjoy the galleries until 10pm.

Over more than twenty�five years of composing, the sound and installation artist Raven Chacon has maintained an abiding dedication to exploring and evoking place through sound. Chacon's score "Compass," a solo for electric guitar, is included in "Speaking in Tongues" in the form of an outdoor painted mural and accompanying live performances. Informed by a range of sonic strategies and frameworks—including the traditional Western five-line musical staff, avant-garde experimentation with indeterminacy and silence, and the distortion and amplification of noise—the artist's scores are noteworthy for their precise instructions coupled with an openness, inviting musicians to interpret the notations and respond to their physical surroundings. Head to our Reels to listen to an excerpt of musician Andrew Tholl's activation of "Compass" from the exhibition opening on April 4, 2026.

Over more than twenty-five years of composing, the sound and installation artist Raven Chacon has maintained an abiding dedication to exploring and evoking place through sound. Chacon's score "Compass," a solo for electric guitar, is included in the "Speaking in Tongues" exhibition in the form of an outdoor painted mural and accompanying live performances. "Compass" is intended to be performed outdoors on an overly amplißed guitar as a harmonic progression. Intermittent instructions to the guitarist include such prompts as, "To choose the next note type and relative harmonic position where the note will occur, pay attention to the direction that the wind is blowing." Such attentiveness to place ensures that no performance of Compass will ever duplicate a previous one. This activation was performed by Andrew Tholl at ICA LA during Open House, a celebration kicking off the exhibition “Speaking in Tongues” that remains on view through August 23, 2026.

Legendary Los Angeles artist Mario Ybarra Jr. (@mario_ybarra_jr ) leads a walkthrough of "Raven Sanchez: Así Sea / So Be It," on view in ICA LA’s Project Room. Ybarra Jr. draws connections between the installation and notions of spellcasting across diasporic traditions, contextualized by art historical references. Grounded in his long-standing role as Sanchez’s mentor and his deep roots in Los Angeles, Ybarra Jr.’s tour expands beyond a traditional walkthrough and opens the format for collective reflection through storytelling, shared memories, and family histories. Together, we consider how artists honor their own lived experiences while building bridges of understanding.

Presented alongside the works on paper within "Así Sea / So Be It" is an ongoing series of sculptures begun in 2024 and made from items significant to Raven Sanchez, many gathered from the family house and during trips to Mexico. Collectively titled "Familial Feeling," the artist collages fragments such as dried chile skin, bottle caps, and a chip of original stucco. Clockwise from left: "Familial Feeling (El Mercadito, puesto 134)" (2026) "Familial Feeling (la pechilana, la baby, la nina, la pelotona, la lisa, la cindy, mijo)" (2026) "Familial Feeling (home phone)" (2025)

Now Be Here’s 10-Year Anniversary & Now Let’s Talk, Los Angeles Programming May 31, 2026, 9 am - 3 pm, Occidental College Are you an artist? Join Now Be Here on May 31, 2026, as they marks its 10-year anniversary with a new community photo and full day of artist-centered programming titled Now Let’s Talk, Los Angeles. The day will begin with a community photo of women and non-binary artists. (9 - 11 am) Artists and arts workers of all gender expressions are invited to attend the Now Let’s Talk, Los Angeles programming, including Panel Discussions and Community Conversations. (11 am - 3 pm) Now Let’s Talk, Los Angeles is presented by a coalition of 50+ regional arts organizations, and made possible through generous donations by Artlogic, ArtConverge, East West Bank, and Claremont Graduate University Art Department, with thanks to Fulcrum Arts. For more information and to RSVP, visit @nowbehereart or .

