The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)Downtown

Alexander Apóstol: Regime: Dramatis Personae

Now showing20 September 2026 – 3 January 2027Free

Black-and-white portraits by Venezuelan artist Alexander Apóstol cast the archetypal roles of Latin American populist and authoritarian political theatre.

Exhibition website

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On now All of November 2026

Under each face there is a job title instead of a name: THE DICTATOR, THE MASKED POLICE OFFICER, THE IDEOLOGICAL TOURIST, THE ONE FROM HOLLYWOOD. Alexander Apóstol shot these black-and-white portraits in Caracas in 2017, during a wave of violent government repression, with LGBTQ+ activists who each chose a role from his cast list and played it.

The full series runs to ninety photographs, and Apóstol picks a different selection for each city. For its first showing in Los Angeles he leaned on roles that echo the US intervention in Venezuela that began in January 2026. You read it like the character list printed before a play, which is what the Latin title means. MOCA's curator, José Luis Blondet, calls it "a larger-than-life chess set".

It is a single series of portraits, so the captions carry much of the story. General admission to MOCA Grand Avenue is free, with advance reservations recommended. The museum stays open until 8pm on the first Thursday of the month.

Look for

The captions
Each bust portrait carries a role in Spanish capitals instead of a name, down to EL SIEMPRE SOSPECHOSO INTERMEDIARIO INTERNACIONAL, the ever-suspicious international intermediary.
EL POLICÍA ENMASCARADO (The Masked Police Officer)
A sitter hidden behind a mask; the MUAC catalogue notes that the series' repression figures are the only sitters left without makeup.
The heavy makeup
Look at the faces: each sitter wears heavy makeup that blurs gender, which the Shanghai Biennale's curators singled out when they showed the series in 2018.