The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced the opening dates for its new David Geffen Galleries.
The much-awaited 900-foot-long exhibition space will launch on 19 April with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by two weeks of priority member access and events.
General admission will be available from 4 May.
Ocean-themed exhibit
The opening of the David Geffen Galleries marks the culmination of a 20-year campus transformation.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the building adds 110,000 square feet of exhibition space and can show around 2,500 to 3,000 objects from the museum's collection at any one time.
The first exhibition will be arranged around the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, underlining themes of cultural exchange, migration, and commerce throughout art history.
This will include visitor favourites such as Henri Matisse’s La Gerbe (1953) and Georges de La Tour’s The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (1640), alongside recent acquisitions including Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) and Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach (1888), among others.
Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, says: "We are excited to be so close to completing the upgrade of the museum campus to increase gallery space and enhance the visitor experience.
"None of this would have been possible without the generosity and commitment of the County of Los Angeles, our board of trustees, donors, members, neighbors, and artists. We look forward to sharing this reimagined museum experience both with Angelenos and visitors from around the world."
See also: The best new museums opening in 2026
Green spaces & amenities
By integrating with Hancock Park, the new building opens up 3.5 acres of new outdoor space. This will be used for public art installations, educational programming, and events.
Over the coming months, visitors will be able to see works by Mariana Castillo Deball, Pedro Reyes, Shio Kusaka, Jeff Koons, Alexander Calder, and others.
An 8,000-square-foot garden will show LACMA’s significant collection of large-scale works by Auguste Rodin, accompanied by sculptures by Los Angeles contemporary artist Liz Glynn.
The new building also offers three F&B outlets, a store, a 300-seat theatre, and an education centre.
LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States. It cares for a collection of nearly 152,000 objects.
Image: Visitors in the David Geffen Galleries with Todd Gray's Octavia's Gaze, 2025, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the 2024 Collectors Committee, © Todd Gray, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Jonathan Urban
