MOCA | The Museum of Contemporary Art

Join us this Friday, April 4, from 5–8pm at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for three transcendent experiences! ⭐ FREE entry to "Olafur Eliasson: OPEN" from 5–8pm ⭐ "Sharing Slow Perspectives: A Slowness Workshop" from 5–6pm FREE with RSVP Facilitated by Joe Dumit and artist Dorte Bjerre Jensen ⭐ MOCA Climate Conversations: "Like Lichen" from 6–8pm FREE with RSVP A conversation between anthropologist Joe Dumit and lichenologist Thorsten Lumbsch, Like Lichen will explore slowness in perception, experience, biology, and field work in connection with the exhibition "Olafur Eliasson: OPEN." The conversation will be moderated by Christian Cummings, the Executive Director of ecological storytelling nonprofit Non-Human Teachers and a partner in the botanically-minded creative studio Cactus Store Studio. RSVP here > https://lnkd.in/gJTrbJkn

💕 MOCA is proud to present the Spring 2025 season of Wonmi's WAREHOUSE Programs at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on select dates from May 9 through June 28, 2025. For more info and tickets > https://lnkd.in/gZAPtKEe ⭐ Milka Djordjevich "Bob" West Coast Premiere 🗓️ Friday, May 9, 2025 7:30pm 🗓️ Saturday, May 10, 2025 4pm ⭐ Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot) "POLICE STATE" World Premiere 🗓️ June 5–14, 2025 ⭐ Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot) "POLICE STATE:" Panel & Pussy Riot Siberia Performance 🗓️ Sunday, June 15, 2025 3–6pm ⭐ MOCA MUSIC DIA FRAMPTON with CARLOS GIMENEZ, SAGE BAVA, TYLER HAMMOND JAZZ EXPERIENCE 🗓️ Saturday, June 21, 2025 6–10pm GRITTY IN PINK ALL GRL JAM, HU3M3N 🗓️ Saturday, June 28, 2025 6–10pm Image credit: Pussy Riot Siberia. Performance documentation from Neue Nationalgalerie, July 4 2024. Photo by Max Avdeev.

"I took the pictures....so that nostalgia could never color my past. I wanted to make a record of my life that nobody could revise: not a safe, clean version, but instead, an account of what things really looked like and felt like and smelled like. I don’t think I could, at this age and in this body now, live the life that I lived then. It took a certain level of fearlessness, a wildness, quick changes—of clothes, of friends, of lovers, of cities." – Nan Goldin on "The Ballad of Sexual Dependecy." Nan Goldin’s series "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" is a deeply personal narrative shaped by the artist’s own experiences in Boston, New York, Berlin, and beyond during the late 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. Titled after a song from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "The Threepenny Opera," Goldin’s Ballad functions as a kind of downtown opera. Its protagonists—including the artist herself—are captured in intimate moments of love and loss. They experience ecstasy and pain through sex and drug use, revel in dance clubs, bond with their children at home, and endure domestic violence and the ravages of AIDS. "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" is on view in a dedicated gallery as part of the exhibition "Diary of Flowers: Artist and their Worlds," on view now at MOCA Grand Avenue, through Jan. 4, 2026.

MOCA extends its condolences to the family and friends of Los Angeles artist Joe Goode, who died this week at age 87. Associated with a wide variety of movements, from Pop Art and Assemblage to Light and Space and Minimalism, Goode came to national recognition at the dawn of the Los Angeles contemporary art world, when his work was included alongside that of Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Ruscha in "The New Paintings of Common Objects," the landmark 1962 exhibition mounted at the Pasadena Museum (now Norton Simon Museum). Included in that exhibition were two of Goode's "Milk Bottle Paintings," which featured actual painted milk bottles in front of monochrome painted canvasses, and would become some of the artist's most appreciated work. One example, entitled "Purple," 1961-62, is held in MOCA's collection, along with thirteen other works, including paintings, drawings, assemblage, and sculpture. "Stairs," ca. 1968, is a carpeted, mise-en-abyme mini-staircase that is often included in collection exhibitions at the museum, a favorite of curators and visitors, alike. "Stairs," ca. 1968 and "Untitled," 1975 were part of MOCA's exhibition "Mapping an Art World: Los Angeles in the 1970s–80s," on view at MOCA Grand Avenue, June 18, 2023–March 10, 2024. RIP Joe Goode (1937-2025).

VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Join us online this Friday for the second installment of "Resilience & Rebuilding," a virtual series exploring the impact of the recent devastating wildfires in LA. Titled "Learning from Other Cities," this program will feature case studies on rebuilding after other climate emergencies, aiming to integrate those lessons in LA's recovery plan. 📅 Friday, March 28, 2025  ⏰ 11am–12pm FREE with RSVP > https://lnkd.in/gj4BNsxE Speakers include Tap Bui, Nancy Convard, Steve Crowder, and Diana Felton. The program will be moderated by Adam Mahoney.

Saturday plans? Come to MOCA Grand Avenue and join artist rafa esparza for a walkthrough of "MOCA Focus: Ana Segovia." 📍 MOCA Grand Avenue 🗓️ Saturday, March 29, 2025 ⏰ 3–4PM 🎟️ FREE with RSVP > moca.org/programs esparza lives and works in his native city, Los Angeles. As a painter, performer and installation artist, esparza uses site-specificity and materiality to challenge dominating political and social structures. Ana Segovia (b. 1991, Mexico City; lives in Mexico City) twists assumptions about masculinity through a queer lens. His paintings have an aggressive palette of fluorescent colors, daring compositions, and cinematographic framing and cropping. Image credits: rafa esparza, "Taquero," 2021. Acrylic on adobe.. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee and the Emerging Art Fund © rafa esparza, Image courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, Photo Credit: Ruben Diaz. rafa esparza. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Max Knight. Ana Segovia, "I've Been Meaning to Tell You #4," 2023. Oil on linen. Jumex Collection, Mexico. © Ana Segovia, courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York.

Shenny De Los Angeles is a Dominican-American interdisciplinary spoken word poet, writer, and director. Her work centers the sacred lives of Black and Brown Caribbean femmes. Her short film "hija de Florinda" is on view now at MOCA Grand Avenue as part of the culture:Lab x Womxn in Windows series "American Gurl: home—land." ⏰ Saturday - Sunday ONLY: 11 am–6pm 🗓️ Now through May 4, 2025 📍MOCA Grand Avenue 🎟️ Free "American Gurl: home—land" is a presentation of six short film works that negotiate land, diaspora and displacement from artists Melvonna Ballenger, Shenny De Los Angeles, Ella Ezeike, Solange Knowles, Alima Lee, Amanda Morell, and Cauleen Smith. Image credit: Still from "hija de Florinda", dir. Shenny de Los Angeles.

This Sunday is SUNDAY STUDIO at MOCA Grand Avenue! Enjoy a social time at MOCA for an afternoon of fun for all ages including artmaking, gallery activities, music, and more. 🎨 Add to a large-scale photorealistic painting inspired by "Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art Since 1968" 🕺 Join MOCA’s family dance party. 🌿 Plus, the Sustainable Skillbuilding series will return with a hands-on natural dye workshop led by Berbo Studio exploring the intersection of ecology and creativity through native plants. FREE with RSVP > moca.org/programs

WHAT DOES MOCA MEAN TO YOU? MOCA is participating in a national survey of museum-goers, sponsored by the American Alliance of Museums. This survey will provide us with data from our visitors, as well as from visitors to museums nationwide, helping us be more effective. We want to better understand our visitors' different needs and values but to do so we need your help; we need to hear your opinions and thoughts. The survey only takes about 9 minutes to complete, but in those 9 minutes you will help MOCA make better decisions about the future. And as a thank you there will be an opportunity for you to win one of ten $100 Visa gift cards! Please share your thoughts by taking the survey. We’d love to hear from you. https://lnkd.in/gkMqfS9n