MOCA. ART FROM ART. THE EXHIBITIONIST

Fun little project...

A man and his suitcase take an extraordinary pixilated journey through MOCA's exhibition Art in the Streets at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, as works by BANKSY, RAMMELLZEE and KENNY SCHARF come alive all around him.

Directed by brothers Mark Osborne (MORE and KUNG FU PANDA) and Kent Osborne (ADVENTURE TIME, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS), this short film was created in an improvisational fashion during three very busy days at the museum.

More info here

FREE MOCA ENTRY COURTESY OF BANKSY

Nice one Banksy ! putting his money where his mouth is.

MOCA. STREET 2011

Street, 2011 from MOCA on Vimeo.

Todd James, Barry McGee, Stephen Powers, Devin Flynn, Josh Lazcano, Dan Murphy, and Alexis Ross

Installation at "Art In The Streets", The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Directors: Andy Bruntel & Felipe Lima
DP: C. R. Stecyk III
Producers: Bret Nicely & Jett Steiger
Camera: Larkin Donley
Sound: Owen Granich-Y

BIRDS OF A FEATHER VIA MOCA

Make of it what you will. Nicely filmed, great can control. The theme ? Well I guess it's the conquering of Native Americans by industrialisation/capitalism, can't help thinking the stereotyped Native American was probably raped and murdered by those arriving on the train, yeehaa !. Ironic that this went over the top of Blu's "censored"coffin draped dollar bills. I guess the slaughter of the innocent is deemed acceptable by Deitch when viewed through the rose tinted specs of history.  A bit of an embarrassment from all involved. Unless of course, the previous mural starts to bleed through and merge with this one. In which case it would be spot on.

Artists Lee Quinones, Abel, Cern, FUTURA, Loomit, Push, RISK and Sano document the creation of their monumental artwork "Birds Of A Feather" (2011).

Created for Art in the Streets at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, April 17--August 8, 2011. Video produced by MOCA in collaboration with TEAM G.

© 2011 The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)

MARTHA COOPER ON MOCA

VNA x Martha Cooper at MOCA from Charlie Inman on Vimeo.

Our friends at VNA went out to LA and bumped into fairy godmother of Graff Martha Cooper setting up her bit of the Art In The Streets exhibition at MOCA.

Music - 93 'Til Infinity by The Souls Of Mischief

verynearlyalmost.com

BANKSY. MOCA UPDATE

Seems Banksy has added a few new pieces to the MoCA show and updated the steamroller piece.

Thanks to waltercrunk for posting images.

ART IN THE STREETS REVIEW

Fab 5 Freddy

Whilst we're overjoyed that the exhibition "Art in Streets" is enjoying the success it rightly deserves, we have been a little disappointed in finding little constructive critique on the "curatorship" of the show. There's been the usual, "can't do everything", "budget to consider", "size of venue" "someone had to be left out" defense of the event, but little actual discussion about why and how it is as it is. Which is why we're happy to have run across this little gem of a review from Lauren Licata.

From THE CONSTRVCT.COM

Why “Art in the Streets” Was Impressive and Why This is a Bad Thing

BY LAUREN LICATA

If you haven’t yet made it out to MOCA‘s Art in the Streets, think twice before going based off of its advertisement as a “street art retrospective.” As a whole, the exhibition lacks a clear exhibition catalog or map, exists without any sort of coherent spatial organization, and places faulty emphasis on its composition of “street art.” Its ability to impact visitors is based upon enormity and celebrity alone, capitalizing upon the recent urban art trend with little else to offer. We’ll say it up front- if you’re looking for a glowing recommendation, Shelley Leopold’s version in this week’s LA Weekly should do the trick.


While Art in the Streets does deserve recognition as perhaps the largest institutionalized display of graffiti and urban art to date and Jeffrey Deitch certainly deserves acknowledgement for the prominent names brought together under one roof, the exhibition fails to submit any sort of insightful or reflective dialogue, with the exception of a microscopic timeline and vacuous wall text. The show offers no historical context and imparts nothing at face value. Colossal names and expansive art groupings provide considerable examples of the urban movement’s visual language, but their significance goes unexplained, leaving novice viewers an assortment of historical imagery alone, and even intermediate attendees the unaided task of piecing it all together. Taken as a whole, the show embodies the “Tumblr” of museum exhibitions- a collection of pretty pictures, a vague assertion of their significance, and minimal content. Bottom line, don’t expect to leave this exhibit more knowledgeable than when you came in.

Read the full review here

BANKSY AT MOCA

Our friend Butterfly sent us a batch of images from the MoCA preview. Check out the full set below. I must say, I was a tad surprised how few of the core group of artists tackled the issue of the work in the context of a museum and for the main, created set designed "street scenes",  maybe this was the point, but can't help feeling it's all a little "theatrical".

