MOCA Los Angeles — American Contemporary Art at the Heart of Downtown

At a Glance

MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) was founded in 1979 as L.A.'s first museum devoted to contemporary art. It spans two buildings—the main house on Grand Avenue and the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo—and holds over 7,000 works, one of the deepest postwar collections on the US West Coast. Admission has been free since 2019.

An Isozaki Icon Plus a Gehry Warehouse

The Grand Avenue building (1986) was Japanese architect Arata Isozaki's first US commission—red Indian sandstone, pyramid skylights, and a cluster of geometric volumes that became a touchstone of Postmodern architecture. The Geffen Contemporary began in 1983 as a "temporary" Frank Gehry conversion of a police-vehicle warehouse; its column-free halls proved so good for large installation work that it stayed permanent.

Must-See Collections

• Mark Rothko, including late Black paintings.
• Cy Twombly & Robert Rauschenberg — post-abstract expressionism at its pivot.
• Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat in the Pop and New Wave American galleries.
• Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy — central LA figures of the 80s–90s.
• Felix Gonzalez-Torres & Kara Walker for identity and political practice.

Visiting Tips

Grand Avenue is five minutes' walk from Civic Center/Grand Park Metro; the Geffen is seven minutes from Little Tokyo/Arts District station. They're 15 minutes apart on foot and worth doing together—Grand is painting and sculpture, Geffen is large-scale installation and performance restagings, so the experience varies. Closed Mondays, open until 20:00 on Thursdays. Pair with The Broad and Walt Disney Concert Hall next door for a complete contemporary afternoon downtown.