The Museum of Contemporary Art

The second virtual #ArtistsonArtists highlights the work of artist Iranian-American artist #RoshaYaghmai. Yaghmai’s practice employs a diverse set of materials, historical sources, and techniques to create ethereal works that subtly allude to the domestic realm. Yaghmai, who currently works and lives in Los Angeles, reflects on the work of Larry Bell, an artist who shares Yaghmai’s interest in the sensorial effects that can be produced through the manipulation of light and transparency. Yaghmai will specifically reflect on Bell’s Bill and Coo at MOCA’s Nest, 2019 which is located on MOCA’s Grand Avenue Plaza. Link in bio to watch Parts 1 and 2 of this series!

French artist #Gotscho repurposes designer clothing, antique furniture, and other luxury goods to pose questions about wealth and consumerism. Pregnant is a pink chair that once belonged to King Louis XVI, a monarch whose downfall was arguably his opulence. The chair’s cushion has been altered: it bulges suggestively outward while collapsing into itself, at once inflated and weighed down by its history, its value, even the mass of its previous sitters. Describing his work, Go...tscho said, My pieces evoke the memory of imagination. We all construct a fictitious identity based on our confrontation with collective identities. #fromthearchive [Gotscho, Pregnant, 1993, Louis XVI chair, gilded wood and velvet, 36 1/2 x 23 x 22 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Purchase with funds provided by an anonymous donor in memory of Gilles Dusein]

Como nuestro museo permanece cerrado durante esta temporada, MOCA los invita a disfrutar de sus obras de arte públicas ubicadas al aire libre, mientras también explora las vibrantes comunidades del centro "Downtown" y "Little Tokyo". Este video de navegación, creado por miembros de nuestro personal del departamento "Visitor Engagement", guía a los visitantes en un recorrido a pie de una milla de largo, desde MOCA Grand hasta el Geffen Contemporary, y presenta muchos lugares simbólicos de Los Ángeles durante el camino. ¡Planifique un viaje con su familia o seres queridos para explorar nuestra ciudad de manera segura y disfrute de nuestras obras de arte públicas!

As our galleries remain closed this holiday season, MOCA invites you to enjoy its outdoor, public artworks while exploring its vibrant Downtown and Little Tokyo communities. This Navigation video, created by members of our Visitor Engagement staff, guides visitors on a mile-long walking tour from MOCA Grand to the Geffen Contemporary, and it features many iconic Los Angeles landmarks on the way. Plan a trip with your family or loved ones to safely explore our city and take in the public artworks!

Sand stretches and drags the sheer, seemingly fragile fabric in R.S.V.P. by #SengaNengudi. From the taut, outstretched limbs to the knotted sacks that hang limp onto the floor, Nengudi’s abstract sculpture undeniably evokes the human form. The cultural associations and color of the hosiery identify the body which it evokes to be Black and feminine. The panty hose pieces were created in part as a response to the changes Nengudi’s body experienced during pregnancy and with ag...e. She frequently used her R.S.V.P. series in choreographed performances, where the sculptures were pulled and manipulated displaying the unbounded strength of the objects. #MOCADetails [Senga Nengudi, R.S.V.P (detail), 1975, Nylon mesh and sand, 82 1/2 x 113 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee]

"Everything is material. But the material is so complicated. We’ve no idea what absolute reality looks like. I find that sublime and uplifting. It has a spiritual quality. I’m most interested in the emotional qualities of things. Every emotion has a material basis run by hormones and nerves. But isn’t that magnificent?" British artist, sculptor, and self-described "materialist" #TonyCragg via The Guardian Read the full article, from 2017, at https://www.theguardian.com//tony-cragg-sculpture-intervie [Tony Cragg, Half Moon, 1985, mixed media assemblage, 87 x 72 x 2 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Gift of Blake Byrne]

"The bead has become the single most important element of my practice. It’s not just about the content; it has to do with the material itself. Putting them together is a way of presenting the big picture. It’s like human beings: taken in isolation, we’re quite useless, but together, we can create all this beauty." #RaúldeNieves via @cfhillofficial Installation image from our 2019 exhibition The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA's Collection; photo by Zak Kelley. #FromtheArchive [Raúl de Nieves, UUU MEE, 2013-2016, beads, artist-worn shoes, glue, and fiberglass. Left: 54 30 25 in. Right: 61 30 24 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Purchase with funds provided by the Director's Council]

Any idea what material was used to create this red cube? This is a sculpture by #RachelLachowicz, titled Lipstick Cube (1990), because it is, in fact, made out of cast lipstick. Lachowicz' work throughout the 90s utilized lipstick as a material, adding a contemporary art context to the philosophy of "Lipstick Feminist." To create these sculptures, Lachowicz would spend hours melting down pounds of lipstick pigment and hot wax in giant vats, a process which she considered as m...uch a part of her art practice as the final pieces themselves. Her early works riffed on masculine, minimalist designs, reimagining them from a feminine and feminist stance. In a 1992 interview with @latimes, Lachowicz explained how humor guided her practice: "With humor, you can say, ‘I’m not sure this is how it is, but isn’t it funny?’ People are more apt to take in the information if it delights them in some way." #FromtheArchive Read Lachowicz' archival LA Times interview here: https://www.latimes.com//la-xpm-1992-10-07-ca-637-story.ht [Rachel Lachowicz, Lipstick Cube, 1990, cast lipstick, 8 x 8 x 8 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Gift of Eileen and Michael Cohen]

