It’s my favorite museum. For me, there’s more of a connection to the artwork because it is contemporary – especially when artists create commentary on culture and the current social challenges. At the same time, I appreciate and am inspired by the more experimental work where boundaries, viewpoints and mediums are pushed.
Dirty Disorderly
Phách Lạc (Lost Souls) by Nguyễn Duy Mạnh
The idea of ceramics as flesh – opened, peeled and sliced – had me in awe. I couldn’t stop looking. It was my favorite exhibit of the day.
Nguyễn Duy Mạnh’s installation takes the form of a lavish banquet table. It initially appears to be an inviting scene for a large party of guests. However, upon closer inspection, Nguyễn’s refined ceramic techniques belie the objects’ grotesque and violent appearance. Using traditional Vietnamese ceramic styles and iconography, Nguyễn then subverts the tableware, making it appear to be viscerally chopped, peeled, maimed, and shredded, revealing bloody red interiors under the ornate porcelain surfaces. The disfiguration of his works is a lamentation of what Nguyễn sees as the collapse of traditional values and the violence that consumerism does to traditional art forms, as Vietnamese cultures of craft are sacrificed in favor of mass-production.
Vincent Valdez…Just a Dream
This is just a small section of the oil on canvas piece. And it’s right there as you make your way through the main exhibit hall. It stopped us in our tracks. This section featuring a baby is disturbing. But, that’s how it starts.
This piece reminds me of my own folks – especially Grandpa Santana’s hands. My dad’s hands look just like his. 40+ years of laboring away in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant will do it.
The exhibition addresses American politics today, including topics such as boxing, lynchings of Mexican Americans, border walls, politics, greed, the Ku Klux Klan, and the failings and triumphs of society.
Spencer Finch
I can never get tired of walking through the Cosmic Latte exhibit. I am enveloped in wonder and magic.
Bringing the starry night inside the museum, Finch’s light-based work, Cosmic Latte features over 150 specially fabricated LED fixtures suspended from the ceiling over an expanse of the 80-foot long gallery. The constellation of LEDs are arranged in the gently arching shape of the Milky Way as it is observed in the Northern Hemisphere in March.
Randi Malkin Steinberger’s The Archive of Lost Memories
The embellishments with thread on photographs were stunning especially when there were pops of neon pink or green over the faded colors.
Giving new life to old things, Randi Malkin Steinberger provides a window into the lives of the forgotten through a vast collection of found photographs, slides, and tintypes that she has gathered over years of trolling flea markets, eBay, and other sources. Salvaging and preserving these abandoned objects, Steinberger honors the memories embedded within them.
Kidspace
The staff and activities are top notch. The kiddo felt so welcomed – especially with introductions and a handshake that kicked things off. He was given the choice to pick from some projects to work on solo or contribute to something larger. He chose this cool color spinner project. The staff gave him a little tray with all the materials and instructions and then he got to work.
(FYI kiddo was so done with looking at art and needed to make some art. Kidspace to the rescue.)
Lunch
We grabbed a Happy Meal for the kiddo and then returned to have some drinks at Bright Ideas Brewing while having a decent brisket plate from Bigg Daddy’s Philly Steakhouse.
Gift shops
I love gift shops. I need to end visits with the gift shop… which would be fine if we didn’t have a kiddo with us because museum gift shops these days are evil. Why? They entice the kiddos with overpriced slime.
Anyhow, there are two shops here. I picked up this book that’s been on my list forever at the Research & Development Store. There were also cute items like elephant piggy banks and Hello Kitty Baggu.
We then went to the other shop next to the cafe because I wanted a MoCA sticker. It was there that we ended up buying $16 slime.
Aside from the slime, it was an amazing revisit and we can’t wait to go back for new exhibits.
Leave a Reply