Image: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has turned its attention from a major exhibition to the artists and spaces shaping the city around it, with a profile of graffiti artist Maxx Moses, also known as Pose2, as part of its 'Giants of San Diego: To be a giant' series. The feature presents Moses as both an artist and the founder of Graffiti Gardens, a studio and community space in the Black Arts and Culture District in Encanto.
The MCASD series is built around the exhibition 'Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,' which the museum says follows the philosophy that “all artists are giants.” Organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, the exhibition includes more than 130 works by 37 Black American and diasporic artists from Africa, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean. MCASD describes the run as the inaugural presentation of the collection on the West Coast, with the exhibition on view from April 18 to August 9, 2026.
In the Maxx Moses profile, MCASD places the artist in his own environment at Graffiti Gardens, where the space is described as filled with jazz, sage, murals, spray paint and canvases. Moses is identified as a graffiti artist who was born in Yonkers, New York, and the story traces how his early interest in art was shaped by subway writing he encountered while riding into the city. The piece says that experience made him question reality and remain drawn to the art form’s danger and adventure.
The profile also focuses on the way San Diego has influenced Moses’s work. According to the museum text, he has lived in San Diego for the last 20 years, and the city’s horizons and openness prompted a shift in his sense of balance and scale. MCASD quotes him on the contrast between New York’s “concrete jungle” and San Diego’s “arid openness,” describing those differences as a duality that continues to shape his practice.
The artist’s ideas extend beyond place into what he calls “ancient futurism,” which MCASD presents as his way of thinking about how ancient cultures connected with time, nature and the unseen world. The museum says he wants viewers to sense both the culture that formed him and that larger spiritual framework in the work. The story does not identify specific artworks, but it emphasizes themes of dual plains, nature and unseen forces as central to his art.
MCASD also frames Graffiti Gardens as more than a studio. The feature says it has grown into a community space for events including the BBoy BBQ, jam sessions, 'Conversations about Nothingness' and 'Shine Forever,' a program that initiates 21 young people into adulthood through teaching on emotional regulation, wellness, financial literacy and global citizenship. In that sense, the profile places Moses within a broader local network of artistic and community practice rather than isolating him as a single-issue painter or muralist.
The article appears alongside other artist profiles in the museum’s ongoing series, which also includes Manuelita Brown, Christopher Lloyd Tucker, Misty Hawkins and Stephen Williams. MCASD says 'Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys' remains on view through August 9, 2026, and lists a closing celebration for Friday, August 7, with music, a lowrider showcase and a conversation between curator Mashonda Tifrere and Lisane Basquiat.
