Art & Culture Features
Project Atrium: Rowland Ricketts
Edited by Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications & Marketing, MOCA Jacksonville During the 26 years Rowland Ricketts has been working with indigo, he has created many large-scale installations in locations around the world. Indigo dye is an organic compound used to create a distinctive blue color in fibers and fabrics and has been used throughout the world in many traditions. Ricketts has cultivated his own practice over many years, developing a farm to gallery methodology that is as important to the final product as the aesthetic of...
read moreNatalie McCray-Krauz on Creating the Arbus 30th Anniversary Cover
By Madeleine Peck Wagner a whisper gathers more attention than a shout Sometimes, and always when least expected, my phone buzzes and in comes an image of wit and inventiveness that makes my day. That this image will often inflame my own imagination is, I think a testament to artist, art director, and designer Natalie McCray-Krauz’s extraordinary ability to transform the most mundane of objects into objects of desire and veneration. The whole she creates is always more than the sum of its parts. Recent...
read moreJacksonville Children’s Chorus
Filling the Heart of Our City with Song By Susan D. Brandenburg Just as he passionately directs each member of the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus (JCC) with care and concern, President and Artistic Director Darren Dailey has been intimately instrumental in helping to design the chorus’s spectacular new downtown headquarters. “This wonderful space would not have been possible without the support of VyStar Credit Union and our generous donors,” says Dailey, as he conducts a tour of the new headquarters, designed by Dasher Hurst...
read moreTransitory Permanence:
What does it mean to belong to the land? And what happens when your notion of home is a perpetual journey to the new unknown? There are exoduses of displaced people happening all around the world today. Millions are leaving their home countries, some looking to escape and some simply yearning for a dream. The purpose of this exhibition is to show the human behind the statistics and to acknowledge the path of the displaced toward a new culture as a surreal and uncanny permanence. I explore the journey of the displaced from...
read moreHiromi Moneyhun ~ Yūrei (Ghosts)
“Yūrei (Ghosts)” is currently on view in the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville’s Project Atrium series. Created by local artist Hiromi Moneyhun, the site-specific installation is a call to attention on behalf of the ocean. Utilizing her unique paper cut technique on an unprecedented scale, local artist Hiromi Moneyhun (b. 1977, Kyoto, Japan) urges us to recognize the urgency of the moment. Much of what is ailing the ocean comes from man: oil spills, agricultural and nuclear waste, overfishing, and...
read moreThe Relentless Joy of Toni Smailagic
By Shelton Hull The second release of Toni Smailagic’s book, Introducing Jacksonville to Jacksonville, was probably the first major social and cultural event of 2022. (The book was originally released in 2019, but sales were halted during the pandemic.) The event was held at Ruby Beach Brewing Company on Forsyth Street just a block from the Florida Theatre. Among the attendees were creators such as Kim Barry, Brooks Colleton, Clark Creamer, and Jim Draper, and media people such as Blythe Brumleve, Badr Milligan, and Matthew Shaw. DJ Lunaxcel...
read moreFor the Love of Gardening
By Charlie Patton According to the University of North Carolina’s Health Talk website, gardening has several “surprising health benefits.” Among them: It builds self-esteem; is good for the heart; reduces stress; makes you happy; boosts vitamin D; and leads to a healthier diet. Some of Jacksonville’s most passionate amateur horticulturists wouldn’t be surprised to hear this news, and they share their thoughts about the many rewards of gardening. Preston and Joan Haskell Joan and Preston Haskell’s gardens adorn...
read moreFlight Patterns
Anila Quayyum Agha at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Written By Holly Keris, J. Wayne & Delores Barr Weaver Chief Curator The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is delighted to host contemporary Pakistani American artist Anila Quayyum Agha in a solo exhibition this spring that continues our tradition of sparking curiosity and facilitating magical encounters with art. Opening February 24, “Flight Patterns” features Agha’s large-scale sculptural installations of internally lit pierced metal forms that envelop visitors in...
read morePosing Beauty in African American Culture at the Harn
By Jade Powers Harn Museum of Art, Curator of Contemporary Art The nationally touring exhibition “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” opened at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida in Gainesville on January 31. More than a hundred works of art by more than 45 artists and photographers explore the ways in which African and African American beauty has been represented in historical and contemporary contexts. Throughout the history of Western art and image-making, beauty has been idealized and challenged, and the...
read moreMILAGROS : Flutter ZoneMILAGROS
MOCA Jacksonville’S Project Atrium Edited by Amber Sesnick Director of Communications & Marketing at MOCA Jacksonville Photos by Laura Evans The most recent installation in the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville’s Project Atrium series was created by MILAGROS. Cofounded by Florida artists Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre, MILAGROS creates site-specific works that are interactive, multi media, and immersive. The artists spent just over a week in Jacksonville installing “Flutter Zone,” a work that fills...
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