Steel Modern

Artbound explores arts along the U.S.-Mexico border. Featuring Mexicali Rose, an artist organization in Mexicali, where locals are encouraged to create art to galvanize community involvement; Drones as art, where multiple projects re-appropriating military drones play with the idea of surveillance and mobility; Paul Turounet’s photographs of undocumented border-crossers printed on galvanized metal; Tijuana’s vibrant reemergent gallery scene; and Manuel Paul Lopez’s animated poem 1984. Also featuring a musical performance by Rodrigo Amarante.

Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne partners with Artbound for an episode that looks into the future of Los Angeles. "Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne" examines the city's architecture, urban planning, transportation and changing demographics, giving us a glimpse of Los Angeles as a model of urban reinvention for the nation and the world.

Artbound explores the architectural past and present in Southern California.

In this new season, Artbound travels back to pre-industrial Los Angeles to explore one of its key and most controversial figures -- Charles Lummis. A writer and editor of the L.A. Times, avid collector and preservationist, an Indian rights activist, and founder of L.A.’s first museum -- the Southwest Museum -- Lummis’ genius and idiosyncratic personality captured the ethos of an era and a region. See what other exciting episodes this new season will offer!

What happens when collecting becomes more than a hobby? A new series of short documentary films, in partnership with USC Libraries, profiles four "L.A. as Subject" collectors who have obsessively focused on a narrow slice of Southern California history.

The highly skilled labor of artisans migrating from Mexico and Latin America are the backbone of high-end design and retail in Los Angeles, producing some of the most exquisite furniture, textiles, and design goods. But they represent a creative force that seems invisible to the city. Artbound uncovers their stories and their role in making Los Angeles and Southern California the creative capital of the world.

An Artbound special episode on the Otis Report on the Creative Economy: Using key data from the newest issue of the report, the documentary explores the vibrant network of creativity in Southern California, examining how creative businesses are investing in community building and driving economic activity in Boyle Heights; the network of industries involved in the denim manufacturing of boutique denim firm Buck Mason; the underlying educational network and issues of access to arts education at Inner-City Arts; the triangulation between artist, gallerist, and major museum as seen in the

USMC Sergeant Christian Ellis was a machine gunner in Iraq, whose platoon was ambushed, leaving him with a broken back and only one of a few survivors. Ellis returned home to join millions of Americans who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Ellis inspired the first opera about the Iraq war with a score composed by Tobin Stokes, a libretto by Iraqi-American Heather Raffo, and produced by the Long Beach Opera. This documentary explores how the experience of war is transformed into a work of art.

This "Artbound" special episode, in partnership with MOCAtv, features The Museum of Contemporary Art's current programming, including an Elaine Sturtevant retrospective and exhibition "William Pope.L's Trinket." The episode also features Martine Syms, Jeffrey Vallance, Jasmin Shokrian, and music videos by Devin Kenny and Teengirl Fantasy.