Jeffrey Deitch Takes Hollywood

An Exclusive Tour of the Art Guru's New Los Angeles Home.

After being appointed the new director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) this January, former New York dealer and downtown impresario Jeffrey Deitch needed some digs on the West Coast. Seasoned aesthete that he is, to truly feel at home he needed to surround himself with the art he loves (click play above for a sneak peek of the pieces by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Aaron Young and Andy Warhol, among many others). Deitch’s new "movie star" home, in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood, isn't just any old Spanish revival house—it's the former residence of Cary Grant. (Meanwhile, another prominent figure in the art world is buying into Hollywood history: Larry Gagosian recently purchased Gary Cooper's old abode, in Holmby Hills.) Deitch is particularly interested in where art and entertainment merge. As part of his early activities at MOCA, he allowed his friend James Franco to film an episode of General Hospital within the museum; and the first show under his leadership was a major Dennis Hopper retrospective. For today’s short, filmmaker Alison Chernick and food artist Jennifer Rubell toured Deitch's house—including his "super Tudor-pop" party room, as he calls it—and sounded out his theories on celebrity, his new vision for MOCA, and his belief that you need a painting of Jesus over your bed.

Jeffrey Deitch Takes Hollywood

An Exclusive Tour of the Art Guru's New Los Angeles Home.

After being appointed the new director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) this January, former New York dealer and downtown impresario Jeffrey Deitch needed some digs on the West Coast. Seasoned aesthete that he is, to truly feel at home he needed to surround himself with the art he loves (click play above for a sneak peek of the pieces by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Aaron Young and Andy Warhol, among many others). Deitch’s new "movie star" home, in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood, isn't just any old Spanish revival house—it's the former residence of Cary Grant. (Meanwhile, another prominent figure in the art world is buying into Hollywood history: Larry Gagosian recently purchased Gary Cooper's old abode, in Holmby Hills.) Deitch is particularly interested in where art and entertainment merge. As part of his early activities at MOCA, he allowed his friend James Franco to film an episode of General Hospital within the museum; and the first show under his leadership was a major Dennis Hopper retrospective. For today’s short, filmmaker Alison Chernick and food artist Jennifer Rubell toured Deitch's house—including his "super Tudor-pop" party room, as he calls it—and sounded out his theories on celebrity, his new vision for MOCA, and his belief that you need a painting of Jesus over your bed.

URBAN HIKE: Echo Park – This Sunday!

“Nobody walks in L.A” – Well, they do now!

The A+D museum presents URBAN HIKE: Forgotten L.A. w/ “Mike the Poet.” For my adventurers out there, come take an excursion through the cultural, historical and architectural gems of Los Angeles, with walking poem performances by your tour guide, “Mike the Poet.” The summer lineup of weekend tours includes Echo Park (7/18,) MacArthur Park (8/1) and the L.A. River (8/8) at 11AM. This is walking tour meets treasure hunt meets performance art, AKA – amazing!

This week:

Echo Park: Sunday, July 18 at 11:00 am. Email the event organizers with questions at info@aplusd.org or call 323.932.9393

Some deets about “Mike the Poet:”

Los Angeles poet and native Mike Sonksen, aka ‘Mike The Poet’, performs his poems live and loud while providing a cultural, historical and architectural tour exploring the forgotten and hidden gems in our City of Angels. Mike is widely acclaimed for his live performances, contributions to international publications and legendary city tours with A+D Museum, Red Line and The Museum of Neon Art. Poet, journalist, historian, tour guide, and teacher, Mike is published in Citybeat, O.C. Weekly, New Angeles, L.A. Weekly & many others. A third generation L.A. native, Mike graduated from UCLA in 1997. His book I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES! has been added to the curriculum of several universities and receives rave reviews.

URBAN HIKE: Echo Park – This Sunday!

“Nobody walks in L.A” – Well, they do now!

The A+D museum presents URBAN HIKE: Forgotten L.A. w/ “Mike the Poet.” For my adventurers out there, come take an excursion through the cultural, historical and architectural gems of Los Angeles, with walking poem performances by your tour guide, “Mike the Poet.” The summer lineup of weekend tours includes Echo Park (7/18,) MacArthur Park (8/1) and the L.A. River (8/8) at 11AM. This is walking tour meets treasure hunt meets performance art, AKA – amazing!

