Join us for a conversation with artist Charles Gaines and Naima J. Keith, Vice President of Education and Public Programs at LACMA, 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.