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Preliminary Installation view, MONUMENTS, October 23, 2025–May 3, 2026 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA & The Brick, Los Angeles. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Stefanie Keenan for Getty Images.

Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument, Baltimore, Maryland splashed with red paint following the Unite the Right rally, August 13, 2017. The monument was removed on August 16, 2017. Credit: Picture Architect/Alamy.

Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument, Baltimore, Maryland splashed with red paint following the Unite the Right rally, August 13, 2017. The monument was removed on August 16, 2017. Credit: Picture Architect/Alamy.

Jon Henry, Untitled #9, Newburgh, NY, 2014. Digital archival print on matte paper. Courtesy of the artist.

Jon Henry, Untitled #9, Newburgh, NY, 2015. Digital archival print on matte paper. Courtesy of the artist.

Walter Price, Pond de Rivaaahh, 2023. Acrylic and gesso on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York

Walter Price, Pond de Rivaaahh, 2023. Acrylic and gesso on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York

Preliminary Installation view, MONUMENTS, October 23, 2025–May 3, 2026 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA & The Brick, Los Angeles. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Stefanie Keenan for Getty Images.

Preliminary Installation view, MONUMENTS, October 23, 2025–May 3, 2026 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA & The Brick, Los Angeles. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Stefanie Keenan for Getty Images.

Preliminary Installation view, MONUMENTS, October 23, 2025–May 3, 2026 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA & The Brick, Los Angeles. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Stefanie Keenan for Getty Images.

MONUMENTS

Co-organized and co-presented by MOCA and The Brick, MONUMENTS marks the recent wave of monument removals as a historic moment. The exhibition reflects on the histories and legacies of post-Civil War America as they continue to resonate today, bringing together a selection of decommissioned monuments, many of which are Confederate, with contemporary artworks borrowed and newly created for the occasion. Removed from their original outdoor public context, the monuments in the exhibition will be shown in their varying states of transformation, from unmarred to heavily vandalized.

Co-curated by Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA; and Kara Walker, artist; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate at The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator at MOCA, MONUMENTS considers the ways public monuments have shaped national identity, historical memory, and current events.   

Following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (2015) and the deadly 'Unite the Right' rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, VA (2017), alongside Bree Newsome’s powerful removal of the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse (2015), the United States witnessed the decommissioning of nearly 200 monuments. These removals prompted a national debate that remains ongoing. MONUMENTS aims to historicize these discussions in our current moment and provide a space for crucial discourse and active engagements about challenging topics.  

MONUMENTS features newly commissioned artworks by contemporary artists Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Cauleen Smith, Davóne Tines and Julie Dash, and Kara Walker. Additional artworks by Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Hugh Mangum, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, and Hank Willis Thomas, are borrowed from private collectors and institutions. 

The exhibition presents decommissioned monuments borrowed from the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia; the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond; the Valentine, Richmond, Virginia; and The Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina. By juxtaposing these objects with contemporary works, the exhibition expands the context in which they are understood and highlights the gaps and omissions in popular narratives of American history.  

MONUMENTS will be accompanied by a scholarly publication and a robust slate of public and educational programming.

MONUMENTS is co-organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and The Brick. MONUMENTS is co-curated by Hamza Walker, Director, The Brick; artist Kara Walker; and Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator, MOCA; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate, The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator, MOCA.

Presenting support is provided by the Mellon Foundation.



Lead support is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the
Ford Foundation.

      

Major support is provided by The Margaret Morgan and Wesley Phoa Fund, Alicia Miñana and Robert Lovelace, the Teiger Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Jacqueline Humphries and Greene Naftali, Karen Hillenburg, Josh Williams, the Lambent Foundation, Patrick Collins and Olivia Barrett, Tim Disney, Cliff Einstein, Karyn Kohl, Zach Lasry, Carolyn Clark Powers, Jeffrey and Catharine Soros, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and an anonymous donor.



Seed funding was provided through the Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award.

Significant support is provided by VIA Art Fund and an anonymous donor.

     

Generous support is provided by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Sarah Arison, Allison and Larry Berg, the Bohen Foundation, Betsy Greenberg, Carol Greene, Agnes Gund, Kelsey Lee Offield and Cole Sternberg, Berry Stein, and an anonymous donor.

Additional support is provided by Angeles Art Fund, Charlie Pohlad and Jack Carter, Anita Blanchard, MD and Martin Nesbitt, Deborah Irmas, the MOCA Projects Council, Conor O'Neil, the Edward W. Rose III Family Fund at The Dallas Foundation, V. Joy Simmons, MD, and Bob Rennie and Carey Fouks.

Exhibitions at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Exhibitions with major funding provided by Tatiana Botton, The Goodman Family Foundation, Alfred E. Mann Charities, and Alicia Miñana and Robert Lovelace. Generous funding is provided by Michael and Zelene Fowler, The Earl and Shirley Greif Foundation, Pamela and Jarl Mohn, Jonathan Segal, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation, and Pamela West.

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