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he Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announces the date and honorees of its 2024 Art+Film Gala. On Saturday, November 2, 2024, LAVMA will honor Simone Leigh and Baz Luhrmann. LACMA trustee Eva Chow and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have championed the museum’s film initiatives since 2011 and will continue their efforts as the 2024 Art+Film Gala Co-Chairs. Musical guest Charli xcx will give a special performance at the gala following the global success of her zeitgeist capturing new album BRAT. Gucci continues its invaluable partnership with the museum as the presenting sponsor of the annual event.
Michael Govan, LACMA CEO, said, “Simone Leigh is one the most captivating and important voices in contemporary art, brilliant melding an array of different artistic traditions and centering Black femme subjects in powerful and moving ways.” Walis Annenberg, Director, said, “Baz Luhrmann has crafted an emotional cinematic oeuvre over three decades, driven by his imagination and passion. We are excited to honor him alongside Simone and celebrate their remarkable careers.”
Now on view at LACMA and the California African American Museum (CAAM), Simone Leigh is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s richly layered practice and her most expansive exhibition on the West Coast to date. Presented across both institutions, the exhibition explores dozens of key works from throughout Leigh’s career, including pieces from the artist’s landmark 2022 Venice Biennale project, as well as new pieces created especially for the LA presentation. Simone Leigh closes January 20, 2025.
Eva Chow, Gala Co-Chair said, “I’m excited to bring an incredible group of people together to pay tribute to the extraordinary contributions of Simone Leigh and Baz Luhrmann. I am grateful to our longstanding partner Gucci for their profound generosity to LACMA and continued belief in the power of art and film. And I can’t wait for our amazing musical guest Charli xcx to bring the house down. It is going to be a great evening.”
Proceeds from the Annual Art+Film Gala go towards underwriting LACMA’s initiative to make film more central to the museum’s curatorial programming, while also funding LACMA’s broader mission. This includes exhibitions, acquisitions and educational programming that explore the intersection of art and film.
2024 Art+Film Honorees
About Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh, Photo by Shaniqwa Jarvis
Over the last 20 years Simone Leigh has created a multi-faceted body of work incorporating sculpture, video and installation, all informed by her ongoing exploration of Black female-identified subjectivity. Leigh describes her work as auto ethnographic, and her ceramic and bronze sculptures often employ forms traditionally associated with African art. Leigh first began exhibiting her work in the early 2000s and has had one-person museum exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Tate Gallery, London and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among other institutions. In 2014 she presented The Free People’s Medical Clinic in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, a project commissioned by Creative Time. Her work was included in the 2012 and 2019 Biennial exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and she is the first artist to be commissioned for the High Line Plinth; her monumental sculpture Brick House was unveiled in April 2019. In 2022, Leigh represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale with her exhibition ‘Simone Leigh: Sovereignty”. Her work was also included in the Biennale’s central exhibition, the Milk of Dreams, for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Participant. Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitne Museum of American Art, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the ICA Boston, among others.
About Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann. Photo by Trent Mitchell
Baz Luhrmann is a pioneer of pop culture working across film, opera, theater, live events, fashion, and music. The first of his Red Curtain Trilogy, ‘Strictly Ballroom’, premiered a the 1992 Cannes Festival, and was followed by ‘William Shakespeare’s Rome+Juliet (1996) and the Academy Award-winning ‘Moulin Rouge’ (2001). Luhrmann’s ‘La Bohème (2002), went on to garner two Tony Awards, followed by the Academy Award-nominated ‘Australia’ (2008) and his now-iconic Academy Award-winning ‘The Great Gatsby (2013). He collaborated with Jay-Z on the Gatsby soundtrack, and redefined cross-genre music in film. He collaborated with Netflix on his critically acclaimed series, ‘The Get Down (2016), and the recent six-part Hulu series ‘Faraway Downs’. His latest film, ‘Elivs (2022), became his most nominated film to date, while also winning four BAFTAs and 11 AACTAs.
2024 Art+Film Performer
About Charli xcx
Charli xcx. Photo by Harvey Weir
Avant-pop and electronic superstar Charli xcx has become an iconic figure in the arts, having helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade seamlessly traversing the underground and mainstream with her artistic output. In June, she released her sixth studio album, BRAT, which has become the most critically acclaimed album of the year. Her pop-up ‘PARTYGIRL’ DJ sets caused roadblocks around the world, videos and surprise collaborations with Billie Elish, Lorde, Addison Rae, and others went viral, and a new shade of green was introduced into the social lexicon. The album has been nominated for the Mercury Prize 2024 while ‘Guess featuring Billie Elish’ debuted at Number 1 on the UK Official Singles Charts. Following the success of the ‘Barbie’ soundtrack contribution ‘Speed Drive’, Charli is co-executive producing the score for the film ‘Mother Mary’ with Jack Antonoff and producing original music for Benito Skinner’s series ‘Overcompensating’. Charli with star in the Daniel Goldhaber remake of the 1978 horror film ‘Faces of Death’. Last year, Charli was honored with the Visionary Award at the annual Ivor Novello Awards and recently received the Powerhouse Award at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards and the ASCAP Global Impact Award.
About LACMA and LACMA Productions
Located in the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the wester United States, with a collection of more than 150,000 objects that illuminate 6000 years of artistic expression across the globe. LACMA Productions is an award-winning extension of the museum’s film initiative.
