How is meaning constructed? This is a question that drives the L.A.-based artist Charles Gaines. “My work is about the investigation of language as a subject,” Gaines writes in the 2015 book Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life, “and how language itself informs the way we understand the world.” In a wide-ranging oeuvre that draws from mathematical, photographic, linguistic, and notational systems—plus text from Franz Kafka and the Black Panthers’ manual—Gaines investigates relationships. In this new survey, 70 works spanning 30 years of his career are on view. Look for Falling Rock, a 65-pound chunk of granite that will drop unexpectedly every now and then, each time with a different outcome for those watching. —Elena Clavarino