Emmy-winning artist, activist, and filmmaker Joey Soloway appears in a still from the video installation Later in Life: Adul B’nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner.
On view through Summer 2026 in the Kaleidoscope Gallery
Commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center, Later in Life: Adult B’nai Mitzvah, an original multiscreen video installation by internationally recognized visual artist and filmmaker Sabrina Gschwandtner, spotlights six Los Angeles adults who recently completed their B’nai Mitzvah ceremonies.
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$20 General
$15 Seniors, Full-Time Students with ID, and Children 2–17
FREE to Members and Children under 2
FREE to all on Thursdays
General Admission tickets provide visitors access to all exhibitions on view at the Skirball, including Later in Life, which is part of Visions and Values. Visitors who would like to board Noah’s Ark, which requires timed entry, should purchase a separate Noah's Ark ticket (which also includes general admission access).
Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah, a site-specific video installation by Sabrina Gschwandtner, explores what it means to complete a B'nai Mitzvah ceremony—a significant Jewish coming-of-age ritual traditionally performed at age thirteen—as an adult.
Gschwandtner, who is both one of the six Los Angeles adults featured in the work and its director, was inspired to undertake this project by her son’s B’nai Mitzvah studies. Other participants include actor, writer, and literary translator Ya’akov Ronnie Britton; real estate agent Geoff Martin; playwright and actor Shanti Reinhardt; political and social activist Joyce Rubin; and Emmy-winning artist, activist, and filmmaker Joey Soloway.
With a runtime of approximately thirty-three minutes, each participant in Later in Life addresses their unique ancestry, upbringing, and why they chose this rite of passage in adulthood, simultaneously revealing the diverse nature of contemporary Jewish experience that includes Jews-by-choice, interfaith families, and individuals of various identity positions and political perspectives.
Composed of personal stories alongside images of local Los Angeles synagogue architecture and design, the circular installation showcases the profound meaning created through intergenerational connection, choosing one’s own family, and forging and sustaining Jewish identity in today’s world.
On view for a limited time in the Kaleidoscope Gallery, Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah is part of the Skirball's ongoing exhibition, Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America, which reveals how ancestral teachings and experiences shape modern values.
Born in Washington, DC and now living and working in Berkeley and Los Angeles, Sabrina Gschwandtner is a visual artist and filmmaker whose practice engages histories of feminism, handcraft, and textiles. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally, including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In 2022–2023, the Skirball featured Gschwandtner’s “film quilt” made from filmstrips as well as a “video quilt” in the exhibition Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories. Gschwandtner received a BA with honors in art/semiotics from Brown University, where she studied with media artist Leslie Thornton. She also studied video with avant-garde feminist artist VALIE EXPORT in Salzburg, Austria, and she received her MFA in film/video from Bard College.
Each participant in Later in Life addresses their unique ancestry, upbringing, and why they chose this rite of passage in adulthood.
Video still of Ya’akov Ronnie Britton from Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center.
Video still of Geoff Martin from Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center.
Video still of Shanti Reinhardt from Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center.
Video still of Joyce Rubin from Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center.
Video still of Joey Soloway from Later in Life: Adult B'nai Mitzvah by Sabrina Gschwandtner, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
