Los Angeles’ New Museum Honors the Legacy of an Iconic Bar
A Revival of Community and Creativity: The Story Behind Musée du Al
This weekend in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, an unassuming storefront on a quiet residential street is opening its doors to the public. Dubbed “Musée du Al,” it claims the title of LA’s smallest museum—and possibly its most personal. The brainchild of Marc Kreisel, founder of the legendary punk venue Al’s Bar, the space serves as a tribute and continuation of a bygone era of artistic experimentation, community spirit, and underground resilience.
From Al’s Bar to Musée du Al
To understand the significance of this micro-museum, one must travel back four decades. In 1979, Marc Kreisel, alongside two partners, purchased the American Hotel in downtown LA. At the time, the area was a run-down enclave, far removed from the high-rent Arts District it would later become. Inspired by Joseph Beuys’s 1977 installation “Honey Pump at the Workplace,” Kreisel wanted to create his own form of “money pump” for artists—a cyclical space where artists could live, create, and support one another.
Kreisel installed a bar on the ground floor of the building, christened Al’s Bar, which quickly evolved into one of the first punk venues in Los Angeles. Though not a punk himself, Kreisel recognized the energy and authenticity of the growing scene. Acts like The Plugz, FEAR, Nirvana, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all performed in the intimate space. Nearby artists, musicians, and creatives flocked to the venue, turning it into a central node in LA’s cultural underground.
“Mark is like, ‘Let’s do it and see,’” recalls artist and musician Kevin Walker. “That’s the whole ethos of Al’s Bar: Let the lunatics take over the asylum.”
Art in the Margins
Above the bar, the American Hotel provided affordable living space for artists, who naturally turned their surroundings into a vibrant creative laboratory. The American Gallery, housed in the hotel, featured works by many who either lived or hung out there. While the gallery saw exhibitions from artists like Pam Goldbloom, Jeffery Kaisershot, and Kenzi Shiokava—then quietly becoming a master of assemblage work—it largely flew under the radar of LA’s mainstream art scene, which remained centered in the West Side and along La Cienega Boulevard.
Despite the lack of institutional support at the time, artists who were part of the American Hotel community carried forward an ethos of artistic independence and communal effort, one that prefigured the rise of “social practice” as a formal artistic movement. Artist Coleen Sterritt, who worked as a bookkeeper at the hotel, comments, “Before ‘social practice’ was a widely-used artspeak term, Kreisel was really living it. It was genuine, not a strategy.”
The Documenting of a Movement
The art world may have overlooked this scene in its heyday, but the historical record is slowly catching up. Recognizing its cultural value, the University of California, Los Angeles acquired the archives for the American Hotel and Al’s Bar in 2015. These materials now stand as a testament to a radical moment in LA’s creative evolution, when it was still possible to build something big in a small room.
Opening the Doors (Again)
Since Al’s Bar closed its doors in 2001, Kreisel has quietly returned to making artwork, focusing on expressionistic painting and photography in the studio behind his home. Following a discouraging meeting with a commercial gallerist, Kriesel decided to once again take matters into his own hands. He transformed his home studio into a minimalist white cube, installed a neon sign out front, and Museé du Al was born—a love letter to the past and a bold step into the future.
The inaugural exhibition, opening April 19, 2025, brings together artists and works from Kreisel’s personal collection. These include a haunting pastel portrait by John Valadez (“Clavo,” 1981), a realistic watercolor of a meat hammer by Gary Lloyd, pieces by Kenzi Shiokava, and an assemblage work by Katy Crowe, alongside Kreisel’s own paintings, including “Peace,” which incorporates photographs from Al’s Bar’s graffiti-covered walls.
There are also nods to Kreisel’s eclectic and inclusive vision. Future exhibitions at Musée du Al aim to spotlight women and Latinx artists—segments of the community often overlooked in larger institutional narratives.
Legacy in Real Time
Musée du Al may be small in size, but its ambition reflects a massive cultural legacy. It represents a full-circle moment for Kreisel, who once created a haven for experimental artists, punk musicians, and misfits in the heart of a decaying downtown district. With this museum, he offers a new space that reflects on the value of DIY culture, collective support, and art unconstrained by market forces