Programs • MOCA

EVERY THURSDAY: 5:30PM & 6:30PM | EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY: 12PM & 2PM

EVERY THURSDAY: 5:30PM & 6:30PM

EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY: 12PM & 2PM

Exhibition Highlight Tours

Educators offer walkthroughs of current exhibitions at MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Walkthroughs begin in the lobby and last about 45 minutes; no reservations are required for individuals.
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Thursday
June 1, 7pm

Lecture
Thursday
June 1, 7pm

Lecture

What is Contemporary? Ultra-red, Leslie Berestein Rojas, and Eric Avila in Conversation

The accelerated arrival of commercial art galleries and artist-run spaces in Boyle Heights and its adjacent neighborhoods are at the core of this roundtable discussion. The artist collective Ultra-red, long-time defenders of the public housing community in Los Angeles, will speak with Leslie Berestein Rojas, KPCC’s…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Saturday
June 3, 3pm

Performance
Saturday
June 3, 3pm

Performance

The Readers Chorus and The Dog Star Orchestra

Composers Michael Pisaro and Sara Roberts present a joint concert of The Dog Star Orchestra and The Readers Chorus. This program of manifestos for readers and experimental harmonies for singers, inspired by Fluxus composer James Tenney’s Valentine Manifesto, will use texts drawn fr…
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Sunday
June 4, 12pm

All Ages
Sunday
June 4, 12pm

All Ages

Student Art Connection

Explore Kerry James Marshall: Mastry and MOCA’s permanent collection through the eyes of youth at this celebration of Contemporary Art Start (CAS), MOCA’s yearlong classroom partnership program. Join specially trained 4th- through 12th-grade students in gallery conversations and han…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Sunday
June 4, 3pm

Reading
Sunday
June 4, 3pm

Reading

Will Alexander

Known for his experimental, surrealist prose, poet and Los Angeles native Will Alexander draws influence from the African diasporic experience and the international avant-garde, Aimé Césaire to André Breton, working through automatic writing to create new lexicons. Winner of the 2014 American Book Award, Alexander a…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Wednesday
June 7

Member Event
Wednesday
June 7

Member Event

MIX at MOCA

Contributing-level members and higher are invited to a members-only happy hour and private walkthrough of Kerry James Marshall: Mastry. Please join us for this unique opportunity to learn more about an incredible exhibition and mix with other MOCA members over drinks and light hors …
MOCA Grand Avenue
Thursday
June 8, 5pm

MOCA Store
Thursday
June 8, 5pm

MOCA Store

Tortoise General Store: Rhythmos Handmade Leathers Demonstration

Join us for an on-site artisan demonstration and learn how Rhythmos Handmade Leathers creates its exquisitely designed leather goods. Since 2002, Rhythmos has been perfecting the art and practice of leather design from a studio in Satsuma, Japan. Come take a look at the tools and techniques used to create these gen…
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Thursday
June 8, 6pm

Lecture
Thursday
June 8, 6pm

Lecture

Lanka Tattersall

MOCA Assistant Curator Lanka Tattersall leads a walkthrough of Patrick Staff: Weed Killer. Staff’s immersive, MOCA-commissioned video installation takes the effects of chemotherapy as its central subject, mixing choreographic gestures shot with high-definition thermal imaging and a…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Thursday
June 8, 7pm

Lecture
Thursday
June 8, 7pm

Lecture

S. Løchlann Jain

S. Løchlann Jain will present a lecture on the complex subject of cancer and its broad social implications on the occasion of Patrick Staff: Weed Killer. Jain’s 2016 J. I. Staley Prize–winning book, Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us, was an essentia…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Closed June 12 – Opened Apr 2

Closed June 12 –
Opened Apr 2

Closed June 12 – Opened Apr 2

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Catherine Opie and Sterling Ruby
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Closed June 12 – Opened Apr 2

Closed June 12 –
Opened Apr 2

Closed June 12 – Opened Apr 2

Arthur Jafa: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Thursday
June 15, 6:30pm

Performance
Thursday
June 15, 6:30pm

Performance

MOCA Music: Teebs, Milo, Josef Leimberg, and DJ Nobody

This summer, MOCA is proud to introduce MOCA Music, a new and ongoing series of music at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo. MOCA will be collaborating with Spaceland, who is among the most legendary presenters of new and emerging music in L.A., reg…
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Sunday
June 18, 3pm

Reading
Sunday
June 18, 3pm

Reading

Rodrigo Toscano, Sophia Le Fraga, and Ed Steck

Rodrigo Toscano is an experimental poet, playwright, and labor activist whose work addresses borders. Sophia Le Fraga is a poet and artist who has presented works in MoMA PS1’s Greater New York exhibition and Performa 15. Ed Steck’s poetry is often drawn from his experiences with i…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Thursday
June 22, 5pm

MOCA Store
Thursday
June 22, 5pm

MOCA Store

Tortoise General Store: Artisan Demonstrations from Kaikado and Kanaami-Tsuji

Join artisans from Kaikado and Kanaami-Tsuji as they demonstrate the traditional Japanese metal arts their workshops are celebrated for. A fifth-generation artisan from Kaikado will show how the company makes its famous Chazutsu tea canisters, a process with more than 130 steps; and a craftsman from Kanaami-Tsuji w…
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Thursday
June 22, 7pm

Screening
Thursday
June 22, 7pm

Screening

SCREEN: A FULL SPECTRUM

A FULL SPECTRUM looks at the way artists map space. This video program points to the book postcolonial space(s), edited by G. B. Nalbantoglu and C. T. Wong, which begins “[The term postcolonial space] conveys both a negati…
MOCA Grand Avenue
Sunday
June 25, 3pm

Sunday
June 25, 3pm

Peter Shire and Anna Katz in Conversation

A key figure in Southern California’s postwar “post-pottery” ceramics movement, Peter Shire rose to prominence as a member of the Milan-based design collective Memphis and is perhaps best known for his signature brightly colored, splatter-painted mugs and handcrafted earthenware. Shire and MOCA Assistant Curator Ann…
Closed June 26 – Opened Jan 16

Closed June 26 –
Opened Jan 16

Closed June 26 – Opened Jan 16

storefront: THIS KNOWN WORLD: Spontaneous Particulars of the Poetic Research Bureau
MOCA Grand Avenue
Thursday
June 29, 6:30pm

Performance
Thursday
June 29, 6:30pm

Performance

MOCA Music: Surf Curse, Tacocat, and Starcrawler

This summer, MOCA is proud to introduce MOCA Music, a new and ongoing series of music at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo. MOCA will be collaborating with Spaceland, who is among the most legendary presenters of new and emerging music in L.A., reg…
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Thursday
June 29, 7pm

Lecture
Thursday
June 29, 7pm

Lecture

Artists on Artists: Deana Lawson on Kerry James Marshall

Photographer Deana Lawson creates arresting portraits of perfect strangers. By representing the Black body both intimately and frontally, Lawson makes images that conjure narrative in a truly distinct visual style. With a practice centered on documentation of the familial, human sexuality, and the life cycle itself…
MOCA Grand Avenue