Exciting lineup of winter exhibitions at MOCA Jacksonville
MOCA Jacksonville, a cultural institute of the University of North Florida, is pleased to announce an exciting lineup of exhibitions for January and February 2022.
Anderson Goncalves: Cultural Polarity
On view Jan. 8 through May 8
Sponsored by Jax Fine Art Forum
MOCA Artist-in-Residence Anderson Goncalves, a Painting, Drawing, Printmaking major at UNF, uses a wide range of media and techniques such as screen printing, collage/chine-collé, fabric, and oil/acrylic painting. Examining his experience growing up learning to navigate two completely different cultures and respective languages --the African, Portuguese-speaking Angolan culture, and the American English-speaking culture—, Goncalves’ exhibition “Cultural Polarity” addresses the struggle that the artist has experienced with miscommunication, isolation, and underrepresentation in his community and family, issues shared with many other first-generation immigrants.
State of the Art: Locate
On view Jan. 20 through May 1
Sponsored by Bank of America and Art Bridges.
State of the Art: Locate is an exploration of how art by contemporary artists from throughout the country reflects the present moment. This exhibition is a focused selection of the work presented in the 2020 exhibition State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Reorganized around the theme of “Locate,” it invites visitors to consider how the concepts of Family, Identity & Placemaking, and History have informed the work of many contemporary artists in recent years. Artworks include paintings, sculpture, photography, video, performance, and mixed media. Participating artist Domingo Castillo, whose work considers the intertwined roles of capital, technology, fantasy, and architecture in Miami is available for in-person interviews.
Project Atrium: Chiharu Shiota: Letters of Love
On view Feb. 4 through June 26
Title Sponsor: Joan and Preston Haskell
Supporting Sponsor: Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, PLLC.
Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota (b. Osaka, Japan, 1972), is known for her performances, drawings and installations that explore the intangible. Particularly well-known is her series of installations consisting of threads, primarily in red or black, strung across entire spaces, and often incorporating found or collected objects. Trained as a painter, Shiota discovered her ideal mode of expression early on in her career, seeing threads as a way to “paint” in space, and describing it as a metaphor for human relationships that “can be cut, intertwined, and entangled.” Often drawing on personal experience, memories or dreams, her work attempts to express her most intimate experience of life: consciousness, existence, memory, and loss; the inner universe that defines the boundaries of self, and our relationship to others and the world around us. For Project Atrium, Shiota has created an immersive environment with suspended red ropes throughout the three-story gallery. Weaving traces of hope for human connectedness, the ropes enclose letters of love received by the artist from across the globe.
Jessica Hische: Covered
On view Feb. 25 through Aug. 21
Jessica Hische is a designer, lettering artist, illustrator, New York Times Bestselling author and mother. Her presence in social media has surpassed the backstage position we normally assign to designers. Among many accolades, she was selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Ad-week Creative 100 and GDUSA Person to Watch. Apart from her work with Fortune 500 companies, Hische has famously partnered with publishing companies to refresh book covers for classic novels. Two featured series for Penguin Publishing and Barnes and Noble will be on display, together with children’s books that Hische has authored and illustrated including “Tomorrow I’ll be Brave” and “Tomorrow I’ll be Kind.” This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Barbara Ritzman Devereux Visiting Artist Workshops at UNF and made possible by support from the Devereux Family.
To learn more about MOCA's other featured exhibitions, visit the museum in-person at their downtown location or access the MOCA website.