After news of MOCA's extreme financial situation, Culture Monster at the LA Times is hearing that MOCA will possibly "approach the Los Angeles County Museum of Art about a merger, which will effectively mean a transfer of MOCA's extraordinary collection to the Mid-Wilshire complex." Another art blogger believes LACMA would be more than willing to say "yes" to the offer.......

After a six-month closure of its Geffen Contemporary exhibition space, the LA Times finds that the Museum of Contemporary Art is facing serious financial problems. "MOCA must sharply accelerate its fundraising to ensure its continuing health. The director planned to meet with MOCA's Board of Trustees this afternoon to discuss a range of options. He said talks were proceeding 'with a number of potential partners about a variety of arrangements," but he insisted that a......

We just really like this photo by ~db~ via LAist’s flickr pool. POLTICAL KARAOKE*: It’s election season, and what better way to celebrate it then by singing a little “Executive Order Karaoke” at MOCA Grand Avenue’s Sculpture Plaza? The event is part of MOCA’s Engagement Party series, a “public action in which participants are invited to sing their favorite mixes of George W. Bush’s executive orders to popular music.” There’s a prize for the......

This Sunday marks the opening of “Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection,” an exhibition that surveys the evolution and scope of conceptual art by artists who have lived and worked in California. Curated by MOCA Curator Philipp Kaiser and Curatorial Assistant Corrina Peipon, the exhibition highlights over 60 artists and more than 200 works including collage, drawing, film, installation, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. What is conceptual art? Sol LeWitt offers a definition:......

A Lawrence Weiner piece graces the Vienna Skyline | Photo by Gastev via Flickr If you've been waiting for the hype to die down and waiting for the crowds to thin before visiting the Lawrence Weiner retrospective, you've almost waited too long. Weiner's conceptual art show at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA ends on Monday and this weekend is your last chance to get in and see As Far As the Eye Can See......

Sterling Ruby's show opens at the Pacific Design Center tonight. / Photo by S:U:P:E:R:M:O:D via LAist’s flickr pool. ART Mr. Brainwash (aka MBW) is an “eccentric French filmmaker” whose first exhibit “Life is Beautiful” is showing at the old CBS studios. The show will feature more than 300 paintings, sculptures and prints alongside an installation made from 100,000 shoes and a life-size re-creation of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Until 9 pm // Old CBS Studios......

Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr MOCA is starting up a six-week film series tomorrow night at their The Geffen Contemporary location in Little Tokyo and who better to be there to play a music set than Henry Rollins? The film screened will be "Underground Forces," a film about the early punk scene with footage of Black Flag, the Cramps, etc. Rollins will be on for two hours from 7:00 to......

Yesterday at four different locations around the Los Angeles area, teams built ice structures, a re-creation of performance and installation artist Allan Kaprow's "Fluids." Yesterday, Kaprow's son helped build one of the structures in Pasadena's Memorial Park. LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews was there to catch it. From Beverly Hills to San Pedro, "Fluids" structures are still being put up today and tomorrow. Below the photo gallery is a map of locations and dates.......

Fluids in Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills - 1967 © Dennis Hopper [Yes, the actor] Since late March, performance art happenings have taken place all around Los Angeles. From students at USC dragging cement blocks in public right-of-ways to women licking jam off cars, the Allan Kaprow exhibit has extended beyond the gallery walls of the MOCA Geffen Contemporary gallery exhibit. Through the end of June, recreations from the pioneer of performance art will continue.......

I woke this morning with a start (yes, a start!) and realized that I might, maybe, (oh my gosh did I?) have missed the Murakami exhibit at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. When a huge exhibit opens I either hit it on opening weekend or I wait it out. I wait until all the newspaper reviews have faded, I wait until the crowds have thinned, I wait until people are over it and have......

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location. In addition to the few food options at the California Plaza, Performance Row (as we once dubbed it) has a Koo Koo......

ART TALK With just about a month left in the exhibit, artists Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, and Simone Legno will be gathering for a discussion about the work of Takashi Murakami at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The event, called Pervasive Persuasion, is a panel-style talk moderated by Eric Nakamura, publisher and co-editor of Giant Robot, and will include thoughts on "how and why artists in Los Angeles are blurring the lines of media to......

Sometimes it seems like this city is out to beat us up, put us down, and lead us terribly astray. Even those of us who have lived here for years can't help but feel let down sometimes by L.A.'s impersonal and often contradictory nature. And we're just talking about transportation. But more often than you might expect, if you just open up and let the city happen to you, you'll find that L.A. is......

It ends tonight at 9 p.m., and really, an art walk is more fun at night anyway. Tonight lends itself well as a great chance to go see © Murakami Exhibit at the MOCA that we told you about back in October. If not that, from comedy to smaller art galleries, the Downtown Art Walk is worth a trek to LA's central core. And if you head towards The Edison first, happy hour runs......

