#the geffen contemporary at moca

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Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves attend MOCA Gala at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

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[edgarfabianfrias]

Sharing documentation of the performance Somos Brujxs that I did at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles as a part of HI, SOLO #11.

Click the link below to see more photos and video documentation.

[holycolorfulpig]

MOCA Gala 2023 - Arrivals

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Keanu Reeves attends MOCA Gala 2023 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

[knowledge-editions]

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER [sticker] Published on the occasion of Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair 2023 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

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Installation view of Pipilotti Rist: Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor, September 12, 2021–June 6, 2022 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo by Zak Kelley.

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Pharrell Williams at the Louis Vuitton Gala celebrating the Murakami exhibition in 2007

Pharrell Williams arrives at the Louis Vuitton Gala celebrating the Murakami exhibition held at the Geffen Contemporary at Moca on Oct. 28, 2007 in Los Angeles. 

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The entertainment mogul has given $1.2 billion to institutions around the nation, including the New York Philharmonic’s transformed Lincoln Center home.

In Los Angeles, you can wander through Judy Baca murals at the cavernous Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, view “Beetlejuice” at the sphere-like David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum, watch “The Inheritance” at the Geffen Playhouse, and follow the progress of the new David Geffen Galleries, a striking work of architecture that will span Wilshire Boulevard, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

New York now has not one but two David Geffen Halls: an academic building at Columbia Business School and the remake of the Lincoln Center home of the New York Philharmonic, which reopened this month after a $550 million renovation that he jump-started with a $100 million gift.

At 79, Geffen, the entertainment magnate, has planted himself into the pantheon of leading American philanthropists. He has handed out $1.2 billion over the past 25 years to museums, theaters, concert halls, universities and medical centers, according to the Geffen Foundation, and pledged to “give every nickel away” of a fortune estimated to be $7.7 billion. As a result, Geffen has become avidly sought by culture and education leaders looking to finance a wave of new construction that is enlivening cities as the nation emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you need a gift of this scale, there aren’t many people who are doing what David is doing, which is investing big-time in the cultural infrastructure of major cities — New York, Los Angeles,” said Michael Govan, the head of LACMA, who spent a year convincing Geffen to give $150 million toward the galleries there that will bear his name.

Geffen’s gifts are often contingent upon naming rights. When Avery Fisher Hall was renamed for him in 2015, 61 signs and maps around Lincoln Center were changed.

Geffen’s gifts are often contingent upon naming rights. When Avery Fisher Hall was renamed for him in 2015, 61 signs and maps around Lincoln Center were changed. Credit...Brian Harkin for The New York Times

Geffen is hardly some modern-day version of Andrew Carnegie, who made his fortune from steel and financed one of the great waves of philanthropy in the nation’s history. He is an openly gay entertainment mogul whose life, romances, yacht, mansions, art acquisitions, business deals, celebrity adventures and political engagement with, in particular, the Clintons and Barack Obama make him as engrossing a character as anyone in Hollywood.

The Reopening of David Geffen Hall

The New York Philharmonic’s notoriously jinxed auditorium at Lincoln Center has undergone a $550 million renovation.

Reborn, Again: The renovation of the star-crossed hall aims to break its acoustic curse — and add a dash of glamour.

‘Unfinished Business’: After a 17-year run in Los Angeles, Deborah Borda returned to the New York Philharmonic, which she led in the 1990s, to help usher it into its new home.

San Juan Hill: Etienne Charles’s composition for the reopening of the hall honors the Afro-diasporic musical heritage of the neighborhood razed to build Lincoln Center.

Expert Assessment: Right after the reopening our critic wrote that the renovation had a mightily improved sound. In the weeks that followed his feelings became more complicated.

It’s hard to imagine, for instance, Carnegie dating Cher or Marlo Thomas when he was young, which Geffen did; comforting Yoko Ono at the hospital the night that John Lennon was assassinated, which Geffen did; watching Joni Mitchell in his apartment when she wrote “Woodstock,” which Geffen did; or managing the early careers of Janis Joplin, the Doors and Peter, Paul and Mary, which Geffen did.

