Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945–1980

Vija Celmins, Freeway, 1966
Celmins is a Latvian emigré who moved to L.A. in the early '60s. Her haunting oil "landscape," made in a year when the U.S.'s freeways were still relatively new, positions you behind a windshield so that you view things the way the locals do — as drive-by urban scenery. The horizons seem unlimited but also faintly unnerving, a mood emphasized by that heavy truck up ahead.

At the J. Paul Getty Museum

• California's Changing Landscape