MOCA Renews Partnership with Pacific Design Center

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), has renewed its partnership, first established in 2000, with Pacific Design Center (PDC). Under the terms of this partnership, effective through 2023, MOCA will present up to four exhibitions per year in its West Hollywood location, known as MOCA Pacific Design Center. Building upon MOCA's renowned history of architecture exhibitions and PDC's reputation as a center for showcasing fine traditional and contemporary design products, MOCA Pacific Design Center's programming will focus on contemporary architecture and design issues and practices beginning in March 2009. Large-scale monographic and thematic exhibitions devoted to these areas will continue to be presented at MOCA's other two locations, MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

"I am delighted and honored to continue MOCA's relationship with Pacific Design Center," said MOCA Director Jeremy Strick. "Since 2001, our exhibition space at PDC has given us crosstown visibility, complementing our two downtown sites, and the opportunity to present our innovative exhibitions to a broader audience that includes the architecture and design community of West Hollywood. As our programming at MOCA Pacific Design Center shifts towards this focus, we look forward to playing an even more vital role in the life of PDC."

"This is a wonderful opportunity to develop a focused and ongoing series of exhibitions that will address not only the latest developments in contemporary architecture and design but also significant historic moments that have had an impact on these creative fields," said Brooke Hodge, MOCA curator of architecture and design.

In 2000, Charles S. Cohen-owner, president, and chief executive officer of Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, which owns Pacific Design Center-led the initiative to establish an ongoing MOCA presence at PDC. Mr. Cohen, a longtime friend and supporter of the museum, was elected to MOCA's Board of Trustees earlier this year. "I have always envisioned Pacific Design Center as a nexus for culture and creativity, and a magnet for creative professionals, entertainment industry players, and image-driven companies," said Cohen. "MOCA is a natural choice for this mix, as its museum expertise and educational programming beautifully complement the more commerce-oriented flavor of PDC."

MOCA Pacific Design Center opened in January 2001 with Superflat, a groundbreaking group exhibition curated by Takashi Murakami for MOCA, and has since shown such notable exhibitions as What's Shakin': New Architecture in LA (2001), Roy McMakin: A Door Meant as Adornment (2003), Ernesto Neto (2003), Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec (2004), Jean Prouve: Three Nomadic Structures (2005), William Kentridge: 7 Fragments for Georges Meliès (2005), MOCA's Mark Rothkos (2006), Bill Owens: Suburbia (2006), Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses (2007), and Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas (2007). Admission to MOCA Pacific Design Center has always been free of charge.

MOCA Pacific Design Center's new program of exhibitions-with a strong emphasis on architecture and design-will launch in spring 2009 with the opening of Ball-Nogues Studio (working title), a site-specific installation by the innovative Los Angeles-based design and fabrication firm led by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues. Ball-Nogues Studio-on view March 22, 2009, through July 5, 2009-will be the first in a series of exhibitions, organized by MOCA Curator of Architecture and Design Brooke Hodge, that investigates the convergence of craft and computation in contemporary architecture and design.

The MOCA Store featuring ART CATALOGUES-one of three MOCA Store locations-is also a prominent part of MOCA's presence at Pacific Design Center. ART CATALOGUES is an in-depth art catalogue resource, offering a comprehensive international selection of nearly 10,000 current and out-of-print exhibition catalogues as well as books on contemporary art, architecture, and photography. With particular expertise in art since 1945, ART CATALOGUES advises on artists or subjects and compiles descriptive lists personalized to specific needs. To complement the gallery's new programming emphasis, ART CATALOGUES will offer additional architecture and design titles beginning in 2009.

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