MONA -- that's the Museum of Neon Art -- has a new home and four new exhibits spotlighting -- or setting gently aglow? -- the wonders of neon lighting. The museum is still downtown -- which makes sense, since the area was once a bright nexus for neon back in the heyday of the Broadway theaters -- and still flicking the switch on a form of illumination that goes far beyond aging motor court signs and Vegas-like marquees.
The quartet of exhibits opening on November 13 includes Glowing Stones: Minerals That Fluoresce (from the collection of Jan Wittenberg). To which we say the earth? It's overflowing with wonders. Wonder #389,566,909 -- maybe not exactly that number, but somewhere around there -- is rock-based fluorescence. We don't go hiking with a black light, normally, but this exhibit makes us think perhaps we should. Amazing work, planet. Amazing work.
There are also two group shows -- Luminescence and Traveling Light -- as well as photographer Rob Carter's pics of lit-up nighttime-y places. And the spin-around-LA-after-dark Neon Cruises? The museum continues to host them.
Neon, you're neat. We've had our eye on a particular dilapidated, out-of-order neon sign near the Salton Sea for a few years. We imagine it weighs about a ton, and needs like a hundred new bulbs, but it would probably look spectacular in our front yard. Now, to find a friend with a pickup. And a friend with a crane...
Thursday-Saturday noon-7PM; Sunday noon-5PM
$7 adults
136 W. Fourth Street, Los Angeles
213-489-9918
