Last week, some of the biggest names in art and architecture, film and fashion, politics and philanthropy, spent a night celebrating the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s impact—and the impact others have had on it. The institution’s spring gala, organized in partnership with BVLGARI, collected L.A.’s leading figures in the worlds of art, culture and philanthropy at The Geffen Contemporary to celebrate three “MOCA Legends”: Chicago-based artist and professor Theaster Gates, whose spirit-guided work reckons with Black space; Frank Gehry, the legendary Canadian-American architect recognized for postmodern subversions; and entrepreneur and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt. After filmmaker Ava DuVernay, actress and activist Jane Fonda and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi introduced the night’s honorees, GRAMMY-nominated rapper Tierra Whack kept the crowd energized with songs from her albums World Wide Whack and Whack World.
They weren’t the only ones to strut before the step-and-repeat, of course. More than 600 artists, patrons and cultural movers and shakers gathered that night to listen to MOCA director Johanna Burton, MOCA chair Maria Seferian and the three honorees hold forth on art’s profound connective powers before a sunset-ombre backdrop. The evening also included a ceremonial process led by Japanese drum ensemble TAIKOPROJECT and a special viewing of Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s newest exhibition, “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN.”
Also spotted were artists Doug AItken, Refik Anadol, Andrea Bowers and Marcel Alcalá, among many, many others. Philanthropists Edythe Broad and Jarl Mohn joined MOCA board president Carolyn Clark Powers and vice-chair Eugenio López Alonso, as actors including Josh Hutcherson, Sarah Paulson and Alexandra Hedison took their turns on the carpet. And LACMA CEO Michael Govan celebrated with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and The RealReal founder and former CEO Julie Wainwright.
As is usually the case with the best art parties, a DJ set and dessert finished out the festivities. “Art is about living a life where you take your talents, and you multiply them,” Gates remarked when he took his turn at the dais. All told, the gala raised over $3.1 million that will help ensure MOCA’s impact is similarly multiplied.