GRI holds two public exhibitions per year in its two galleries which "focus primarily on the special collections of the Research Library or on work produced by artists in residence". For example, in 2005–2006 GRI held an exhibition entitled "Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis". The exhibition traveled to the National Building Museum and to the Art Institute of Chicago. Other GRI exhibitions have included "Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990," co-organized with the museum in 2013, "World War I: War of Images, Images of War" in 2015, and "Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road," co-organized with Getty Conservation Institute in 2016.