Monuments
“It was a ‘vital medicine’, she said, to have the monuments ‘removed from their pedestals and taken out of context and placed in a space in conversation with work by artists’ whose very existence challenged white supremacy, and who had to overcome ‘the distractions of having to be erased and racialized in this country’ in order to make their work.”—Lois Beckett quoting Kara Walker, The Guardian

In a two-venue presentation at Los Angeles’ The Brick and MOCA, MONUMENTS juxtaposes decommissioned monuments to the Confederacy with works by contemporary artists that also confront national identity and historical memory. 

In the sole work at The Brick, Kara Walker takes on an equestrian “Stonewall” Jackson, removed from Charlottesville, VA, in 2021. At MOCA, the monuments, withdrawn from public, dislodged from pedestals, and shown in varying states of transformation from unmarred to heavily vandalized, sit alongside commissioned works by Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Cauleen Smith, Davóne Tines and Julie Dash, and borrowed works by Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Hugh Mangum, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, and Hank Willis Thomas.

Following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (2015), the decommissioning of nearly 200 monuments in the US over a ten-year period has prompted a national debate that remains ongoing. The product of over eight years of development and research, MONUMENTS was supported by Teiger Foundation in 2022; The Brick also received a 2024 Teiger Foundation grant. 

The decommissioned monuments are borrowed from the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia; the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond; the Valentine, Richmond, Virginia; and The Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina. 

On view October 23, 2025 through May 3, 2026, MONUMENTS is curated by Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA; and Kara Walker, artist; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate at The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator at MOCA.

Front page photo: As seen from above, hundreds of pieces of what was the pedestal for the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, VA, 2022. Photo: Sanjay Suchak 

Monuments. “It was a ‘vital medicine’, she said, to have the monuments ‘removed from their pedestals and taken out of context and placed in a space in conversation with work by artists’ whose very existence challenged white supremacy, and who had to overcome ‘the distractions of having to be erased and racialized in this country’ in order to make their work.”—Lois Beckett quoting Kara Walker, The Guardian

In a two-venue presentation at Los Angeles’ The Brick and MOCA, MONUMENTS juxtaposes decommissioned monuments to the Confederacy with works by contemporary artists that also confront national identity and historical memory. 

In the sole work at The Brick, Kara Walker takes on an equestrian “Stonewall” Jackson, removed from Charlottesville, VA, in 2021. At MOCA, the monuments, withdrawn from public, dislodged from pedestals, and shown in varying states of transformation from unmarred to heavily vandalized, sit alongside commissioned works by Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Cauleen Smith, Davóne Tines and Julie Dash, and borrowed works by Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Hugh Mangum, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, and Hank Willis Thomas.

Following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (2015), the decommissioning of nearly 200 monuments in the US over a ten-year period has prompted a national debate that remains ongoing. The product of over eight years of development and research, MONUMENTS was supported by Teiger Foundation in 2022; The Brick also received a 2024 Teiger Foundation grant. 

The decommissioned monuments are borrowed from the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia; the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond; the Valentine, Richmond, Virginia; and The Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina. 

On view October 23, 2025 through May 3, 2026, MONUMENTS is curated by Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA; and Kara Walker, artist; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate at The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator at MOCA.

Front page photo: As seen from above, hundreds of pieces of what was the pedestal for the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, VA, 2022. Photo: Sanjay Suchak 

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