Results tagged “moca”

The art show Mobile Exhibits No. 3 opens tonight at the City of Long Beach Annex featuring four installations from Meeson Pae Yang, James Thegerstrom and Heather Scholl, Karen Reitzel and Elizabeth Wild. The opening reception is from 5-8 pm at the Annex, but Meeson’s installation Traverse is located at 5661 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach. The exhibit runs until Jan. 31.

Fig Restaurant in Santa Monica helps celebrate the Santa Monica Pier’s Centennial celebration next week with special menu items that are on a stick, on bread and in a basket. Specials include: Wagyu Corn Dogs ($9), Scotch Duck Egg ($7), Bratwurst on a Pretzel Roll ($9) and Blue Cheese Filled Buffalo Chicken ($9).

The EM & Co boutique is hosting an opening cocktail and appetizer reception for Chris Callaway's first solo photography exhibit "Femme Fatale" tonight from 7-10 pm. His work explores the “dark side of female seduction through a series of portraits and fashion editorial photos.” DJ Vancans will also be on hand spinning original compositions.

Art collective OJO brings a new kind of social networking to MOCA tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. with their interactive "Flesh Car Crash," where the audience will be encouraged to take part in a communal music session. Musicians will pack themselves into two small cars, and each vehicle powers a variety of instruments and noise-making objects. Sound chaotic yet? The cars will also be moving during a "choreographed game of chicken." The FREE event is part of the downtown museum's Engagement Party series in which artists are given a three-month residency for the first Thursday of the month.

There are two exhibits opening tonight at the Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art in WeHo. In the rear gallery, “Mood Swings” features seven of the urban world’s best emerging and recognized artists - Asbestos (Dublin, Ireland), Cena7 (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Fefe Talavera (Sao Paulo), Imminent Disaster (New York), Labrona (Montreal, Canada). SoCal artists representing are Oddzoo (LA) and Bumblebee (Downey). Israeli artist Know Hope has an installation "the times won’t save you (this rain smells of memory)" that includes 30,000 paper raindrops, 40,000 feet of fishing twine, 2,500 fishing weights and hundreds of sheets of cardboard fashioned into miniature works of art and life-size cut-out characters. The opening receptions run 7-10 pm tonight, and the exhibits run until July 2.

Racing WiFi controlled cars around the Museum of Contemporary Art sure sounds like a fun thing to do on a Friday night, which is how the blogger behind Things to do in LA wound up at the museum trying to get a good race going. It seems the bottom line for this event was A for innovation of idea (racing WiFi controlled cars around an art museum does sound like a quirky, cool thing to do) but an F for execution. Apparently there were many technical glitches that kept the races from running smoothly. All in all, though, despite the delayed signals, it was, according to the blogger, a lot of fun. Here's one piece of the race captured on the video (the rest are on his blog).

Because there's just too much fun to be had tonight, we couldn't decide on our favorite Pencil pick. So we chose two:

Los Angeles blazes the trail when it comes to the t-shirt. The lightweight garment wears ideally for our SoCal weather, and it’s casual versatility is locked in a cultural groove. We’re home to the $1,850 t-shirt, numerous eye-sore trendy brands, and a slew of feaux-vintage, nearly-ironic t’s whose wearer looks the butt of a silent joke. Thankfully those aren’t our only options.

ALOUD at the Central Library presents author Minal Hajratwala who’ll discuss her book Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents. Former reporter Minal Hajratwala was born in San Francisco and raised in New Zealand and suburban Michigan. She spent seven years traveling the world and interviewed more than 75 members of her extended family to see what made her ancestors travel from India to five continents and nine countries. The program begins at 7 pm at the Central Library. Reservations are recommended.

L.A. Theatre Works presents Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan through Sunday, reuniting Mark Brokaw, who directed the Off Broadway premiere, with original cast members Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager. The performances will be recorded at the Skirball to air on LATW's syndicated radio theater series, “The Play's The Thing,” which broadcasts weekly on public radio stations nationwide (89.3 KPCC here in LA). Playwright Kenneth Lonergan will be in attendance at the performances on Friday night and Sunday at 4 pm. Tickets: $20-$48.

Tonight marks the next installation of MOCA's "Engagement Party" series, where the public is invited to participate in art installations with local collectives. Tonight Knifeandfork (founded by Brian House and Sue Huang) step up to the tee box for the intallation "Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts)."

LA's Museum of Contemporary Art may have been saved by Eli Broad and his millions, but their road to recovery will be long and hard. As part of their efforts to curb operational costs, and in what is becoming a disheartening national and local trend, the museum "has announced it will lay off 32 employees as part of an effort to finish the year free of debt," the Daily News reports. The layoffs reflect a 20 per cent reduction in staff, and affect 16 full-time and 16 part-time jobs. In addition to the layoffs, the museum's new Chief Executive, Charles Young, says "other cost-cutting operations would save the museum some $4.4. million annually."

Los Angeles' beleaguered Museum of Contemporary Art has been resuscitated by the generous purse-strings of a well-known benefactor. According to the LA Times, MOCA's board "has voted to accept a $30-million bailout offer from billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, a founder and life trustee of the museum and the city's largest arts patron." This means that MOCA will not opt for a merger with LACMA and will instead to continue to operate independently. Broad has said that despite his philanthropic connection to LACMA, he feels there will be no damage to his relationship with them in light of his move to rescue MOCA.

