MOCA Store Presents
Orgy for Ten People in One Body
Conversation and Book Signing with Isabelle Albuquerque, Arthur Jafa, and Miranda July, moderated by Ariana Reines

Join the MOCA Store for an exciting afternoon celebrating Los Angeles–based artist Isabelle Albuquerque’s first monograph, Orgy for Ten People in One Body (Pacific, Jeffrey Deitch, Nicodim, 2023). The event will feature a conversation between Albuquerque and book contributors Miranda July and Arthur Jafa, moderated by Ariana Reines, followed by an audience Q + A and book signing.

Orgy for Ten People in One Body documents a new series of sculptures by the artist, presented as a complete set of ten for the first time in an exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch, New York, in 2022–23. Each chapter of Orgy for Ten People in One Body corresponds to one of the ten sculptures. Edited and designed by Jon Ray, the book features reference images, process photos, and installation views, along with two conversations between Albuquerque and fellow artists Jafa and July.

These expressive and erotic works—rendered in materials ranging from fur, bronze and walnut to resin and rubber (with found objects such as a candle or a saxophone)—are based on the artist’s own body. Combining intimate memories with history and mythology, as well as post-humanist and feminist theory, Albuquerque’s sculptures become a form of self-portraiture.

Isabelle Albuquerque lives and works in Los Angeles. She is a founding member of the performance duo Hecuba, and has performed at SFMOMA, the Walker Art Center, and the Hammer Museum. Recent sculptural exhibitions include Orgy for 10 People in One Body, Jeffrey Deitch, New York; BodyLand, Max Hetzler, Berlin; and Sextet, Nicodim, Los Angeles. Albuquerque’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Flash Art, Artforum and The New York Times. Her formally powerful and psychologically charged sculpture invites multiple, simultaneous readings and creates a cross-temporal conversation that centers the experiences of women and their own connection to desire, sexuality and embodiment.

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer. July’s books include No One Belongs Here More Than You (winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award) and The First Bad Man; her fiction has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She wrote, directed, and starred in The Future and Me and You and Everyone We Know (winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance; released by The Criterion Collection in 2020). Her most recent movie is Kajillionaire (2020). July’s art work was included in the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennales. A limited-edition book sculpture, Services, was produced by MACK Books in 2022. A monograph of her work to date was published in April 2020. Her forthcoming novel, All Fours, will be published in Spring 2024. July lives in Los Angeles.

Arthur Jafa is an artist and filmmaker. Jafa’s films have garnered acclaim at the Los Angeles, New York and Black Star Film Festivals and his artwork is represented in celebrated collections worldwide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Tate, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The High Museum Atlanta, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Stedelijk, Luma Foundation, The Perez Art Museum Miami, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions of Jafa’s work include presentations at Luma Arles, France; Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland; OGR Torino, Italy; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for the Best Participant of the 58th Venice Biennale May You Live in Interesting Times.