Artist Helen Pashgian graduated from Pomona College in 1956, nine years before ambitious James Turrell graduated there. But after taking a detour, studying on the East Coast briefly with plans to do museum work, Pashgian started experimenting with plastics, resin and Fiberglas in SoCal around the same time Turrell did. Now her first solo museum show is up at LACMA at the same time as Turrell's sprawling retrospective of light spaces and perceptual tricks. Hers is like an alternative to his, not immersive, not deceptive, but still mysterious. Her line of stately acrylic columns have impossible-to-identify objects embedded in them and look as if they've arrived from another planet, or the set of a Kubrick film about another planet. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire; through June 29. (323) 857-6010, lacma.org.

Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: March 30. Continues through June 29, 2014
(Expired: 06/29/14)

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