The Street Artist Mr. Brainwash Is Opening Up a Museum Dedicated to Himself (and Other Artists He Admires) in Los Angeles

Street artist Thierry Guetta, better known as Mr. Brainwash, is opening his own pop-up
museum in Los Angeles. He’s renting the former Paley Center for
Media in Beverly Hills, designed by architect Richard Meier in
1996, to house the temporary institution.

“It’s a dream come true; I still cannot believe it,” Guetta told
the Art
Newspaper. “I want to show different sides of
myself—all I have kept inside for so many years. Imagine a pressure
cooker, about to explode. That’s me!”

For a sense of what a Mr. Brainwash museum might look like, it’s
worth recalling his 2018 pop-up at New York City’s Starrett-Lehigh
building. The Instagram-ready exhibition included lots of neon
lights and uplifting messaging reminding viewers to smile, as well
as paintings and sculptures rife with appropriation of
art-historical imagery ranging from Vincent van Gogh to Jean-Michel
Basquiat. There were also displays of found objects such as
suitcases, typewriters, and giant bouncy balls.

“When Mr. Brainwash decides to take over a space, it’s
unbelievable the amount of attention it receives,” Brian Swarts,
president of Taglialatella Galleries, which represents the artist,
told Artnet News in an email. “When we opened our new gallery space
in Chelsea in 2016, we gave him both floors of the gallery to do
whatever he wanted—nothing but white walls. His truck showed up
with over a hundred works and he spent the night splatter-painting
our staircase, our staff kitchen and completely ‘Brainwashed’ the
space.”

The gallery ended up extending the exhibition from one month to
three in order to meet visitor demand. “I have no doubt the LA
project will be even bigger,” Swarts added.

In Los Angeles, the Paley Center closed the doors to its museum
earlier this month (it maintains a New York location, but is moving
its archives to the Beverly Hills Public Library and its offices to
LA’s Century City). Its Beverly Hills building was purchased by
luxury conglomerate LVMH for $80 million in 2018. The company
ultimately plans to turn the museum and two other recently acquired
North Rodeo Drive properties into a hotel.

In the meantime, however, the building is outfitted with all the
typical museum trappings, including a library and a gift shop.
(Guetta, of course, became famous thanks to the 2010 Banksy
documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which
documented the Frenchman’s unlikely rise from would-be filmmaker to
celebrity artist.)

Guetta plans to inaugurate the space with a display of his own
work before showcasing other artists in solo and group shows, with
loans from other institutions as well as works from Guetta’s
personal collection, which includes some by Banksy. The space will
likely start with a soft opening for private events, but Guetta
promises at least some portion of exhibitions will be free and open
to the public.

See photos from his 2018 pop-up “Mr. Brainwash X It’s a Thing”
below.

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Museum Dedicated to Himself (and Other Artists He Admires) in Los
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