From Close to Home: Recent Acquisitions of Los Angeles Art highlights MOCA’s core mission of supporting and collecting works by contemporary artists, particularly those based in LA. The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, photography, works on paper, and installation art by both established and emerging artists.
In its West Coast debut, Chris Burden’s Hell Gate (1998–99)—a twenty-eight-foot-long, seven-foot-tall model of New York’s Hell Gate Bridge made of thousands of toy pieces—introduces the exhibition. The monumental work is accompanied by a schematic drawing of Burden’s Exposing the Foundation of the Museum (1986), commissioned by MOCA for the opening of its Grand Avenue building. Works by emerging artists include Katie Grinnan’s Hubcap Woman (2003) and Matthew Monahan’s War Never Ends (2005); Hannah Greely’s sculpture Remainder (2001–06), which also functions as a birdfeeder, is installed on the Sculpture Plaza. From Close to Home also includes works by Edgar Bryan, Miles Coolidge, Charles Gaines, Elliott Hundley, Liz Larner, William Leavitt, Dave Muller, Allen Ruppersberg, Jim Shaw, Paul Sietsema, and William Wegman.
From Close to Home: Recent Acquisitions of Los Angeles Art is organized by Paul Schimmel, Chief Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.