Originally known as the USC Fisher Gallery – LA’s first art gallery, opened in 1939 – the USC Fisher Museum of Art is located on the University of Southern California campus – effectively a three-room space capable of hosting a temporary single-artist exhibition, or parts of Fisher’s permanent collection. Non-exclusively focused on Latin and Latin-American art, the Museum commonly features works from California artists, as well as artists from Mexico and Spain, with a recent focus on Chicano art; the images here are from the History’s “Nevermade” exhibit from Ken Gonzales-Day. Past recent exhibitions include student art, a sci-fi/queer art collection, and a series on an artist’s experience with breast cancer. A 13-foot-high bronze sculpture, The Well (from a collection called The Tears of Things), greets visitors outdoors.
The only easy parking options near the Gallery are in paid USC lots, where a fixed daily fee of $20 is common; admission to the Gallery is free for guests of all ages. As the Fisher Gallery is a roughly 30-minute visit, we’d recommend finding other campus destinations of interest to justify the parking fee, or finding a place to park off campus. Adjacent buildings include the USC Iovine and Young Academy, funded by the music industry/Beats Headphones moguls, and Watt Hall, home to additional Roski and Lindhurst student exhibition galleries. USC’s Pacific Asia Museum, focused on Asian and Pacific Islands art, is notably 15 miles away from the campus in Pasadena.