In 2019, filmmaker #KevinJermomeEverson released a short film based on the hit song "Traveling Shoes," by Ohio-based gospel group the Brown Singers. The seven-minute video features grainy, black-and-white footage of Sidney Brown Jr. and Robert Whitfield, who both sang on "Traveling Shoes," alongside scenes of a woman posing with the 45" record. The two men look back on the story of how that song came together, referencing Whitfield's late addition to the group and Brown's ras...py voice on the recording due to a cold. Everson's film is a nostalgic glimpse into the history and friendship created around "Traveling Shoes," a song that references death and a heavenly afterlife. Everson's short film is now available to watch for free at moca.org/screen, as part of our new iteration of the SCREEN program, which features a new Everson film each week in the month of October. Link in bio to watch , available online until October 21. All films Kevin Jerome Everson; courtesy the artist; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures.

Today, MOCA announced the creation of a new Environmental Council, the first for a major art museum in the United States. The council, composed of a diverse grouping of high-profile environmentalists, will specifically focus on climate, conservation and environmental justice and its cross-section with art in Los Angeles and beyond. Initiatives the Council plans to introduce thus far include: financial commitments and expertise to work toward institution-wide carbon negativity..., carbon-free energy, environmentally-focused museum quality exhibitions, educational programming, related artist support, and reductions in emissions and consumption. In an interview with Mongabay Latam, MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach explained, "I grew up thinking that all art was environmentally motivated, performative, and political, and has the aspect of societal impact." The Council believes that contemporary art, social justice, and environmentalism all intertwine. Art conservation and ecological conservation both ensure that our cultures and our planet will remain in tact for lifetimes to come. As artist, conservationist, and council co-founder Haley Mellin states: "Art and conservation are about legacy and permanence." For more information on the Council's creation and members, please visit: https://www.moca.org/about/environmental-council To read the full interview with Biesenbach, head to: https://news.mongabay.com//can-an-art-museum-drive-sustai/

Color lies outside the boundaries of language, and it’s the same with art. You have to experience it, be overwhelmed by it. What draws me in is the sensorial experience of color embedded in the material, and the form becoming its own thing," #VictorEstrada. Sunday, October 18 at 1pm PST, join us for our second inclusive and playful virtual program just FOR FAMILIES of all kinds, led by MOCA Education and Visitor Engagement. This 30-minute #ForFamilies session features deep l...ooking and conversation about a work of art kids care about, an experimental art activity, and helpful tips on how to talk to kids about art. Sunday's program will examine Victor Estrada's sculpture Happiness, the giant monster-like figure seen here with multiple eyes and painted a slimy, bright green. RSVP below and get your family in the Halloween spirit! https://zoom.us//regi/tJEvc--trz0sEtA6FfZB3u4FXqExEvz5edek [Victor Estrada, Happiness, 1994-95, foam, plaster and paint, 78 x 77 x 34 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Gift of Clyde A. Beswick]

Conflicting interests are coming together at this moment in time and location." On May 9, 2020, MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach (@klausbiesenbach) joined #KatharinaGrosse from her home in Berlin for another #VirtualStudioVisits, surveying her career in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Here, Grosse shares her thoughts on Rockaway, a 2016 site-specific installation in which she painted onto a derelict ruin as part of a former military base that now exists as a National Pa...rk, Fort Tilden in Rockaway, New York. For this project, Klaus and Grosse worked together closely to determine what they could transform the building into: a painted house, or a painting that exists on a house? By painting over and over for seven days directly onto the structure, Grosse found the right balance between magenta and white tones, creating a painting that could stand on its own, using an old military base building as its canvas. To watch the full visit with Katharina Grosse, please visit MOCA's YouTube channel via the link below! https://youtu.be/IigFKz4v32U

MOCA’s online platform for experimental film and video art returns this October with SCREEN: Kevin Jerome Everson. Starting today, you can watch Everson's 2017 film on moca.org/screen. Throughout October, SCREEN will host four short films, one each week, by artist and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson: (2017), (2019), (2014), and (2019). This particular group of films featur...es Everson's hometown of Mansfield, Ohio as a shared subject, seen through its geographical landscape, residents, myths, and histories. is about three famous UFO sightings over Mansfield, and it will be available to watch on SCREEN until October 14. Everson is one of today’s most prolific and influential experimental filmmakers. His work reframes the quotidian, emphasizing labor as a structuring element of American life. Simultaneously sharp and poetic, Everson’s films offer a dream-like vision of everyday activities through vignettes that combine fictional narratives and banal realism, amounting to one of the most vital, creative, and necessary documents of contemporary Black life. All films Kevin Jerome Everson; courtesy the artist; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures.

