Our Garden at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
The public garden is an oasis within the bourgeoning arts district of downtown Los Angeles. The chicken coop and beds of herbs and vegetables support the onsite restaurant, Manuela – all part of the gallery’s mission to integrate community with urban food production and sustainability. The serene space to contemplate is surrounded by an abundance of street art murals, which have been kept in their original locations, creating a juxtaposition of the site’s place in local history and its new life.
Above the public garden floats Martin Creed’s neon sign ‘MUMS DADS KIDS GODS.’ A smaller version of this sculpture on a stone wall at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, a place devoted to fostering community and catalyzing cultural dialogue, the acclaimed rural counterpart to Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles.
Courtyard, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 2018. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Mario de Lopez
The courtyard, once a covered and abandoned warehouse, has been transformed, in consultation with Studio-MLA, to an open-air space that features a 25-foot tall Coast Live Oak and surrounding drought-tolerant plants. The tree, a native and protected species in California, represents the gallery’s needs-responsive approach to contributing to the city. By planting literal roots and bringing vegetation back to the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth aims to create an outdoor space that encourages discourse between art and our diverse audiences – artists, downtown residents, community partners, students, and families. Hauser & Wirth invites the public to engage with the garden through workshops with local gardeners and foundations. The third Sunday of every month, the Garden School Foundation, a local non-profit that provides education for underserved youth in Los Angeles through garden-based learning, hosts a drop-in workshop pertaining to various aspects of sustainable living that the whole family can enjoy.
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