MOCA Archives -

March 24, 2026March 24, 2026

MONUMENTS

Statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury and paintings by Walter Price, installation view at MOCA, 2026; photo © codylee.co

In 2021, a nonprofit public art, history, and design studio called Monument Lab undertook a comprehensive study of 48,178 monuments across the United States. They compiled a top 50 list of individuals represented, such as presidents and generals, and found that 50 percent of them had enslaved other people. The report identified 5,917 monuments to the Civil War, but fewer than one percent of those mentioned slavery or abolition, most often instead memorializing the “lost cause” myths of the Confederacy.

August 17, 2019December 1, 2024

In Just a Blink of an Eye

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles has acquired a work of performance art by the multimedia artist Xu Zhen. Titled In Just a Blink of an Eye, it is only the second performance for MOCA’s permanent collection of some 7,000 works of postwar art.

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February 16, 2015December 3, 2024

The Broad: Sky-Lit

Exterior view of The Broad on February 15, 2015; photo by Elizabeth Daniels for Curbed LA

Last summer we explored designs and plans for The Broad: codylee.co/the-broad.

As the project nears completion, we had an exclusive sneak peek on February 15 in advance of the museum’s September 20 opening.

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June 11, 2014June 10, 2023

New Museums in LA

Los Angeles skyline

Los Angeles. We use superlatives to describe its population, economy, climate, and traffic, and its museums are no exception. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the largest in the Western United States. The Museum of Contemporary Art has one of the world’s most important collections of post-war art. The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world’s wealthiest art institution. LA has an impressive list of museums. Some have plans to expand, and there are a few entirely new ones in the works. Our next series of posts will provide an overview of notable museum projects in LA.