The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) celebrated its 2026 Gala, underwritten and generously supported by Board of Trustees Chair Emeritus Maria Seferian, at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo. As part of the museum’s MOCA Legends format in its second year, the museum honored three figures who have helped cement the museum as a global leader in contemporary art: philanthropist and longtime MOCA Trustee Eugenio López Alonso alongside artists Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy. Over 560 patrons, artists, and leading cultural and entertainment industry figures from Los Angeles and internationally gathered to celebrate, raising over $3 million in support of the museum’s world-renowned exhibitions program, operations, and programs.
The 2026 Gala featured notable attendees and guests from the fields of art, entertainment, film, philanthropy, and fashion. In attendance were MOCA’s Interim Maurice Marciano Director Ann Goldstein and notable figures, including Paul McCarthy’s artwork Dead Viking from 1992, Ava DuVernay, Keanu Reeves, Dan Reynolds, Rufus Wainwright, Barbara Kruger, Jeffrey Deitch, Michael Chow, China Chow, Alexandra Grant, Catherine Opie, and many more.
Artist and Board of Trustees member Tala Madani introduced pioneering artist Paul McCarthy and spoke to his impact and influence on her own practice alongside future generations of artists to come. The Brick’s director Hamza Walker introduced fellow MONUMENTS co-curator and artist Kara Walker, remarking on their collaboration and her unprecedented work Unmanned Drone, which recently entered MOCA’s permanent collection. Finally, Carolyn Clark Powers, Chair of the MOCA Board of Trustees, acknowledged Eugenio López Alonso’s robust support of the museum across two decades, framing his global approach to philanthropy as one that helps shape and build artists’ careers in significant ways.
Upon arrival, guests were welcomed to The Geffen Contemporary through a series of special interventions by celebrated Los Angeles artist Piero Golia in collaboration with Edwin Chan, Stephen Galloway, Laila Gohar, Thomas Kotcheff, Chris Kronner, Pietro Scalia, and Benjamin Schwartz. These included live, choreographed orchestral performances by The MOCA Gala Symphony Orchestra conducted by Schwartz, who came together as a collective to perform selections throughout the evening, including Kotcheff’s MOCA Brass Fanfare, composed in three distinct versions for each of the evening’s honorees. The cocktail portion of the evening took place in the galleries within an immersive installation Golia conceived for the event, featuring elements honoring the work of Paul McCarthy and Kara Walker, supported by MOCA Trustee Pete Scantland and Orange Barrel Media.
The evening was hosted by dancer and multi-disciplinary creative Stephen Galloway, who steered the special event as the museum transformed for the night into a place of discovery, orchestral fanfare, and artistic collaboration through Golia’s vision. Guests enjoyed a unique dining experience by chef Laila Gohar in collaboration with Chris Kronner, who served stuffed cabbage with English pea vinaigrette, wild king salmon, and a seven-foot-tall vanilla cake with chocolate ganache.
“MOCA is a singular, audacious museum with a collection unsurpassed, and bold exhibitions and education programs that have defined our field for almost fifty years,” said Ann Goldstein, the Interim Maurice Marciano Director of MOCA. “We are so incredibly fortunate to honor three MOCA Legends: two towering, unflinchingly courageous artists of our time, Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy, and visionary philanthropist and longtime MOCA Trustee, Eugenio López Alonso. They are three individuals whose enormous contributions are woven into the course of contemporary art, and MOCA’s story at its deepest level.”
“My MONUMENTS commission Unmanned Drone has been a highlight of my practice–to receive a decommissioned Confederate monument as a found object and to literally cut through the stone and metal of white supremacist idolatry was to face that history as matter,” said Kara Walker. “It was an honor to be in an exhibition with the esteemed contemporary artists who were in MONUMENTS.”
“I really think a lot of artists in LA appreciate MOCA more than any other museum,” said Paul McCarthy. “The shows that have happened here, I don’t think any other museum would have done them. As artists–especially if you’re living on the edge–you want the work that comes out to be appreciated, and I think MOCA has done that. Over the years, history has been made.”
“I always wanted to be a part of MOCA, and I’m always the happiest when I arrive in LA,” said Eugenio López Alonso. “MOCA will continue for many, many, years, because the best is yet to come.
Image credits: Jojo Korsh/BFA, Jason Sean Weiss/BFA, Stefanie Keenan for Getty Images, and Emma McIntyre for Getty Images
