MONUMENTS is the new exhibit presented at The Geffen MOCA and The Brick.

 
MONUMENTS is the new exhibit presented at The Geffen Contemporary MOCA and The Brick.
On view Oct 23, 2025 – May 3, 2026.

WestHollywoodToday.blogspot October 24 2025
Photos by Karen Ostlund.
                                                                    

The statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury in MOCA’s “Monuments.

MONUMENTS marks the recent wave of monument removals as a historic moment. The exhibit reflects on the histories and legacies of post-civil war of America.
The contemporary artworks are borrowed and newly created for the occasion, removed from their original outdoor public context. The monuments in this exhibit are shown in their varying states of transformation, from untouched to heavily vandalized.

Co-curated by Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA; and Kara Walker, artist; with Hannah Burstein, curatorial associate at The Brick; and Paula Kroll, assistant curator at MOCA.

                                                                         

The opening press conference featured MOCA's director Ann Goldstein, co-curators Hamza Walker and Bennett Simpson, and artists including Torkwase Dyson, Karon Davis, and Glenn Ligon.

  Following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (2015) and the deadly 'Unite the Right' rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, VA (2017), alongside Bree Newsome’s powerful removal of the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse (2015), the United States witnessed the decommissioning of nearly 200 monuments.
                                                            

Hank Willis Thomas’ installation “A Suspension of Hostilities” at MOCA’s “Monuments”  a 1969 Dodge Charger from the TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard,”

MONUMENTS features newly commissioned artworks by contemporary artists Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Cauleen Smith, Davóne Tines and Julie Dash, and Kara Walker. Additional artworks by Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Hugh Mangum, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, and Hank Willis Thomas, are borrowed from private collectors and institutions.
                                                                            

Karon Davis’ sculpture “Descendant” shows the artist’s son holding a small Confederate horse by its tail.

The exhibition presents decommissioned monuments borrowed from the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia; the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond; the Valentine, Richmond, Virginia; and The Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina. The exhibition highlights the gaps and omissions in popular narratives of American history.  
MOCA.ORG at 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Admission to MONUMENTS is free on the first Friday of every month, with extended opening hours from 11am until 8pm. Advance reservations are recommended. 

Admission to MONUMENTS and other special exhibitions at The Geffen Contemporary is $18 for adults; $10 for students with I.D. and seniors (+65); and free for children under 12 and jurors with I.D.