Siqueiros Americá Tropical Project

El Pueblo Historic Monument

Street art is having something of a moment right now in Los Angeles.  MOCA’s Art in the Streets show is totally loved and totally hated. And somehow MOCA has managed to underplay the censorship issues that arose months ago when the graffiti artist Blu’s mural was whitewashed from the Geffen Contemporary’s north wall.  I’ve been told Blu wanted to show Deitch sketches for the mural, but Deitch couldn’t (wouldn’t?) because he was too busy at Basel in Miami…

Caught in the act.

Geffen Contemporary North Wall Murals

MOCA

I can’t wait to get back to LA to see Art in the Streets. Everyone is going crazy for it, or going crazy because of  it.  Taggers have converged on Little Tokyo and the Popo don’t know what to do.  Deitch says it’s inspirational and motivational. But it has also been controversial.  Small reminder:

MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary’s North Wall in December 2010:

Blu's mural for MOCA, whitewashed.

How the wall appears now:

Collaboration: Lee Quinones, Abel, Cern, FUTURA, Loomit, Push, RISK and Sano.

The new mural is called Birds of a Feather.  Here’s a video of the artists creating it.   I wonder how long MOCA will leave the work up?  Will they whitewash this one too when the show is done, or leave it up for a while?

Look out soon for a future post about another famous LA mural that was whitewashed too.

H.I.

P.S. Who wants to go explore this street art smorgasbord with me when I’m back?

SUPRASENSORIAL

Museum of Contemporary Art

There is a pool in this exhibition; do you need more of a reason to go?

I could write about this exhibition, or you could watch this video. Don’t worry; the usual snarky commentary will follow.