Our ailing outpost for contemporary art has reached a preliminary agreement with wealthy philanthropist Eli Broad for financial rescue, the New York Times is reporting. "The agreement, which the board voted on at a long meeting Thursday afternoon, is not final and is subject to numerous conditions, including Mr. Broad’s examinations of the museum’s financial accounts, according to the people, two of whom attended the meeting on Thursday." Broad went on the record several weeks ago as believing that Los Angeles was not a "one-philanthropist town" and urged people to rally to aid MOCA. One institution has rallied--LACMA--and their deal hasn't been entirely dismissed. In fact, if the Broad bailout doesn't work, a merger of the museums could very well be the next option. MOCA expects to announce their plans as early as next week.

Machine Project in Echo Park, which "exists to encourage heroic experiments of the gracefully over-ambitious," was to receive a 35k grant this month, but given the economic state, the grant was canceled. The organization runs on donations and now they are worried about making their rent payments. Machine Head recently participated in a one day take over of the LACMA and are calling on all LACMA friends to help by donating money, purchasing a membership or purchasing a workshop gift certificate. Machine Project is 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization so all donations are tax deductible.

As news of LACMA's offer to merge with the financially struggling MOCA today, LA City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry introduced a motion recommending that the city allocate up to $2.8 million to aid in the operation of MOCA.

LACMA officially announced today that they would like to merge with MOCA, who is having considerable money problems right now. "Under the terms of the proposed merger," reports Culture Monster, "MOCA's collection and programs would be exhibited at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary Space in Little Tokyo, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA and at LACMA's Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, under construction on the LACMA campus. Additional programs are planned for MOCA's Grand Avenue site." If the merger goes through, money from LA County would not support MOCA like it does with LACMA. The institutions would be operated by the same people and share the same infrastructure, but both would keep the "independence and integrity" of their missions.

MOCA's grim financial outlook is no secret, and although there has been public mobilization to help raise the profile of the museum's plight and show whoever will pay attention that Angelenos want their art, some see the changes that need to come as being more fundamental.

LA's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) may be a casualty of the country's financial dire straits. In order to avoid this unfortunate fate, they are putting out the word that now is the time for action, not avoidance.

After news of MOCA's extreme financial situation, Culture Monster at the LA Times is hearing that MOCA will possibly "approach the Los Angeles County Museum of Art about a merger, which will effectively mean a transfer of MOCA's extraordinary collection to the Mid-Wilshire complex." Another art blogger believes LACMA would be more than willing to say "yes" to the offer.

After a six-month closure of its Geffen Contemporary exhibition space, the LA Times finds that the Museum of Contemporary Art is facing serious financial problems. "MOCA must sharply accelerate its fundraising to ensure its continuing health. The director planned to meet with MOCA's Board of Trustees this afternoon to discuss a range of options. He said talks were proceeding 'with a number of potential partners about a variety of arrangements," but he insisted that a dissolution or takeover of MOCA by another institution was not an option.'" The annual budget floats around $20 million, has borrowed millions and has dipped into its savings account.

This Sunday marks the opening of “Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection,” an exhibition that surveys the evolution and scope of conceptual art by artists who have lived and worked in California. Curated by MOCA Curator Philipp Kaiser and Curatorial Assistant Corrina Peipon, the exhibition highlights over 60 artists and more than 200 works including collage, drawing, film, installation, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video.

If you've been waiting for the hype to die down and waiting for the crowds to thin before visiting the Lawrence Weiner retrospective, you've almost waited too long. Weiner's conceptual art show at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA ends on Monday and this weekend is your last chance to get in and see As Far As the Eye Can See before all those fancy words are stripped from the walls and floors and ceilings.

Mr. Brainwash (aka MBW) is an “eccentric French filmmaker” whose first exhibit “Life is Beautiful” is showing at the old CBS studios. The show will feature more than 300 paintings, sculptures and prints alongside an installation made from 100,000 shoes and a life-size re-creation of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

MOCA is starting up a six-week film series tomorrow night at their The Geffen Contemporary location in Little Tokyo and who better to be there to play a music set than Henry Rollins? The film screened will be "Underground Forces," a film about the early punk scene with footage of Black Flag, the Cramps, etc. Rollins will be on for two hours from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The movie will start shoryly after. It's free with that day's museum admission ($10 or $5 for students w/ID), so take advantage of that and peruse the galleries while you're there since it stays open late until 11:00 p.m.

           

Yesterday at four different locations around the Los Angeles area, teams built ice structures, a re-creation of performance and installation artist Allan Kaprow's "Fluids." Yesterday, Kaprow's son helped build one of the structures in Pasadena's Memorial Park. LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews was there to catch it.

Since late March, performance art happenings have taken place all around Los Angeles. From students at USC dragging cement blocks in public right-of-ways to women licking jam off cars, the Allan Kaprow exhibit has extended beyond the gallery walls of the MOCA Geffen Contemporary gallery exhibit. Through the end of June, recreations from the pioneer of performance art will continue. And one of the larger scale pieces begins this weekend.

I woke this morning with a start (yes, a start!) and realized that I might, maybe, (oh my gosh did I?) have missed the Murakami exhibit at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. When a huge exhibit opens I either hit it on opening weekend or I wait it out. I wait until all the newspaper reviews have faded, I wait until the crowds have thinned, I wait until people are over it and have moved on to something else.

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location.