OCMA closes next week through Feb. 14 to rotate art and get building picture perfect
For the first time since its Oct. 8 grand opening, the Orange County Museum of Art will temporarily close to visitors next week through Feb. 14, as staff rotate exhibitions and contractors complete finishing touches on the $94-million building.
OCMA Chief Executive Heidi Zuckerman said crews would begin moving out works from the inaugural multimedia works featured on opening day, which have been seen by as many as 85,000 visitors from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and 20 countries.
Shows are typically staggered, but the changeup will be bigger this time around since the museum opened with five exhibitions. Some of what’s been featured will stay a little longer, while others will undergo a rotation of works to showcase different pieces within the same collection.
Zuckerman said Wednesday the closure will also allow for the completion of some smaller building projects that weren’t 100% done when OCMA opened in October, a subject that has drawn jeers from some in architectural circles.
“The building when we opened was more than 99% finished. And I guess the less than 1% may have been emphasized somehow, but it was never anything significant, and it never impacted visitors’ experiences,” she added, describing veneer fixes and realignments complicated by supply chain delays.
“We are definitely using [this time] as an opportunity to do some finishing touches.”
Work crews had accomplished some of the smaller tasks during Mondays, the one day each week the museum is closed to the public, but leaders are hopeful all the work will be fully done by the time OCMA reopens in February.
Meanwhile, the changeout of the art will make room for new exhibitions coming to the museum after it reopens its doors on Valentine’s Day, including a solo show by Daniel Arsham, “Wherever You Go There You Are,” which explores the artist’s concept of fictional archeology through sculpture, architecture, drawing and photography.
Museum staff will also be rotating works within the exhibition “13 Women” which debuted on opening day as a tribute to the founders of the Balboa Pavilion Gallery, OCMA’s earliest iteration, more than 60 years earlier. Pieces in “13 Women, Variation II” will run through Aug. 20.
In June, OCMA will debut “Feels Like Home” — a collection of works from painter Alice Neel including intimate portraits of the artist’s home, children, animals and extended family of friends — and “A Guest, A Host, A Ghost,” a sculptural and installation-based works by Chinese artist Yu Ji’ that reflect on the relationship between the body and its environment.
Zuckerman said while some of the unfinished work on the building may have been visible, OCMA leaders made the decision to move forward with the Oct. 8 grand opening in the spirit of making art accessible to more viewers.
“My personal mission is to connect people to art and artists and make their lives better,” she said Wednesday. “It’s not that I didn’t care the building wasn’t done when we opened, that’s just what’s most important to me.
“To the average visitor, the building looks perfect, and it’s such an incredible gift to be free for the first 10 years,” Zuckerman added. “People are just delighting in the museum — it’s supremely contagious.”
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