“The most interesting things that can happen in painting are not what you can plan in advance,” the Ethiopian-born artist Julie Mehretu said in 2005, “but what happens when you’re making them.” Known for her intricate, abstract, often colorful, and enormously-scaled canvases, Mehretu is the subject of a mid-career survey at LACMA. Thirty paintings and 32 works on paper offer a commanding view of art that addresses colonialism, diaspora, geopolitics, and other hefty subjects. —J.V.

Travels to: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (June 26 - September 20, 2020); later: High Museum, Atlanta and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.