Artbound Season 9 (Trailer)

Watch a preview of "Artbound," our Emmy® award-winning arts and culture series that examines the lives, works and creative processes of arts and culture innovators making an impact in Southern California and beyond. A new season premieres March 6, 9 p.m. ET/PT on KCET and Link TV (DirecTV 375 and DISH Network 9410). Episodes will also be streaming online following its broadcast on kcet.org/artbound and linktv.org/artbound, as well as on Amazon, YouTube, Roku and Apple TV.

The latest season of "Artbound" continues to unearth the stories of the region with the following episodes: 

“That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles” (March 6) investigates the celebrated architect's time in Southern California during the 1910s and early 1920s. Writer/director Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times, explores the five pre Columbian-inspired houses the legendary architect built in Los Angeles in that period. The documentary also delves into the critic's provocative theory that these designs were a means of artistic catharsis for Wright, who was recovering from a violent, tragic episode in his life.

“Desert X” (March 13) surveys the vast, strange and often contradictory desert landscape during the inaugural Desert X, an exhibition of public art installations situated at sites across the California Desert. Installations featured include Will Boone's "Monument," an underground bunker located off Ramon Road in Rancho Mirage, Sherin Guirguis’s "One I Call" at Whitewater Preserve, Claudia Comte’s "Curves and Zig Zags" and Phillip K. Smith III's "The Circle of Land and Sky" in Palm Desert. The biennial returns to the desert 2019.

“Electric Earth: The Art of Doug Aitken” (March 20) profiles prominent artist Doug Aitken who for more than 20 years has shifted the perception and location of images and narratives. The artist's works were recently exhibited at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

“Variedades: Olvera Street” (March 27) will look at Los Angeles’ Olvera Street. The episode is part-history lesson and part-immersion in the birthplace of Los Angeles. Emmy® award-winning journalist, author and musician Rubén Martínez, explores the sometimes-violent, 200-year struggle for the political and symbolic control of the city as told in “Variedades” form – an interdisciplinary performance style that brings together music, spoken word, theater, comedy and the visual arts, loosely based on the Mexican vaudeville shows of early 20th century Los Angeles.

“La Raza” (April 3) tells the story of a group of young activists during the late 1960s and 1970s, who used used creative tools like writing and photography as a means for community organizing, providing a platform for the Chicano Movement in the form of the bilingual newspaper/magazine La Raza. An exhibition of La Raza is currently on display at the Autry Museum of the American West.

“No Trespassing: A Survey of Environmental Art” (April 10) illuminates how artists have been inspired by the the natural beauty of California — from 19th-century plein air painting of pastoral valleys and coasts to early 20th-century photography of the wilderness (embodied famously in the work of Ansel Adams). Today, as artists continue to engage with California’s environment, they echo and critique earlier art practices that represent nature in “The Golden State” in a particular way. Featuring artists Richard Misrach and Hillary Mushkin. 

“Artist and Mother” (April 17) profiles four California artists who make motherhood a part of their art: Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Andrea Chung, Rebecca Campbell and Tanya Aguiñiga. There's a persisting assumption in contemporary art circles that you can't be a good artist and good mother both. But these artists are working to shatter this cliche, juggling demands of career and family and finding inspiring ways to explore the maternal in their art.

“The Art of Basketweaving” (April 24) explores how Native peoples across the country are revitalizing basketry traditions, thanks in large part to the work of the California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA). Their skill and wisdom highlight the artistic quality and value of these baskets, which are on par with other fine art.

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