“Days of Punk,” Los Angeles-based photographer and director Michael Grecco’s multi-media solo exhibition celebrating punk music and culture is on view thru March 19, 2023 at MOAH:CEDAR in Lancaster, CA. It marks the first time the “Days of Punk” museum exhibition will be shown on the west coast. The show originally premiered with a public installation at the international photography fair Photo London in 2021, and is currently touring in the U.S. and Europe.
Poison Ivy (The Cramps), 1980 © Michael Grecco Productions, Inc.
MOAH: Cedar is also presenting a punk concert on February 25 in association with the exhibition. T.S.O.L. will headline, full line-up TBA shortly. The concert is in the adjacent MOAH: CEDAR Memorial Hall; doors open at 6PM – right after the museum closes – and begins at 7PM.
The photographs featured in the exhibition span 1978-1991, when Grecco documented the punk scenes in New York and Boston. Working as an Associated Press photographer by day, he was also a self-described “club kid” who had a unique opportunity to embed himself into this revolutionary scene as both a chronicler and a participant.
On view will be Grecco’s photographs of artists including Adam Ant, B-52s, Billy Idol, Bow Bow Wow, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Human Sexual Response, Aimee Mann, Talking Heads, Wendy O. Williams (Plasmatics), and more. In addition to the photographs, visitors will experience soundscapes specially created for “Days of Punk” in collaboration with Roger Miller and Peter Prescott of the band Mission of Burma. The video component was put together in collaboration with Jeremy Troy, and includes archival footage that Grecco shot during the punk era.
Additionally, posters, magazines, and memorabilia from Grecco’s personal collection will be displayed, and the museum is making special wallpaper collaging magazine covers and posters to hang in the bathrooms and halls to harken people back to punk-era rock clubs.
Grecco’s negatives for this work sat dormant in his files for decades until his archivist suggested revisiting this previously unseen body of work. Their efforts lead to Grecco’s ecent book, Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978–1991 (Abrams Books, 2020), which first introduced these images to the public. In addition to photographs, the book features a foreword by Fred Schneider (B-52s), an essay by rock journalist Jim Sullivan, and Grecco’s personal anecdotes.
On view: February 4, 2023 – March 19, 2023
What: “Days of Punk” Michael Grecco
Where: MOAH Cedar, 44857 Cedar Avenue, Lancaster, California 93534
Website: https://www.moahcedar.org/
