Thursday, July 31, 2025

Museum Exhibition Honors Altadena’s Black Artistic Heritage After Devastating Fire

[photo credit: California African American Museum]

Show features work by artists whose homes and studios were destroyed in January blaze

The California African American Museum in Los Angeles is hosting an exhibition celebrating Altadena’s rich Black artistic legacy after a devastating wildfire destroyed thousands of homes in the community.

“Ode to ‘Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena” runs through Oct. 12 at the museum in Exposition Park. Admission is free.

The exhibition was organized in just three months as a direct response to the Jan. 7 Eaton Fire, which destroyed over 9,000 homes and businesses in Altadena.

“Originally, the California African American Museum wanted to do something in response to the fires,” said Dominique Clayton, the exhibition’s independent curator. “So, about a week after the fires broke out, they contacted me.”

Clayton, founder of Dominique Gallery and a Los Angeles native, previously worked at The Broad and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. She said the museum asked her to help with coming up with some ideas on how to honor all the Black artists that had been impacted.

The show highlights Altadena’s historical significance as a Black arts center. During the 1950s and 1960s, the community was hailed as the epicenter of Black arts activity in Los Angeles County.

Between 1910 and 1970, approximately six million Black Americans migrated from the South to other parts of the country. Altadena became an attractive settlement location due to less restrictive redlining practices.

The artistic center later shifted toward Watts after the 1965 Watts Rebellion. But Altadena continued developing as a creative haven.

Several prominent artists have called Altadena home over the decades. Charles White, the renowned painter and printmaker, first lived there in 1959 on Kent Street. He later moved to the Meadows neighborhood and taught at Otis Art Institute from 1965 until his death in 1979.

John Outterbridge, assemblage artist and former director of the Watts Towers Arts Center for 17 years, lived in Altadena. His home and studio burned in the Eaton Fire.

Betye Saar, pioneering assemblage artist born in 1926, grew up in Pasadena and Altadena in the 1930s and 1940s. Jackie Robinson was her neighbor.

Contemporary artist Kenturah Davis lost her home on West Place in the Eaton Fire. Her parents’ home less than a mile away also burned.

“I am going to rebuild,” Davis said in a New York Times interview in February. “My parents share the same sentiment. It’s just a matter of how.”

The exhibition includes multiple generations of families. It features Keni Davis, his daughter Kenturah Davis, and her 2-year-old son Micah Davis O’Connor.

Keni Arts, a 75-year-old retired Hollywood set painter, has been painting watercolor scenes of Altadena for over 40 years. He lost his home and studio in the fire.

“Art is a process more than a product,” Arts told Pasadena Now in May. “It doesn’t start with the paint, nor does it end with the picture.”

Other featured artists include multimedia artist Martine Syms, who was born in 1988 and grew up in Altadena. Science fiction writer Octavia Butler also lived in Altadena after achieving literary success.

Clayton described her curatorial approach as community-driven. “I like to say it’s community curated,” she said in a KCRW interview in June. “I would talk to one artist. I was introduced to another and another. And so it sort of built itself.”

She explained Altadena’s unique environment for artists. “It’s a different pace and energy, which produces maybe a different wavelength,” Clayton said. “Families were able to build a home and a foundation to provide an environment for their children.”

Cameron Shaw, CAAM Executive Director, emphasized the exhibition’s personal nature. “One of the first things that I envisioned in my mind was putting together this wall of archival photos, personal family photos, photos of the artists in the exhibition,” Shaw said.

Shaw was appointed Executive Director in February 2021 after serving as Deputy Director and Chief Curator since September 2019.

The museum will host a Curatorial Walkthrough on Wednesday, Aug. 6, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. It’s also free to attend. A zine-making workshop inspired by the exhibition is also planned.

To learn more about “Ode to Dena,” visit https://caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2025/ode-to-dena-black-artistic-legacies-of-altadena.

The California African American Museum is located at 600 State Drive in Exposition Park. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.