MOCA Jacksonville Announces New UNF Gallery Artist

Press release written for Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA) — June 2024

Emil Alzamora's Starship Abundance Exhibition on View Now

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (August 25, 2022) — MOCA Jacksonville is pleased announce the new exhibition Starship Abundance, in partnership with the Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of North Florida. The exhibition is on view August 3, 2024 through February 2, 2025.

In Starship Abundance, New York based artist Emil Alzamora (b. 1975 Lima, Peru) presents a multidisciplinary exhibition, intended “as a nod to the seemingly unending richness that abounds on planet Earth.” Alzamora is best known for his sculpture, where he employs a wide range of materials and techniques to explore the human form, both physically and psychologically. Combining his unrelenting curiosity for materials with an intuitive sense for conveying emotionally charged imagery, his hands-on approach brings forth notions of transience, beauty, harmony, uncertainty, and hope, delivering unexpected interpretations of the sculpted human figure.

“I am interested in presenting the human figure as though seen through a myriad of filters which might reveal the often unseen forces that affect our lives in subtle ways.”

Alzamora’s works have been exhibited in numerous institutions worldwide, including TheQueens Museum of Art, Queens, New York; The Knoxville Museum of Art in Knoxville, TN, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY; The Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas; The United Nations Building, New York; and the Royal West of England Academy inBristol, UK. In 2014, he was the recipient of two major outdoor commissions, one on the Hudson River waterfront in Peekskill, New York, and another at Seolbong Park. Icheon, South Korea.

The UNF Gallery at MOCA Jacksonville is programmed in collaboration with the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of North Florida (UNF). This exhibition is made possible by support from the Devereux family and presented in conjunction with the Barbara Ritzman Devereux Visiting Artist Workshops at UNF. This exhibition was curated by UNF Associate Professors from the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, Sheila Goloborotko and Andy Kozlowski.

This exhibition was made possible, in part, by the City of Jacksonville, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the Donald and Maria Cox Fund, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Haskell Endowment, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, MOCA Jacksonville’s Centennial Sponsors, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the University of North Florida. Additional support provided by the Jax Fine Arts Forum.

MEDIA AVAILABILTY:

For further questions and to schedule interviews with exhibition Curators Sheila Goloborotko and Andy Kozlowski, or members of MOCA Jacksonville’s team, please contact Amber Sesnick at 904-620-3224 or amber.sesnick@unf.edu.

MEDIA PORTAL:

Press release, images, and cutlines are available atthe link below for use. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v6qs129r05524cm/AADxy2fBHm9YWDM1ncOJ14gXa?dl=0

ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE:

The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, as the oldest art museum in the region and one of the first art museums to be established in the state of Florida. This celebration year is an opportunity for MOCA to give back to the community that has been its home for a century by presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that will engage the community and elevate Jacksonville as a regional destination for arts and culture.

One hundred years ago, a group of visionary, pioneering women came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be — the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city were art, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born — first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum and educational leader.

A century later, MOCA’s mission remains focused on the art, artists, and ideas of our time, with a vision that unites education, creativity, and community building in the heart of downtown Jacksonville. Throughout 2024, MOCA will celebrate its centennial year — looking to the past to recognize the legacy of the visionary leaders and important milestones that have brought us to this point; marking this moment with extraordinary exhibitions and programs that will not only elevate MOCA, but provide a stimulus and create an energized destination for our Downtown to build upon; and imagine the future that we want for our great city, nourishing our community through art and culture for the next 100 years.