Installation view of Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s, January 26 – April 26, 1992 at The Temporary Contemporary, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, photo by Paula Goldman
The Temporary Contemporary
Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s, featuring works by sixteen visual artists and ten writers from the LA area, considered the narratives created in the long shadows cast by the harsh Southern California light. The artists spanned different generations, backgrounds, disciplines, and formal practices, but the works presented—many of which were newly completed projects or installations designed specifically to be sited at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA—share a common vision in which alienation, dispossession, perversity, sex, and violence either dominate the landscape or form disruptive undercurrents.
The exhibition included work by Chris Burden, Meg Cranston, Llyn Foulkes, Victor Estrada, Richard Jackson, Mike Kelley, Liz Larner, Paul McCarthy, Manuel Ocampo, Raymond Pettibon, Lari Pittman, Charles Ray, Nancy Rubins, Jim Shaw, Megan Williams, and Robert Williams. A fully illustrated publication unites the art with fiction and poetry by Los Angeles-based writers Charles Bukowski, Michelle T. Clinton, Dennis Cooper, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Amy Gerstler, Jim Krusoe, Bia Lowe, Rita Valencia, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Benjamin Weissman.
Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990s was organized by Paul Schimmel, Chief Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
The Temporary Contemporary is the original name of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.