Donna Huanca: Obsidian Ladder

Berlin-based, Bolivian-American artist Donna Huanca has created a site-specific installation designed to challenge hierarchical and gendered notions of architecture. Huanca’s show Obsidian Ladder uses a mixture of painting, sound, bodies, scent, sculpture and performance to create a femme intervention into the male-only legacy of the former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Blvd (built 1961). The site-specific installation for MAF’s 13,000-square-foot Theater Gallery will mark the first institutional exhibition in the U.S. by the artist who has shown widely in museums across Europe and Asia.

As she does for every exhibition, Huanca will produce a series of limited-edition artworks and merchandise to support local LGBTQ and women’s charities. Alongside the exhibition, MAF will present a series of public programs with female artists, activists, and scholars discussing topics related to the performance of gender and sexuality in contemporary life. 

Runs through December 1