Join us for a conversation with artist Charles Gaines, Naima J. Keith, Vice President of Education and Public Programs at LACMA, Gean Moreno, Curator of Programs at ICA Miami, and Olga Viso, Phoenix Art Museum Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs in celebration of Gaines’ exhibition ‘Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs’ at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood.

The conversation will be followed by the opening reception from 7 – 8 pm.

This event is free; however, reservations are recommended. Please register here.

About ‘Charles Gaines. Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs’
For nearly six decades, pioneering conceptual artist Charles Gaines has used systems to create series of works that mine the complex relationship between perception and meaning. This February, following a major 2023 – 24 museum survey and an acclaimed public commission, Gaines returns to his hometown of Los Angeles to present a new series of his signature Plexiglas works and watercolors at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood. With his first LA solo exhibition since 2019, Gaines will deliver the most elaborate treatment yet of his Numbers and Trees series, combining first-time variations of his celebrated systems that culminate in explosively colorful and complex works. Consisting of nine large-scale triptychs, the new Plexiglas works are based on photographs of baobab trees that the artist shot during a trip to Tanzania in 2023. Exacting and intricate, these monumental pieces unfold in sequence, each one evolving to unravel the mystery of representation while challenging the limits of our perceptual experience. The exhibition coincides with the surveys ‘Charles Gaines: 1992 – 2023’ (30 October 2024 – 9 March 2025) and ‘Charles Gaines: Arizona Series’ (30 October 2024 – 20 July 2025) at the Phoenix Art Museum. 

About Charles Gaines
Charles Gaines (b. 1944, Charleston SC) lives and works in Los Angeles. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and around the world, most notably a major traveling survey at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; a mid-career survey at the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Pitzer College Art Gallery in Claremont CA; a museum survey of early works at The Studio Museum, Harlem NY and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA; and presentations at the 1975 Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2015. An exhibition of his work is also currently on long-term view at Dia:Beacon in New York. In 2022, Gaines launched his most ambitious public art project yet, ‘The American Manifest,’ presented by Creative Time, Governors Island and Times Square Arts. The third and final chapter of ‘The American Manifest,’ organized by Creative Time, will travel to the banks of the Ohio River in June 2025. Additional forthcoming public commissions include the mural ‘Numbers and Trees: Cincinnati Cottonwoods,’ organized by Cincinnati nonprofit ArtWorks (June 2025); ‘Hanging Tree’ at Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery AL (June 2025); and a new work for the Intuit Dome in Inglewood CA (spring 2026). Gaines will be an artist-in-residence at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in spring 2025 and a book of his collected writings will be released by Hauser & Wirth Publishers in spring 2026.

In addition to his artistic practice, Gaines was on the faculty at CalArts School of Art for over 30 years, establishing a fellowship to provide critical scholarship support for Black students in the M.F.A. Art program. He has published several essays on contemporary art, including ‘Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism’ (University of California, Irvine, 1993) and ‘The New Cosmopolitanism’ (California State University, Fullerton, 2008). In 2019, Gaines received the 60th Edward MacDowell Medal. He was inducted into the National Academy of Design’s 2020 class of National Academicians and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2022.

About Naima J. Keith 
Naima J. Keith is the Vice President of Education and Public Programs at LACMA. Within her role, she oversees all aspects of and sets the vision for LACMA’s innovative and exhibition-driven educational programming that serves more than 650,000 community members annually. In her curatorial capacity, Naima most recently co-curated the first comprehensive survey of artist Simone Leigh's work alongside Rita Gonzalez. Prior to her position at LACMA, Keith was the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the California African American Museum where she guided the curatorial and education departments as well as marketing and communications. She was the 2017 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize in recognition of her contributions to the field of African American art history and was co-artistic director of Prospect.5 in New Orleans in 2021. As an associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2011–16), she curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions, including the historical survey, Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974–1989 (2014). She has lectured extensively, and her essays have appeared in numerous publications. Keith holds degrees from Spelman College and UCLA and is a proud native of Los Angeles. 

About Gean Moreno 
Gean Moreno is Director of the Art + Research Center at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. In this capacity, he oversees the Center’s operations and digital initiatives, develops pedagogical and discursive platforms, commissions publications and long-term research projects. He is also part of ICA Miami’s curatorial team. He has recently curated exhibitions dedicated to the work of Charles Gaines, Terry Adkins, Denzil Forrester, Larry Bell, Shuvanai Ashoona, and Ettore Sottsass. Moreno was an adviser to the 2017 Whitney Biennial and the 2018 Creative Time Summit. In 2008, he founded [NAME] Publications, a press dedicated to field-advancing art theory, and through which he has worked with numerous international institutions, including Kunsthalle Zurich, VanAbbe Museum, MCA Chicago, and CAM Houston. His texts have been included in various exhibition catalogues and anthologies. In 2019, Verso released an anthology that he edited, In the Mind, But Not From There: Real Abstraction and Contemporary Art. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida International University. 

About Olga Viso 
Olga Viso is the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt), where she leads the Museum’s curatorial division. She oversees the curatorial staff across all collecting areas, the collections and exhibitions management teams, and the departments of education and engagement. As a specialist in modern and contemporary art, she serves as the lead curator responsible for exhibitions and acquisitions in this area. A seasoned arts leader, curator, and scholar with a focus on Latin American/Latinx contemporary art, Viso has over 30 years of experience working both as a curator and a museum administrator. As PhxArt’s Selig Family Chief Curator, Viso works closely with Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO, the Board of Trustees, and members of PhxArt’s executive leadership team to set and implement the Museum’s institutional vision. 
 
In 2022, Viso joined the Museum as a part-time curator-at-large and a senior curatorial advisor, developing original exhibitions, overseeing new artist commissions, and advising on overall acquisitions and curatorial strategies. Her most recent exhibition, Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, opened at El Museo del Barrio in New York City before traveling to Phoenix, where it is presented in dialogue with highlights from the ASU Art Museum’s signature collection of contemporary Cuban art. 
 
Viso assumed the role of Selig Family Chief Curator in June 2023, expanding her curatorial work engaging with and presenting the leading artists of today, including highlighting the creative contributions of Arizona-based practitioners. She collaborates with PhxArt leadership to develop various initiatives designed to amplify the institution’s role as a cultural anchor and convener for the Greater Phoenix community and the Southwest. 
 
In addition to her work at PhxArt, Viso acts as senior advisor at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where she develops academic partnerships for the university with art museums (including PhxArt). She also supports the ASU-LACMA master’s fellowship program in art history, a collaboration between the university and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that invests in the advancement of museum professionals of color already working in museums. 
 
Before joining the Museum, Viso served as executive director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis from 2007–2017, during which time she oversaw the integration of the Walker’s main campus with the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and expanded the multidisciplinary art center’s renowned program and collections. Prior to that, she spent 13 years as director and curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. She has organized and curated numerous landmark solo and group exhibitions, with major monographic artist surveys including Everything, a 30-year retrospective of work by Guillermo Kutica (2010); Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972–1985 (2004); and Jim Hodges: Give Me More Than You Take (2013). Viso has also held positions at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. In 2013, Viso was appointed by President Obama to the National Council on the Arts. Viso is an emeritus member of the Association of Art Museum Directors and was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Fellow in Residence 2019–2020. She served on the Board of the Andy Warhol Foundation from 2008-2016. Viso received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rollins College and her Master of Fine Arts in art history from Emory University.