LA’s Skirball Cultural Center has revealed details about a new exhibit entitled “Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976–86,” which will feature more than 500 objects and pieces of punk memorabilia including handmade flyers, zines, buttons, posters, and early clothing by fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. The exhibit will also highlight a number of Jewish punk icons and affiliates including members of the Ramones, the Circle Jerks, The Dictators, Bad Religion, Blondie, Suicide, Jonathan Richman, Patti Smith Group, and McLaren.
“At its core this exhibition is about creating and finding community—just faster and louder,” said Cate Thurston, Skirball’s Chief Curator. Adds co-curator Michael Worthington: “Punk was a way to reject normality, banality, conformity, and outdated mainstream points of view. It was a way to find your own voice and your own tribe, a place to put all your anger and energy but also all your creativity and potential.”
The show will open to the public on Wednesday, May 20, and will remain on view through September 6. The opening will also be celebrated with a special event on May 29 featuring a DJ set by the Circle Jerks’ Keith Morris, an outdoor screening of the cult classic film Repo Man, a record store pop-up from The Midnight Hour, food trucks, and more.
Scroll through a sampling of the punk artifacts on display below, and find more information here.
Ramones at Hammersmith Odeon / photo by Sheila Rock