Banksy, irreverent as ever, seems to have been one of the few that took this on, with a sly nod to his "museums are trophy cabinets for the rich" quote, he digs out a series of "historical" stencils and earlier works and presents them in a very dry and quite mundane manner. I've read numerous reviews and blogs that seem to be missing the point and have this down as a rare "Banksy" fail.

However, one look at the main wall (top image), his main contribution to the show, an immense stained glass church window made up of tags created by local kids, and we see where he's going with this.

Street Art and Graffiti in a museum context requires your complete submission, to academia, to curatorship, to the institution and commodification in general. All bow to the authority of tradition. Art is serious, submit, and we'll show you the way.

And all this before Deitch in a post festival interview said of Graffiti writers..

Jeffrey Deitch 'If you harness your talent you can be in a museum some day...."

Nice one Banksy.

More photo's here

ART IN THE STREETS TEASER VIDEOS

Not sure if these are official or not. So much about this show I'm not sure about. Guess that should be considered a good thing.  And in order to give that consideration, well, I guess we'll be booking our flights soon for a quieter period in May.

From LA Taco

MOCA. ART IN THE STREETS. THE FIRST REVIEW

So a video has now surfaced of the Katsu hit. But apparently, according to one of our good forum chaps, it's not the best thing in the show. Check below for the first sneaked out show review.

It's been a long while since i posted anything on here but felt compelled to do so now....I have had the pleasure of seeing what has been going on inside the MOCA walls for the past many days and I gladly will go on record and say that this show is 100% HISTORIC!....As far as anything Graffiti or Street Art related there has never been such a collection of talent under one roof...EVER! While of course it's not 100% complete or inclusive I don't think it's meant to be but it does a beautiful job of telling the story of Graffiti from it's roots to current day...Kudos to Deitch and Co!.....the giant space is so jam packed with eye searing visuals it is overwhelming and will definitely warrant repeat viewings....The LA version of Mcgee ESPO REAS Street Market blows the New York classic exhibition out of the water! it's like the ultimate Disney Ride for art vandals....mind blowing detail!....The Banksy room is retarded fresh with a few new large canvases and some new re-workings of classic images...my favorite so far that I will trade my mother in for if I could is a giant Indian "No Trespassing" on wood that is fantastic! similar to the one he did in San Fran I believe but this time the Indian is standing....the man is no dummy and more than holds his own in a space full of art Kings...The Os Gemeos room is classic Os Gemeos with a few stunning stunning pieces....They have also turned the outside box office cube building into a giant double faced classic Gemeos Balaclava man that is fresh and the kicker is what they are building inside the chain link fence on top of the guys head...will not spoil it. The Basquiat that is hanging in the storefront recreation of the legendary Fun Gallery might be one of the rawest Basquiats I have ever seen and also might be one of my favorites of his that I have never seen before. all that being said I do think that Phil Frost is sadly missing from this exhibit and is a crucial link that cannot be overlooked....hopefully they will include him in the NYC version of the show...and oh yeah...can't believe that BLU is not inside the building at all?!! f**ked.....in two days history will be made!! and i urge anyone that was born between 1965 and 1995 to make a pilgrimage to this ART MECCA!!!!

ART IN THE STREETS BOOK

You all know about the show, now here comes the companion book.

Put together by MOCA's director Jeffrey Deitch, Aaron Rose (Beautiful Losers) & Roger Gastman (History of American Graffiti). Unlike the show, the book is rumoured to be a Global survey on the history of Graffiti and Street Art.

Images and info from the fabulous
Freshlyserious

SWOON PREPARES FOR MOCA'S ART IN THE STREETS

Swoon preparing what looks like her largest most ambitious install yet, destined for MoCA's upcoming Art in Streets show.

Images via Juxtapoz

BLU V'S JEFFREY DEITCH BY ESCIF

Just a thought..

BLU WALL CONTROVERSY

There's an interesting debate developing regarding Jeffrey Deitch's/MOCA's decision to erase/censor/whitewash the artist Blu's work from the side of their museum, this in spite of it being a legal and commissioned work from the Museum itself. The work was produced as part of the upcoming survey on Street Art curated by Jeffrey Deitch to be showcased in April.

Surprisingly, the quite influential and much read street art blog Vandalog, has come out in favour of the decision to remove the work.

Most of our readers will already be aware of who Jeffrey Deitch is and his contribution to promoting this particular type of art, the rumour mill of his producing a show of this type for MOCA was underway almost as soon as he accepted the post. Having worked with Blu in the past, Deitch will no doubt be aware of the direction this particular artists moral compass swings, so to come out now and unilaterally censor its production leads to all sorts of questions. The main being, just how out of touch is Deitch with the development of Street Art outside of his earlier quite narrow field. Some have mentioned that this is all part of a manufactured PR scam which I think we can discount straight away. Blu simply doesn't engage in that type of game.

