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Artists in this space include Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf, although examples of their best work are sadly missing.Īt the back of the Geffen Contemporary – which used to be a police car warehouse – a mini urban city block has been created, complete with stores, signs, posters, graffiti, a video game-turned-installation, and mechanized arms tagging sides of buildings. The curators – Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose, with MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch as organizer – have teamed with Patti Astor to re-create the Fun Gallery, a pivotal space that connected New York graffiti artists with the downtown art community during the early 1980s. “Battle Station” – a large room filled with glow-in-the-dark action figures, skateboards and other science-fiction-laced junk – is a tribute to artist and theorist RAMMELLZEE, who died last year at age 49.
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One darkened gallery features glow-in-the-dark work hanging from the walls and ceilings and has a distinctly subterranean feel. This is the street, in living Technicolor.Ĭertain galleries have been transformed into engaging fun-house-type experiences.
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In virtually every room, a barrage of colorful murals, graffiti, posters and photos hits you. There are many directions to go from the opening gallery, and wandering around is part of the experience. The Haring Buick Special is surrounded by graffiti paintings by Chaz Bojórquez, which is appropriate, since he is the author of the “Señor Suerte” tag that started in 1969 and became an emblem and good luck charm for Los Angeles-area Latino gangs. In the introductory, ground-floor galleries, a couple of vintage cars – one decorated by New York street artist Keith Haring – sit as reminders of a looser, wilder era. It’s not that visually stimulating, unless you visit on Thursday or Saturday afternoons, when live skate demonstrations take place.
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The exhibit starts with a skate ramp designed by pro skater Lance Mountain and artist Geoff McFetridge. It’s a lot to look at in one visit, and most viewers will probably be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the show.
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It’s an enormous, sprawling show that features installations by 50 artists and includes graffiti, paintings, photography, drawings, posters, action figures, a miniature city, a thorough timeline of street art and a gussied-up ice cream truck. That show did a decent job presenting street, skate and surf art and culture from the 1980s to the present.Īs for the MOCA show, there are many things to say about it, but one word comes immediately to mind: massive. Those of us who have some regional art memory should recall the “Beautiful Losers” exhibition, which originated at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, in March 2004, then made its way to the Orange County Museum of Art in February-May 2005. museum exhibit on the history of graffiti and street art. MOCA claims that it’s the first major U.S. 8, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is presenting the extensive exhibition “Art in the Streets” at its Geffen Contemporary location in Little Tokyo.
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