New from the it's-about-dang-time department, “Lookin' Back in Front of Me: Selected Works of Mark Steven Greenfield 1974-2014” is exactly as major as it sounds like — and kudos to the California African-American Museum for doing the work to exhibit it. A survey of profound wit, eclectic vibrancy and timely topicality, the paintings, drawings and photo-based works run the stylistic gamut but are united by a scholarly thread of cultural anthropology and sociopolitical critiques on the black experience. Though mostly known from directorships of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Greenfield has been working in the studio the entire time, and in the past few years has become known primarily for his powerful and engaging visual artistry. Along with an unflinching analysis of the way African-Americans are portrayed in the media, Greenfield deploys his rapier wit, thorny humor and hard-won wisdom to expand his topics to metaphysical contemplation, local community history, cultural appropriation, hypocritical civic policy, institutional racism and Parliament Funkadelic. Greenfield and curator Mar Hollingsworth lead a walk-through and conversation on Sunday, and special events continue throughout its run — including a genealogical workshop on Jan. 24, a Feb. 14 screening of segments of The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy and a March 14 cartooning workshop with David Brown. California African-American Museum, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park; Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; through April 5. (213) 744-2024, caamuseum.org.

Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Sept. 25. Continues through April 5, 2014
(Expired: 04/05/15)

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