This week:

Echo Park: Sunday, July 18 at 11:00 am. Email the event organizers with questions at info@aplusd.org or call 323.932.9393

Some deets about “Mike the Poet:”

Los Angeles poet and native Mike Sonksen, aka ‘Mike The Poet’, performs his poems live and loud while providing a cultural, historical and architectural tour exploring the forgotten and hidden gems in our City of Angels. Mike is widely acclaimed for his live performances, contributions to international publications and legendary city tours with A+D Museum, Red Line and The Museum of Neon Art. Poet, journalist, historian, tour guide, and teacher, Mike is published in Citybeat, O.C. Weekly, New Angeles, L.A. Weekly & many others. A third generation L.A. native, Mike graduated from UCLA in 1997. His book I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES! has been added to the curriculum of several universities and receives rave reviews.

The A+D Museum: Grand Opening Event, April 27th

The A+D Museum is in the midst of an exciting transition. After eight years of temporary locations, the museum has secured a permanent home. The new space, at 6032 Wilshire Boulevard, sits directly opposite BCAM and LACMA West on Museum Row. A stable presence furthers their mission to educate and expose the larger community to the important roles of architecture and design in shaping the quality of urban life.

On April 27, 2010, A+D Museum is hosting CELEBRATE 2010, a grand opening exhibit and inaugural fundraising event to celebrate the newly established home and the 20/20 Foundation Group that has made this move possible. The 20/20 is a select group of Los Angeles’ preeminent architects and designers whose support of A+D has enabled the move to become a firmly situated cultural institution. For the CELEBRATE event, the 20/20 and other potent parties invested in the worlds of architecture and design are being invited to create seminal works from an "A+D designed kit” for a silent auction and exhibit at A+D Museum. Drawings, sketches, watercolors and other works on paper will be cultivated as well from this audience and will be on display for a three month exhibit.

CELEBRATE 2010 will be an unveiling of A+D Museum as a core design and architecture resource for the community. Architects, designers, community leaders, local and national industry professionals and design students will be attending this important Los Angeles cultural event. Above all, this space will speak to design enthusiasts who seek a deeper and more provocative exploration of design... if you're in L.A. on April 27th, this is truly a historic event to consider attending.

See you there!

-S


ABOUT A+D
Architecture + Design Museum Los Angeles is the only museum in southern California focused exclusively on progressive architecture, design, and urbanism. A+D opened in January 2001 in the Bradbury Building. Since then it has provided a forum for these contemporary issues that shape our city and the greater region. A+D Museum’s innovative programming encourages fresh thinking among a broad and inclusive audience of design professionals, students of all ages and the general public. A+D hosts shows that would not take place at any other venue in southern California. As a new and vital institution, A+D museum has been nimble and resourceful, able to respond quickly to fast-breaking opportunities. A+D Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution, supported by its members; corporations and foundations; government grants; and special event revenues. A+D is a proud member of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) and the American Association of Museums (AAM).

The A+D Museum: Grand Opening Event, April 27th

The A+D Museum is in the midst of an exciting transition. After eight years of temporary locations, the museum has secured a permanent home. The new space, at 6032 Wilshire Boulevard, sits directly opposite BCAM and LACMA West on Museum Row. A stable presence furthers their mission to educate and expose the larger community to the important roles of architecture and design in shaping the quality of urban life.

On April 27, 2010, A+D Museum is hosting CELEBRATE 2010, a grand opening exhibit and inaugural fundraising event to celebrate the newly established home and the 20/20 Foundation Group that has made this move possible. The 20/20 is a select group of Los Angeles’ preeminent architects and designers whose support of A+D has enabled the move to become a firmly situated cultural institution. For the CELEBRATE event, the 20/20 and other potent parties invested in the worlds of architecture and design are being invited to create seminal works from an "A+D designed kit” for a silent auction and exhibit at A+D Museum. Drawings, sketches, watercolors and other works on paper will be cultivated as well from this audience and will be on display for a three month exhibit.

CELEBRATE 2010 will be an unveiling of A+D Museum as a core design and architecture resource for the community. Architects, designers, community leaders, local and national industry professionals and design students will be attending this important Los Angeles cultural event. Above all, this space will speak to design enthusiasts who seek a deeper and more provocative exploration of design... if you're in L.A. on April 27th, this is truly a historic event to consider attending.

See you there!

-S


ABOUT A+D
Architecture + Design Museum Los Angeles is the only museum in southern California focused exclusively on progressive architecture, design, and urbanism. A+D opened in January 2001 in the Bradbury Building. Since then it has provided a forum for these contemporary issues that shape our city and the greater region. A+D Museum’s innovative programming encourages fresh thinking among a broad and inclusive audience of design professionals, students of all ages and the general public. A+D hosts shows that would not take place at any other venue in southern California. As a new and vital institution, A+D museum has been nimble and resourceful, able to respond quickly to fast-breaking opportunities. A+D Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution, supported by its members; corporations and foundations; government grants; and special event revenues. A+D is a proud member of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) and the American Association of Museums (AAM).