ART: Downtown’s Art Walk happens the second Thursday of each month. The Art walk is a monthly, self-guided tour of the art exhibition venues in Downtown Los Angeles, which includes commercial art galleries, public museums, and nonprofit arts venues. Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Ave (MOCA), Los Angeles Public Library Grey Goose, LA Artcore Center are just some of the places on the Walk. 12-9 pm // Downtown Art Walk // Downtown Los......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

Defamer: The Reno 911 men slipped on their shorts and offered their support to the striking writers today EatingLA: Everyone's favorite unbalanced chef Gordon Ramsay is going to have "a conversation" at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills on the 20th. Bite me. Sean Bonner: points us to a gift for the man or woman who has everything and would like less (and no it's not a Mike Huckabee mask, but close) Luke Ford:......

A brief overview of the new Takashi Murakami exhibit at the MOCA....

In 1966, Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party. A militia organization, made up of black men & women to fight for their rights, and defend themselves against “capitalist pigs” (the US government). In the politically charged-era of the civil rights movement, the party reached out to their wide membership, with distribution of a newspaper entitled The Black Panther. The publication featured regular artwork from its Minister of Culture, graphic artist Emory......

Over hot chocolate and chocolate-chip rugula at Canter’s in Hollywood, we spoke with LA author Mark Z. Danielewski about his latest novel Only Revolutions and got all worked up about film, freedom and fonts. He will be reading tonight @ UCLA, 5 p.m. RSVP here or call (310) 206-0961 to reserve a seat. You were recently quoted as saying if you could live anywhere in the world, it would be Los Angeles. You’ve traveled......

Monday Will Beall presents L.A. Rex 7pm @ Book Soup Robert Alter & Jonathan Kirsch discuss The Book of Psalms with David Ulin 7pm @ Central Library Mark Schapiro signs Exposed 7pm @ Dutton's Richard King presents Spirituality in the Workplace 7pm @ Vroman's Alan Alda presents Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Tuesday Bill Clinton presents Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World 2pm @ Vroman's......

1. Go running on Los Feliz Blvd in the evenings, to get the anger out. (It's well-lit, fairly level, and a little exhilarating with all the cars rushing by. Just mind the sprinklers at 8.) 2. Hang out in Studio City or Burbank, etc. There's something oddly cheerful and reliable about that area. 3. Make frequent, unapologetic Pinkberry and gelato trips. 4. Go to the Griffith Observatory and see the Planetarium. That is some uplifting......

Last Saturday, my friend and I headed downtown (a bit late) to check out Night Vision: MOCA After Dark. We made a spur of the moment decision to go, after wandering around aimlessly a bit, eating Pinkberry (the reason being only one of us could get in to see What We Do Is Secret, and that just wouldn't be fair). So we found ourselves driving around and around and around looking for parking, ultimately......

Honeycut @ MOCA's Night Vision, June 16thHosting the San Francisco based Band, Honeycut, on the 2nd saturday of MOCA's Night Vision music/poetry summer series things got funky and arty while LAist sucked down some beers, walked through some art galleries, and boogied down like our bones were made of jelly.Pounding yet soothing sleaze funk to make your ears rejoice with satisfaction, thats the fix Honeycut is dealing out. The band's sound is centered around the......

The Village People, Thelma Houston, A Taste of Honey, Peaches & Herb @ The Greek The Black Crowes, Hubert Sumlin, Kenny Wayne Shepherd @ Henry Fonda The Fratellis @ The Avalon Keith Urban @ Staples Strawberry Alarm Clock @ Malibu Inn Unwritten Law, Zebrahead, Mickey Avalon @ Queen Mary The Queers, The Methadones, The Manges @ Alex's Bar Chupacobra, Third Grade Teacher @ Mr. T's Bowl The Joshua Redman Trio @ Catalina Bar &......

A decommissioned air raid siren outside of City Hall - City says avoid downtown on Tuesday. We say attend the march. - Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 1/2 hours by train has not so bright future. - The hundreds of air raid sirens around LA will not be turned back on. - WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at MOCA is a multiple trip exhibit. - It's about time to visit the Pacific......

The gender-bending, genre-melding performance art of the Butchlalis de Panochtitlan is hard to define, but it's fun and very funny to watch. This foursome of queer butch Latinas uses video and sketch-driven performances to explore sex, sexuality, race, romance, community, identity and growing up brown and butch in greater L.A. If that description makes you cringe because (like me) you've sat through a few too many evenings of performance art that's so pretentious and......

- Was your reaction to the election today sorta "meh"? So was the LA Times' in this morning's paper. Other than their Editorial page picks on the box on the bottom left hand portion of that page, and the two paragraph blurb about the free parking around polling places, there were no Election stories in the paper this morning. This is the story they needed but it was only available in later editions and......

It’s difficult to argue that KCRW, 89.9 FM, isn't one of the better things we, the citizens of Los Angeles, get to experience firsthand. Yeah, the station offers podcasts and streaming radio, but it’s not the same as actually living in the city the station is broadcast from. Not only does the station play some of the most innovative and unique music in the world, but broadcasts daily news and cultural information unable to......

Every week in Living in Sin, Jen Sincero provides advice to LA's sexually confounded. Sign up for her newsletter and have it sent to you every week. Ask Jen your questions: all are posted anonymously. Dear Jen, I saw a "Women who squirt" porn with my boyfriend and I could not believe my eyes. Then I saw that you wrote about it in your column -- how come I've never heard of this until......