The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles - Zoe Leonard: Survey + Laura Owens Exhibit
Installation view of Laura Owens, November 11, 2018 - March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
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ARCHITECTURAL TEAM | John Sparano, Anne Mooney, Ludwing Juarez, Jorge Beltran
PHOTOGRAPHY | Sparano + Mooney Architecture
STRUCTURAL | NAST Enterprises Corp.
Zoe Leonard: Survey and Laura Owens were presented alongside one another at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. These two exhibitions offered contrasting but complementary investigations into photography, sculpture and painting.
Installation view of Zoe Leonard: Survey, November 11, 2018 - March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
Installation view of Zoe Leonard: Survey, November 11, 2018 - March 15, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
Zoe Leonard: Survey was the artist’s first major retrospective in an American museum, tracing her explorations of loss, migration, gender and urban life through photographs, sculptures and installations.
Meanwhile, Laura Owens served as a mid-career survey of the Los Angeles-based painter’s oeuvre, bringing together around 60 works from the mid‑1990s to the present. Owens’ approach disrupts the boundaries between abstraction, representation, craft and popular culture, creating vibrant, hybrid works that challenge how we see paintings in space.
Installation view of Laura Owens, November 11, 2018 - March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
Installation view of Laura Owens, November 11, 2018–March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
Installation view of Zoe Leonard: Survey, November 11, 2018 - March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
Sparano + Mooney Architecture provided design support, collaborating with the museum’s Exhibition Production group and designing gallery areas per the museum’s direction. Gallery areas were designed to comply with present building code requirements for architecture, construction and accessibility.
Sparano + Mooney Architecture generated permitting drawings for tenant improvement renovations to accommodate the exhibits; coordinated the architecture with the structural requirements; attended design meetings with the museum’s Exhibition Production group; prepared a building permit application and submitted permitting documents to the Building Department and Fire Department for approval; and attended plan check review meetings to obtain the necessary building permit issuance while also providing support during exhibit construction.
Installation view of Zoe Leonard: Survey and Laura Owens, November 11, 2018 - March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE.