One abiding question regarding the upcoming show will inevitably be, not what was curated in and why, but what was left out. Will work that is critical of America, War and the prevailing system be left aside in favour of the more decorative. Remains to be seen.

UPDATE : BLU RESPONDS TO DEITCH CLAIMS
In a Times' report on MOCA's controversial decision to whitewash an antiwar mural it had commissioned for the Geffen Contemporary, museum director Jeffrey Deitch discusses his reasons for painting over the artwork.

Blu, the Italian street artist who created the mural, could not be reached for comment by press time. But after the story went to press, I received the following e-mail, addressing the question of whether he considers the removal of his mural censorship:

It is censorship that almost turned into self-censorship when they asked me to openly agree with their decision to erase the wall. In Soviet Union they were calling it 'self-criticism.'

Deitch invited me to paint another mural over the one he erased, and I will not do that..

Maybe this can be a call to arms for an uncurated or mediated action for Street Artists to fill the wall up with whatever they want, in spite of the show. Go get it guys..turn it into a new spring street for 2011.
Woosters excellent Spring Street project back in 2007


Blu's Website
LA TIMES
Vandalog Debate

BLU BEING BUFFED

Video of Blu's latest work being destroyed by MOCA, the people who commissioned the work as part of the upcoming "Street Art" survey.

More on that particular show HERE

MOCA DESTROY BLU WORK

More news on LA's Museum of Contemporary Art's whitewashing of Blu's latest mural. Blu had flown to LA to create the work for MOCA who seem to have decided it wasn't what the people of America needed, and all this within 24 hours. A nasty case of censorship combined with a massive dose of disrespect for the burgeoning Street Art scene. Imagine had the same happened to Picasso's Guernica.

More on the story from the LANEWS here

STREET ART to take over MOCA's Geffen Contemporary in 2011

From LAtimes

Anyone wondering what Jeffrey Deitch's next step will be as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art now has an answer. In two words: street art.

Local artists and gallery owners have been whispering about the possibility, and this week Deitch confirmed his plans for a 2011 show. "We're going to send out the press release in a few weeks," he says. "Right now we're trying to iron out sponsorship. It's going to be the first major museum survey of the history of graffiti and street art presented in the United States."

The show is called "Art in the Streets," not to be confused with "Born in the Streets," recently staged by the Cartier Foundation in Paris. Deitch says the MOCA endeavor will be bigger, broader and more historical in sweep. "A show at this level has never been done anywhere."

The choice of subject is no surprise to anyone who knows Deitch. Since the 1970s, he has supported New York artists like Lee Quinones, Futura, Fab 5 Freddy, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. More recently, Deitch Projects, his former gallery, showed the work of California anti-heroes Barry McGee and Shepard Fairey.

The MOCA show will cover the 1970s through the present, including international street-art stars such as Banksy from London and Space Invader from Paris. ("Banksy is very excited about the show,” says Deitch. How does he know, considering Banksy's notoriously elusive nature? "We communicate through his assistant Holly.")

But also expect a substantial focus on Los Angeles: the legacy of cholo graffiti in the 1970s, the
influence of New York Wild Style graffiti starting in the '80s and skateboarding-fueled art of the '90s.

"About 25 artists will be invited to do major installations or murals," says MOCA's director. “But in terms of all the artists represented there will be more than 100." One installation already confirmed: Mister Cartoon's Ice Cream Truck, shown above, the work of an L.A. graffiti artist now famous for creating tattoos for the famous (think Eminem and Beyoncé).

To organize the exhibition, Deitch is working with two L.A.-based curators: Aaron Rose of "Beautiful Losers" renown and graffiti guru Roger Gastman. Fred Brathwaite, better known as Fab 5 Freddy, is serving as a curatorial advisor from New York.

Rose says he’s excited to see MOCA take street art seriously. “Because there’s a criminal edge or outlaw vibe, it doesn’t get the same respect that art coming out of academia gets," he says. "But you can’t deny the cultural importance it has had in art, music and fashion of the last 20 years.”

He thinks the exhibition has huge crossover potential to reach new museumgoers in the city's Latino and African American communities, and teenagers across the map. "I don’t think MOCA has done anything on this scale," Rose says. "The sheer number of kids who will come to this museum will be mind-blowing.”

The show is slated to open at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary in April 2011. "I decided I had to do this in my first season at MOCA," Deitch says. "I didn't want to waste time opening up the museum to a larger audience."

-- Jori Finkel

www.twitter.com/jorifinkel

Image: Mister Cartoon's Ice Cream Truck, 2004, photo by Eriberto Oriol.