Eileen Cowin Retrospective 'Between Panic and Paradise' Opens at LACMA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will host Eileen Cowin's retrospective, Between Panic and Paradise, from August 23, 2026, to January 3, 2027. This exhibition showcases large-scale photographs from 2018, vibrant self-portraits from the 2025 collection, The Uninvited Visitor, and a ten-minute video titled Another Year Closer to Death (2026), which delves into themes of aging and mortality. The exhibition's title is inspired by a birthday card that states, 'Happy Birthday! Another year closer to death.' Over a span of more than fifty years, it features staged photographs and videos, with walls painted in lilac, navy, and salt shades. Key pieces include Family Docudrama (1980–1984) and Fear Itself (2014), along with expansive nature murals.
Key facts
- Eileen Cowin's retrospective Between Panic and Paradise runs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from August 23, 2026 to January 3, 2027
- The exhibition is organized thematically rather than chronologically
- It opens with three mural-sized photographs of book spines — Killing Time, Waiting, and Lost in America — dated 2018 but printed in 2026
- The Uninvited Visitor (2025) is a series of self-portraits that do not show Cowin's face
- Another Year Closer to Death (2026) is a ten-minute video in which Cowin discusses aging, uses ChatGPT, and hires a makeup artist to depict her at ninety
- The video's title comes from a birthday card reading 'Happy Birthday! Another year closer to death'
- Family Docudrama (1980–1984) stages simultaneous narratives of a couple and their presumed children
- Fear Itself (2014) is a five-monitor video display featuring twenty-three actors portraying internal fear through body language
- No Matter What II (2022) is a gigantic flower image on a freestanding wall, sharing space with Neither Here nor There (2008), a short video about the memory of Cowin's father
- Cowin's career spans more than fifty years
Entities
Artists
- Eileen Cowin
- Roland Barthes
- Jody Zellen
- Norman Starr
Institutions
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Museum Associates/LACMA
- Art and Cake LA
- The Golden Girls
- ChatGPT
Locations
- Los Angeles
- United States