"The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in African Arts," an exhibition curated by UCLA professor Polly Nooter Roberts, will be on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from Feb. 26–Jul. 9.

Roberts is an art historian and professor in the department of world arts and cultures/dance who studies the philosophical underpinnings of African visual and performance-based arts, and the translation of cultural experience into museum exhibitions. From 1999 – 2008, she served as deputy director and chief curator at the Fowler Museum at UCLA and has been a Getty Fellow. She currently serves as consulting curator of African art at LACMA, where she has assisted the museum in launching a permanent new program and dedicated gallery for the arts of Africa.

The exhibition features 100 outstanding sculptures and eye-catching textiles that explore how the arts and their visual regimes enable transitions from one stage of life to the next and from one state of being to another. Works reflect culturally specific notions of visuality and celebrate artists as agents of insight and transformation. Iconic figures, masks, initiation objects and reliquary guardians guide people to spirit realms to the highest levels of esoteric wisdom, and to the afterlife.

This exhibition is included in general admission, so you may reserve tickets here.