Official Press Release on Jeffrey Deitch's Resignation as Museum Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, July 24, 2013 Media Contact: Lyn Winter Director of Communications The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) Email: lwinter@moca.org / T: (213)633-5390

Board of Trustees Announces Leadership Changes at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)

Jeffrey Deitch to Step Down as Museum Director

Fred Sands Elected President of the Board; Eugenio Lopez, Lillian Lovelace and Maurice Marciano Elected Vice Chairs

LOS ANGELES—The Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) announced that Jeffrey Deitch will be stepping down from his role as Museum Director after three years of leadership. Deitch informed the Board of his decision at its July 24th meeting and confirmed he will stay on to ensure a smooth transition and the successful completion of MOCA’s $100 million dollar endowment campaign, expected to close this Fall.

An executive search committee has been formed to appoint a new Museum Director and will be led by Co-Chairs Maria Bell and David Johnson, along with Joel Wachs, a former trustee and President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Key accomplishments of Deitch’s tenure include:

• Developing the museum’s Board with the addition of 16 new trustees;
• Completing the acquisition of more than 500 works to the museum's permanent collection;
• Spearheading the creation of MOCAtv, an award-winning digital extension of the museum’s education and exhibition program. In less than one year, it has generated more than 4 million views across its unique content platforms and is among the most cutting-edge fusions of music, dance, film and fashion to reach a broad, international audience of contemporary art enthusiasts;
• Being the visionary behind Art in The Streets, which attracted the highest number of attendees in the museum's history and diversified the museum’s audience;
• Arranging more than twenty exhibitions and programs that have brought some of the world’s most important contemporary artists to Los Angeles, including:
• The first major solo museum exhibition in the United States for Ryan Trecartin
• The first West Coast solo museum show for Theaster Gates
• The first West Coast solo show for Cai Guo-Qiang
• The Painting Factory: Abstraction After Warhol
• George Herms: Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown)
• Kenneth Anger: Icons
• Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles
• Amanda Ross-Ho: TEENY TINY WOMAN
• The first comprehensive museum retrospective of the work of Urs Fischer now on view at MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

“As colleagues, friends and great admirers of Jeffrey’s talent, we respect his decision and thank him for his tremendous dedication to the museum and all those who value MOCA,” said David G. Johnson, Co-Chair of The Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Trustees. “His efforts have helped to solidify MOCA’s financial stability while changing the way Angelenos, and those around the world, engage with contemporary art.”

“With one of the most important collections of contemporary art in the world, and a tradition of unparalleled excellence in contemporary exhibitions, we have worked passionately to protect MOCA's place in the cultural landscape,” said Maria Arena Bell, Co-Chair of The Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Trustees. “We thank Jeffrey for his continued support and look ahead with great enthusiasm, confident that new leadership will build on this momentum and usher MOCA into a new era of prominence as the museum for the 21st century.”

The Board also announced the election of Fred Sands as President and Eugenio Lopez, Lillian Lovelace and Maurice Marciano as Vice Chairs. Prior to the election, Sands served as Vice Chair of the Board, Lopez, Lovelace and Marciano served as trustees. Outgoing President Jeffrey Soros will remain on the Board and retain the title President Emeritus.

FRED SANDS
Fred Sands has been involved with MOCA since 1984 having joined the board in 2002. He was elected as a Vice Chair in 2009 and is currently the Chairman of MOCA's Investment Committee. Mr. Sands has a world-class collection of modern and contemporary art with works from Calder to Mark Rothko. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts and liaison to the Kennedy Center and to the California Arts Council by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition, Mr. Sands is the Chairman of The United Way's Million Dollar Roundtable. He also serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Police Foundation.

EUGENIO LOPEZ
Eugenio Lopez joined the MOCA board in April 2005 and has been a generous supporter of the museum’s exhibition program, making significant contributions to exhibitions, donating numerous important works to the MOCA collection and supporting the museum’s major fundraising initiatives. In 2001 Lopez founded the Fundación/Colección Jumex, the largest private art collection in Latin America, which works to generate innovative research and curatorial proposals to stimulate reflection about contemporary art worldwide and encourage the creation of new institutional models for the support of arts and culture. Lopez is one of the most important contemporary art collectors today with a collection of 2000 pieces by notable international, Mexican and Latin American artists. In November this year, Lopez will open the Museo La Coleccion Jumex, which will be the largest private contemporary art space in Latin America

LILLIAN LOVELACE
Lillian Lovelace is a Charter Founder and became a MOCA Trustee in 1995. She also has served as a member of the Acquisition and Collection Committee since 1996, and the Photography Committee since 2006. Mr. and Mrs. Lovelace established the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Building at UCLA and the Jon B. Lovelace Student Aid Fund at Princeton. Mrs. Lovelace has also served on the Boards of the following: Antioch University Board of Governors (1989-2002), Trustee Emeritus (2002-present); the UCSB Foundation; the Brain Mapping Medical Research Organization at UCLA; Idyllwild Arts Foundation and Academy; and the Capital Group Art Foundation. Mrs. Lovelace is a Life Honorary Trustee at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

MAURICE MARCIANO
Maurice Marciano has served on the MOCA board since October 2012, and was previously a trustee in 2008. Mr. Marciano served on the Board of Trustees of the Buckley School for thirteen years until 2010, and currently sits on the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Through his career, he has supported a number of non-profit organizations in the fields of education, health, art and Jewish organizations through the Maurice Marciano Family Foundation..

THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES (MOCA)
Founded in 1979, MOCA’s mission is to be the defining museum of contemporary art. The institution has achieved astonishing growth in its brief history with three Los Angeles locations of architectural renown; more than 10,000 members; a world-class permanent collection of nearly 6,700 works international in scope and among the finest in the nation; hallmark education programs that are widely emulated; award-winning publications that present original scholarship; and groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that survey the art of our time. MOCA is a private not-for-profit institution supported by its members, corporate and foundation support, government grants, and admission revenues. MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA are open 11am to 5pm on Monday and Friday; 11am to 8pm on Thursday; 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday; and closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. General admission is $12 for adults; $7 for students with I.D. and seniors (65+); and free for MOCA members, children under 12, and everyone on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm, courtesy of Wells Fargo. MOCA Pacific Design Center is open 11am to 5pm, Tuesday through Friday; 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday; and closed on Monday. Admission to MOCA Pacific Design Center is always free. For 24-hour information on current exhibitions, education programs, and special events, call 213 626 6222 or access MOCA online at moca.org.