‘On the Road’ project turns U-Hauls into pop-up design galleries

The yearlong “On the Road” series showcasing contemporary architecture in Southern California kicked off Sunday with a pop-up exhibition at the corner of Temple and Alameda streets in downtown Los Angeles. More than a dozen firms showed projects as installations in rented U-Haul trucks, creating an ephemeral gallery-on-wheels.

Future events in the series, curated by design journalist Danielle Rago, will highlight emerging talent while putting the spotlight on venues around the city.

“We haven’t announced our next event,” Rago said, adding she and her fellow organizers want the series to take different formats -- exhibitions, talks, workshops -- and to be staged in different locations across L.A., preferably ones that “create a dialogue” with happenings nearby. The U-Hauls, for example, were parked near the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, whose forthcoming architecture show “A New Sculpturalism” has been making headlines.

The project is a nod to other temporary, experimental galleries that L.A. has nurtured, such as the exhibitions held in a young Thom Mayne’s Venice Beach house in 1979.

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