Scratching the Surface: 40 Years of Visual Arts in Skid Row, 1985-2025

September 6 to October 25, 2025

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6, 5:00 to 8:00 PM

Skid Row Museum & Archives

250 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2-5 pm
Free Admission for All

“Scratching the Surface” features works by more than 50 artists: paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, banners, masks, reproductions of murals and ephemeral artifacts.

Curator Hayk Makhmuryan says, “Each artwork is a window into the author’s inspiration and motivations, as well as the violent reality of the criminalizing ‘resolutions’ our society often offers instead of meeting everyone’s basic human needs. Sometimes it’s a glimpse into a flourishing local photography club, other times it’s an unfinished piece, because of untimely, preventable death, a ‘social murder.’ At all times, it’s work that reflects the many sides of Skid Row, a neighborhood that is part of downtown, part of Los Angeles region, part of Black LA, immigrant LA, indigenous Tovaangar, and part of the poor, unhoused, tenant, working class struggle for collective liberation.”

https://www.lapovertydept.org/ for more information

https://www.lapovertydept.org/donate/ to donate, Skid Row Museum & Archives/LA Poverty Department

https://givebutter.com/CommunityArtsDepot to donate, Community Arts Depot