By Ethlie Ann Vare
BRENTWOOD, CA (May 29, The Hollywood Times) – It looked like everyone in town broke out their Doc Martens and leather jackets for the opening of this punk rock art exhibit at the Skirball Center, the best museum you’ve probably never been to. Nestled in the hills where Mulholland meets the 405, the Skirball was established in 1996 to honor Jewish culture and heritage. But it also has a rotating gallery collection displaying everything from an 8,000-square-foot Noah’s Ark to Issue #1 of Superman.
2026 marks 30 years of the Skirball, and it marks 50 years of punk rock. Hence this collection of everything from posters to buttons to t-shirts, with the Circle Jerks’ Greg Hetson and Zander Schloss spinning discs in the courtyard. Curated by Cate Thurston and Michael Worthington, the exhibit traces the punk revolution from its early days in New York City and the UK and follows it out to San Francisco and down to Los Angeles. Check out the posters. How many of these shows have you seen?
Since it is at the Skirball, the exhibit is intended to highlight the stories of Jewish punks and fellow travelers. No surprise that Jonathan Richman talks about his Jewish roots. But who knew that provocateur Malcolm McLaren, who gave us the Sex Pistols, was Jewish? Also, in the tribe (both tribes, I suppose) are members of the Ramones, the Circle Jerks, the Dictators, Bad Religion, Blondie, Suicide, the Patti Smith Group, and more.
The sold-out event was made interactive with activities including a chance to make a studded leather wristband, get an airbrushed tattoo or spray paint some graffiti. Plus, the DJs. Plus, a screening of the 1984 cult classic Repo Man, which features the Circle Jerks on its soundtrack. (Plus, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, Fear… killer soundtrack.)
While you’re at the museum, I recommend you step back another couple of decades and take in Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution, which is in a gallery just down the hall and up the stairs. There is a direct line from superhero comics to punk rock zines. We forget that comic books were so counterculture in the late 1940s and early 1950s that they were banned and burned throughout the country; the exhibit includes black and white footage of the 1954 Senate hearing on whether comic books lead to juvenile delinquency. Today, 130,000 people a year go to the ComicCon in San Diego alone.
The Jewish influence on comic books is better known than the Jewish influence on punk rock. Many of the greatest comic book creators were Jewish: Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were born Stanley Martin Lieber and Jacob Kurtzberg, and Superman was always an allegory of the American immigrant experience. The gallery collects and puts into context comic books from the Great Depression to the New Millennium. It’s as fascinating as it is colorful.
“Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos” is on view through Sept. 6. “Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution” will run through Feb. 28, 2027.
The Skirball Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Admission is free on Thursdays.