Join us for ICA LA’s annual Spring Benefit on Sunday, May 17 at the studio of Los Angeles based artists The Haas Brothers (@thehaasbrothers ). Bringing together artists, patrons, and friends of the museum, the Spring Benefit is a memorable celebration of the ICA LA community. The evening offers an intimate look inside the Haas Brothers’ new studio, designed by Chet Architecture (@chet__arch ), including a studio visit with ICA LA Executive Director Anne Ellegood (@anneellegood ), dinner by Jon & Vinny’s (@jonandvinnydelivery ) featuring a special collaboration with the Haas Brothers, and specialty cocktails by Madre Mezcal (@madremezcal ). Presented by Sam First Jazz Club (@samfirstbar ), entertainment for the evening will include the Sasha Berliner Trio, led by vibraphonist Sasha Berliner (@sashaberliner ), performed alongside Emma Dayhuff (@emmakday ) and Anthony Fung (@anthonyfungmusic ). All funds raised from the Spring Benefit directly support ICA LA’s exhibitions and Learning & Engagement programs, which provide free access to groundbreaking art and education initiatives. To purchase tickets or make a donation, visit the link in our bio or our website theicala.org/en/springbenefit. Reserve yours soon before tickets are sold out.

Friends and family join featured artist Raven Sanchez (@raven_a_sanchez ) at the opening of "Así Sea / So Be It." The exhibition remains on view through August 23. Stop by ICA LA to see over 200 wax rubbings the artist produced of her grandparents’ home in East Los Angeles.

What does it mean to be a spiritual practitioner drawing from ancestral knowledge, and what are people in need of today? Join us for a discussion between US-based spiritual workers from different diasporic communities, including Mudang Jenn (@shaman.mudang ), a Korean shaman based in New York; Pānquetzani Ticitl (@indigemama ), healer and founder of Indigemama: Ancestral Healing; and artist and SoulTender Marwa Abdul-Rahman. The conversation will be moderated by Duncan Ryuken Williams, Professor of Religion and East Asian Languages & Cultures and the Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. Participants will give short presentations on their practices and then together discuss their experiences, challenges, and the adaptations they make to work most effectively and authentically in their respective ways. This program is realized in collaboration with GYOPO (@gyopo.us ), a volunteer-powered nonprofit that organizes free public programs and projects connected to diasporic Korean arts and culture in Los Angeles and beyond.

Standing before Hanna Hur’s "Threshold," one is immediately captivated by the work’s opticality, depth of color, and dynamic form, with red lines that pulse like a pinwheel across the painting’s surface. At once drawing you in and pushing you out, the red swirls generate the illusion of movement, a throbbing sensation against a meticulously laid grid. At once container and chaos, "Threshold" seduces and repels, invites and withholds, leaving us in a state of suspension that resists any sort of finality or singular explanation.

Please join us on Wednesday, 4/29, at 7pm for 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓿𝓸𝓵𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓸𝓯 𝓐𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓵 𝓢𝓹𝓲𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓾𝓪𝓵 𝓟𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓮𝓼, presented in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA, @theicala ). 🌟 Together, U.S.-based spiritual workers across diasporic communities will explore what it means to be a spiritual practitioner drawing from ancestral knowledge today. We’ll hear from Mudang Jen (@shaman.mudang ), a Korean American artist and shaman based in New York; Pānquetzani Ticitl (@indigescuela ), healer and founder of @indigemama ; and Marwa Abdul-Rahman, a multidisciplinary artist and spirit worker. The conversation will be moderated by Duncan Ryuken Williams, Alton Brooks Professor of Religion and Director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at USC. 📍Where: ICA LA 📅 When: Wednesday, 4/29, from 7-8:30pm 🖇️ RSVP at the link in bio

"Speaking in Tongues" is here! Stop by ICA LA Wednesday–Sunday, 11am–6pm, to check out our newest exhibitions. This exhibition features an intergenerational and international group of contemporary artists who embrace the role of art as a conduit to the spiritual. Exploring and expanding notions of the sacred and the divine, the presentation includes both new and pre-existing works by artists engaging with embodied and ecstatic forms of expression, ritual, and translation. At a moment when religion is increasingly weaponized as an instrument to divide, "Speaking in Tongues" celebrates the spiritual as a tool for survival, kinship, and communion—centering the work of Indigenous and diasporic artists from the Global South to trace shared connections across geographies, cultures, and time.