The Skirball Cultural Center announces details of the 2026 Spring Exhibitions. All three are original exhibitions, organized and curated by the Skirball Cultural Center, and open May 20, 2026. Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution explores how comics—born out of creative means for survival—became a window through which America, with all its complexities, was imagined, transformed, and proliferated throughout the world. Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1967-86 highlights Jewish punks and fellow travelers, including Malcolm McLaren, plus members of the Ramones, the Circle Jerks, the Dictators, Bad Religion, Blondie, the New York Dolls, the Patti Smith Group, NOFX, and more. Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time presents the two contemporary artists’ work side by side. Together, they create an intimate portrait of Jewish life through the ritual of the Sabbath.

Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution
May 20, 2026–February 28, 2027

During the twentieth century, American comic books evolved from modest beginnings into one of the most influential forms of popular entertainment. Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution examines how this art form became a revolutionary cultural medium that helped shape national identity through distinctive stories and characters.

At its core are visionary creators. Many of them were immigrants and outsiders who brought the perspectives of marginalized communities, including Jewish Americans, into the medium. Drawing on their experiences, they helped construct a vision of America defined by struggle, aspiration, and reinvention. The exhibition traces this evolution from the Great Depression through the dawn of the new millennium.

Inventing America highlights how comics reflected—and at times anticipated—an increasingly complex and inclusive society. Visitors encounter iconic figures of American popular culture, including Superman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Little Lulu, Archie, Black Panther, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Each emerged from pivotal historical moments, capturing the anxieties, ideals, and imagination of their era.

Featuring original artwork and rare artifacts, the exhibition connects comic storytelling to defining national experiences: World War II, the social upheavals of the 1960s, the cultural impact of pop art and hip-hop, and ongoing movements for justice and equality. Together, these materials reveal comics as both entertainment and historical record—vivid, inventive, and deeply reflective of the American experience.

Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976–86
May 20, 2026–September 6, 2026

Punk has meant different things to different people. It is a sound, a look, an ideology, and a lifeline—its definition shifting with geography and time. Yet the term endures. Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels, and Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976–86 explores the connective tissue of “punk” by tracing key music scenes across the United States and the United Kingdom, with a focus on New York, London, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Opening in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of punk in the United States,* this original exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the history of punk, where outsiders rewired the culture.

This exhibition also explores the often-overlooked relationship between Jewish musicians and the punk scene—particularly in New York. It asks: What role did Jewish punk musicians play? Did that connection matter? How did it become complicated? And why has the Jewish presence in punk so often been overlooked or dismissed? Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels, and Weirdos does not offer definitive answers. Instead, we foreground the voices of those who lived it and invite visitors to question, reflect, and draw their own conclusions.

The exhibition will highlight the stories of Jewish punks and fellow travelers including Richard Hell and  Malcolm McLaren, plus members of the Ramones, the Circle Jerks, the Dictators, Bad Religion, Blondie, Suicide, Jonathan Richman, the Patti Smith Group, and more. By centering these narratives within the broader story of punk, the exhibition underscores how artists from many communities helped shape a movement that continues to challenge norms around identity, power, and belonging.

Featuring more than 500 objects and pieces of ephemera, Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels, and Weirdos brings this history into sharp focus—from handmade flyers, zines, buttons, and posters to early clothing by fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. These iconic garments, alongside photographs, video, film, and other artifacts, anchor visitors in the visual and material world of punk while opening space for lesser-known stories. This exhibition is more than a celebration of a music scene. It is a deep dive into how a generation of misfits challenged the rules, reimagined community, and helped reshape culture from the margins.

*Like all things punk, even the anniversary is contested.

Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time
May 20, 2026–September 6, 2026

Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time invites visitors to reflect on how they spend their time–in the moments when they are celebrating, grieving, and all the small moments in between. Drawing inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s description of the Sabbath as “a palace in time,” this exhibition brings together new paintings by Los Angeles-based artists and married partners Russell and Edelstein that hold up moments and memories of joy and loss–ever-present in Jewish family traditions and community gatherings.

Robert Russell’s luminous still lifes portray Jewish ritual objects—Kiddush cups and yahrzeit candles—removed from their context and histories. Painted in his signature soft-focus style, the works shimmer with beauty while resonating with absence. They prompt reflection on what is remembered, what is lost, and how cultural traditions endure.

In dialogue, Lisa Edelstein presents paintings inspired by her own family photographs, capturing scenes of Jewish domestic life in 1970s suburban New Jersey. Her portraits of multigenerational gatherings, richly patterned interiors, and fleeting moments of affection evoke a tender meditation on diaspora, belonging, and the small rituals that shape identity.

Together, Russell and Edelstein offer a moving portrait of Jewish life—private and communal, sacred and ordinary, past and present—that is transformed through the act of witness, reflection, and celebration. The exhibition becomes a contemporary “palace in time” where memory, ritual, and intimacy coexist.

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Ticketing for the Spring Exhibitions:
Tickets for the Skirball Cultural Center’s spring exhibitions go on sale Thursday, April 2 at 10:00 a.m. General admission includes access to Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution, Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk culture 1976-86, and Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time: $20 General; $15 Seniors, Full-Time Students, and Children. Exhibitions are always free to Skirball Members and Children under 2. 

About the Skirball

The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. We welcome people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society.

Visiting the Skirball

The Skirball is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049. Museum hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12:00–5:00 pm; Saturday–Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm; closed Mondays and holidays. Reservations are recommended for General Admission and the permanent exhibition Noah's Ark at the Skirball, which requires timed entry and is ticketed separately. For general information, the public may call (310) 440-4500 or visit skirball.org.