Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Art museum in Downtown Los Angeles, United States.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles occupies a 12,700-square-foot former manufacturing building in the Downtown Arts District, renovated by wHY Architecture under Kulapat Yantrasast. Its single-storey grey painted brick facade carries a round yellow sign reading ICA above LA; a glass entrance door in a dark frame stands to the right of a yellow brick panel and a grey metal roller shutter. Inside, the museum is a non-collecting kunsthalle with galleries for rotating exhibitions.

The institution was founded in 1984 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art and later relocated to Downtown Los Angeles, changing its name to ICA Los Angeles in 2016. This move and name change marked a strategic shift toward focusing more directly on contemporary artistic practices.

The museum's name changed from Santa Monica Museum of Art to ICA LA in 2016, when it moved into a 12,700-square-foot former manufacturing building in the Downtown Arts District. Its free public programs have included Park Studio, a weeklong art workshop held during school spring breaks, and Wall Works, which paired K-12 students with artists such as Peter Shire and Elias Sime. Since 2016 the Agency of Assets program has offered paid arts internships to high school students.

Plan to spend about two to three hours depending on which exhibitions you want to explore. It helps to check the website in advance to see what is on view and when new installations open.

The museum is a kunsthalle: it holds no permanent collection, so every exhibition is assembled from loans and new commissions. Its building is a 12,700-square-foot former manufacturing structure renovated by wHY Architecture under Kulapat Yantrasast, and in 2024 a $5 million plan, mostly funded by the Mohn Family Trust, was announced to buy and remodel it.