Three exhibitions bearing the name of Compton-born painter Reggie Burrows Hodges opened across Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 20, marking his first institutional solo shows in his hometown, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Born in 1965, Hodges grew up surrounded by his parents' records, an older brother's guitar and aunties who played piano. He co-owned a recording studio and toured with the reggae-dub band Trumystic before finding recognition as a painter in his 50s. His work now sits in the collections of the Met, the Whitney and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The three shows span the city. "A Theater of Passions" occupies the Getty Museum's East Pavilion through Feb. 28, 2027, with five paintings that riff on 17th-century Baroque works by Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemisia. "A Theater of Miracles" fills the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Exposition Park through the same date. "A Theater of Dreams" runs at Art + Practice in Leimert Park through Feb. 27, 2027.
Each venue takes a different angle. At the Getty, Hodges explored the violence and theatricality embedded in Old Master narratives. At CAAM, he distilled those themes into intimate gestures on a monumental scale, including a triptych stretching more than 13 feet. At Art + Practice, he looked beyond European lineage to L.A.'s own Black artistic legacy, drawing on childhood memories of Compton and the work of artists such as Noah Davis, Henry Taylor, Lauren Halsey and Mark Bradford, who co-founded Art + Practice.
Hodges also installed a traditional dub sound system in the Leimert Park gallery. "We've got to get a limiter or something," he told the Times, laughing, before imagining visitors who will request the volume be turned down.
Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty Museum, said he first encountered Hodges' work in Florence in 2022 and immediately recognized echoes of Baroque painting. "My response was not only mental," Gasparotto told the Times. "It was physical; they were very powerful but at the same time refined."
Bridget R. Cooks, a professor of African American studies and art history at UC Irvine who curated the CAAM and Art + Practice exhibitions, called the three-venue project unprecedented. In a city that is multicultural but also segregated, Cooks said, the project puts L.A.'s separate art worlds in dialogue, according to See Great Art.
Hodges, who rarely grants interviews and declines to be photographed, described the experience of showing across his hometown as daunting and humbling. He joked that ordinarily an artist would have to die before being given a gallery at the Getty.
Admission is free at all three venues.
The Getty Center at 1200 Getty Center Drive requires a reservation; parking is $25. CAAM is in Exposition Park at Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard. Art + Practice is at 3401 W. 43rd Place in Leimert Park.
The Getty Center hosts a free public lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 27, featuring Hodges in conversation with Gasparotto and Cooks, followed by a reception and a viewing of the Getty installation.
