If you’re reading this, thank you. Taking over the Essential Arts newsletter from our wonderful former colleague Carolina A. Miranda remains a daunting task, and we do not take that twice-weekly welcome into your inbox for granted. We’re Times staff writers Ashley Lee and Jessica Gelt; we’ve been honored to help navigate L.A.’s arts and culture scene the past few months and look forward to continuing to do so in the new year.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘MOCA Focus: Ana Segovia’
The Mexico City-based painter, a direct descendent of major players in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (early 1930s to the late 1960s), regularly questions traditional ideas about masculinity that have been standardized by film archetypes. This time, Segovia draws inspiration for his fluorescent creations from “I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You,” Roger E. Alamos’ little-known 1983 romance between an aspiring artist and an undocumented ranch worker in a Southwestern town. The exhibition, on view through May 4, is open Tuesday through Saturday, closed on New Year’s Day. MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 S. Grand Ave, downtown L.A. moca.org

‘Gloria Molina Grand Park’s NYELA Countdown to 2025’
This annual free and family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration features more than 30 food trucks, a midnight countdown projected on City Hall and live performances by Weapons of Mass Creation, Pachyman and Antibalas. Another stage, hosted by Novena Carmel, features an all-female DJ lineup: DJ Sparkle & Mak10 (Girls Make Beats), Linafornia, Que Madre and the Ladies of Sound (January, DJ PRII, yo bee!, Dr Samson and Priyanka). Tuesday, 8 p.m. Gloria Molina Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. grandparkla.org

DJ D-Nice, photographed in downtown Los Angeles in 2020.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

‘New Year’s Eve With D-Nice & Friends’
The king of Club Quarantine, a highlight of the Hollywood Bowl’s 2021 season, rings in 2025 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. “It was so gratifying to be in the building and feel the incredible energy of the room,” he said on Instagram in preparation for the event. The great Tisha Campbell hosts the party, complete with a stacked lineup: Next, Big Daddy Kane, Case, Kenny Burns, Estelle, Jon B., Tweet, Lady London, Mike Phillips, Nice & Smooth and Johnny Gill. Tuesday, 10:30 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

John Doe, DJ Bonebrake, Exene Cervenka and Billy Zoom, members of the band X, perform Friday and Saturday at Observatory in Santa Ana.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

FRIDAY
Dramarama The alt-rockers may have formed in New Jersey, but they broke out in L.A. with “Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You)” via KROQ in the ’80s.
8 p.m. The Canyon, 28912 Roadside Drive, Agoura Hills. wheremusicmeetsthesoul.com

X The ultimate L.A. punk band has promised to hang it up with this year’s “Smoke & Fiction,” so these “Putting the X back in XMAS” O.C. shows may be among your last chances to see them live.
7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Observatory, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. observatoryoc.com

SATURDAY
Flesh for Frankenstein Paul Morrissey, who died in October at 86, directed, Andy Warhol produced and Udo Kier stars in this outrageously campy, sex-and-violence fueled 3-D take on the Mary Shelley novel.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

California State University, Fullerton has officially opened its new Visual Arts Complex, designed by architecture firm HGA. The $65-million overhaul features two new buildings, two renovated buildings and three existing structures — all connected by extensive outdoor landscaping. In total, the complex spans 191,000 square feet and includes a single-story gallery building with four exhibition spaces, a curatorial education building and a two-story digital arts building.

The Japanese American National Museum has announced that it’s closing its pavilion — and its primary exhibition, “Common Ground: The Heart of Community” — for renovation starting Jan. 5. While the museum works on detailed upgrades, aspects of the exhibit will travel to other communities, and also will be made available digitally. JANM’s Historic Building and Tateuchi Democracy Forum will stay open during the renovation. The institution’s new mobile incarnation will be called JANM on the Go. Its first exhibition in Southern California, “Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community,” will be on view next year from July 31–Nov. 12 at the Mullin Gallery, ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. The exhibit is curated by writer and scholar Oliver Wang and explores the robust car culture in the Japanese American community. Another JANM exhibition, “Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo,” is slated to make stops around the country at various institutions from 2025 to 2026, beginning with the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and continuing on to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia,; and Northern California’s Monterey Museum of Art. JAMN will continue to host its Oshogatsu and Natsumatsuri Family Festivals in Little Tokyo and elsewhere in L.A. The next festival, a New Year’s celebration for the Year of the Snake, will take place on Sunday, Jan. 5, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fun includes free crafts, live performances and cultural activities. Admission is free, and advance tickets are recommended. They can be found at janm.org.

Yoshio Taniguchi, the Japanese architect best known for the 2004 renovation of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, died Dec. 16. He was 87. Taniguchi beat out younger, edgier architects — including Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron, Steven Holl and Bernard Tschumi — to win the MoMA commission. New York Times architecture critic (and L.A. Times alum) Nicolai Ouroussoff described the expansion as “one of the most exquisite works of architecture to rise in this city in at least a generation.” The design featured a 110-foot-high atrium and a refurbished sculpture garden, which Taniguchi called the museum’s “Central Park.” After its reopening, the institution’s attendance doubled in less than a decade.

Taniguchi studied engineering at Keio University and architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Later, he taught at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and UCLA, before opening his own studio in Tokyo in 1975. He went on to design many notable Japanese museums, including the Nagano Prefectural Museum, the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art and the Gallery of the Hōryū-ji Treasures at the Tokyo National Museum, as well as the Texas Asia Society in Houston.

And last but not least

Signing off from 2024 with “Auld Lang Syne” via Barbra Streisand.