Sunday, July 10, 2011


I took the kids to see an exhibit yesterday called Art in the Streets. It was housed in the Museum of Contemporary Art's downtown gallery in Little Tokyo.

The exhibit was outrageous -- colorful, iconic, iconoclastic, disturbing, exhilarating, fascinating, creepy, beautiful and above all, stimulating. The irony of wandering around an enclosed space with displays of graffiti and installations of actual subway cars and dirty, city corners was not lost on me. I've always felt slightly uncomfortable in museums, both enamored of the art and the history and a bit repelled by the display of temporal things.  This exhibit had some cool documentation of social movements in southern California -- skateboarders, Venice beach, some pretty hard-core photography of the down and out. I'll never look at street art the same way again.

Take a stroll:















18 comments:

  1. Love that you are exposing your kids to art. Love it.

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  2. We've watched Mr Brainwash's "Exit
    Through the Gift Shop" several times,
    bemused at the sheer energy and also that dynamic of moving street art off the street. Oliver's looking thoughtful...

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  3. What an interesting exhibition. It's great to confront the senses with people's creativity and imagination. My older sister is an artist - so as a child I was taken constantly to galleries and performances. I'm so grateful to her for that.

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  4. This is incredibly cool! And Henry looks smashing with his haircut.

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  5. Isn't it amazing how people MUST create art, no matter what the medium must be? I am glad that this art has been moved to where it can be appreciated for what it is.
    Thank you for sharing it, dear Elizabeth.

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  6. THAT looks like an exhibit I would enjoy.

    Love your header pict of Mermaid Sophie

    xoxoxo

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  7. Thanks for bringing us all with you, Elizabeth. I was wondering aloud to my husband this morning which neighborhood in LA has the best street art, and now I get to end my night with this!

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  8. This looks amazing! I love these types of events. This is so great to inspire the younger generation.

    http://foodfashionandflow.blogspot.com/

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  9. The pic of Sophie in the flowing dress on the beach at the top of your blog is lovely! xo

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  10. Awesome! I'm so inspired to take my kids somewhere "cultural" today. Thanks for the great photos.

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  11. you took some terrific photos, i especially love the one of oliver - super cool. (and henry is looking so grown-up, all of a sudden!) and of course i love that header photo of sophie - she looks like a selkie about to return to her beloved sea...

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  12. I love art, however it's delivered. This looks like a fun exhibit and I bet the boys had a great time.

    As an aside, would you like me to send a Duke t-shirt so Henry wouldn't have to go out in public in a UNC shirt? Not that we're prejudiced in my (Dukie) household...

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  13. I especially love the ones where I see your children. And the art is fabulous, too.

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  14. ... Looks really cool .... I could wander for hours ... Your boys are definitely a "chosen few" good men themselves

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  15. Such an odd coincidence! My mother-in-law was there with my niece and her parents this past weekend as well--don't know which day. They sent pictures of some of the same parts of the exhibition.

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  16. very cool!

    your children are gorgeous.

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