His skill at spotting up-and-coming musical talent (Jackson Browne; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Guns N’ Roses), producing hit movies (“Risky Business” and “Beetlejuice”) and backing Broadway shows (“Dreamgirls” and “Cats”), and his work building record labels and movie studios has made him one of the wealthiest people in America. He has homes in New York, Los Angeles and East Hampton for when he is not entertaining boldfaced friends (think Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey) on his yacht, the Rising Sun. He once startled a dinner of journalists in Washington by disclosing that he had not flown on a commercial airplane since the late 1970s; that night he took a private jet back to Beverly Hills.

Geffen is hardly shy about his philanthropy, as can be seen by the growing list of institutions bearing his name, including the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, which his gift made tuition-free. (“I don’t agree that the best giving is anonymous,” Geffen once told Fortune. “We should be examples to our friends and communities. I should be an example to young, gay kids.”) But he is, in his own way, low key about it — he declined an invitation to speak at the gala celebrating the opening of Geffen Hall this past week, and seemed reluctant to stand when he was acknowledged from the stage.

And he is not like other wealthy donors, who can range from hands-on to micromanaging when it comes to projects bearing their names. “They want to check the carpet designs,” said Deborah Borda, the head of the New York Philharmonic. By contrast, the gala was the first time Geffen saw the redone hall bearing his name; he never joined the hard-hat construction tours that Lincoln Center gave to dignitaries over these past two years.

“David said, ‘I want to leave this in your hands: I don’t need any input on the selection of the architect and driving the design,’” said Katherine G. Farley, the chair of the board of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, recounting her conversation with Geffen when she asked him for money to rebuild what was then called Avery Fisher Hall. “He kept repeating, ‘Make sure you do something great.’”

Geffen, who declined a request for an interview, looks for transformative cultural projects that are struggling for credibility and financing, according to friends and associates. His contributions cover just a portion of the total cost — $100 million toward the $550 million Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center; $150 million toward the $750 million Geffen Galleries at LACMA — and are designed to goad other donors, while establishing Geffen as the primary patron.

“He’s making big bets,” said Marie-Josée Kravis, the chairwoman of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to which he donated $100 million toward a three-floor David Geffen Wing in 2016. “They’re transformative. It’s not incremental.”

His gifts are usually contingent on naming rights. Lincoln Center agreed to a $15 million payment to the Fisher family to relinquish its naming rights so the center could promise Geffen that his name would remain on the hall in perpetuity. Although some argued that the naming rights should have commanded a higher price, Farley said, “Without his gift, there is no question that would not have happened.”

By contrast, when David H. Koch, the oil-and-gas billionaire, gave $100 million in 2008 to renovate what had been called the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, it came with the provision that the theater could be renamed for a new donor after 50 years.

Arianna Huffington, the founder of The Huffington Post and a longtime friend of Geffen’s, said that “the arts have basically dominated his life,” and that they are what motivated his philanthropy.

“I personally have very little patience for people who question why anybody gives — as long as they give,” she said.

Geffen took a hands-off approach to the renovation, and never stopped by for a hard-hat tour when it was a construction site.

Geffen took a hands-off approach to the renovation, and never stopped by for a hard-hat tour when it was a construction site.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Geffen has become more reclusive in recent years, first visiting the Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles this month — a year after its red-carpet opening. He temporarily shut down his Instagram account at the start of the pandemic after he came under fire for posting a photo of his yacht floating in safe seclusion. “Isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus,” he wrote. “I’m hoping everybody is staying safe.”

Geffen is a college dropout who grew up in Brooklyn, where he attended New Utrecht High School. After creating Asylum Records — where he signed Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan — in 1971, he sold it two years later to Warner Communications for $7 million. He founded Geffen Records in 1980; he would sell that a decade later to MCA for $550 million in stock, which increased in value significantly when Matsushita then bought MCA. He co-founded, with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks SKG in 1994, and left the company in 2008.

