MONUMENTS

Forthcoming Fall 2025

Co-organized and co-presented by MOCA and The Brick, MONUMENTS marks the recent wave of monument removals as a historic moment. The exhibition reflects on the histories and legacies of post-Civil War America as they continue to resonate today. It brings together a selection of decommissioned Confederate statues with contemporary artworks borrowed and commissioned for the occasion.

Removed from their original outdoor public context and installed within the galleries of MOCA and The Brick, the decommissioned Confederate statues featured in MONUMENTS will be shown in their varying conditions, from unmarred to heavily vandalized. The selection of monuments comes from a group of nearly 200 that have been taken down in recent years (many more currently remain standing).

These monuments are juxtaposed with artworks by emerging and established figures in contemporary art, including: Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Kevin Jerome Everson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, Hank Willis Thomas, Davóne Tines, and Kara Walker.

The decommissioned monuments in the exhibition illustrate the evolution of the Confederate monument from its roots in a funerary impulse to its rise as a crystalline symbol of a white supremacist ideology, whose obstinacy became increasingly conspicuous against calls for civil rights. They are borrowed from private lenders and institutions such as the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, as well municipalities including the cities of Baltimore, Boston, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh.

MONUMENTS will be accompanied by a scholarly publication and a robust slate of public and educational programming.

MONUMENTS is co-organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Brick, Los Angeles. The exhibition is co-curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, artist, and Bennett Simpson, MOCA Senior Curator, with Hannah Burstein, The Brick Curatorial Associate, and Paula Kroll, MOCA Curatorial Assistant.

For further information, please contact Curatorial Associate, Hannah Burstein at The Brick.

For press and communications inquiries, please contact Melissa Parsoff of Parsoff Communications