{"id":471626,"date":"2026-06-02T02:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471626\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T02:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:27:21","slug":"moca-gala-2026-honors-kara-walker-and-paul-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471626\/","title":{"rendered":"MOCA Gala 2026 honors Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul <\/p>\n

Artist Piero Golia was the creative director of this year\u2019s MOCA gala, which honored artists Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy, pictured here with Golia, along with MOCA trustee Eugenio L\u00f3pez Alonso.<\/p>\n

\"img_dropcap_Bibliophile_t_3.png\" <\/p>\n

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles hosted its annual gala<\/a> over the weekend, bringing art world and Hollywood royalty to Little Tokyo \u2014 from Barbara Kruger and Charles Gaines<\/a> to Ava DuVernay and Keanu Reeves. It was the second year that the gala took on the \u201cMoca Legends\u201d format, which recognizes figures who \u201ccement the museum as a global leader in contemporary art,\u201d per MOCA. This year\u2019s event honored artists Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy, along with MOCA trustee Eugenio L\u00f3pez Alonso.<\/p>\n

When entering the galleries for cocktail hour on Saturday, guests essentially walked into a small but immersive slice of these artists\u2019 worlds. An installation conceived by the evening\u2019s creative director, artist Piero Golia, celebrated Walker\u2019s seminal \u201cMonuments\u201d <\/a>commission and McCarthy\u2019s famous \u201cWhite Snow.\u201d Trees from the \u201cWhite Snow\u201d project were lit up moodily throughout the space. While a process photograph taken in Walker\u2019s studio \u2014 something that was never meant to be seen \u2014 showing a diorama of a horse statue maquette hanging with toys and figurines, made in preparation of \u201cUnmanned Drone,\u201d was turned into a vinyl covering one of the back walls. (McCarthy also brought his 1992 sculpture \u201cDead Viking\u201d to the gala, seating it at his table.)<\/p>\n

\"Keanu <\/p>\n

Keanu Reeves and Alexanda Grant.<\/p>\n

Hosted by dancer and multi-disciplinary artist Stephen Galloway <\/a>and soundtracked by live orchestral performances from the MOCA Gala Symphony Orchestra, the gala under Golia\u2019s vision became a whimsical, bordering-on-surrealist invitation to indulge the senses and support the arts in L.A. (The evening would raise $3 million for MOCA.) The dinner menu, dreamed up in collaboration with food artist and designer Laila Gohar, included charred breadsticks in beautiful, weird shapes, reminiscent of McCarthy\u2019s wooden sculptures, and a sculpted mound of butter the height of a taper candle. Wild king salmon topped with tomatoes, olives and capers was accessorized with a puff pastry in the shape of a cartoon fish.<\/p>\n

Between remarks by MOCA Board Chair Carolyn Clark Powers and MOCA Interim Maurice Marciano Director Ann Goldstein \u2014 who acknowledged the employees from the MOCA Union protesting for fair wages in front of the rideshare dropoff point earlier that evening \u2014 the speeches from Walker and McCarthy were the highlight of the night.<\/p>\n

After a moving introduction by \u201cMonuments\u201d co-curator and the Brick director Hamza Walker, Kara Walker took the stage. \u201cIf my art has been about anything, it\u2019s about me trying to hack through the received histories that still persist in our culture, racist and sexist power dynamics, and the intersection of myth making, spectacle and mass psychosis. It\u2019s an honor to be in an exhibition with the esteemed contemporary artists who are in \u2018Monuments\u2019 \u2026 It\u2019s also a huge honor to be here tonight and share the \u2018legend\u2019 status of Paul McCarthy, who is the real deal and who generally puts us all to shame by using shame itself as a tactic and a weapon at a moment in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Monuments\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMonuments\u201d co-curator and the Brick director Hamza Walker introduced Kara Walker.<\/p>\n

\"Paul <\/p>\n

Paul McCarthy with Tala Madani, center, and Andrea Fraser, right.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, introduced by fellow artist and MOCA Board of Trustees member Tala Madani, <\/a> said: \u201cIt\u2019s now 60 years, 60 years of making art, 60 years of pushing \u2014 always pushing. Pushing myself, pushing everyone around me into a psychological space and also a critical space of the social structure that we live in, the structure that\u2019s really an illusion and we do not know we exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

A giant vanilla cake with chocolate ganache was cut in dramatic fashion for the gala\u2019s finale while guests mingled around the space hunting down a slice. The fits came into focus: Alex Israel in a skinny suit. Galloway in head-to-toe Tom Ford. Walker in a voluminous Rachel Comey dress. Other patrons in full Schiaparelli runway looks and Matthieu Blazy\u2019s Chanel.<\/p>\n

The gleaming trays of jiggling squares the color of stained glass \u2014 artful jello shots, it turned out \u2014 that carried the evening out on a high.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The gala was hosted hosted by dancer and multi-disciplinary artist Stephen Galloway.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine <\/p>\n

Catherine Opie and Katy Barkan.<\/p>\n

\"MOCA <\/p>\n

MOCA Board Chair Carolyn Clark Powers with honoree Eugenio L\u00f3pez Alonso.<\/p>\n

\"Alex <\/p>\n

Alex Israel and Lauren Halsey.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria <\/p>\n

Victoria Mahoney and Ava DuVernay. <\/p>\n

\"Supriya \"Davida \"Image \"Roxana <\/p>\n

Roxana Landaverde and Charles Gaines.<\/p>\n

\"Jwan <\/p>\n

Jwan Yosef, Shagha Ariannia and Graham Steele.<\/p>\n

\"Karen \"Rodney \"Stephen <\/p>\n

Stephen Prina and Jos\u00e9 Luis Blondet.<\/p>\n

\"Christina <\/p>\n

Christina Quarles and Alyssa Polk.<\/p>\n

\"Dr. \"Connie <\/p>\n

Connie Butler and Suzanne Lacy.<\/p>\n

\"Ben <\/p>\n

Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, left, and Carlye Packer, right.<\/p>\n

\"Paul <\/p>\n

Paul McCarthy brought his 1992 sculpture, \u201cDead Viking,\u201d to the party. <\/p>\n

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