Geffen can be combative in his business dealings, and he lamented the “shameful” lack of support by New York donors in 2017 when Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic went back to the drawing board with plans to rebuild the hall, in part because it was growing too costly. Just after the move to rethink the New York project was announced, LACMA announced Geffen’s $150 million gift — timing that appeared to send a message, though officials said the gift had long been in the works.

Associates said that Geffen’s background in business and culture, and particularly music, drives his philanthropic choices.

“He comes from the music business,” said David Bohnett, another philanthropist based in New York and Los Angeles. “You grow up around music, you grow up around entertainment, it just seems logical that you are going to put your name on theaters and music halls and museums.”

Some say it helps explain his hands-off approach to the projects he supports. “He’s made a career out of respecting artists and understanding what artists need,” said Henry Timms, the president of Lincoln Center. “And I think that’s the same context for this — he’s not assuming he can do this job better than the architects.”

Geffen is intimately involved in deciding what projects to support. “He is a very engaged philanthropist and is involved in every funding decision made at the foundation,” said Dallas Dishman, the executive director of the Geffen Foundation, to which Geffen is the sole contributor.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, and with over $7 billion left, Geffen is contemplating his mortality and his legacy, his friends say. Yet on Wednesday night in New York, when he finally rose from his chair at the gala marking the opening of the latest building bearing his name, he seemed taken aback by the intensity of the applause. He just smiled slightly and sat down, without saying a word.

“He doesn’t reveal himself very much,” said Kravis, of the Museum of Modern Art. “He just gives. I respect his search for privacy and I’ve never pushed him on it.”

Adam Nagourney covers West Coast cultural affairs for The Times. He was previously the Los Angeles bureau chief and served eight years as the chief national political correspondent. He is the co-author of “Out for Good,” a history of the modern gay rights movement. @adamnagourney • Facebook

So much of the money these people are throwing at elitist passion projects while people suffer from the Tax Scam and other right-wing bullshit. How much do I get for guessing rightly that Sherlock of The Opera would have been put on in one of these facilities? Go ahead. Buy as many boons as you think you need for heaven. All bets are off once you're gone. The truth always has a way of coming out.

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Actor James Marsden attends the 37th annual MOCA gala at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles on May 14, 2016. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

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MOCA Gala 2024 Raises $3M for Education and Programs

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) recently hosted its 2024 Gala presented by Bvlgari at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in the vibrant Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles on April 13, 2024. The evening was a phenomenal gathering, uniting over 1,100 patrons, artists, and influential cultural figures to celebrate the world of art and creativity. L.A.-based artist Max Hooper…

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Installation view, ‘Pipilotti Rist: Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor,’ The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, 2021 © Pipilotti Rist. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Zak Kelley

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OPPORTUNITIES

the Geffen MOCA branch is at Alameda Street across from our site. could museum activities and programming be expanded and spur program on our site?

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🌌#ArtIsAWeapon ALL.OF.THIS!! #Blacktronika 🖤🎼

Reposted from @blacktronika @kingbritt We are proud to present the debut of Blacktronika : Brooklyn edition at the iconic @publicrecordsnyc Public Records / The Nursery.

Sunday July 30, 2023

Tickets:

Blacktronika : #AfrofuturismInElectronicMusic is a college course, created by @KingBritt for the University of California San Diego, that honors all the pioneers of color that continue to contribute to the advancement of electronic music. The class has included everyone from Herbie Hancock to Moor Mother to Flying Lotus.

The etymology of the word Blacktronika stems from the original #Blacktronica events of the early 2000s curated by London’s #CharlieDark. With his blessing we utilized the name for the permanent course which has turned into a festival as of last year, with events at UC San Diego and MoCA / Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles.

For this edition of the festival we are honored to have a stellar line up. This includes, the legendary hip hop heroes, #AntipopConsortium, aligning perfectly with the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop, an exclusive live beat set by the magical #OrionSun, whose following may not know this side of her. Pulitzer Prize winner, Dr. Tyshawn Sorey and Professor King Britt will perform live together, reflecting the critically acclaimed album Tyshawn & King, exploring rhythms like you have never heard. Intergalactic lover and artist, Vikter Duplaix will be spinning his late night “across the board” sounds. Charlie Dark MBE of Attica Blues fame (and original Blacktronica) will be taking us on a music journey across the globe with his iconic, no frills approach to djing. King Britt will give an emotional 3hrs set as only he can do and last but not least, global sonic icon, #MariaChavez will dj outside and inside, giving us a taste of her vast knowledge and dance floor skills (yes dance floor selections for the inside set).