MOSS, not Kate

The first satellite location outside the New York Flagship, MOSS opened it's doors in West Hollywood this past summer.

What's so innovative about MOSS is the concept. MOSS is neither a store nor an art gallery... it's actually both!

MOSS has been in the forefront of the movement known increasingly as DESIGN ART for more than a decade. Many of the designers whose production work they have shown for years also do extraordinary work in their studios which absolutely crosses into the realm of collectible, historically pertinent art.

The gallery space and the store are fully integrated. The "art" pieces stand beside the "production" work, and each amplifies and comments on the other, and together they tell a more complete and more complex story than either piece alone.

Check out www.mossonline.com to get info on current exhibitions & installations.

This is exactly what we need more of in L.A.!

MOSS
8444 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069

MOSS, not Kate

The first satellite location outside the New York Flagship, MOSS opened it's doors in West Hollywood this past summer.

What's so innovative about MOSS is the concept. MOSS is neither a store nor an art gallery... it's actually both!

MOSS has been in the forefront of the movement known increasingly as DESIGN ART for more than a decade. Many of the designers whose production work they have shown for years also do extraordinary work in their studios which absolutely crosses into the realm of collectible, historically pertinent art.

The gallery space and the store are fully integrated. The "art" pieces stand beside the "production" work, and each amplifies and comments on the other, and together they tell a more complete and more complex story than either piece alone.

Check out www.mossonline.com to get info on current exhibitions & installations.

This is exactly what we need more of in L.A.!

MOSS
8444 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Know About NEW?!

If you're going to ring in the new year in NYC (like me), than you must check out the New Museum of Contemporary Art (www.newmuseum.org)

The first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in downtown Manhattan, the New Museum openend to the public on December 1, 2007, coinciding with the institution’s 30th anniversary. The New Museum building is a home for contemporary art and an incubator for new ideas, as well as an architectural contribution to New York’s urban landscape.

NY Times: New York city is bursting with gorgeous art exhibitions, but where is the raw energy? Where is the new blood, intent on upending the establishment? Today, once-rebellious talents often seem to be wandering lost in the constellation of celebrity, where they soon settle into complacency.

Designed by the Japanese firm Sanaa, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, on the Bowery at Prince Street on the Lower East Side, is the kind of building that renews your faith in New York as a place where culture is lived, not just bought and sold.

The architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, conceived the building as a series of mismatched galleries precariously stacked one atop the other. It succeeds on a spectacular range of levels: as a hypnotic urban object, as a subtle critique of the art world and as a refreshingly unpretentious place to view art. But what elevates the building itself to art is the way it captures an unnerving moment in the city’s cultural history with near-perfect pitch. Its ethereal forms hover somewhere between the legacy of a fading bohemian downtown and the ravenous appetites of a society awash in new money. That the building is so artfully rooted in the present means that its haunting quality will probably deepen as the city ages around it. - By Nicolai Ourousoff / Image by Dean Kaufman via newyorkmag.com

Know About NEW?!

If you're going to ring in the new year in NYC (like me), than you must check out the New Museum of Contemporary Art (www.newmuseum.org)

The first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in downtown Manhattan, the New Museum openend to the public on December 1, 2007, coinciding with the institution’s 30th anniversary. The New Museum building is a home for contemporary art and an incubator for new ideas, as well as an architectural contribution to New York’s urban landscape.

NY Times: New York city is bursting with gorgeous art exhibitions, but where is the raw energy? Where is the new blood, intent on upending the establishment? Today, once-rebellious talents often seem to be wandering lost in the constellation of celebrity, where they soon settle into complacency.

Designed by the Japanese firm Sanaa, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, on the Bowery at Prince Street on the Lower East Side, is the kind of building that renews your faith in New York as a place where culture is lived, not just bought and sold.

The architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, conceived the building as a series of mismatched galleries precariously stacked one atop the other. It succeeds on a spectacular range of levels: as a hypnotic urban object, as a subtle critique of the art world and as a refreshingly unpretentious place to view art. But what elevates the building itself to art is the way it captures an unnerving moment in the city’s cultural history with near-perfect pitch. Its ethereal forms hover somewhere between the legacy of a fading bohemian downtown and the ravenous appetites of a society awash in new money. That the building is so artfully rooted in the present means that its haunting quality will probably deepen as the city ages around it. - By Nicolai Ourousoff / Image by Dean Kaufman via newyorkmag.com