Beastie Boys’ Mike Diamond to Curate Visual Art Exhibition

Mike Diamond, aka Mike D of the Beastie Boys, has brought together some of his favorite visual artists for an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The show, ‘Transmission L.A.: AV Club,’ will run from April 20 to May 6.

“I’m a big fan of visual art, but I’m not always a fan of the museums or even art gallery experience ’cause I feel sometimes it’s stiff or static,” he told Rolling Stone. Still, Diamond agreed to the role because he was “interested in this dialogue that exists between music and visual art and one informs the other and then the other informed the first thing.”

Diamond expects music to feature heavily in the program. Santigold will perform at the exhibition’s preview on April 19, and DJs will perform on other nights. ” The goal is to have it be a full sensory overload, if you will,” he said. “It’s almost more like an art festival in the sense that we’re trying to get together some live music nights as well.”

The exhibition will feature works by such names as Roy Choi, Mike Mills and Benjamin Jones. Diamond hopes that, by having his name attached to this project, that other artists he admires will be inspired to work with museums. He singled out rapper Kanye West and Spike Jonze, who has directed many Beastie Boys videos, including ‘Sabotage.’