Join MOCA tomorrow, October 7 at 4pm PST, for a special screening of #AmiriBaraka's , organized by writer, dancer, and archivist #HarmonyHoliday. RSVP to this free, virtual program at: https://bit.ly/3jBqgOT... Poet, playwright, and revolutionary Black thinker Amiri Baraka understood that there will be no liberation without the commitment of Black artists. He also understood the importance of unapologetic militancy in the pursuit of creative freedom, and he understood the value of the moving image, how film penetrates the subconscious and how important it is that the images of Black people being ourselves and loving it, captured by Black people, proliferate and save us from being programmed by the ideals coming out of Hollywood. Black Spring is a short, formerly missing document of Amiri’s time in the Bay Area working with the Black Panthers and San Francisco State University’s Black Student Union. The film oozes Black revolutionary love and commitment. We are in urgent need of our own Black Spring, of poets and artists fearless enough to gather without instructions or institutions and sing and shout and dance and resist together. Hopefully this film reminds us that part of our work is creating a way of life so fulfilling we forget to politicize our involvement in revolutionary communities and focus on one another as human beings who come together out of a love for beauty and truth. The screening of Black Spring will be held on the date of Baraka’s 86th birthday. Following the screening, Holiday will lead a virtual discussion of Baraka’s life and work featuring Ashley James, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Yasmina Price, PhD candidate at Yale University in the department of African-American Studies and Film/Media studies.

Virtual Studio Visits: Elizabeth Peyton "It was one of the first things that made me feel very free, and like there would be space for me in the world." On May 30, 2020, MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach (@klausbiesenbach) joined painter #ElizabethPeyton for another #VirtualStudioVisits as a way to connect in the moment and examine the artist's expansive career. Peyton is known for her portraits of friends, historical figures, and even celebrities; in this clip she shares her lo...ve for #DavidBowie, one of her childhood heroes. To watch the entire conversation, visit MOCA's YouTube channel via the link below! https://youtu.be/NZSjIqRPj3Y

We are excited to announce the re-opening of MOCA's Sculpture Plaza at MOCA Grand Avenue. Starting today, the plaza will be open Thursdays through Sundays, 11am3pm. Currently on view is an outdoor installation by Los Angeles-based artist #LarryBell titled Bill and Coo at MOCA’s Nest. Commissioned specifically for the Sculpture Plaza at MOCA Grand Avenue, the installation is a signature, space-defining work, at once creating a public art space while also echoing and highlight...ing the geometric forms that comprise the museum’s Pritzker Prize winning #ArataIsozaki-designed building. MOCA Store will also be offering curbside pickup during the plaza's new hours of operation. When shopping online on mocastore.org, you can now select "Pickup" as your delivery method. Your order will be ready for pickup within one hour. Let's stay safe together! Do not enter if you are feeling sick or have a fever. Staff and visitors are required to wear a mask or face covering at all times. Please maintain physical distancing by staying 6 ft. apart from other visitors and staff during your visit. We look forward to seeing you safely in the Plaza! [Larry Bell, Bill and Coo at MOCA's Nest, 2019, laminated glass, Each: 72 96 1/4 96 1/4 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Purchase with funds provided by Carol and David Appel]

On May 20, 2020, MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach spoke with Camille Henrot as part of our #VirtualStudioVisits series. Here, Henrot shares with MOCA an excerpt of her 2013 video , which won the Fifty-Fifth Venice Biennale's Silver Lion Award. In , Henrot challenges herself to tell the story of the universe's creation, referencing science, philosophy, and religion. She edits together archival footage from the Smithsonian Institute and a poetic narration that repeats the phrase: "In the beginning there was..." Watch the longer excerpt, and the full studio visit with Henrot, now on MOCA's YouTube channel. Watch below: https://youtu.be/SdUegeRCDyk

Introducing, #MOCAMasks for Kids! Four of our limited production artist-designed masks are now available in kid sizes to shop at moca.org/masks. Sales will benefit the museum and MOCA's youth programs! The kids masks are designed by artists Virgil Abloh, Alex Israel, Catherine Opie, and Andy Warhol. They retail for $20 USD each and are available online now via MOCA Store (@mocastores). All masks are crafted in Los Angeles and vary in fabric depending on the design. This mask ...shape fits a wide range of kids (under 10) faces comfortably. Masks are designed for comfort with soft elastic ear loops and ease of wear without sacrificing on safety. Made with two layers of fabric, featuring a pocket on the inside with open sides, customers can insert their own filter for extra protection. Shop now at moca.org/masks and share yours using #MOCAMasks! Special thank you to Citizens of Humanity (@citizensofhumanity) for production and support! [Image credit: Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art. Catherine Opie, Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul; 2020 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.]