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The Best Episodes of Artbound

Every episode of Artbound ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Artbound!

The Best Episodes of Artbound

This Emmy award-winning arts and culture series examines the lives, works and creative processes of arts and culture innovators making an impact in Southern California...

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  1. 8.7/10(7 votes)

    #1 - Mustache Mondays: The Power of an LGBTQ Party

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    S12:E6

    See how a roving LGBTQ night club event in Los Angeles called “Mustache Mondays” became a creative incubator for today’s leading edge contemporary artists. This film examines the history of these spaces and how they shaped the Queer cultural fabric unique to Southern California.

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  2. 8.5/10(14 votes)

    #2 - That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles

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    S9:E1

    During his time spent in Southern California in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Frank Lloyd Wright accelerated the search for L.A.'s authentic architecture that was suitable to the city's culture and landscape. Writer/Director Chris Hawthorne, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times, explores the houses the legendary architect built in Los Angeles.

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  3. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Jackrabbits and Date Farmers

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    S1:E1

    The premiere episode of Artbound features the pop art of Coachella Valley artists the Date Farmers, the world of Muslim American fashion, an exploration of the Morongo Desert's "jackrabbit" homesteads, the history of steel houses in Palm Springs, and a musical performance by Cut Chemist.

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  4. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Metralleta de Oro and Ultraviolet

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    S4:E1

    In this episode, Artbound heads to San Bernardino to explore the tubular sandbagging construction techniques of the California Institute of Earth Architecture, whose handmade structures are redefining sustainable housing. In Boyle Heights, the group Public Matters’ Market Makeover project is addressing the "grocery gap" in "food deserts," areas that have limited access to quality, healthy food.

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  5. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture

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    S4:E2

    Machine Project recently invited and filmed over 20 artists to create performances that respond to notable architectural sites throughout Los Angeles, collectively creating The Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture. The project was part of the larger Getty initiative, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L. A., celebrating California’s modern architectural heritage.

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  6. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #6 - East is Eden

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    S4:E3

    In this episode, Artbound investigates arts practices from communities East of Los Angeles, venturing from Lincoln Heights to San Bernardino. Meet the group Metralleta de Oro, who specialize in Sonidero, a sub-genre of the Mexican cumbia in Lincoln Heights. In Boyle Heights, the group Public Matters’ Market Makeover project addresses the “grocery gap” in food deserts.

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Artbound

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  8. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #7 - MOCAtv

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    S4:E4

    Artbound presents an hour-long special featuring short, vibrant videos from MOCAtv, the art video channel developed as a digital extension of the education and exhibition programming of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). Featuring an eclectic mix of videos profiling artworks like Barry Le Va's "Shatterscatter" and prolific artists such as Sterling Ruby, Nan Goldin, and more.

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    Writer:Soko
  9. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #8 - 100 Mules Walking The Los Angeles Aqueduct

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    S4:E5

    "Artbound" travels with Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio as they perform "One Hundred Mules Walking the Los Angeles Aqueduct," a commemorative artist action to reconnect Los Angeles to its water supply by walking the entire 240-mile route of the Los Angeles Aqueduct with a team of 100 hundred mules. The action marked the 100-year anniversary of the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

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  10. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #9 - American Purgatory

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    S6:E1

    Artbound explores the paintings of Marc Trujillo who brings the techniques of the Dutch Masters to the subject of commercial architecture and fast-food in Southern California; Kim Stringfellow’ s Mojave Project discovering the eclectic desert communities of the Mojave Desert; Dave Lefner’s colored wood block prints of neon signs in Los Angeles; and the subculture of Brazilian cholos.

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  11. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Borderlands

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    S6:E2

    Artbound explores art along the U.S.-Mexico border. Featuring Mexicali Rose, an artist organization in Mexicali, where locals are encouraged to create art to galvanize community involvement; Drones as art, where multiple projects re-appropriating military drones play with the idea of surveillance and mobility; Paul Turounet’s photographs of undocumented border-crossers printed on galvanized metal.

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  12. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #11 - Steel Modern

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    S6:E3

    Artbound explores the architectural past and present in Southern California. Featuring Danny Heller’s paintings of mid-century modern architecture in Palm Springs; the superadobe construction techniques of Cal-Earth whose experimental designs are challenging the ubiquitous cookie-cutter suburban communities in the urbanized southwestern Mojave Desert and more.

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  13. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Monomania L.A.

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    S6:E4

    A series of short documentary films in partnership with USC Libraries profiles four "L.A. as Subject" collectors who have obsessively focused on a narrow slice of Southern California history. Featuring Carol Wells, Founder of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics; David Boule, private collector and author of "The Orange and the Dream of California," and more.

