Mothersbaugh & Lerner's Mexican Vacation

In preparation for Mark Mothersbaugh’s upcoming exhibition at MCA Denver, Mothersbaugh (left) and Director & Chief Animator Adam Lerner traveled to Ceramica Suro in Guadalajara, Mexico to begin fabrication on Motherbaugh’s large-scale fiberglass work Farewell Arch to Luxemburg City, a sculpture which resembles a My Little Pony, but with two, err, rumps.

The Doctor Rates Your Pain with Brett Littman

The Doctor Rates Your Pain is a new (hopefully) recurring feature in which MCA Denver Director & Chief Animator Dr. Adam Lerner interviews visiting artists and guests about hypothetical scenarios that might evoke pain. The featured guest today is Brett Littman, Executive Director of The Drawing Center in New York and curator of Guillermo Kuitca: Diarios, on view through September 15, 2013 at MCA Denver.

Drawing Drawing

Mark Mothersblog

Mark Mothersbaugh stopped by the museum yesterday, and he and Director & Chief Animator Adam Lerner re-enacted a fight scene from Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic.

Drawing Drawing

At the Patti Hallock/William Lamson/Ladies Fancywork Society opening last month, we hosted a self-portrait contest (a "drawing drawing"), and the winner we selected is above. As promised, the winner received a critique by museum curator Nora Burnett Abrams (as well as a dual/family membership to the museum).

Watch the MCA Denver Holiday Video

Happy 2013 everyone. We had a blast in 2012 and hope you did too. 

Stay tuned for the blooper reel. 

A Graphic Tour of My Desk

A GRAPHIC TOUR OF MY DESK
ALEX A STEPHENS / CREATIVE & PRODUCTION MANAGER

Welcome to a short tour of my desk, with some of my creative & personal inspirations. (L to R)

ELISA MCKNIGHT: a "Cancer Sucks" button that my mother gave me during her Chemo/Herceptin therapy. As she said, "Here, have this. Why the hell would I want it." She has been in remission for about 2.5 years. Yay!

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: an "I Like Dick" image pulled from a gallery ad for What Goes Without Saying. Thomas is a contemporary African American artist whose photographs were shown in the MCA Denver exhibition More American Photographs.

The Inspirational Tale I Never Wanted to Tell

I had a conversation recently with Nina Simon, probably the leading spokesperson for museum reform in the United States, about museums and audiences. Speaking to her gave me the occasion to share with her a story that, for reasons that may be obvious below, I rarely recount publicly, though I think about often. When Nina asked me if she could use the story in her popular blog, Museum 2.0, I realized that it was about time for me to share it myself

Mixed Taste Madness

First week on the job at MCA Denver is no immunity from pie gags 

 

 

 

 

Crazy things happen during Mixed Taste intermission.

Ouija Interview with Clyfford Still

Our first Ouija interview, with Andy Warhol, met with moderate success (or at least coherence), so Alex and I thought we'd try to interview another dead artist: Clyfford Still. MCA Denver is headed to the Clyfford Still Museum tonight for Art Fitness Training, so it seemed like the right time. 

Andy Warhol Ouija Board Interview

We wanted to interview Andy Warhol since he’s included in the upcoming MCA Denver exhibition Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art, and we had an idea. Why not try to channel him through a Ouija board? Program Producer Jesse Leaneagh came up with the questions as someone mildly familiar with Mr. Warhol, and Creative and Production Manager Alex Stephens and Audio Engineer Josh Novak rested their hands on the Ouija pointer also. None of us Ouija-ing were Warhol experts. To contact Andy, we repeated his name three times. By the time our interview was over we had unexpectedly brushed up on art history, crackpot methods or not, and gained a weird new respect for the man himself.

I ♥ ArtPrize

 
Adam Lerner and I recently visited Grand Rapids on official museum business just as ArtPrize was gearing up for its nineteen-day run. ArtPrize is an art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that awards an enormous prize, currently $200,000, to the voting public’s choice of “best artwork.” A host of other awards, including a juried prize (new this year), bring the total pot of prize money up to $560,000. ArtPrize is simple, anyone can vote for best art and, for a $50 entry fee, any artist can enter.