MOCA gala honors Frank Gehry, others, raises $3.1 million: L.A. arts and culture this weekend

Los Angeles Times

06-06-2025

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles threw a glitzy bash at the institution's Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo Saturday, raising $3.1 million and honoring architect Frank Gehry, artist Theaster Gates and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi — a surprise guest — showed up to pay tribute to Gehry, while Ava DuVernay celebrated Gates and Jane Fonda honored Schmidt.
The special program honoring 'visionaries' who helped shaped the museum's trajectory is part of a new gala tradition called MOCA Legends, which will continue with new honorees next year.
The night began with cocktails in the plaza and private access to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, 'OPEN.' The Japanese American drumming group TAIKOPROJECT played while guests found their seats for dinner.
MOCA director Johanna Burton welcomed attendees with a speech about the power of art and its ability to bring communities together.
'As we celebrate our annual gala, we are not just honoring individual achievements, but reaffirming our collective belief in the power of art to connect and challenge; uplift and endure,' Burton said, according to a news release about the event.
After Pelosi's introduction of Gehry, which included mention of his 1983 renovation of the Geffen Contemporary, the 96-year-old legend noted how much the museum has meant to him over the years.
'Artists brought me into their club — it's where I wanted to be, and they opened my eyes to another world,' Gehry said.
I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, and I'm here for all the celebrations of art and artists — the more the better. Here's your weekend rundown of arts news.
Noah DavisA collection of more than 50 figurative paintings made by the late Los Angeles artist, who died at 32 in 2015, just as Davis' career was beginning to attract wide attention, arrives after stops in Potsdam, Germany, and London. Davis' paintings, often built around found photographs, regularly balance on a knife-edge between daily life and dream. The exhibition represents the first institutional survey of Davis' work.Sunday-Aug. 31. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu
Seoul FestivalThe L.A. Phil turns to the South Korean capital this week for a follow-up to its revelatory Reykjavik and Mexico City festivals. Unsuk Chin, today's best-known Korean composer, is the curator. Despite a seeming wealth of renowned performers, Korea remains a musically mysterious land. The mostly youngish composers and performers in the first festival event, an exceptional concert of new music on Tuesday night, were all discoveries. The festival continues with weekend orchestra concerts featuring different mixes of four more new Korean scores commissioned by the L.A. Phil, Chin's 2014 Clarinet Concerto and a pair of Brahms concertos. A chamber music concert with works by Schumann and Brahms played by Korean musicians is the closing event Tuesday.Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
'Lear Redux'While Center Theatre Group reworks Shakepeare's 'Hamlet' at the Mark Taper Forum (see item below), across town, Odyssey Theatre renews its collaboration with theater artist John Farmanesh-Bocca for a madcap adaptation of the Bard's 'King Lear,' another entry in the director-playwright's Redux series. Veteran stage actor Jack Stehlin stars as the titular monarch in the production, which Stage Raw's Deborah Klugman described as 'wildly idiosyncratic.' In 2016, Times' contributor Philip Brandes made Farmanesh-Bocca's 'Tempest Redux' at the Odyssey (also starring Stehlin) a Critic's Choice, writing that the work 'boldly transposes Shakespeare's play to a darker, more unsettling key, but the inventive staging and solid command of source text make for a memorable re-imagining.'Wednesday-Sunday, through July 13. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com
When CNN broadcasts a live performance of 'Good Night, and Good Luck' from the Winter Garden in New York City on Saturday (4 p.m. PDT), it's apparently the first time a Broadway play will be shown live on television, and the timing could not be better.
An adaptation of George Clooney and Grant Heslov's 2005 film, which chronicled CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's heroic crusade against Sen. Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunts, the broodingly elegant production, sharply directed by David Cromer and starring a quietly committed Clooney in the role of Murrow (played in the film by David Strathairn), was not only one of the most stirring offerings of the Broadway season but also one of the most necessary.
As media companies face a campaign of intimidation from the Trump administration, the figure of Murrow, standing tall in the face of demagogic adversity, is the courageous example we need right now.
I don't know how different the experience will be watching at home, but 'Good Night, and Good Luck' made me reflect on what theatergoing might have been like in ancient Greece. Athenian citizens would gather at an open-air theater as a democratic privilege and responsibility. Playwrights addressed the polis not by dramatizing current events but by recasting tales from the mythological and historic past to sharpen critical thinking on contemporary concerns.
Clooney and Heslov aren't writing dramatic poetry. Their more straightforward approach is closer to documentary drama, but the effect is not so disparate. We are affirmed in the knowledge that we are the body politic.
— Charles McNulty
Director and playwright Robert O'Hara's world premiere adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum starring Patrick Ball from 'The Pitt' and Gina Torres from 'Suits.' The Times sat down with the trio of creatives for an interview about how the show came together — as well as the many novel ways it diverges from the traditional script. O'Hara presents a modern-day vision that questions whether Hamlet is a tragic hero or a murderous psychopath. The mystery is solved 'CSI'-style and the tone is very L.A. noir. For his part, Ball can't believe any of this is really happening, having been a relative unknown before 'The Pitt' premiered in January.
L.A. Opera announced Domingo Hindoyan as its new music director. Hindoyan — chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic — will replace outgoing music director James Conlon when he steps down at the end of the 2026 season. When Hindoyan, a native of Venezuela, made his L.A. Opera debut last November with 'Roméo et Juliette,' Times classical music critic Mark Swed speculated he might be in the running for the coveted position. Turns out he was right.
Times contributor Nick Owchar talks with architectural historian Nathan Marsak about the Angel City Press reissue of photographer Arnold Hylen's book of mid-20th century photos, 'Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850-1950.' Marsak curated and expanded the new edition, which details a fascinating world of lost streets, civic buildings, shops and restaurants.
Orange County Museum of Art executive director Heidi Zuckerman — who announced she will step down in December — has launched a new online platform called 'About Art.' It's home to her 'Why Art Matters' newsletter and 'About Art' podcast, as well as a number of lifestyle offerings including an entry on Zuckerman's love of matcha and how to prepare the perfect cup. In a news release about the venture, Zuckerman notes that her work has gathered a community of 40,000 art enthusiasts.
The summer Hollywood Bowl season is upon us, and with it comes the complimentary Market Tasting Series with wine picks by chef Caroline Styne. The fun begins with the Roots Picnic this Sunday in the Plaza Marketplace near the box office. Tastings start an hour before doors open, and you can meet with vintners and reps from Habit Wines, Skurnik Wines, Grapevine Wine Company, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Elevage Wines and more. The final tasting will take place before the John Legend concert on Sunday, Sept. 28.
Speaking of wine, Barnsdall Art Park Foundation is back — beginning tonight at 5:30 p.m. — with its 16th annual Barnsdall Fridays wine tasting fundraiser (the first two Fridays are already sold out). Proceeds from the events, scheduled to run through Sept. 26, support cultural programming at the park. The popular summer series comes as proposed city budget cuts imperil the park's finances. Guests are invited to relax on Olive Hill, as well as the west lawn of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House — the only existing UNESCO World Heritage site in the city of Los Angeles. Wines come courtesy of Silverlake Wine, and there are always a variety of local food trucks onsite, as well as a DJ. While there, visitors can check out exhibitions and artist-led presentations at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Barnsdall Junior Arts Center Gallery.
— Jessica Gelt
I'm happy to report that I've been to 14 of the 17 eateries on The Times Food section's list of L.A.'s oldest restaurants. Some, like Musso & Frank Grill, I've ambled into many times (that martini!), and others, like Mijares Mexican Restaurant, I've stumbled upon while walking around town. I'll spend this weekend visiting the remaining three.