Two LA Painters Picked From the Long Beach Museum of Art's Own Collection for Its New Ocean Boulevard Show

On October 16, the Long Beach Museum of Art opened an exhibition at LBMA Ocean that hangs work by Los Angeles painters Mario Ayala and Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. next to pieces the two artists chose from the museum's permanent collection. The show runs through February 28, 2027. If you've been to the museum on the bluff at 2300 E. Ocean Blvd. a few times, this is a chance to see its holdings arranged by somebody other than a curator.

A second artist duo opens downtown on November 14. The middle-school exhibition the museum holds every year with Long Beach Unified opens the next day. Put together, the season covers both campuses, so it's worth planning more than a single visit.

Two Studio Neighbors and the Museum's Collection

According to the museum's exhibition page, Ayala and Gonzalez have worked as neighbors in the same Los Angeles studio building for six years. The show traces their collaborative and parallel work from 2020 to 2026. The museum says their practices overlap at times but more often develop side by side. Both can start from the same image or place and take it somewhere different through what they select, how they compose it, the materials they use and the scale.

The pieces from the permanent collection give the show its local interest. LBMA describes the artists' choices as making links across generations, setting well-known pieces beside surprising pairings, and treating the collection "as a dynamic archive rather than just a chronological timeline." The collection belongs to a museum the City of Long Beach runs in a public-private partnership with the Long Beach Museum of Art Foundation. That gives Long Beach a direct stake in seeing two working painters go through those holdings.

The museum hasn't published a list of the works the artists chose, so the gallery itself is the only place to find out.

Signs, Tattoos and Auto Paint

The artists' backgrounds help explain what they're likely to pick out of a museum's storage. Ayala was born in Los Angeles in 1991. The museum says his paintings draw on visual traditions with strong ties to California, including muralism, tattooing, and the industrial techniques behind automobile painting and commercial signs. His recent solo and two-person shows include Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2025 and CAC Málaga in Spain in 2024.

Gonzalez was born in Los Angeles in 1989. His work grew out of watching his father practice commercial sign painting. He draws on how lasting hand-painted signs are, and on the weathered surfaces of Los Angeles, to tell his family's history of labor and image-making. The museum calls his paintings "contemporary palimpsests," meaning surfaces where an original facade has been covered over and traces of it still show.

Both artists work from things most people walk past every day, like storefront lettering, painted vans and worn walls, and that's the lens they brought to the collection. The newsletter graphic for the show is a white van and a damaged blue car with the artists' names lettered between them. The exhibition received major funding from the Evalyn M. Bauer Foundation and the RVCA Artist Network Program.

Six Weeks of Overlap With LACMA

The timing works out well for anyone who wants to see more of Gonzalez's work. His solo installation In Between Stops at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is 12 benches he designed, set along LACMA's Kendall Concourse. LACMA says the benches draw on rotulismo mexicano, the tradition of Mexican hand-painted signs, and carry personal or socially conscious messages where bus stop ads would normally go. Some include elements from LACMA's own history and collection.

The installation runs through December 1, 2026. From October 16 to December 1, the same artist has work on view in both Long Beach and Los Angeles, and each show draws on the host museum's collection. LBMA's show ends three months later, so if you plan to see both, start with the benches.

Downtown Gets the Second Duo, With Free Admission

LBMA Downtown at 356 E. 3rd St. opens DABSMYLA presents Garden Party on November 14, and it runs through March 28, 2027. DABSMYLA is an Australian husband-and-wife team of visual artists. The museum says they work in a shared design language, built over more than a decade together, that governs subject, positioning, color and perspective. Their shows build immersive environments around the paintings, mixed media and sculpture, and the museum calls those surroundings "the tangible foundation for which everything else stands upon."

The downtown gallery is a good space for that kind of installation. It sits in the East Village Arts District and has 35-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls, polished concrete floors and plenty of natural light. Admission is free for everyone. The fall newsletter also lists Beyond the Page: LBUSD Middle School Exhibition opening November 15 and running through February 28, 2027. This year's student work mixes words, images and materials.

Starting November 14, the museum will have an artist pair showing at each campus, and the two locations keep different hours and charge different prices.

Planning a Visit to the Ocean Campus

Getting to the Ocean Boulevard campus takes a little more planning than going downtown. The grounds include a historic 1911 Craftsman home and a two-story gallery, with a clear view of the Queen Mary and Catalina Island. The free museum lot also has EV charging. Metered beach parking is reached by turning off Ocean Blvd. at Junipero, and stairs lead from that lot up to the museum. LB Transit route 121 stops right in front, every 20 to 30 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends.

There are accessible ramp entrances at the corner of 19th Place and Ocean Blvd., which leads up to the Hartman Pavilion, and on the east side of the Anderson House. All galleries are wheelchair accessible. Bags larger than 14 by 17 by 8 inches have to be checked, and nothing can be worn on your back in the galleries, purses included.

Claire's at the Museum serves from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its oceanfront patio looks out on the Queen Mary, Catalina, and Structure and Flow, the water sculpture by artist Claire Falkenstein. Last seating is at 2 p.m. During the May to October peak season, the waitlist can close earlier because of limited space or special events. Since the new show is only open Thursday through Sunday, a late-morning visit followed by brunch at Claire's fits the hours.

If you're more comfortable talking than reading wall text, ArtChat runs every Thursday and Friday from noon to 2 p.m.

Fall Dates for Your Calendar

1. Friday, Oct. 30, 10:30 to 11 a.m. Stroller Tour for ages 0 to 2. Register in advance; the ticket includes gallery admission.
2. Saturday, Nov. 14. DABSMYLA presents Garden Party opens at LBMA Downtown.
3. Sunday, Nov. 15, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Family ArtMaking, free for all. Beyond the Page opens the same day.
4. Friday, Nov. 20, 10:30 to 11 a.m. Stroller Tour.
5. Tuesday, Dec. 1. Last day for Gonzalez's In Between Stops benches at LACMA.
6. Friday, Dec. 18, 10:30 to 11 a.m. Stroller Tour.
7. Sunday, Dec. 20, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Family ArtMaking, free for all.
8. Sunday, Feb. 28, 2027. The Ayala and Gonzalez show closes at LBMA Ocean.
9. Sunday, Mar. 28, 2027. Garden Party closes downtown.

The Family ArtMaking dates are the easiest way to bring kids in for free. The rest of the Ocean campus calendar works around its Thursday-to-Sunday hours.

If you take out-of-town guests to LBMA this season, or you're getting to know Long Beach one weekend at a time, I'm always glad to swap notes on the city. Reach out to Gina Oddo anytime. Let's Connect.