In The Nursery we will have the live day time component. In the evening we take over Public Records for the DJ focused portion.

There will also be a beautiful panel on the history of @Blacktronika w/ @kingbritt @daddydarkrdc moderated by @vikterduplaix.

[knowledge-editions]

Matteo Verzini Freeman Alley Photos made by Verzini over several trips to New York. Knowledge Editions Book 039 | Published and distributed by Knowledge Editions | 68 pgs colour – saddle stitch | 155 x 240 mm | First edition, 2023 | Edition of 30 

Published on the occasion of Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair 2023 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. [10–13.08.2023]

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Carl Craig Is Bringing Techno to the Galleries of MOCA Detroit-based techno pioneer Carl Craig is no stranger to filling out a warehouse. Over the course of his 30-year career, the celebrated DJ and producer has played all sorts of rooms, from Carnegie Hall with his Synthesizer Ensemble to hosting live streams from South Africa's former apartheid prison Constitution Hill and playing at the Tese 98 naval complex for the 59th Venice Biennale (and that's just in the past two years).But Craig's next endeavor sees him elevating his club sounds to a whole new level as he's set to bring an immersive installation to Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary (MOCA).Related | Partying in the Basement of Dia Beacon With Carl CraigOriginally commissioned by the Dia Art foundation, Craig is set to bring his Party/After-Party installation to the museum's WAREHOUSE space at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA just in time to coincide with their annual fundraising gala. Drawing on Craig's extensive experience as a globe-trotting DJ, Party/After-Party invites visitors to experience the physical and auditory sensation of moving through a club from the perspective of a DJ. From the quiet early moments before the doors open to the night's pulsating apex and finally emerging into the melancholic clarity of it's afterglow, the installation plays off of the space's architecture, interspersing thin strips of neon lights that pierce through cavernous industrial void before opening up into a bath of natural light with skylights symbolizing the night's transition to "dawn."Conceived of prior to the advent of COVID-19 pandemic before all clubs were forced to shutter their doors, Party/After-Party is a reminder of the unique communal ecstasy and harsh desolation that we were deprived of over the past three years. Additionally, the site-specific soundscape honors techno's Black history and the industrial landscape of the city that gave birth to the genre. “With Party/After-Party, Craig fuses the legacies of Detroit techno and minimalist sound art,” MOCA Associate Curator and organizer of the exhibition, Alex Sloane, said in a statement. “Using MOCA’s WAREHOUSE itself as the inspiration for his composition, Craig has created a new chapter for the work. Melding an afrofuturist aesthetic with a playful commitment to the unexpected, Party/After-Party situates club culture firmly within the museum space and does so through the lens of techno and the Black artists who pioneered the genre.”Of the project, Carl Craig told PAPER in 2020 that: "The work itself is a reflection of my reality — the visual, sonic, and emotional connections or disconnections that I have experienced over the past thirty years as a DJ on the road. In contrast to the glamorous perception of the touring musician, I wanted to reflect the isolation of the many hours spent alone in hotel rooms and the tinnitus that I, and many other artists, have to contend with as a result of our work...when you step into this vast space, it is like stepping into a reflection of my own mind."Along with the opening of Party/After-Party, MOCA has teamed up with Insomniac and Secret Project a series of three live concerts at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on Thursday, May 25, Saturday, June 17 and Saturday, July 22. Organized with Craig, the Party/After-Party session will feature performances from Moodymann, DJ Holographic, Moritz von Oswald, King Britt, DJ Minx and Kenny Larkin among others as an extension of the installation and Craig's practice.Carl Craig's Party/After-Party will be on display at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA starting April 16 through July 23. Photo courtesy of MoCA https://www.papermag.com/carl-craig-party-afterparty-moca-2659518360.html