Marc Kreisel resuscitates Al's Bar in new museum

Hello, Los Angeles:

I’m culture writer Carolina A. Miranda, and those of you who remember me from my previous life at the LA Times may recall my fondness for tinned fish (which is definitely one of the fine arts). Anyhow, I’m here to recommend Fishwife’s albacore in spicy olive oil. It’s a splurge — but it’s the sort of splurge that is much cheaper than going out to a restaurant. You’re welcome.

On today’s menu, we have:

A new “museum” opening in LA this week, by one of downtown’s legendary personalities
Two must-see paintings shows in LA and OC
Candy Clark’s remarkable Hollywood pictures

And much more…

The featured image at top is a view of the soon-to-debut Musée du Al in Echo Park. In the foreground is "Steam-powered wheelchair," a sculpture by Brad Wong. (Carolina A. Miranda)

The Maverick Museum

Marc Kreisel readies the giant scissors for the opening of Musée du Al. (Carolina A. Miranda)

In Los Angeles, we currently find ourselves in a museum arms race. In Exposition Park, there is the rising $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts. Over in Hancock Park, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will soon offer a sneak peek of its $750 million David Geffen Galleries. And last week, the Broad in downtown broke ground on a $100 million expansion designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro; estimated completion date: 2028.

But a new museum has beaten them all to the punch: the Musée du Al, which is opening with all manner of ceremony this Saturday — the brainchild of artist Marc Kreisel. Kreisel is the former proprietor of one of LA’s most mythic artist watering holes: Al’s Bar, which lived a very storied life in downtown from 1979 to 2001, a proving ground for musical acts like Beck and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the place where the South Bay punk band Imperial Butt Wizards once set the stage on fire. It was also the site of American Gallery, an open-minded exhibition space that featured work by artists as diverse as Claire Falkenstein and Coleen Sterritt, as well as Kreisel himself. (He makes mixed media pieces that incorporate aspects of photography and painting.)

Musée du Al channels the very DIY spirit of Al’s Bar. “LA’s smallest contemporary art museum,” as it is officially described on the website, inhabits a pleasant, sun-lit space that was once Kreisel’s home studio in Echo Park. The debut exhibition, which will kick off with an appearance by performance artist Miss Art World, will feature artists who once showed at Al’s, hung out at Al’s, or had work in either the bar’s or Kreisel’s collection. This includes an eye-catching pastel drawing by John Valadez that shows a Chicano youth artfully posing, as well as a watercolor by Gary Lloyd titled “Meathammer” that shows a hammer made out of meat. (From a distance, you’ll swear it’s a photograph; get up close and you’ll find that it’s made out of paint.)

A watercolor paintings shows two strips of meat laid out on the ground in a shape that resembles a hammer.

"Meathammer," by Gary Lloyd, in the debut show at Musée du Al. (Carolina A. Miranda)

Kreisel was inspired to launch Musée du Al after a studio visit with a local gallerist who he says told him, “You’re past your time, no white guys are going to get a museum show.” Kreisel said, “F— that!” Then proceeded to build his own museum instead. And, thus, Musée du Al was born. After the opening exhibition, which runs into the summer, he will present a group show of women artists titled Les Femmes du Al. Among the artists on that slate are Sterrit, along with painter Katy Crowe and mixed media artist Marnie Weber. Weber, who is also a musician, was part of the downtown ‘80s punk band The Party Boys — the first band to ever headline at Al’s Bar.

But Musée du Al also emerges out of personal tragedy. A few years back, Kreisel’s studio burned — the flames consuming four decades of artwork. “It was so painful,” he recalls. But while the contents of the building were destroyed, the structure survived, and he was able to refurbish the building. After his ill-fated encounter with the gallerist, Kreisel decided to turn the space into a museum. Whether he will sell work or simply show it, and with what frequency, is still up in the air. “A lot of my friends are in their 70s and 80s, and I want to show their work,” he says. “I’m not sure what I want — but it’s a beautiful room.”

An installation view of a gallery shows a sculpture made of metal that resembles a wheelchair and paintings on a wall.

An installation view of the Musée du Al. (Carolina A. Miranda)

It’s a fitting coda to Al’s Bar. Kreisel was inspired to acquire the bar after seeing work by the German conceptualist Joseph Beuys in New York City. He was taken by a work titled “Honeypump in the Workplace,” in which Beuys pumped honey around a museum building as part of a space of free learning. “There is nothing free in LA,” notes Kresisel, so he said he was going to make a “moneypump” — something that would “circulate money” among the artists that were beginning to congregate in downtown LA in the late 1970s.

So, Kreisel, along with several other artists, acquired the bar (as well as the American Hotel, where the bar was located). With Kreisel stewarding the joint, Al’s Bar became an important LA creative center — one that supported bands by paying them real-deal performance fees, and did the same for artists by selling — and even acquiring — their work. Al’s became such an important nexus, its archives are now housed at UCLA.

What made it so special? “I have no idea,” says Kreisel. “I was just doing it.” Which is probably why so many artists remember it so fondly. It wasn't about the money. It was just about the art.

🏛️🏛️🏛️

Musée du Al, Grand Opening, will take place on Saturday, April 19th, from 4 PM to 7 PM in Echo Park. To receive address and parking information, sign up for the mailing list.

Need a little more Kreisel? Victoria Looseleaf has a Q&A with the artist in ArtNowLA.

Around the Internet

Maia Cruz Palileo, "Like a Shadow That Cannot Walk," 2025, in the artist's solo show at Kordansky Gallery. (Carolina A. Miranda)

I write about a pair of absorbing paintings exhibitions — by Maia Cruz Palileo at Kordansky and Su Yu-Xin at the Orange County Museum of Art — for Cultured Magazine.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is now known simply as the Huntington. Finally!
San Francisco just got some terrible Burning Man art.
A painting of President Trump raising his fist after his assassination attempt has now entered the White House.
Related: I joined my KCRW editor, Andrea Domanick, and her collaborator, Emilie Friedlander, to talk about the Trump Trad aesthetic on The Culture Journalist podcast.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has cancelled grants to museums and historic sites. That money instead will go to Trump’s “Garden of Heroes.”
“It’s the very opposite of elite and all in all presents a more complete picture of the nation than you are liable to find elsewhere,” writes critic Robert Lloyd of the importance of public broadcasting.
New Kennedy Center director Richard Grenell accused musician Yasmin Williams of “vapidness” after she wrote him a letter critical of cuts to DEI programs.
Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, the last of the Latin American Boom writers, has died. I wrote his obit for the LA Times.
Viet Thanh Nguyen on U.S. literature’s imperial bent.
I was so moved by Alice Rohrwacher’s film La Chimera, about Italian tombaroli, so I loved plunging into Jé Wilson’s deep dive into her work.
Why Alex Rivera’s cult sci-fi classic Sleep Dealer retains its staying power.
The intimate L.A. photographs of Candy Clark.
Signing off with the ways in which human hands have served as the ultimate mnemonic device.

Thank you for reading! 🙏