| Hey, LA... Murakami and Mid-Century Modern |
| Written by Ken Hamel | |
| Wednesday, 19 December 2007 | |
 I had a chance to visit LA last weekend and thought I'd post some pix and reviews. My company Holiday party was held at the Orange County Museum of Art which is currently hosting an excellent show of choice Mid-Century modern relics pulled right from the SoCal mother-load (Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, through January 6th, 2008.) Among the Eames chairs and photographs of typical Mid-Century architecture where a vast array of beautiful early paintings by Karl Benjamin ("Black Pillars" right.)I was fortunate to catch the excellent "© Murakami" show at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art. Let there be no doubt, where Peter Max surrendered street cred as a "commercial" artist, Murakami is an unabashed brand: the show features an area with over 500 mass produced trinkets from his KaiKai Kiki LLC production company as well as an on-site Louis Vuitton boutique right in the center of the show.  Thankfully Murakami's work delivers. The show is a sprawling, color filled extravaganza that jumps from epic statues (20 foot "Oval Buddha"), across two 21st century psychedelica installations of 15 foot wallpapered rooms featuring 1000s of multicolored smiling flowers and eyeballs, and meanders on across dozens of wonderful large works including "Tan Tan Bo Puking - aka Gero Tan," a flowing narrative featuring a bile spewing protagonist. Outside of a room showing his Kanye West video for "Good Morning" (among other animated works) was a monitor highlighting his Inochi character: an adolescent robot/boy caught up in 30 second promos on the theme of schoolboy angst. And this is where Murakami finds much of his edge: he wraps what on the surface appears to be a jolly fun network TV promo—in the vein of the mindless pre-teen role modeling content that infests the Disney channel—with shots of the young robot/boy having his first hard-on and wet dream over visions of puppy love. 
Denver folks might remember the milk spewing boobs of Murakami's 1997 "Hiropon" (from the Radar show) which were on display at MOCA as well, but happily reunited with the torrents of sperm flowing from the penis of "My Lonesome Cowboy" (I'm guessing the DAM didn't have the guts to host them together.) Again, Murakami subverts the imagery and conventions of art/content that appeals to children and infuses his work with adult themes that create awkward parent/child viewing. And while the MOCA posts a caveat at the entrance ("Some artworks contain adult content") there were more than a few parents scratching their heads and walking quickly to the next piece.
Click here for an excellent review of the Murakami show and more pix from Artnet. If you can't make it to LA before the Feb. 11th close, the show will be travelling to the Brooklyn Museum (NYC) from April 5th to July 13th. If you make it out to LA before January 6th 2008, be sure to check out the Gordon Matta-Clark show at the LA MOCA downtown facility. Matta-Clark who died much too young was known for his work cutting up houses and vacant factories/warehouses. |
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