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.

Mustache Mondays: The Power of an LGBTQ Party

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.

That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles

From the iconic typeface of “The Godfather” book cover to Herman Miller’s Noguchi table, the influence of Japanese American artists and designers in postwar American art and design is unparalleled. While this second generation of Japanese American artists have been celebrated in various publications and exhibitions with their iconic work, less-discussed are the effects of the WWII incarceration.

Masters of Modern Design

In 1981, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez wrote “Love and Rockets #1,” a self-published comic book edited by their brother Mario. They sold that first issue at conventions for a dollar apiece and submitted it to be reviewed at The Comics Journal. Instead, Gary Groth, offered to republish it through Fantagaphics Books. The brothers accepted and made graphic novel publishing history.

Love & Rockets: The Great American Comic Book

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.

Jackrabbits and Date Farmers

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.

Metralleta de Oro and Ultraviolet

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.

Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture

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.

East is Eden

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.

MOCAtv

"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.

100 Mules Walking The Los Angeles Aqueduct

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.

American Purgatory

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.

Borderlands

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.

Steel Modern

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.

Monomania L.A.

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.

The State of Creativity

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.

Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser

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.

MOCA: Episode 3

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.

Charles Lummis - Reimagining the American West

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.

Artesanos / Artisans

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.

Fallujah - Art, Healing, and PTSD

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.

MOCA - Beyond The Museum Walls

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.

Third L.A. with Architectural Critic Christopher Hawthorne

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.

Hopscotch - An Opera for the 21st Century

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.

Desert X

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.

Electric Earth: The Art of Doug Aitken

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.

Variedades: Olvera Street

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.

La Raza

The natural beauty of California has inspired artists from around the world. Today, as artists continue to engage with California’s environment, they echo and critique earlier art practices that represent nature in “The Golden State” in a particular way. Featuring artists Richard Misrach and Hillary Mushkin.

No Trespassing: A Survey of Environmental Art

While matriarchs may hold enormous symbolism in art history, women taking on motherhood may be the last taboo in contemporary art. Mother artists Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Tanya Aguñiga, Rebecca Campbell and Andrea Chung confront the stakes while exploring the realities of art and motherhood.

Artist and Mother

Native American basketry has long been viewed as a community craft, yet the artistic quality and value of these baskets are on par with other fine art. Now Native peoples across the country are revitalizing basketry traditions and the country looks to California as a leader in basket weaving revitalization.

The Art of Basketweaving

In a world filled with noise, distractions and chaos, a number of artists seek to push the boundaries of perception and experience. The Light and Space movement of the 1960s explored minimalism with a uniquely Californian spin — with a keen attention to the interaction of light and space.

Light & Space

Growing up amongst jazz legends within the deep musical traditions of Leimert Park, drummer Mekala Session and his peers grapple with how to preserve this rich legacy—striving to carry forward the tenets that took root in the work of Horace Tapscott and his Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. This is the story of Los Angeles’ emerging generation of community-focused black musicians.

The New West Coast Sound: An L.A. Jazz Legacy

This 2019 L.A.-wide exhibition of public art and events based around the theme of food. Each artist interpreted a different aspect or issue surrounding food or food systems in the city. Activating public parks throughout the city, artists created works to spark conversation about what it means to live in Los Angeles and how to work together for a sustainable and hopeful future.

Current:LA Food

The Watts Towers Arts Center was founded by artists and educators in the 1960s and has been a beacon of art and culture in the community for decades. This episode features the work of artists including Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, Betye Saar, Charles White and Mark Steven Greenfield.

The Watts Towers Arts Center

A pioneer of Chicano rock ’n’ roll, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara recounts his life in music, performance art and activism — from his time as lead singer of the doo-wop band The Apollo Brothers, his collaborations with Frank Zappa and Cheech Marin, and his crossover into the Chicano performance art world of the 1960s and 1970s — all of which shaped Mexican American culture.

Con Safos: The Story of Chicano Music Pioneer Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara

Renowned ceramist and educator Helen Jean Taylor has not only crafted timeless artworks inspired by colors found in home gardens, but also helped her students improve their mental health through the art of throwing clay.

Life Centered: The Helen Jean Taylor Story

Learn how “Sweet Land,” named the Best Opera of 2020 by the Music Critics Association of North America, was made. See how it recasts the origin story of the United States through the eyes of Native Americans and immigrants. Explore how this revisionist opera was shaped by an unusual collaboration of diverse creative voices and what it says about the roots of our divided nation today.

Sweet Land: The Making of a Myth

The desert is both a place and idea. Learn how the recurring site-specific, international art exhibition “Desert X” in 2021 explored issues such as land ownership, water scarcity and overlooked histories. Desert X includes newly commissioned works by 12 participating artists from eight countries.

Desert X 2021

Southern California’s Autry Museum of the American West is working to recontextualize a large mural, dating from the Disney Imagineers-designed museum’s opening in the 1980s. It depicts a widely accepted mythology of the West, which prioritizes white settler colonialism at the expense of other perspectives including those of Native Americans, Black settlers, Asian Americans and women.

Imagined Wests: Painting a Multilayered Picture of the West

In 1963, Marcel Duchamp, considered by many to be the father of conceptual art, held his first-ever career retrospective in Los Angeles. The exhibition’s opening night became a defining moment for generations of artists who would go on to revolutionize the contemporary art world.

Duchamp Comes to Pasadena

Latinx artists have been taking center stage at international art fairs, high-end art galleries, and established museums. This episode follows noted artists rafa esparza, Beatriz Cortez, Patrick Martinez, Guadalupe Rosales, Gabriella Sanchez and Gabriela Ruiz working in Los Angeles, exploring notions of identity, language, immigration, queerness, religious and Aztec iconography, and capitalism.

Arte Cósmico

When FDR created the New Deal, also known as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as a way to provide paying jobs to millions of unemployed Americans recovering from The Great Depression. Over 140 projects were completed by the WPA in Los Angeles. This episode highlights many of these works still standing and asks the question what would a WPA look like if it still existed today.

A New Deal for Los Angeles

Giant Robot was a bimonthly magazine that created an appetite for Asian and Asian American pop culture, exploring Sawtelle Boulevard as a Japanese American enclave. Founded in 1994 and driven by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, it resulted in a legacy of Asian American artists that achieved worldwide recognition such as David Choe and James Jean.

Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond

Since the early-80s, artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres has been working as a photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker and video producer. Often associated with the development of a Mexican form of postmodernism, Ortiz-Torres’s life is a collage that explores the social and aesthetic transformations related to cross-cultural exchange and globalization.

A Rubén Ortiz-Torres Story

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 and beyond.

All Episodes of Artbound

Season 1

Jackrabbits and Date Farmers

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 8/16/2012