The Long Beach Museum of Art will dive headfirst into the confrontational world of one of SoCal\u2019s most influential countercultural artists with \u201cRobert Williams: Fearless Depictions,\u201d on view Friday, Feb. 6 through Sunday, May 31.<\/p>\n
The expansive exhibition offers a survey of Williams\u2019s work from 2001 to the present, bringing together nearly 60 oil paintings, large-scale sculptures, multimedia works, and rare first-edition issues of Zap Comix.<\/p>\n
Robert Williams is a cartoonist at heart, even when working on monumental canvases rendered with old-master precision. His compositions explode with color and chaos, blending carnivals, sci-fi, clowns, classic painting, and profane imagery into scenes that feel both absurd and familiar.<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019s impact reaches far beyond his own work. In 1994, he founded Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, which became a platform for lowbrow, outsider, and alternative artists at a time when the mainstream art world largely shut them out.<\/p>\n
This magazine helped legitimize an entire movement, allowing future generations of artists to find community \u2014 something Williams himself lacked early in his career.<\/p>\n
Born in Albuquerque in 1943, Williams\u2019s visual language was shaped by car culture. His father owned a drive-in restaurant popular with hot rodders, and Williams received his first car at just twelve years old.<\/p>\n
These formative experiences echo throughout his visual work, where automotive imagery collides with underground comics and surreal fantasy.<\/p>\n
After relocating to Los Angeles in 1963, Williams absorbed our region\u2019s raw visual energy, drawing inspiration from hot rods, outlaw bikers, psychedelic posters, tattoo culture, and the adult entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
As Williams himself has said: \u201cMy paintings are not designed to entertain you; they are meant to trap you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition \u201cFearless Depictions\u201d does exactly that \u2014 drawing viewers into dense, confrontational worlds that demand attention, interpretation, and reflection.<\/p>\n
The opening reception will get underway at LMBA on Friday, Feb. 6 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Robert Williams himself will be in attendance the very next day, Saturday, Feb. 7, in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
For more, go to lbma.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n M.E.B.<\/p>\n A tribute to one of jazz\u2019s greatest innovators will kick off when M.E.B. (Miles Electric Band) takes the Carpenter stage on Friday, Jan. 30, in celebration of the Miles Davis Centennial.<\/p>\n Formerly known as the Miles Electric Band, this progressive all-star ensemble channels the intensity, experimentation, and forward momentum of the beloved trumpeter and composer\u2019s electric era, revisiting and reimagining the music that shattered boundaries and rewired jazz.<\/p>\n Led by Emmy and Grammy Award\u2013winning producer and drummer Vince Wilburn Jr. \u2014 Miles Davis\u2019s nephew and longtime collaborator \u2014 M.E.B. is built as a rotating collective of master musicians. The band bridges generations, uniting Davis alumni with today\u2019s most adventurous innovators to offer performances that are immersive and unpredictable.<\/p>\n The lineup features a talented roster of players, including Darryl Jones, Robert Irving III, Munyungo Jackson, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Antoine Roney, Keyon Harrold, and DJ Logic, alongside special guest musicians.<\/p>\n Together, they deliver a powerful fusion of jazz, rock, funk, and electronic textures in tribute to the great Miles Davis.<\/p>\n Davis influenced so many other musicians \u2014 everyone from Herbie Hancock and Weather Report to Prince, hip-hop producers, and popular rock artists \u2014 that it\u2019s easy to forget how startling and groundbreaking his music was at the time of its release.<\/p>\n With all this in mind, the M.E.B. ensemble brings together two generations of players \u2014 Davis alumni alongside today\u2019s next-generation innovators \u2014 to revisit electric-era repertoire as a living framework for improvisation, groove, and experimentation.<\/p>\n