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  14. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #13 - The State of Creativity

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    S6:E5

    An Artbound special episode on the Otis Report on the Creative Economy: Using key data from the newest issue of the report, the documentary explores the vibrant network of creativity in Southern California, examining how creative businesses are investing in community building and driving economic activity in Boyle Heights; the network of industries involved in the denim manufacturing; and more.

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  15. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser

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    S6:E6

    An Artbound special episode in partnership with the Grand Central Art Center. “Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser” considers the usage of “female Hysteria” throughout the decades in operatic form. Vireo is the brainchild of long-time collaborators, composer Lisa Bielawa and librettist Erik Ehn.

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  16. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #15 - MOCA: Episode 3

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    S6:E7

    This "Artbound" special episode, in partnership with MOCAtv, features The Museum of Contemporary Art's current programming, including an Elaine Sturtevant retrospective and exhibition "William Pope.L's Trinket." The episode also features Martine Syms, Jeffrey Vallance, Jasmin Shokrian, and music videos by Devin Kenny and Teengirl Fantasy.

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  17. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Charles Lummis - Reimagining the American West

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    S8:E1

    In this new season, Artbound travels back to pre-industrial Los Angeles to explore one of its key and most controversial figures – Charles Lummis. Writer and editor of the LA Times, avid collector and preservationist, Indian rights activist, and founder of LA’s first museum, – The Southwest – Lummis’s genius and idiosyncratic personality captured the ethos of an era and a region.

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  18. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Artesanos / Artisans

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    S8:E2

    The highly skilled labor of artisans migrating from Mexico and Latin America are the backbone of high-end design and retail in Los Angeles, producing some of the most exquisite furniture, textiles, and design goods. Artbound uncovers their stories and their role in making Los Angeles and Southern California the creative capital of the world.

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  19. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Fallujah - Art, Healing, and PTSD

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    S8:E3

    U.S. Marine Sergeant Christian Ellis was a machine gunner in Iraq, whose platoon was ambushed, leaving him with a broken back and only one of a few survivors. Ellis returned home to join millions of Americans who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder and inspired the first opera about the Iraq war -- "Fallujah" -- a production by the Long Beach Opera.

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  20. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #19 - MOCA - Beyond The Museum Walls

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    S8:E4

    Artbound explores the programming of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, investigating new programming and curatorial approaches that are redefining what it means to be a 21st century museum. This episode features three new programs by The Underground Museum, Wolvesmouth, and Public Fiction.

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  21. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Third L.A. with Architectural Critic Christopher Hawthorne

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    S8:E5

    Architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne partners with Artbound to look at the future of Los Angeles by examining its architecture, urban planning, transportation and changing demographics, giving us a glimpse of Los Angeles as a model of urban renewal for the nation and the world.

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  22. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Hopscotch - An Opera for the 21st Century

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    S8:E6

    Artbound explores the groundbreaking opera Hopscotch, which unfolded in cars throughout Los Angeles, telling a single story of a disappearance across time. Audiences experienced the work in both the intimacy of a car, where artists and audiences shared a confined space, or in a larger central hub, where all the journeys were live streamed to create a dizzying panorama of life in Los Angeles.

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  23. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #22 - Desert X

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    S9:E2

    The vast, strange, sometimes contradictory world of the urban desert and its people are explored in 11 public art exhibits and their respective locations. Desert X is a site-specific biennial exhibition that first took place in the spring of 2017 where artists from different parts of the world were invited to create work in response to the unique conditions of the Coachella Valley.

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  24. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Electric Earth: The Art of Doug Aitken

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    S9:E3

    This episode profiles prominent artist Doug Aitken who for more than 20 years has shifted the perception and location of images and narratives. His multichannel video installations, sculptures, photographs, publications, happenings and architectural works demonstrate the nature and structure of our ever-mobile, ever-changing, image-based contemporary condition.

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  25. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Variedades: Olvera Street

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    S9:E4

    This look at Los Angeles’ Olvera Street is part-history lesson and part-immersion in stereotype of the birthplace of Los Angeles. Emmy® award-winning journalist, author and musician Rubén Martínez, explores the sometimes-violent, 200-year struggle for the political and symbolic control of the city as told in “Variedades” – an interdisciplinary performance series.

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  26. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #25 - La Raza

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    S9:E5

    In East Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s, a group of young activists used creative tools like writing and photography as a means for community organizing, providing a platform for the Chicano Movement in the form of the bilingual newspaper/magazine La Raza.

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Best Episodes Summary

"Mustache Mondays: The Power of an LGBTQ Party" is the best rated episode of "Artbound". It scored 8.7/10 based on 7 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 11/17/2021. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles".