Isozaki on a ‘Summer Night at MOCA’

The Museum of Contemporary Art has begun its annual “Summer Nights at MOCA� program, a monthly series of evening events featuring free museum admission, live music, complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar.

On June 6, MOCA will feature flutist Eileen Holt and viewing and discussion of “Arata Isozaki 1960/1991 Architecture.� The July 11 event will feature the improvisational music trio Submedia, and viewing and discussions of “High and Low : Modern Art and Popular Culture.� On Aug. 8, MOCA will present new age/jazz pianist George Kahn along with viewing/discussion of “A Dialogue About Recent American and European Photography,� and on Sept. 5, Submedia will again perform and the featured exhibition will be “Selections From the Permanent Collection: 1975-90.� All events run from 5-8 p.m.

In other MOCA news, the museum has begun a free shuttle service for visitors to travel between the main California Plaza building and the Temporary Contemporary. The shuttles run every half hour and one museum admission is valid for both locations and shuttle rides.

Information: (213) 621-2766.

Happening: Los Angeles-based video artists’ group the Damaged Californians (a.k.a. the D-Cals), whose avant-garde videos have been shown on PBS and in contemporary galleries and underground clubs, will be among those performing today on the RTD Blue Line between downtown L.A. and Long Beach. The D-Cals will be on the 3:05 p.m. train departing from the downtown 7th and Flower Street station. In addition, performance artist Linda Albertano and musicians Kira Vollman and Joe Berardi will perform on the 3:15 p.m. train, and classical jazz guitarist Michael Whitmore and choreographer Carol Cetrone (a.k.a. perpetua) will perform on the 3:25 p.m. train. All three rides will conclude at downtown Long Beach’s Williams-Lamb Gallery with a reception to premiere the D-Cals new video short, “Airline Safety Film 4a.� Information: (213) 432-2291.

Rare, vintage and contemporary works by leading photographers including Greg Gorman, Herb Ritts and Margaret Bourke-White will be auctioned off at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the Directors Guild of America building, 7920 Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood. The “Focus on AIDS III� auction is a benefit for AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m.; tickets are $45. Information: (213) 962-1600, Ext. 204.

And the galleries shuffle continues . . . Karl Bornstein has joined with Patricia Shea of New York’s Shea & Beker Gallery to form the new Shea & Bornstein Gallery which opens Tuesday at 2114 Broadway in Santa Monica. The opening exhibition is recent paintings by Peter Drake, through June 18.

Mural Tours: A guided tour of recent L.A. murals by artists including Mike Alewitz, Tony Yoshida and Sandra Drinning, plus Judy Baca’s mammoth half-mile-long “Great Wall of Los Angeles� will be conducted today from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The bus tour begins at the Social and Public Art Resource Center, 685 Venice Blvd., Venice, and the cost is $20. Reservations: (213) 822-9560. . . . Also leading an upcoming bus tour is the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, which will visit murals in South-Central Los Angeles, Watts and Compton by several African-American artists. The June 1 tour will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., will meet at the Westwood Federal Building (11000 Wilshire Blvd.), and the cost is $25. Reservations: (213) 470-8864.

Etc: Contemporary images and interpretations of Mexico’s patron saint are being accepted for consideration for the “Contemporary Visions of the Virgin of Guadalupe Exhibit� scheduled for Nov. 14-Dec. 29 at the Downey Museum of Art. The exhibit will be presented as part of the upcoming Artes de Mexico Celebration. Information: (213) 861-0419. . . . Palm Springs Desert Museum has received six lithographs from Jasper Johns’ “Untitled 1975� series. The works, given by museum trustee Luella Maslon, will be on view in the museum’s Marks Graphics Center through June 2.